Wow

Wow, what a week it has been!  It feels like we have lived a month since Monday and the worst of what is happening, is not even happening to us personally.  However, the flood events in Chokwe and Gaza are greatly impacting our friends and WR family there. 

If Dr. Pieter, our Gaza director feels like Job, he has good reason.  On Monday, the farmer’s association fields where he has cultivated relationships and the agricultural project for over 10 years were destroyed by the flooding.  On Tuesday, he spent the day moving equipment and fertilizer to a safer location and began prepping the office for evacuation.  On Wednesday, the waters overwhelmed Chokwe, flooding first the office and then his home.  As the water came so quickly, the guards he was planning to leave at the office panicked, so he took them with him to high ground.  On Thursday, when he was able to get back to the office, he found everything had been stripped by looters.  Desks, tables, chairs, cabinets, safely stored electronics, kitchen equipment, freezer and fridge were all gone, with only a few pieces of paper remaining on the floor.  How many losses can one person endure?

Perhaps they took the stuff in  boats like this. That's all we can figure out as the water was still too deep to drive a truck in.

Dr. Pieter shared he was so discouraged.  Yes, he knew in his heart it was only stuff, but how devastating to lose everything and face the task of rebuilding.  The good news is that all our staff are safe and well.  Loss of life during the flood event was minimal.  More people have died since the flood waters have started receding.  Some of them are looters, falling through roofs or getting so drunk they have tripped in the street and drowned.  (How would you explain that to St. Peter, if indeed we have to do so?)

This is the first time we have personally been involved in formulating and coordinating an emergency response of this nature.  The most difficult thing is communication with the field.  Cell phone towers are out in Chokwe so if we need to talk to Pieter, it is only early or late when he’s not there.  How do you plan a realistic response without knowing numbers, places, exact needs or have a location to operate out of with staff on the ground?   The disaster response manager left five years ago and things have changed.  As you can imagine, it has been a steep learning curve for all of us. 

About six of the senior staff have banded together as a working group to try and address both ends of the situation.  Rachel is leading communications with the WR home office and the Church Partners.  (Check out her WR Mozambique facebook page creation.)  Jamene is looking at the finance side and signing the checks.  Margarida is attending the government disaster response meetings and bringing back (sometimes two day old) information (not her fault).  Steve is advising and suggesting options, still trying to support Nia, the country director, and the agriculture programs while helping Rachel where he can.  So, by Friday night we went home exhausted, a bit stressed out, waking up still tired on Saturday.  But we have so much to be thankful for – a clean, dry house with stuff we use and wear still in it and food in the cupboards. There are thousands of people in Gaza Province who cannot say that today whose houses look like this or who lived in a mud hut that has washed away.

WR is initially partnering with another Christian NGO to provide small bottles of chlorine to people in the camps and who are returning to Chokwe. This NGO has a system for distribution already in place and clean drinking water has been identified as a pressing need. As time moves on we will help people as they return to their homes and then we will need to rehabilitate the office. We will provide seeds for the villagers who lost their crops and also their food security. If you are interested in helping financially with this relief effort you can click here for more information.

River in the background, former tomato field in the front - Chinhangane village.


We have really appreciated the people who are praying and encouraging us and others here. It is at times like this that support like this makes such a difference. Thank you.

Flooding in Gaza Province

It is really a hopeless feeling, sitting at our office in Maputo and knowing that water has again quickly filled the town of Chokwe and people are sitting on rooftops waiting to be rescued. 

Tuesday of last week there was a large low pressure system that went through southern Mozambique into South Africa and even Zimbabwe.  Here in Maputo, we received 6 inches of rain in less than 5 hours that flooded streets and neighborhoods damaging houses and roads.  The news coverage was all about the local damage and not a whole lot more.  This picture is of a road by our office that has been under construction for the last 9 months. When the rains came it washed large sections away. One of our friends lives at the bottom of the hill and unfortunately a lot of this dirt/mud ended up in her house as well as her neighbors' houses. 

Four days later, the authorities who control the flood gates at Massingir dam, announced they would open three gates to reduce high water levels in the reservoir.  Last year when this happened, it wiped out two tomato fields of WR farmers, caused more than $45,000 in losses and delayed planting in other WR project areas.  If total agricultural losses were ever calculated, I don’t know that they were, but due to the sudden, unannounced opening of the dam, more than 90 irrigation pumps ended up under water, and this represents only the irrigated fields along the river. 

