Dear Mom from Africa

Dear Mom,

I just wanted you to know that I have been thinking about you more than usual lately.  You see I have starting to clean up and pack as I get ready to end my adventure here in Mozambique; only five months left!

I think about how dismayed you were when I told you that I was coming to Africa for two years and you yelling/crying on the phone to come home after I departed.  So much of your worrying had validity.  

There were enough times that your voice rung in my ears and I was agreeing with you; I have had days were I wanted to return home. 

- Like the day when my peanut butter melted sitting in the cupboard inside my house, which is warmer than the 100 degrees from outside because of the metal roof.

- Or my face slamming into my closed bedroom door walking from the sitting room to the bedroom where I kept my flashlight.  

-Or having that baby die in front of me from dehydration due to diarrhea -  one of many.

- Or being stood up by 5 people for a meeting that took me hours to prepare for.

- Or that time I had to walk home, tired, in the dark, from the bus station with 6 heavy plastic bags of groceries and one bag broke open.

- Or the time when the last bus coming home breaks down and people calmly got off and were walking with some direction, and I had no idea where we were. I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere and had a moment of panic.

- Or the time my computer modem fell from my backpack in a car returning to the city 3 hours away. I felt like my arms were cut off. (That was almost as bad as when I couldn’t get my computer to turn on.)

Yes mom those were times when I just sighed and hope my children never have this crazy idea. I keep calm and count the days I will be home.

Then a new day starts and I count the days I have left here and remember to keep my peanut butter in the refrigerator, buy a second flashlight; talk to mothers about rehydration; buy at the local market and use a basket; and that here I will never be left alone nor without.

Here in my village the people hear you mom.   They watch out for me and I guide them for a better life.

Now our family is part of their family.

@bloggingabroad