Smooth and efficient? Not

If you have been reading our letters for awhile you may have picked up on the fact that things don't always run smoothly in Mozambique.  That has been the case this past week.

 

We are trying to set up some systems for the chicken businesses so that we don't have to be as hands on.  The agreement is that WR will supply the feed, chickens, meds etc and the volunteers will take care of the chickens and sell them.  Systems for transporting these items would be ideal so that we don't have to make a run 3 hours north every week.  We had a good deal with the chickens and a driver from the company was taking them up every week along with the medications.  It worked pretty well until his car broke down.  Then a new supervisor came to the hatchery "who knew not Joseph" or World Relief for that matter and all deals were off.  She raised the price of the chicks and said she could provide transportation but we would need to pay for it.  So now we need to find transportation for the chicks plus buy our meds also.

 

We are working with the feed supplier and they said they could transport feed for us, but would just drop it by the road, not take it off road anywhere.  The manager promised it would go Saturday or Monday.  That was OK because the chicks were going Monday.  I had not heard from her yet on Monday so I called.  "Oh, we had a breakdown at the factory so now the feed won't go until Tuesday or Wednesday!"  So now we have chicks in the houses without any feed and the volunteers are having to walk who knows how many km to borrow some from another house.  On Tuesday I got an e-mail informing that the feed would go that day and be delivered at 3 in one town and 5 in the other.  So I called the point persons and told them and they were waiting by the road for the truck at the appointed times.  Problem is, the truck didn't even leave Maputo until 3 p.m. and arrived after dark at the first town.  By then the point person had given up and gone home with instructions to the guard to leave the feed in the church and lock it up.  At 9 p.m. I got a call from the person waiting in the next town.  She was there with several women with carts to haul the feed home.  But she had just learned that the driver decided to spend the night in the first town and was not even coming.  So they all went home and will try again the next day.

 

It's becoming very clear that this kind of arrangement will not work.  There are several factors:  1) Mozambique is not a task oriented society, relationships always trump task 2) breakdowns happen and probably more often because preventative maintenance is a foreign thought, 3) the driver may get hungry or have some other errands to run along the way, 4) efficiency is not a high value and the concept of "time is money" is a foreign one.  A trip that normally would take one hour ends up taking four to five.

 

We are seriously looking for a location in one of these communities to open a store to provide feed and meds to WR people and possibly sell some to others as well.  This will help.  We may need to hire a driver to take the chicks and meds up every week.  This would probably be cheaper than paying transportation fees to others.  We are also talking to the "Rei dos Pintos" (king of the chickens), a new supplier who may be able to help us out.  So hope springs eternal and we will keep working at it until we find something that does not turn our hair whiter than it already is.

 

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and we are really thankful to be in Mozambique in spite of the challenges.  I love looking at the palm tree out my window and seeing the blue sky and the ocean just over the house tops.  I love relating to people from all over the world and speaking Portuguese (even though I still mess it up).  We will join with some fellow Americans to eat turkey and pie.  It is not a holiday here and I was telling our host that we might be at work.  He said “That’s not right.  It’s Thanksgiving.  Take the afternoon off!" so we are taking his advice, especially since he set the time for lunch at 1 p.m.  We will miss the family gatherings and you will be in our thoughts, but we are thankful our kids have lots of extended family at home and will be well taken care of.  They are each having three separate Thanksgiving meals!  Whoa, I can't believe I ate the whole thing.

 

We're counting our blessings and hope you are too.

 

Rachel & Steve

On the road again

Well, on the road for just two days but it was the first time we had visited the communities with chickens since we returned. We were reminded of how hard Mozambicans work and some of the challenges they face. One of these was the fact that the feed company only delivered feed that was for older chickens. So, the groups took that, put it in their big mortars and ground it finer. They already do that with the corn they eat and it’s hard work. Those pestles are heavy, I tried one once!

There is no substitute for face to face communication. Phone calls here are expensive and most people don’t say much on a call. E-mail doesn’t exist for most Mozambicans, so that leaves personal visits. It was so good to connect again after four months. We brought some gifts to our special friends in Chokwe and you should have seen their faces.


One of the guys we work with and that is one of our trainers, Alcides, (above in the middle) gave us a rare treat. He said he doesn’t know where he’d be if we hadn’t come to Chokwe. But now he is a “business professor” and has work with the chicken businesses. He’d probably be working in S Africa if it wasn’t for that, but he’s thankful he can be with his family in Chokwe. It felt like pay day!

While we were in Chokwe I visited the Child Development crew. One of the women asked Sybil, the director, if I colored my hair. Sybil said, “no they have adult children. They could be grandparents.” I overheard the conversation and said, “This hair color is all natural, after all I’m 50 today!” Well, that brought a round of singing and laughing and they even gave me some candy! That night we celebrated with a nice dinner on Maputo Bay, complete with candlelight and live music. Sunday we will have an open house for friends. We invited a co-worker to the party and he wanted to know details. We said we would have cake and punch. “That’s not a party in Africa,” he said. “That’s a tea!” I guess for a party there has to be lots more food. Someone told us the most important part of a party is the meat and the cake. Now we know.

In Chokwe we also visited one of our friends and walked through the village to his house. Lots of kids giggled and pointed to the “mulungus” and went running off. Not many whites walk through there. We saw a larger group of mostly women sitting at a house and asked our friend what it was about. He said it was a funeral of a man who died in S Africa. He left many years ago and had not communicated with the family for a very long time. He was actually married to another woman in SA. The family in Moz asked that he be buried here and his other wife agreed and came to the burial. Sometimes the second family does not agree to that and the burial takes place in SA.

