Where Miracles Grow

After being abandoned by her husband, a ship’s captain and the disappearance of her second son, her third child, Lily Rama is heartbroken. She is faced with a double tragedy almost unbearable to bear. ..

Efforts to find the lost boy Jim have failed. Unknown to the whole town, Jim falls into a deep cliff while playing with his friends outside their town. The seriously injured boy is found by hunters and brought to a clinic in another town where a visiting medical team has him airlifted to a hospital in Manila. The boy develops amnesia from the fall. He is brought to an orphanage where a childless Nigerian couple adopts him and brings him to Abeokuta, Ogun state, Nigeria where he grows up and nurtured by the kind and loving Nigerian couple.

In the meantime, left without financial support from her runaway husband, Lily Rama applies and is accepted by Nigerian recruiters as contract education officer, and together with a group of 49 other professionals, she embarks the long journey to Nigeria, West Africa, leaving her children in the care of her mother in-law. .Although the pain of separation from her beloved children is almost impossible to bear, she is determined to take the overseas job which promises good financial prospects and ensures a brighter future for her family.

In the obscure village of Wama, Biu, she works relentlessly.and sindlehandedly at a Teachers’ College founded by the early British missionaries. As the sole Home Economics teacher, she handles the Departent.of Home Economics with efficiency and dedication. Her duties involve not only teaching but supervision of teaching practice taking her to remote and unknown villages. She encounters many obstacles and imminent danger but she miraculously survives the nerve-wracking experiences through sheer determination, will power and a strong faith.

Towards the end of her first year at Wama Teachers’ College, she is promoted to a higher level with higher salary scale, and is transferred to Federal Advanced Teachers’ College, Abeokuta, Ogun State Once in the southwestern part of the country where weather conditions are milder and general conditions are better, she sets out to build a department once held by a fledgling undergraduate.

Professional challenges abound in her new assignment but the determined teacher faces them all with renewed vigor, enthusiasm and efficiency, earning her the coveted “Square Bracket Award” in her second year at the college.

Jim on the other hand enjoys the devotion and care of his adoptive parents, Mr. and Mrs. Olegbeni, prominent residents of Abeokuta. Jim has a lot of adventures on his own, including being at the top of the class every school year, tending to his father’s Iron Craft store, and going with his mother, a Science Consultant and member of NERC, to education workshops throughout the federation.. Only one thing saddens the boy. He is taunted by naughty boys in school as “oyibo” their term for white boy. Jim often wonders why he is different from his parents and the rest of his classmates. He learns his origin later through Mrs. Olegbeni, but his relationship with his adoptive parents remains steadfast.

Mrs. Rama eventually brings her three other children to the country, no longer able to stand the separation from her loved ones. As in Wama, her work schedule in Abeokuta involves Teaching Practice Supervision an brings her all around the city and to other places outside the city.

In one of her supervision rounds, she finds herself in an affluent grammar school within city limits. A most unbelievable, unexpected miracle takes place whit almost drives Lily crazy with joy. She finds her long lost son, her Jimmy at the school. The boy recovers from his amnesia after he was hurt from a fight with a classmate and recognizes his mommy instantly. A poignant reunion ensues with the dilemma involving Jim’s adoptive parents, who opt to move to England, unable to bear the separation from their adopted son, whom they have learned to love very dearly..

Months pass after the miracle of the family’s reunion with Jim when another miracle happens. Captain Jowell Rama, the wandering husband and father suddenly materializes from out of the blue!.

Miracles grow in this far, immense land with amazing frequency. Lily Rama is in a state of shock in a long while, then realizes that her husband’s return is her final and sweetest miracle of all.