Because the announcement this week indicated only half the flood gates would be opened, there was hope the fields would not flood.  However, all the gates were opened and they resulted in fully flooded fields.

 

Based on news that more water was coming from the main river, Dr. Pieter, a WR director in Chokwe, spent the day yesterday getting supplies and pumps to high ground in and around Chokwe.  He then moved some equipment to higher elevations at the office and was standing guard to see what would happen.  Two of our drivers were assigned to drive to Chokwe and assist with evacuation of equipment, vehicles and people.  Before they could even get out of town, Pieter called to say the water had come in from the back side of the town, not even the river side, and had already reached window level at the office.  That was at 10 AM and the last communication we have heard from the team since. 

Rachel heard the TV news at noon reporting the road was already impassable at the town where the high water mark reached in 2000 and people are already on roof tops waiting for rescue.  Even if you have a vehicle, it will be extremely difficult to drive out to a dry place some 35 km distant as the road is elevated in spots above the flood plain, but now underwater.  One false move and you are underwater and who knows where the road might be undercut or washed away. 

Please pray for all those affected. I can only imagine what is left of a mud hut after a flood. Many people will be left with nothing, and the promise of income from their crops is also gone. Pray for WR as we respond to this crisis. Pray that people will stand firm in their faith in God even in adversity. Thank you.

Return to Maputo

As many of you know, we have returned to Maputo after eight months of scheduled R and R in Indiana on a “working” sabbatical.  We were able to spend a good amount of time with family, friends, local church and new acquaintances revitalizing ourselves and hopefully others for the months and years to come. 

We want to offer a special thank you to our sending church, Harvest Community of Goshen, Indiana for hosting and continuing to support us, to our families for giving so generously of their love, time, garden produce and internet access, to World Relief for allowing us to take the time away and to many other groups like Family Foundations International, Le Rucher and Women of the Harvest who also ministered to us along the way.

As we left Indiana, we were carrying more luggage than we have every carried.  This was partly because we had brought more to the U.S. because we were going to be spending both warm and cold months there and also because of things given to us for others and things we wanted to take back. 

We started praying over our luggage situation at least a week before we arrived at the South Bend airport, asking God to help us get all the bags through without any hassle, loss or theft.  We even shrink-wrapped the soft bags with zippers to help deter opening them while in the Jo’burg airport overnight.  Our first experience of grace was with Delta, whose website said they allowed three free bags per Medallion member and their traveling companion.  This is how we packed, but on arrival were informed that for flights to Southern Africa, only two free bags per person were allowed.  What to do, since the extra bags were to be charged at $200 each and the value of the items was not that amount.  After I turned to discuss with Rachel, the desk agent said, “it is OK, we will allow it this time.  Thus, our bags went all the way through to Maputo without extra charges.

While we were looking for the bags in Maputo, I noted from a distance, that most of our bags were no longer wrapped.  However, all the locks were still on them and upon opening, nothing was taken. 

Our other concern was clearing immigration without our actual residency cards.  We had left Mozambique before they were printed and only had a letter permitting us to be outside of the country for more than 90 days and a receipt.  The immigration guy processing our passports did not know what to make of the letter, but he asked his neighbor who was also busy processing passports and he just said, “It’s OK.”  When the first passport was stamped, I knew the other was through too.

Our last point of grace was with the inspecting officials as we left the Maputo baggage area.  They wanted us to open 3-4 bags for inspection.  Our biggest concern was “hungry” officials, looking for additional cash and with the amount of bags, they certainly could suspect that we were not going to use all of the OTC meds that had been given for the orphanage for ourselves.  Their main interest was to find out about the pressure cooker, whole grains (to assist with Steve’s wheat allergy) and the broken glass from a picture frame (our only real loss).

Our friend and part-time housekeeper, Maria, was at the house to open the gates and give us hugs and squeals of joy and laughter like only she can do.  Another friend had left a basket full of goodies so that we didn't have to go out and buy food immediately. It was a great welcome back.

We spent the afternoon and evening unpacking bags, the storage closet and kitchen so we could at least eat on Sunday.  It will probably take us a week to get back to where the house seems put back together and we are sleeping normally through the night. It's good to be back!