We stayed with Dr. Pieter in Chokwe and he regaled us with stories of the wildlife here. He was in the village of Mucatine which we have visited. He was looking in the river and saw a large snake. The next day he went back to look for it and there it was stretched out on the hillside, catching a few rays. It was a python, 15 feet long and as big around as a man’s thigh. Pieter also saw an African spitting cobra, so I think I’ll watch my step a bit more, especially walking through the tall grass.

The people in the village killed some monkeys that were getting into their field crops and then discovered a baby monkey. By the time they showed him to Pieter he was very dehydrated and almost dead. So Pieter gave him some milk and sugar and he perked right up. He loved Pieter’s hairy arms and got quite attached. But Pieter didn’t know what he’d do with him when he travels so he gave him away.

Today, November 10, we’re enjoying Maputo Day. Each city has a holiday just for their city. We didn’t know it was a holiday so we scheduled a meeting with the groups in Matola, the next town over. They are needing encouragement and some instruction to get their businesses going well again.

Ate a proxima!

S&R

Interesting People

A couple of weeks ago I, Rachel,  was walking to work and praying.  I said, "Lord, bring some people into my life that I can share with."  Not more than two minutes later a young woman walked up.  (We had met her two days earlier when we were out for a walk and she was looking for a place.  Apparently she had seen us at church so she started talking to us.)  Now she was bored so she walked with me for awhile and we talked.  Then one day she said she needed to come and talk.  She told me all about herself and wanted to set the record straight because most of the things she had told me before were not true.  She is South African and is here illegally.  She was promised a job so she came, only to find out that what the boss really wanted was a girlfriend (he is married).  She quit that and was desperate to find another job.  She didn't have money to go home and the situation there is not the best anyhow.  She was feeling confused and felt like God was far away.  We prayed and she came along to a Bible study where we are reading When God Doesn't Make Sense by Dr. Dobson.  This is an appropriate subject for her right now!  A couple of days later she was so excited and called me to say she got a temporary job.  That is one answer to prayer and we will continue to relate to her.

 

At church I met a Cuban doctor.  She had worked in Mozambique and Angola for six years previously.  She is retired now, but a woman from here contacted her and asked if she would come for two months with promises of room and board, ticket costs and $500/month.  This sounded really good because in Cuba she has a $7/mo. pension.  She sold most of her things in her house to buy the ticket and came.  Now there has been no money, very little work and Maria despairs of even getting reimbursed for her ticket.  The woman she works/lives with is into witchcraft, control and fits of rage.  Maria is desperate to leave, but determined to get her money first so is waiting it out, although she says she doesn't know if she can make it another 50 days.

 

Maria has a Brazilian friend, who is in a similar bind.  He is a massage therapist from Brazil and was promised big bucks, etc. for a short stay in Maputo.  He had work in Brazil but thought it would be nice to make more money fast so he could buy a house.  Now the job fell through, his living situation is not good and he missed his flight home because he had not received any money for the tickets.  He used his sister's credit line for a loan and refuses to go home before he can pay that debt.

 

We spent Sunday with both of them and they were thankful for a day off from their living situations.  It is interesting that God has brought me into contact with three very different people who have similar situations.  They are all desperate and looking for answers and someone to care for them. 

 

On another note, our co-worker shared today that there have been more deaths in his family.  He lost a brother to AIDS last May.  Now that brother's wife died and another half-brother also died a few days apart.  The orphaned 3-year old will either go to live with his grandparents or his mother's family.  Our co-worker is not able to attend the funerals in Zimbabwe but will spend most of his leave in December visiting the families.  It is true that attending funerals in Africa is becoming a major part of people's lives.  Where will it end? 

 

On a more cheerful note, we are doing well.  We had a good week with Dennis from Malawi who stayed with us.  God is bringing some very interesting people into our lives and He is giving us the grace to receive them and the gifts they bring.

 

Take care.

A Shell "Angel"

 

This past week we held an Ancient Paths seminar here in Matola.  A team came from South Africa to lead the seminar and we hosted two of the men.  The first night they stayed with us we were in their vehicle and directed them to our apartment.  The second night we headed separate ways and Steve made them a detailed map to get from the guesthouse (where they had supper) to our place.  Around 9 p.m. I started wondering where they were.  At 9:30 I made a phone call to the guesthouse and found out they had left an hour earlier.  Now what?  They didn't have a cell phone that worked, and we didn’t have a vehicle so all we could do was pray.  Then Steve decided he would go out and see if he could find them.

 

He stood under a light at a Shell station close to our house where there is a roundabout.  In the meantime, these two guys got a little turned around but eventually found the road they were to be on.  They were in our neighborhood but got it into their heads that we lived in a 10-story building (we had told them we were in Apt. 10).  So, even though they had the map, they thought it must be wrong and started looking for 10-story buildings.  They went around and around, even going the wrong way down a 1-way street.  Of course there were 3 traffic cops right there ready for him.  The police asked them for some whiskey (note they did not ask for money!) but since they didn't have any, settled on some Rands.  They decided to go around the roundabout one more time and then they saw Steve, their angel!  They were so happy to see him and get to our house.

