Thursday, May 16, 2013

An open letter to my daughter

Hi Claudia,
 
I hope you are all doing well and almost packed to move back to your home in Colorado. 
  
How are you and your precious family doing? I hope you had a good time during your trip to Portugal. I am sorry the weather was not really on your side. It was so wonderful to see all of you all over again. You do have beautiful kids. I am happy for you and Keith. 

We are back from our trip to Africa. I am going to post some pictures on the Internet and send you links so you can see them.

Our trip went well and we did have a good time interacting with the young girls at the orphanage. But we were very disappointed with the countries we visited.

I think Mozambique has been frozen 50 years back in time. Living conditions there are ephemeral. Poor everything. Poor schools, poor security, poor roads, poor jobs, poverty everywhere and a racist attitude I had not seen in ages. The new "haves" are as arrogant, if not more, than the Portuguese or the South Africans of the 60s.

South Africa is better in terms of infrastructures but the insecurity is appalling. People live behind bars and electrified barbed wire. In Mozambique too. I am not sure you will be able to imagine your children playing in a backyard surrounded by high walls topped with electrified barbed wire? 

I often thought about our painful move away from Africa back in the 70s when you were still very young and we all aspired to a happy life in Africa. But now I must say that our departure was a blessing in disguise. I am so happy you live in the USA. And I am so glad I am living in Europe.
 
Take care and keep in touch.
Love you dearly,

your Dad

1 comment:

  1. Boa tarde,

    Peço desculpa de estar a deixar um comentário não relacionado com este post, mas deixei-lhe um comentário num post antigo ("O meu neto emigrou"), e como não sei se o veria replico aqui no mais recente o texto que lá deixei:


    Chamo-me João Santos Duarte e sou jornalista da Rádio Renascença. Estou preparar há já algum tempo um mini-documentário para a nossa Web TV sobre emigração, em que abordo tanto a grande vaga dos anos 60/70 como o que se está a passar no presente.
    Uma das questões que gostaria de focar precisamente é esta dimensão familiar, ou seja, avós que veem os netos partir, pais que veem os filhos obrigados a ter de sair do país, e todo o impacto que isso tem.
    Fazendo uma pesquisa na Internet encontrei este texto. Gostaria se saber se eventualmente gostaria ou estaria disponível para participar neste trabalho, contando a sua experiência.
    Deixo-lhe em seguida o meu email, caso me possa contactar:

    joaosantosduarte@gmail.com

    Com os melhores cumprimentos,
    João Duarte

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