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Dear
Friends
We returned from holiday in Britain three days ago. It was great. On
the day we left Aden a local friend asked what the weather would be
like. Peter replied breezily that it could rain every day for all he
cared – and it very nearly did! But the weather did little to dampen
our enjoyment and we spent time back in the hills of Wales, in
Wokingham with Peter’s youngest brother and family and at a friend’s
lovely flint cottage in Suffolk, where one evening we lit a fire to
keep warm and also where we were joined for two happy days by our
son Tim and wife Ali. May is a fabulous month to be in
Britain, whatever the weather. The green of trees, hedgerows
and fields are so fresh, especially after Aden.
Today was a fairly typical day here in Aden and we thought we would
tell you about it. We got up, as we usually do – rather sweaty –
just before six. We joined the Ethiopian members of staff for
prayers at 7.45. Sometimes they lead and we hum along with the hymns
they sing in Amharic; many are hauntingly beautiful. Today we led.
Then, and it’s a little task we’ve kept putting off, we set the two
time clocks which control the new drip pipe system to water the
garden. We’ll check and see tonight if it’s dripping. This system
should save a lot of money on our water bills.
Normally the first task after praying together is checking e-mails.
It falls usually to Nancy, who is widely acknowledged as the best
‘computer person’ on the campus , despite her very definite
love/hate relationship with computers. Amongst the e-mails was one
from a Belgian eye surgeon confirming the dates of his visit in
August, another from a New Zealand couple, whom we have only just
heard of in Dubai, a nurse and financier interested in possibly
working with us and who want to come visit this weekend. And then
there was a note about the newly appointed Bishop of Birmingham,
David Urquhart, whom we have known a long time and who visited Aden
last year. We had thought he would have been a fit successor to our
Bishop Clive, who recently announced his intention to retire next
year. We do continue to pray for the choice of his successor.
The medical clinic has been less busy today. Schools are out and
children seem strangely more prone to sickness in term time. The two
doctors, Nada and Shada, have continue their training in use of the
new ultrasound machine, something they have risen to with
enthusiasm. They should soon receive their certificates of
proficiency.
In the course of the rest of the morning, a neighbour brought his
twelve year old son to us with an enormous ‘black eye’, given to him
we learnt, by his uncle. Fortunately the eye itself was undamaged.
Later two officials came from the port wanting advice on where to
have a coffin made for a foreign seafarer who had died, and later a
widowed Somali mother of four young children came to ask for help to
meet the costs of an operation needed by her youngest child. We will
try to help her but we need first a letter from the surgeon
detailing the anticipated costs.
Sadly, the past months
have seen a significant increase in the number of people
fleeing here from both Somalia and Ethiopia. Tragically
many drown in their attempt to reach Yemen.
“According to the refugee agency (UNHCR) some 100 people
a day attempted to cross from Somalia to Yemen from
September to March. During 6 days in January alone,
UNHCR counted 22 smuggling boats – small, open, fishing
dhows – arriving in Yemen. Smugglers charge between $30
and $50 US per person, often cramming 100s of people
onto small vessels with little food and water for a 30
hour passage on high seas. In very heavy seas ‘cargo’
are often jettisoned to lighten the boats.
Since September 2005, officials say, the dead could
number close to 1000. Even when the boats to reach
Yemen’s coast, passengers, including children, are
forced to swim to shore so that the boat is not
detectable to the Yemen authorities. Most passengers,
including the children, cannot swim and drown.” [The
Yemen Observer. 27 May 2006] |
Busateen - home
to many refugees
Newly arrived
Ethiopians |
At present we are in
contact with two fathers who lost all their family save one child
each while swimming for Yemen’s coastline, while a month ago a
heavily expectant Ethiopian mother called in for help. She was 6
months pregnant when she was forced to swim ashore. Her husband
didn’t make it.
In the course of a morning – and this is by no means an exhaustive
account of this morning (Mother Teresa sisters also called in, too)
one can meet a lot of suffering and hear some incredible stories,
not all of which one learns are true, but there is often laughter as
well.
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Rana |
A month ago
Rana, one of the eye
team, announced to our very great amazement over
mid-morning tea, “We do weddings now!” We discovered
that two elderly patients, a man and woman both widowed,
had come in on the same day for cataract surgery. Two
days later they had returned at the same time to have
their dressings removed. As these came off they both
liked what they saw and seven weeks later were married.
After the tea break Peter had an appointment with a
member of the UNHCR staff at their Aden office to
discuss the case of two refugees, regular visitors to
us. There he saw a wise and gracious Kenyan woman who
seemed unusually disturbed. She explained that on the
way to work in a UN marked vehicle it had been stoned
and the back window shattered as they had driven into
the compound. |
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She was not
hurt. Neither of us, whether in Aden or any other part
of Yemen, have had a moment’s anxiety for our personal
safety, but in recent weeks the UN building has several
times been besieged by angry refugees. |
Our friend, whom Peter
saw is one of two UN personnel currently worshipping with us. At the
moment a certain seasonal migration is underway and our numbers are
a little down, but in many weeks we’ve nudged around forty, which
has been encouraging. We managed to keep a good Holy Week (though it
seems long ago now) and a candlelit dawn service drew nearly fifty.
At around that time we had the long anticipated appraisal by
visiting UK doctors of the medical clinics. It was very searching
and helpful and has given us a fresh agenda to work with for a year
or two.
After that, as some of you know well, we undertook our fleeting
‘missionary journey’ to Dubai and the congregations of Cyprus on
behalf of Christ Church and the clinics. It was exhausting but
enormously encouraging. For the welcome we received and for the
pledges of prayer and funding, we are very, very grateful.
This began as an account of this morning’s work and activities. It
has broadened a bit in content and a conclusion is long overdue
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On
the way back from UNHCR, I paused the car to look down on the
shipping in the port – many dhows, and just slipping anchor for
Malaysia, ‘The Spirit of the Red Sea’, a 70s bulk carrier I visited
yesterday morning.
Friends told me they were praying my legs would
be strong enough to take me up gangplanks again – by Easter. They
were. It’s still hard to manage more than one or two visits at a
time. On my first visit I was deeply touched to be greeted in the
galley by a young crew member, who, discovering my work told me
eagerly he was my brother, a new Christian from Myanmar.
Aden is full of surprises – some of the them very wonderful.
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Somali Children |
Palm Sunday |
With much love and our warmest best wishes in Christ
Peter and Nancy
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Aden
from Shamsan |
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