 

The one guy is a pastor (he reminds us of Don Cripe) so I told him he had the makings of a good sermon illustration.  Well, he's turning it into his whole sermon.  When we don't have proper perspectives and let deception creep in, we go around in circles, waste time and pay unnecessary fines even when we have a “map” right in front of us.

 

So we had a good seminar and the people who participated are excited about continuing to be involved.  It looks like Steve and I will also be more involved and eventually become coordinators for the Maputo area.  This will involve more training in S Africa in the coming months.  We met a very good couple from Cameroon who have been missionaries in Moz for 5 years.  They are Genesis and Yolanda and Genesis really had a touch from God, a new beginning.

 

It was funny to hear the South African's reaction to the heat.  It was in the 80's one day and you would have thought it was 100!  Where they live it is quite cool and not humid.  Thankfully the next couple of days it was cool and rainy.  I'm loving the weather, it's just right for me!  We hope you’re enjoying life where you are too.

 

This week we found out that the government can call a holiday from one day to the next.  The funny thing was that we didn’t even know it was a holiday until the end of the day because we were at the seminar. Steve went to the office in the afternoon and everything was all locked up with no one around.  Then he found an e-mail announcing “Samora Machel Day,” a 20^th anniversary of the death of the first leader after independence (his plane was shot down just across the SA border).  We don’t know if this will be an annual holiday or not.  One just never knows what a day will bring in Moz!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Utility capers

We have been back in Mozambique for two weeks now and in some ways it feels like we never left.  Indiana feels like a long way away and a long time ago, even if we just spent two months there with family and friends.  It was truly an amazing time that God set up for us, both restful and occupied with enough to keep us focused.  Coming back we feel like we are to get more involved with the local church and in Maputo with relationships and ministries. 

 

Hope the title catches your eye since paying utility bills in Mozambique is quite a challenge.  Normally we just get the bill, put together the money and take it to our landlord’s house so she can have her house worker go stand in line to pay it.  However, this time the payment was due that day or a fine would be applied. 

 

The utility payment offices close at 2:30 so I was sure the clerks/tellers worked through lunch.  After all they get off early!  Being it was the last payment day of the month, I decided to wait till 2 and once I was in the doors, they would keep things going until they finished all the clients who were there before the doors closed.  That was the case, but I did not foresee several things.

 

First, they installed a “state of the art” number system where you select the type of service you want and out comes a number for that line.  You then choose any chair in the room and don’t have to play musical chairs to keep in line every time a new customer is served at a clerk.  It used to be quite a sight.  You can even go out and do something else if you want and get back before the doors are locked or your number is called.  So I took a number 718. 

 

It took me awhile to get oriented to what number they were now serving.  The sign said 0568 01.  Was it 0568?01 (i.e. was it missing a number?) or was it 056801, or was it 568 and who knew what the 01 was for?  Part of the problem was that the “01” stood for the register number that was serving the current client. There were 5 registers, but only two were currently occupied and only one was handling any clients.  Everybody else was either MIA or out to lunch!  That meant I was 150 numbers from being served.  It also meant they had helped less than 100 clients per hour in the first 6.5 hours of being open, even with more clerks.  Why didn’t I bring that book? 

 

Since I had a half hour before they locked the door, I decided that I would check out the water company situation next door.  Not a chance, they had the same situation there so I was ready to just walk out, mostly because they don’t fine you for a late bill.  We will get it next month.  However, since I had the time, I started looking at the bill for the months we were gone and noticed we had charges in the second level of water usage where you have to pay if you exceeded 10 m3 per month.  We (or guests) used 4 one month and 1 the other.  So I asked, why the charges.  The answer came back in English so I did not misunderstand it.  If the billing cycle is not exactly 30 days, you are charged a portion of your water at the higher rate whether you use that much water or not.  It is not if the month has 30 days, it is the number of days between the days they read you meter.  So you pay extra no matter what.  As the Malawian’s would say, shame!

 

Well, you can believe I was back inside the electric company office before the doors locked at 2:30.  The number being served was #620.  Somehow they had managed to serve about 40 people in the last half hour.  Suddenly things began to happen.  A new teller appeared.  Then the “guard” made an announcement that if you had the exact change, you could be served first and the vocal protests began.  People who came in late might be served before those who came in earlier.  Maybe they could pull off the “exact change” stunt at the beginning of the day when no tellers had change (a normal business practice), but not at the end of it.  It took a second employee to intervene and correct the guard to calm everyone down. 

 

It took another 50 minutes to get through the next 100 numbers before I was served, and it went “so fast” because about half of the people had given up and left or gotten locked out.  The next time you pay your utility bill at the bank, on-line or through the mail consider yourself blessed that you don’t have to wait 1-3 hours to do it and you are not charged for services you don’t use.

 

I, Rachel, taught the 8-11 yr old Sunday School today.  We were having an interesting conversation and somehow got to whether animals have eternal souls or not.  One boy said, “Well, when animals die they go to the animal kingdom.”  So there you have it, it’s clear in his mind!

 

 

 

 

We've arrived back in Moz

Just a short note to say we have arrived safe and well in Maputo (only one hour late) and have found it sunny, windy and about 80 degrees. The long flight is starting to get familiar and doesn’t seem quite so long anymore. We had good connections with only 2-3 hour layovers that really helped. For those of you interested, as of September 30, Delta and South African Air no longer have a code share agreement. That means we will have to use our Delta miles on Delta and we came back just in time to get the return miles on SAA credited to Delta. (We found out by reading the small print in the back of the SAA monthly magazine, so maybe it was a long flight!)

