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All About Africa
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The Friends of Londiani - Malachy Harty. Last Spring we met Martin and Maria in Cork and they told us about Friends of Londiani. We were really interested and promised to visit Londiani if we could. We sat on the back of bicycles to get from the paved main road to the small village of Londiani. Fr. Martin Barry, from Glanmire, welcomed us into his home, a little piece of home, while we waited for a spin on to the Friends of Londiani base at a nearby orphanage and school. The orphanage lies among beautiful green hills. Friends of Londiani have assisted the orphanage and local villages with healthcare, education, water catchment and HIV awareness. Volunteers lay exhausted after a hectic building spree. Some had spent the week with the children at the orphanage. They walked around with children hanging from them, their smiling faces sunburnt. It was a treat to speak easily with people from home. We didn’t have to talk slowly to be understood. We heard how Cork were doing in football and hurling. We ate biscuits and drank tea while we read recent papers from home. That evening, girls studying for their final secondary school exams sang beautiful songs. The muzungu visitors listened, spellbound. |
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