A Little Rest Is Good For The Soul

I love everything about the sea. The smell of fresh salt water, the sound of the crashing waves, the feelings of the warm breeze, the sand between my toes, and the taste of fresh seafood. Something about the beaches of Mozambique are exceptionally beautiful with an array of palm trees, clear water, white sand and an amazing culture. The Indian Ocean which borders Mozambique is warm enough to swim, even though it’s winter.

The purpose of my trip to East Africa was to see more of the country before I leave. The tour left from Johannesburg and went to Swaziland, Mozambique, Kruger National Park and then Back to Johannesburg in a total of two weeks.  I was traveling with 10 others who were my age and also traveling alone; for those two weeks we all became family. According to the tour guides not all the groups get along as well or became as close as our group did.

The villages of Mozambique seemed to be a lot more peaceful that the squatter camps of Jo’burg.  People live in straw huts in tiny villages. Many families have pigs and goats tied up nearby and donkeys are used to pull carriages. We passed crowded shops where people would carrying home live chickens and water buckets on their heads. We even passed a lady who was skinning a chicken for supper.  Our group found out quickly how corrupt the Mozambique police are. We were pulled over twice in a speed trap, but the speedometer they had was "broken" and read the same speed for everyone. Everybody was “speeding”. Once pulled over they would ask for your license and then tell you that if you wanted you license back you would have to pay them. Apparently there is not much to do in this situation other than pay them and they pocket the money. The police were standing outside laughing at they took everyone's money for themselves.

The highlight of the trip was when we took a sailboat trip to a beautiful Island where we went snorkeling. Apparently the Island is not visited by many people so it’s considered a 'sacred island.'

It was  wonderful seeing so many beautiful sights, crazy wild animals (including a lion in the wild) and being around many fun people. I came back feeling fresh, rejuvenated, and ready to go back to work at Refilwe.  It’s a good thing too because upon coming back there were a few tough situations to face.

Unlike the rest of Africa, South Africa does not have malnourished children. They may not always have a lot to eat, and it's not healthy but enough to keep from starving.  Very poor families can live off 'Pop' which is  basically like corn meal. It’s very cheap and has a lot of vitamins. There are no excuse for a little boy that Mama Julia found living with his parents in a township. He is 18 months but looks like he is about 5 or 6 months old. His body is retaining water so he cheeks are puffy and his stomach is sticking out so much it looks the size of a tennis ball. His skin is peeling and he has dark spots in various places on his body. His eyes are not properly developed and he has not started talking or crawling yet. His parents are always drunk and they forget to feed him properly so he is severely malnourished, to the point that if we didn’t find he would have been dead soon.  Julia says that the parents seem to be making an effort to feed him properly now that she is coming by everyday. The baby is still going to be taken to a hospital because his condition is so serious that he could become mentally handicapped.  Apparently after the baby is better they are going to return him back to the family, but unless the parent’s heal themselves from their addiction, I don’t think that’s the best choice for the child. They are incapable of caring for him at this point. It’s really sad seeing something that should have been prevented, and now this child is going to have to deal with the consciences of this for the rest of his life. He is already a year behind where he should  be and it might be too late for him to make a full recovery