In some ways it seems like we haven’t been gone and in other ways it feels like we have been gone a long time. The rooster crowing in the neighborhood sounds normal, yet strange. We are definitely living in the “city” again, blaring radios and all.

At the airport the man that picked us up said there were a couple of Malawians staying at our place. When we arrived we didn’t see anyone or any suitcases and when we called WR they said, “Oh, we didn’t want to put someone in your apt when you were just coming back.” But a little later there was a knock at our door and there was another WR employee with suitcase in hand saying he had been told to stay here for some nights. So, welcome to the guesthouse. If there is an empty bed, you are welcome to sleep in it!

Rachel commented that this last stint at home may be the last time we live with any of our kids for an extended period of time. Joanna was with us for the two months, but is now moving toward Indy. Janelle is now officially engaged to David Phillips, and they are talking about a summer wedding. We are excited about having David in the family.

We want to say a huge thank you to all the people who made our time special back in the US by being supportive in fellowship, travel to and participation in reunions and our open house, and hosting us in your homes or sometimes favorite restaurants. It was a special joy to get caught up on the events in your lives. Even though it may seem pretty everyday to you, we want/need to hear about it to stay connected.

Family picture

Here is a picture of our family taken over Labor Day when we went to Lake Michigan. You will also notice some suitors in this shot: Keith (with Joanna)and David (he and Janelle recently announced their engagement).

Malawi

We are just returning from Malawi where we spent a week.  We enjoyed a couple of days in Lilongwe, the capital since 1975.  It is a very interesting city with large sections still undeveloped with large open tracts of land.  Then out of nowhere appears a huge, modern building.  Even the downtown section is small.  Government has just moved its headquarters to Lilongwe which will add to the population and structure of the city.  It seems that crime is very low and what we saw was very middle-class.  The woman I sat next to on the plane said she and her husband are moving to Malawi from S Africa mainly because of the crime issue.  Villagers have not moved into the city because they can make more on the farm than by making minimum wage (about $20/month) working in the city.

 

We were based in Salima most of the week, about an hour away on Lake Malawi.  We did not have much time at the lake as we traveled out to sites to see agriculture projects and then did a training.  The lake is the 9^th largest in the world and is beautiful.  We can see mountains across it so it is not very wide.  All week we waited for some tilapia but none was to be had because the lake was a bit rough and the fish swim deeper and are harder to catch.  Finally the last day in Salima we got to eat some and it was quite tasty.

 

We condensed the training of trainers to three days.  The group of 21 seemed eager to learn.  Many didn’t know each other so the group was sometimes quiet but they loosened up by the end of the time.  Some were not very excited about using English as it is their 2^nd or 3^rd language.  Chichewa is the main language we hear.  One of the participants was a retired policeman who is a wise gentleman.  Every now and then he would share some gems that really hit home such as “Integrity is when you don’t do the don’ts and only do the dos.”  Another during the lesson on marketing was, “The first thing you sell to the customer is yourself.”  This was the best attended course we have had with 20 having perfect attendance and receiving a certificate at the end.

 

One of our observations here has been that people are much better educated and have had access to education that Mozambicans have not had.  We have seen more men involved in everyday life, helping to farm, generally being industrious.  Just having them present is different than Moz where so many men (especially in the south) are working in South Africa. 

 

Salima is full of bicycle taxis.  They have a cushioned seat over the back tire and haul people, packages, you name it.  Within the town they are the only public transportation and it is nice not to have the pollution and congestion of mini-busses.  They are very quiet and with only a few motorized vehicles on the road, they don’t really create a lot of congestion.  Watching them go by in small groups with turning pedals and flashing wheel spokes reminds one somewhat distantly of horse and buggy wheels. Locally they are called dumpers.  Not sure if that is because people occasionally get “dumped” off or it is for some other reason.  Steve rode one to the restaurant one day just for the experience.  It cost about 7 cents US.

 

Malawi also has many baobab trees.  These are rare in southern Mozambique.  They are a funny looking huge tree that looks like it is growing upside down because the branches look like the roots, especially without its leaves which is the case most of the year.  We tasted some of the fuzzy fruit.  It is a bit sour and won’t soon become a favorite, although the local people like them.

 

Now it is back to Maputo for one week to wrap up what details we can before heading to the U.S. for a two month home leave.  Hope we can see many of you there. 

 

God bless!

people divided by a common language

The week of June 19, 2006 was a time of personal development training and planning for World Relief staff.  We met in Maputo and had three days of input from Jim Louwsma and Becky Thiessen based on “Strength-finders” profiles and program material written by Mark McKlosky of Bethel Seminary. 

 

We had a great but intense time and several good laughs along the way.  The most memorable was as Jim was describing a role that would be equivalent to that of the biblical apostle.  When he said apostle, only the Americans understood him.  All the Africans thought he said a parcel.  They don’t say the r and the short a is elongated.  What kind of a parcel was he meaning anyhow?  The other question was why would he suddenly start speaking like a South African when he didn’t otherwise? 

 

As they sorted it out, they decided he really meant a-post-al, with the emphasis on postal.  It was even more ironic that what they thought was a parcel should have been pronounced in such a way as to sound like something to do with postal for the America ear. 

 

Here’s an African proverb we heard recently that has a lot of truth to it:  “If you want to go faster go alone.  If you want to go far go together.” 

