BECAUSE of war in my homeland of Angola, my family and I fled in 1961 to what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. We lived there for more than 25 years. During that time I worked in the capital, Kinshasa, as a director of a school for Angolan children.
By 1983 there was great dissension amoung the school's directors. One group of people wanted to sell the school. But the group I belonged to knew it was generally very difficult for Angolan children to be admitted to Congolese public schools. So, we definitely did not want the school to be sold.
This situation was very distressing for me and my family. In my desperation one day, I remembered that there was a book that had been sitting on my shelf for the past five years, waiting to be read. It was Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. In 1978, someone else who read this book had come to our school to sell copies to any of us who were interested. I had bought one then but hadn't taken the opportunity to look at it. Now, five years later, I decided to read it because I thought it might offer some peace and calm.
