I was born in Africa to Presbyterian Missionaries, in a small village in then Zaire. I have always felt a strong connection to Africa, having grown up with a heritage of stories and tales from the Kasai region. For most of my young life, one of my ambitions was to return to the continent of my birth. When I was accepted to Connecticut College, in New London, along with my acceptance I was offered the Lawrence Scholarship a $3000 grant to do an internship of my choice. This seemed like an excellent opportunity to serve as my parents had.

      I contacted the mission department of the Presbyterian Church to express my willingness to serve. Now, since I speak fluent Spanish, I assumed that I would be sent to South or Central America. I interviewed with a missionary who had been in Zaire with my parents, and I mentioned jokingly that I would love to go back to Zaire. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to return to what is now the People's Democratic Republic of the Congo because a bloody civil war and centuries of exploitation, corruption and dictatorships have destroyed what infrastructure existed. At this time, the violence is high, and the rule of law is low. Even if I could make it to the town I was born, it is an extremely unsafe place. So I knew there was no way I could return to Zaire. Therefore, I was content to go to Spanish-speaking America.

      After my acceptance into the program, I got a call from Karen Bradshaw telling me of my placement. "How is your Portuguese?" she asked. "You mean Brazil?" I said in delight! "No, I mean Mozambique." I have always considered my African geography to be way above par, but the only fact I could come up with immediately about Mozambique was that at the time of my seventh grade geography class, it was the poorest country in the world. I was thrilled. I went around for the rest of the week driving my friends nuts and rolling the word "Mo-zam-bique" off my tongue. My mission in Mozambique was to write a book about the development projects that the church had done there. To help me in this, my church back home, Mineral Presbyterian Church, bought me a laptop. I got engaged, recieved about 9 vaccinations, applied for and got my visa, packed for the trip, packed my dorm room into boxes, wrote four final papers, passed four final exams, and crawled onto an airplane at JRK International Airport in New York City.

     The following is a tale of my journey, taken for the most part from emails I sent home and the journal I kept. I hope you find it enjoyable.

     If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at brenda@tiltedworld.com.