 

This Week in Maputo

 

Recycling is a good thing and we try to do as much as possible.  But recycling caskets?  This morning on the news they were reporting on investigations of a carpentry shop.  Apparently they are taking caskets right out of the cemetery (who knows what happens to the bodies) and refurbishing them to sell.  Also in the news was the fact that there are 20-30 burials a day and they are running out of space.  The obit page in the newspaper is sad as the pictures are mainly of young people. 

 

Also on the news we’ve seen reports of couples celebrating 50 years of marriage or more.  Usually they have a church ceremony and renew their vows.  The reason it makes the national news is that it is very rare for people to live that long here, and to stay married that long.

 

The World Cup is definitely in swing.  I’ve never seen so much soccer in my life!  The games are shown live as we are almost on the same time as Germany.  They start in the afternoon and go until 11 pm with a few breaks in between.  It’s funny to watch guards clustered around a TV rigged up outside.  If I was a burglar it seems it would be a good time to make a move.  Many cities have giant screens in different locations for people to watch the games.  At half-time some have AIDS education programs. The locals are especially interested in African countries playing, as well as any Portuguese speaking teams.  Portugal vs. Angola was a popular and much talked-about game here.   Saturday night Ghana was the first African team to win a game.  When they scored the go-ahead goal, the shouts and howls coming out of the houses was so sudden that even the dogs in the parking lot started barking and howling.  It was a hoot!

 

We are in the middle of the busy season for NA teams to visit WR in Mozambique.  Steve is joining a group of businessmen today and tomorrow as they look at what is happening in Chokwe and Mucatine as well as visiting a couple of sugarcane mills that WR will possibly partner with in helping small farmers grow sugarcane.  The news that had Sam dancing in the halls last week was that AfricaWorks (agriculture and trade) has received a grant of $280,000 from the Mozambican government to be used in Gaza province.  Some planning has started but there’s a lot more to do.

 

This week will be a solid week of meetings.  It will include three days on knowing and developing our personal gifts (Strengthsfinders), strategic planning and a spiritual retreat on Saturday.  Hopefully we’ll still all like each other at the end of the week!  We will have a woman staying with us who works with the child development program.  Hopefully we will have running water.  We’ve been off for a week again.  One never knows what will happen when turning on a faucet.  It can’t be taken for granted!

 

Did you ever steam bread?  Last week I baked bread.  There is a lot of fresh bread in the city but it is all white so I made some oatmeal bread.  It was rising nicely so I preheated the oven.  Only problem was that 15 min. later the oven was still stone cold.  So, what to do with the dough?  I looked up my Wycliffe cookbook and sure enough it had a method for pressure cooking bread or steaming it.  Since I don’t have a pressure cooker I went for the steam method.  I got my largest pan, put a lid in the bottom with a couple of inches of water and the bread in the bread pan on top of that.  Only problem was that it took 1½ hrs to cook.  So I took the next loaf apart and formed it into balls and that only took about an hour.  It is OK, but I prefer baked better.  Thankfully, the electrician came and now I have an oven again.  Good thing he was here, he said the way things were wired we could have had a fire.  So it all worked out for the best and now I know how to steam bread if I have to!

 

How many employees does it take to sell fabric in Maputo?  Well, there is the guard at the door and then the guy that takes any packages you have in your hands.  Then there are the people standing in the aisles who watch you like a hawk as you walk around.  If you show interest in some folded pieces of cloth someone appears to unfold them and fold them back up.  After you make a selection you have to go to the counter where someone writes the price down on a paper and affixes it to the cloth.  Then it’s off to the cashier who takes your money.  She hands it off to another person to bag it and then it’s back to the counter to pick up your packages you came in with.  And that doesn’t count all the people standing around talking and waiting for other customers.  What can you say, they’ve created a lot of jobs and it is good customer service!

 

Saturday Steve and Dr. Pieter went to South Africa to talk to the Papaya King.  He’s an expert on papaya and plant breeding.  His advice and counsel is needed for the next two plantings of fruit trees in villages.  They are intercropped with mango and while they are growing, corn and pumpkins are planted between the rows.  Mozambique needs more trees as many are cut down for charcoal for cooking.  The fruit will be exported to S Africa and will provide income for villagers who are subsistence farmers.  The corn and pumpkins gives them food for daily needs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fine winter day (Maputo style)

There was quite a bit of haze in the early morning atmosphere as I looked out on the surrounding landscape.  It didn’t really seem too different from any other day except Rachel said, “oh, it is cooler out here than I thought,” as we went down the stairs.  However, she was not wearing a coat or jacket. 

 

When lunch time arrived we went up on the patio to eat our ham sandwiches (ham from South Africa, not to be found in Maputo) when she commented the sun was quite warm.   I was reminded of working out in Chokwe last week with Zulu the guard.  We were using a hack-saw to cut through some #6 re-rod and he was doing the sawing  (he wouldn’t let me do it). 

 

After a dozen cuts, he said to me, “ei, this sun is hot, we should move to the shade.”  Since I had slept in the container-turned-bunkhouse at Pieter’s the night before, I was really enjoying the warmth.  So I said, “yes, but it was cold last night.”  He agreed and then added, “but you know this is the kind of sun that will make you sick.”  “Hm, it felt good to me,” I said.  He cut a few more lengths or rod and then moved into the shade to cool off.  (They say good help is hard to find.)

 

So I said to Rachel, you know, this kind of sun can make you sick! at which she laughed.  It was probably 75 degrees Fahrenheit.  “Well, it is winter,” I said.  Her response, “I will take this kind of winter any time!”  It seems strange to sleep under a blanket and a mosquito net at the same time.  It seems the mosquitoes like the warmth of the inside of the house too. 

