A cool breeze, no power, and a nice book was the perfect day as I lay in my hammock sinking into a foreign world. So entranced in the plot, I hardly recognized that someone was trying to talk to me. “Hello” she kept repeating. As I peered out of my hammock, I saw a fifteen or sixteen year old girl staring back at me in front of my veranda. “Como está?” (How are you?) I instinctively responded. She met my question with a look of fear and confusion spread across her face. After a conversation in very broken English, I discovered that she was from Tanzania, did not speak Portuguese, and had nowhere to go. She was lost, looking for some help, and willing to do anything to get it.
We walked to the priest on my compound to look for some guidance. After I explained to him what was going on, we realized that neither of us what going to be able to effectively communicate with her. He called on the only other person in the compound: the cook. The lost girl finally was able to catch a break as we discovered that the cook and the girl both spoke Chichewa. Through the cook’s translation, we learned of her story.
The girl had lived in Malawi when she met a man from Mozambique. One thing led to another, and they began dating. As things tend to be at the beginning of relationships, everything was going along smoothly. However, there was a hiccup; the man had to return to Mozambique. As they were parting farewell he told her to meet him in Milange, Mozambique (a border town with Malawi where I happen to live). His promises of a brighter future and marriage encouraged her to muster everything she had to get to Mozambique. Leaving everything behind and having faith that everything would work out, she began her journey.
However as you have probably put the pieces together by now, she arrived in Mozambique to no man, no home, and no marriage. She was alone in a foreign country without anyone or any way to get back home and somehow came across us.
As we were figuring out what to do and making arrangements for the girl, the cook told me that the this type of deceit often comes to an end in border towns like mine; she said that the girl was beyond fortunate to have stumbled into the compound that she did because often these situations often end tragically for the girls. The cook continued on to say, too often men will go into a foreign country and exploit the local women, promise more than they plan on keeping, and destroy innocence.
Reflecting back on this situation, the truth of it was not easy to swallow, but unfortunately this is a reality for many girls across the world. Although this girl is now living with other girls on the nun’s compound, many other girls throughout the world are not fortunate enough to have this luxury.
If you feel like checking out more information about what ends up happening to these girls in the human and sex trafficking field, here are some organizations you can check out that are doing something about it:
Thomas’ Travels 