Amalia has just graduated, and proudly possesses a diploma in Planning and Business Management from the city’s university. She is the eldest of five children – the only girl among them; and we know enough about how IPM ministers are paid to realise that her parents must have made considerable sacrifices for her to have reached this stage.
Just a couple hours after Hillian arrived in Maputo on Saturday, we found ourselves as honoured guests at the wonderful gathering of family and friends called to celebrate Amalia’s achievement. It was an amazing mixture of praise, prayer and partying – with delicious food piled high on plates, and constant invitations to get up and help yourself to more.
Relying on ad hoc interpreters you are liable to miss the nuances, but it was impossible not to be moved by the obvious love between daughter and parents, and the gratitude and pride that marked their relationship. Whether an only daughter among boys would do as well in every family I don’t know, but here it was pretty clear that there were no gender considerations to hold Amalia back. Yet seeing the scale of the celebrations, it was hard not to wonder what challenges were being set for the younger brothers, and how equal their opportunities might turn out to be.
Several people have spoken to me about families lately. Generally they have been perplexed that we don’t seem to have families, or at least don’t want to come together as families. Our nuclear family pattern must seem strange and remote to people who, when you ask them about their family, don’t immediately tell you about wife and children, but begin with possibly deceased parents, and then work their way through brother and sisters and wider affiliations. “Why don’t you get together as we do?” they’ve asked me, and feebly I’ve responded that we do sometimes, perhaps at times like Christmas or birthday, without going on to admit that in many cases such get-togethers are seen as occasions to instil dread, and best avoided at all costs. On Saturday, with all the singing and dancing, it was impossible to imagine that there could be anyone present who really didn’t want to be.
Another contrast with our big family gatherings, and I’m thinking particularly of weddings, was the confidence and indeed loquaciousness of all who had speaking parts. Admittedly I don’t have the Portuguese to judge the quality of the speeches, but I can testify that they all went without stumbling and hesitation – and with no apparent fear of using a radio mike that sent the speaker’s voice echoing half way across the city. Not many notes in sight either – and certainly no one glued to them. The prayers and the neighbouring pastor’s address as well as father’s wise words offered as he presented their daughter with a Bible all emphasised that these were celebrations offered in the context of the life of the Church – and it’s pretty clear that the IPM is a Church that helps its young people to develop confidence, both in the faith and in their own abilities.
Amalia has a well-earned diploma, but she is looking for work in a country where graduates have just the same problems finding work as ours do in the UK. But I understand that she already has the promise of an interview – and from watching and listening to her last Saturday, I sense that she may well have what it takes to show that those five years’ work were all worth the effort.
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Synod readers following our comings and goings may note that our hosts have been busy doing the airport run in recent days. Hillian arrived on Saturday, two days after Meg Robb, who was immediately driven to Xai-Xai in Gaza province for her leg of the exchange with Pastor Rosa. We hope that Rosa will be working with Meg in the East Cleveland group for a few weeks in September and October. Then on Monday Matthew left, after four weeks in and around Khovo – not to mention a few days in Chimoio with a young people’s group. Plenty to tell FURY members when he next meets up with them.
Hillian and I are now working in tandem on our conversational English classes for people working at Khovo, and plans are unfolding (a little belatedly for my taste) for a weekly English language service at the Khovo church: launch date this Sunday, August 7th. Can anyone email me a stack of English hymn books??
John Durell
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