 

It also gets dark early as in 5:30 pm.  It makes a bit of a challenge for safety if we are traveling or when the neighborhood kids get out of school after 5.   But generally, we have 11.5 hours of daylight per day which beats 8-5 during the winter back in northern Indiana by a long shot. 

 

Because it is the dry season it feels like the great football weather of the mid-west in early October.  Some of the smells, like burning leaves are even hanging around as people burn grass and weeds in old gardens and in fields. 

 

In the cities it becomes a time to trim trees.  Here the trees get “buzz cuts” that pretty well strip all foliage and branches from the trunk.  They say, they don’t need the leaves since it is the cool season and I guess you could say it takes care of the overgrowth.  However, it is quite a shock to see the street after all is cut back and some of the trees look pretty knobby since they have been cut back so often.  Most of the trees seem to survive to get chopped back another year. 

 

Yesterday we participated in March for Jesus in Maputo.  There were about 200 people and we were the only whites (their publicity wasn’t too great and we just happened to find out about it).  We sang and walked about 2 km to a park.  Then they had a full-fledged 2-hr service planned, including a sermon.  (We ducked out early.)  It was fun to be in a march in Africa after having been involved with them in the 90s in Elkhart.

 

In the afternoon we visited an orphanage run by a young woman in her 20’s.  She worked at Iris for awhile and then decided to start her own home.  She has some great stories of how God has provided in many ways for them.  She has 15 people under her roof now and they are mostly teens with a few younger ones.  She will probably get more young ones soon.  We were impressed with the sense of order, of love for each other, of being family.  A couple of Mozambican young men are helping her in the home.  She is looking for land to build and to have a place for them to learn agriculture and other life skills.  Jennifer has a lot of get up and go, a willingness to serve even while she is still learning the language and culture.

 

The number of orphans in Moz keeps increasing.  On TV this week I heard an ad for people to contribute to the “social security” program so that when they die their children will have some support from the government.  It’s almost becoming a given that children will become orphans before they reach adulthood.  This is a huge issue with many repercussions for this society.  God help us know what our part of the solution should be.  I guess in a small way we are already doing something by providing businesses for people, some of whom have AIDS.  When they pass away, their children will have a source of income.

 

And on that note we will end this rambling letter.

 

Steve and Rachel

 

 

 

Hospitality

 

In Dec we were asked to host a Malawian accountant who was coming to fill in at WR.  At first I thought it would be 2 weeks (it turned out to be longer).  Introvert that I am, I struggled with the thought.

 

But God seemed to be nudging me and it became a point of obedience.  So I said “yes” and he came.  He is a very gentle man, thanking us profusely for allowing him to stay with us.  We slowly got to know him and I discovered a kindred spirit.  We have a lot in common since he is also a third culture kid, having grown up in the U.S. and Canada and then returning to Malawi.  One of his favorite phrases is “that’s Africa for you” with a shake of his head.  He struggles with some of the cultural issues just like we do.

 

He washed the dishes every night, caused very little extra work and became our friend.  We talked about work a lot, joked, talked about life and had a great time.  He told us he felt very at home with us, like he was with family.

 

This was a lesson to me to welcome strangers into our home, for who knows, they may become our good friends or they may even be angels!

 

In Reaching Out by Henri Nouwen he says:  “… if there is any concept worth restoring to its original depth and evocative potential, it is the concept of hospitality.  It is one of the richest biblical terms that can deepen and broaden our insight in our relationships to our fellow human beings.  Old and New Testament stories not only show how serious our obligation is to welcome the stranger in our home, but they also tell us that guests are carrying precious gifts with them, which they are eager to reveal to a receptive host.  When Abraham received three strangers at Mamre and offered them water, bread and a fine tender calf, they revealed themselves to him as the Lord announcing that Sarah his wife would give birth to a son.   When the widow of Zarephath offered food and shelter to Elijah, he revealed himself as a man of God offering her an abundance of oil and meal and raising her son from the dead.  When the two travelers to Emmaus invited the stranger, who had joined them on the road to stay with them for the night, he made himself known in the breaking of the bread as their Lord and Savior.  When hostility is converted into hospitality then fearful strangers can become guests revealing to their hosts the promise they are carrying with them.  The biblical stories help us to realize not just that hospitality is an important virtue, but even more that in the context of hospitality guest and host can reveal their most precious gifts and bring new life to each other.”

 

 

 

No water

I just heard a story from our co-worker, Joseph, that I thought I'd share with you.  Joseph bought a car in November.  When one buys a car, the Mozambican government is to produce a "libreto".  He has never received this, he only got stamped papers.  He has been stopped several times but usually the stamped papers and payment of a fine do the trick.  This time, as he was going to Zimbabwe, they told him he could not continue driving the car.  He would need to return to Maputo and leave the car there.  He would also have to pay a daily fine as long as the car was parked there.  He refused to go along with that plan and spent 30 hours waiting for a resolution (they fined him for that parking time as well).  Fortunately his wife was talking with her co-worker who is a friend of the commander in Beira.  She placed a phone call and Joseph was able to leave with his car.  He still doesn't have a libreto and this could happen again until the government gets it to him.  People here have lived with this kind of thing for so long that they just take it in stride, but it is one of those cultural adjustments for us.

