Ties that bind

TIES THAT BIND

This month has been a month of visits – not a calendar month exactly, but a four week period. I’m loving it though because I’ve not had many visits to Mozambique. I usually have to go to a westernized country like South Africa or Swaziland to meet them. But I just had a friend from Swaziland come up to visit me and in 10 days I leave for Maputo to go pick up a certain person named Noel Hefele and Samantha McD (Noel said I spelled her name wrong last time I wrote it, so I’ll leave it at that) Yes it is true, Noel is actually leaving PA for more than just a few hours. People do change!! J But, I don’t want to talk about that yet, my friend’s visit from Swaziland was more important.

This friend is such a trouper. Murphey’s law has been a cannon law while this PCV has been in Africa. My friend is the poster child for the little handbook PC gives us called “Worst Case Scenario.” However, he/she is still here. “Time is over”, though and this PCV will be going home soon. But, s/he was here when my brother called last week and said something very interesting after I got off the phone with my brother. My friend’s grandma died while my friend’s been here and her family did not allow her to fly back home – ie my worst nightmare. Apparently it is my brother’s too. However, my friend and I were discussing that you do have to live your life for yourself. I’ve missed so many things since I’ve lived in Africa. I missed a family member’s birth. It still seems weird to me that I am an uncle. But things like this happen and I feel even more grateful for the time I have with family and friends because of it. It is not just with friends and family from the States, but friends and family from here too. It’s made me think a lot about what I want to do with my life when I am done here though. I don’t want to be coming back only once a year and never see people I care about. But stuff I’ve been looking at and mulling over in my head is making me strive to be true to myself. That’s not easy in this world and not easy at all in Africa. But I will try, and someone told me once here that the ties that bind a family together are an ancient magic. I’m beginning to wonder what the human race lost when it left Africa…