Dark Continent

Tweet

Pin It

This is Esme's Mommy writing. Esme has a touch of Daddy's flu, but continues to be a sunshine girl in spite of her sniffles.

Interesting how things keep happening to prevent us from getting complacent here.

The little daughter of a 24-year-old Maranatha worker died on Friday. He asked us for help to pay for her casket – US$42. His monthly pay is US$80. A reminder that one in five children die before they are five years old in this country.

Early this morning our gardener came in tears and asked for US$38 so he could take his wife home to her family. She "went crazy" last night. The hospital here said they couldn't help her and he should try a traditional healer (aka "witch doctor"). This in Mozambique's center of civilization (Maputo). He had left her tied up at home to prevent injury when he came to see us.

Last night robbers beat up the guard on one of our school construction sites and stole the mirrors off one of our vehicles.

And a news article came out on Friday stating that AIDS kills more than 1,000 teachers in Mozambique each year, leaving kids without teachers. The student/teacher ratio is bad already, with teachers often having more than 100 students in a class.