 

We've been without consistent running water for a week.  Apparently a transformer broke and they say it could be months before it is repaired and the supply level is back to normal.  WR has water, and most people in this neighborhood have underground tanks that fill up when the water comes on intermittently.  Apartments are different, and if the water comes on for a bit, it is quickly used up by all the tenants below us.  So Steve is getting muscles hauling water in a 20-liter container up to the 5th story.  We're perfecting the art of the bucket bath and using lots less water.  Today I had the thought, "We're becoming more like Jesus.  He didn't have running water either!"  It's interesting that there is no outcry from the general public.  Mozambicans have been through so much that a few months without running water is no big deal.  During the war they didn't have running water or electricity.  Trying to negotiate slippery stairs in the dark in the highrises was apparently quite a struggle.  We won't take water or electricity for granted again.

 

Friday a.m. I, Steve, took an early morning bucket bath before a trip to SA and Rachel stayed home.  Sometime during the day she heard a gurgling in the pump system as some water began to enter the apartment. She got excited and started opening the tap and sure enough brown water started pouring out.  Brown or not it is water we won’t have to carry up the stairs.  Like the widow with the oil jar, she starts filling every container in the house including wastebaskets, chicken waterers, empty 2 liter pop bottles, the washing machine, and the tub.  When I got home we still had water.  What I wonder is how I am going to take a shower in a tub full of water?  No problem Rachel said, just pull the plug and let it drain.  No way, we might not see this kind of water again for a week!

Sure enough, the next morning, again there is no water.  Never fear she says, we can take baths!  But, but, BUT, the water is cold I say.  So you guessed it, we have to heat water in the hot pot to warm the tub water to take a bath in water that now has the iron settled out of it.  Well all I can say it is that it was a bit better that Lake Michigan in August, but not long and luxurious for sure.  Do you think we drained it then? Nope, not on your life.  We are saving it to flush the stool you see. I am sure this saga will continue. 

Weddings in Mozambique

Greetings!

 We celebrated May Day or Day of the Worker on May 1.  And just like many Labor Days in Ind. this one was chilly with rain.  Folks are saying it will be a colder "winter" this year because we've had a lot of rain.  It will probably stop raining soon as the cold season is also the dry season.  So far it's been very pleasant and hasn't been very cold.

This week in Chokwe we saw some very excited kids in front of the WR office.  The reason they were excited was because there were lots of grasshoppers and crickets there next to a light that is left on at night.  They were busy catching as many as possible and stuffing them into bottles and jars for a yummy snack later in the day.  (They like them fried.)  Hmmm, I guess I'd rather eat that than a caterpillar.  Their fun quickly came to an end when a nearby store-owner chased them away with a stick.

The last few days Steve has been busy trying to get supplies purchased and delivered to Matola, a bedroom city to Maputo. He just called and said he was shoveling sand.  So the job description has plenty of variety, as you know.  This is the last community we will build chicken houses in for a while.

I've been reading a book that I would recommend to anyone, not just missionaries.  It is titled "On Being a Missionary" by Thomas Hale, a doctor who has worked with United Mission to Nepal over 20 years.  It is very thought-provoking, he writes about some basic issues of human nature that we all deal with and has some great stories.  Maybe I'm finding it especially helpful because it has to do with some of the very issues we've been experiencing lately (resolving interpersonal conflict, dying to self, relating to nationals, cross-cultural issues etc.).  Thank God for books.  It seems we have done more reading than ever since we've been here.  We've read most everything we wanted to read out of Evangeline's collection and now we are discovering other friends' books.  Reading for pleasure is a rare thing in Mozambique.  Libraries are very scarce and when they exist, they are to read there.  One is not allowed to take the books home.  Even the church library requires a $10 deposit to take a book out.

 

We’ve experienced our first wedding in Mozambique.  The groom had been in our training and invited us.  In Mozambique one goes to the “wedding palace” first for the civil ceremony, then the church ceremony, then a reception usually at their home.  The wedding palace is downtown Maputo and weddings take place every 20 minutes day in and day out.  Theirs was scheduled for 8:45 a.m.  But, wouldn’t you know, one of the vehicles with participants wouldn’t start so they arrived late.  Then they had to wait to be fit in somewhere in the schedule.  The church ceremony was to start at 11 a.m.  We arrived, but only a few people were in sight.  We were told they were behind schedule so we just waited and they eventually arrived at 1 p.m.  It was basically the same as a Western ceremony with a few differences.  The wedding party lined up on either side of the aisle (singing all the time) and the groom came down the aisle to walk in with the bride.  The whole wedding party sat on the platform facing the audience and the parents sat right next to the couple.  One thing that really struck me was how little the bride or groom smiled.  Apparently they are not supposed to because this is a serious commitment.  But to me they almost looked sad!  After the wedding everyone goes to the home, eats a big meal and then gifts are presented with dancing and singing.  And speeches, don’t forget the speeches.  It all makes for a very full day and hopefully worth the expense—usually a year’s wages.

 

Today we just learned that a friend from home, soccer coach to our kids and dad of some of their very good friends, Jim Van Elk, passed away yesterday of a massive heart attack as he was jogging.  Their family always has an open home where kids love to hang out.   It is a shocking thing to realize that someone fairly young and healthy is gone.  We are still trying to process it.  Pray for their family and the Concord community as he had a lot of influence and his loss will be greatly felt by all.    He was not afraid to tell anyone that he loved Jesus and his life demonstrated it.

 

God bless,

 

Rachel (and Steve)

Swaziland etc.

