Search

You may have been wondering why there have been no further installments of African Diary. The short answer is that Diana was very ill from the side-effects of anti-malaria drugs. She has been back in this country being treated and having a spell of rest and recuperation. You will remember that Diana and Colin, her husband, had left Mozambique and were very busy building up a new mission station, funded by a business man from Liverpool, in Uganda. Before being taken ill, Diana had written some notes for the Journal which will be enough for two more articles. Diana and Colin have not yet decided whether they will return to Africa but we have told Diana how Journal readers enjoyed reading her news. We wish her well for the future.

You must all be wondering how we are getting on with the health centre, I must confess that it's not very fast! Well, anyone who has lived in Africa will not be surprised, things always go slowly. We spent six weeks in England, and virtually nothing happened, although we had left money and instructions. Somebody had begun to dig a deep hole for latrines that we had not asked for. Colin went and had a look and decided it can be made deeper and turned into a well, luckily we got back in time to make the change! We did want toilets constructed but the flush type for in-patients, well it was nearly right. The minister who is supposed to be organising people to work, has had visitors almost ever since we came back and has not found anyone to get on with the building. Some people are busy building new classrooms for the junior school that were not even mentioned before we left.

We have, at last, received further despatches from Diana Rigby. She has been at her mission station in Mozambique, now, for some three years. Those of you who have followed her diary notes will have realised that these three years have not been uneventful. Following her knee surgery Diana is now back in the bush putting a fair amount of stress on that knee, by the sound of it. The civil war is over in Mozambique and these letters give some idea of the immense amount of work needed to pull together a country which has suffered in this way.