Settling into new life of waiting

It doesn't much matter to Beatriz Bailundo where she is living. Her life would be a kind of torture no matter where she was

It doesn't much matter to Beatriz Bailundo where she is living. Her life would be a kind of torture no matter where she was. The 35-year-old, along with her four-year-old daughter, was flown out of southern Angola by the Red Cross the day after her husband and teenage daughter were taken from the family home by armed men.

Tears flow down her cheeks as she explains how she's been desperately trying since then to find out if they are alive, but it is impossible to get information. She believes they may have been taken to government-run work camps.

"After three months, there is no news, nothing," she says.

Even before this, Beatriz had already lost three children through illnesses that could have been cured if medicines had been available.

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She says she is happy to be in Bunbeg, mainly because Maire McGarvey, who runs the hotel, has been so good to her. She refers to Maire as "my mother".

"Other people here say they want to go to Dublin, I don't know why. I know I am with good people here. My problem is that I wait for my family. I don't want to go anywhere."

Olivia has started at the local national school. "She is the only African at the school. Everybody in Bunbeg knows Olivia. When I go to the shop or the bank, everybody says, `You are the mother of Olivia'," she smiles.

Back at home, she worked in a Red Cross hospital, and her wages helped to provide not just for her children, but also for her brothers and sisters. The u£15 she gets here, plus half that again for Olivia, isn't enough to buy clothes and other necessities.

She says she is thankful to Maire and a German woman living nearby who have helped her.