expressed an understanding of the struggle that one would have expected o
only from a much older person•
Everywhere these Portuguese soldiers v/ent they were struck by our constant preoccupation with education, not just for the children, but for
their parents and the army as wello  Augusto Lopes said that neither
he nor any of his fellow soldiers had been given the opportunity to
improve their education in the Portuguese army0  And indeed, he found
the whole atmosphere in the FRELIMO army was something completely new
and unlike anything he had experienced before,  He constantly sensed
an all-pervading morale of close comradeship and respect for one another-
that had been totally absent in the Portuguese posts. He felt that this
was attributable to the basic difference between the two armies, namely,
the one being composed of individuals under compulsion, far from home
who were constantly counting the days until their demobilisation, and
the other composed of guerrillas fighting by choice and desire, in the
knowledge that they could never rest until the foreigner was driven from
their homeland. But he felt there was also another reason.  There was,
of course, very strong discipline in the bases, but there was never the
huge gulf and hostility between army leaders and the guerrillas as there
was between the Portuguese officers and the ranks, who lived and worked
under completely different conditions and never met except to give and
receive orders.  In FRELIMO, all the fighters lived and fought side by
side, suffered the same hardships and shared the joy of their victories.
Americo Neves de Sousa remarked that there was complete respect for
each other and he felt that even though they were from the enemy, and
some were prisoners, they v/ere respected as human beings and treated as
such in a way that they had never experienced in the Portuguese army.
Everyone was extremely impressed with the extensive medical facilities
available for both the army and the civilians. Joao Borges Gomes had
good reason to be particularly grateful for this.  For when taken prisoner he was unconscious through loss of blood from a severe bullet
wound in the thigho  Indeed, when he was finally brought to a base it was
thought at first that he was already dead. However, after intensive
medical care over a long period - nine months in fact - he recovered
completely.  During their long stay in the bush most of them fell ill
at one time or another but they always received attention, immediately
from FRELIMO medical assistants,  Once one  of them became ver}/- ill and
as none of the drugs required were available and no one qualified to
treat him, the provincial, leaders sent for someone from outside.  He
had daily injections for many months until he was cured.  (They
apparently found all this attention for someone of a different colour
and from the enemy army quite incomprehensible).
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