Here we are at the end of April. It's hard to believe how fast the months fly by. The next three months will probably go even faster as we try to get things set up and as sustainable as possible before coming home end of July/August/September.

Here are some interesting things we've seen and done lately:

* A woman walking along the road with a watermelon on her head! Try that sometime.

* We saw Swaziland for the first time. It is beautiful, with many mountains. Some have called it the Switzerland of Africa. We thought it looked like the mountains of TN/KY. The nice part was that most everyone speaks English. We didn’t know that the Swazi monetary unit was identical to the SA rand. We did go shopping and find that some things are cheaper and others are more expensive, so you have to watch.

* How about a package of 7 chicken heads and 14 feet at the grocery store? Or tripe?

* There are 59 speed bumps between the border and the first city in Swazi (about 2 hrs). They usually come in groups of 5 and there is not always a warning.

* We saw a sign on the road in Swazi that said "Cyclists and pedestrians beware of lions and elephants." The road runs next to a small park for wildlife. I think I'll stay in the car, thank you.

* Steve and Pieter had a meeting/discussion while they each had a couch to lay on at Pieter's house. They decided more meetings should be held in that position.

* I, Rachel saw lots of people stranded on the roads last Tuesday because of a chapa strike. It affected me also as I was counting on a ride back to the city after training (Steve had gone to Chokwe.) Five of us started walking and joking about it until we realized there really were no rides anywhere and then we called a friend to please come pick us up. Many people do not have friends with vehicles and walked for hours to get to their jobs. Thankfully it was only a 1-day strike.

* We saw more small pickups than usual with 20+ people piled into the back because of the strike. Steve saw two guys hanging on to a pickup roof as it went down the road.

* Rachel saw pastors who said their heads hurt after a lesson on finances. I also saw them laughing and having a good time over a toss-the-rock-in-a-bucket game during a lesson on setting objectives.

* We heard from one of our students about a group marriage ceremony that will take place at their church. This is for couples who live together and have never made it official, partly because of the huge expectations and costs associated with a traditional wedding. It is good to see some churches beginning to take initiative in this area and bucking the cultural expectations. We’ve been invited to our first traditional wedding this Saturday.

* Steve saw 700 km of road in two days between Chokwe and Xai-Xai and also Bilene where he went to talk with AIDS program supervisors about the chicken project.

Tomorrow is the last day of training and we are looking forward to giving these new trainers their certificates. It is always a rewarding time for us and for them.

Take care,

Rachel and Steve

Easter week and week end

It has been an interesting and different week for us with a new training of trainers from the OMS pastors and a 4 day weekend. Rachel and I started a training series with 16 OMS Mozambican pastors who are becoming facilitators for the MAI microenterprise course we teach for WR volunteers. It meets Tuesday, Thursday mornings and all day Saturday. This week we both did Tuesday and Saturday, with Rachel doing Thursday all by herself. It was interesting to watch her teach with a real sense of purpose and enjoyment about what she was doing. We talked about it later and she said that she is really feeling comfortable in these trainings and it is something she is having fun doing. Generally she doesn’t like standing up in front of people and speaking, but sitting down and sharing is much easier for her to do.

I went out to Chokwe and the chicken raising communities to provide the necessities and assistance to the various groups and persons working with the small businesses. I am really starting to want to find someone who can take over the details of helping coordinate the groups, the various supply issues and payment schedules. We are looking to build in one more community, but need to find some way to transport materials as the trailer we used last time is fully occupied until mid May. There is a bigger truck that could be made available, but we would have to hire a driver as you need a different license to drive each kind of vehicle here.

We had Friday off of office work, but I had to go to Manhica as we were starting the second house there and I wanted to deliver some feed and check out the technical guy, letting him do the training and I would observe. Well the chicks never did arrive as I left at 11 am to get back to Maputo by noon. It seems the chick delivery guy is not into communication and if he does communicate he is not wanting to tell you how late he is really going to be in arriving at your location, so everybody loses a lot of time waiting around for him to arrive.

The reason I was trying to get back to Maputo was to try to get an 8 year-old orphan out of the dump where he has lived all his life. One of the people we know helps with an orphanage and said they would be willing to talk to the child and see what they could do. When I finally got ahold of him, he said he couldn’t come out to the dump just then as he had to deal with a personal situation regarding his house. It seems the landlord had promised his flat to someone else and he had to get out at the end of the month. Something I guess you can do here if you want to get a renter out.

We got up at 5 am on Sunday morning to go to an Easter sunrise service. It was nice to meet people there and the sermon was good, plus we did get to see the sun rise. Afterwards, we went home and had some breakfast and Rachel started cooking for a guest at lunch. Sarah Welch is here from Cedar Springs Church in Knoxville and we wanted to make sure she didn’t spend Easter lunch alone. Well, I took a walk down to the corner store to get some eggs for the banana cake and coming back in I smelled plastic burning in the stairway. Hope it isn’t our kitchen I thought. After I arrived in the appt Rachel said, “hey why isn’t the stove getting hot? Why do the lights go out when I start the toaster?” HMM! Not a good sign! After messing around with the circuit breakers a few times, we gave up and stuck everything in the fridge and went to church.

Since we couldn’t cook at home, and had been invited out to meet a couple that is working in Tete, we took Sarah with us and went to a new restaurant. Rachel and I got a dish for two and we brought some extra home. The trouble was there was still no power. Rachel took some perishables down to the neighbors just below (the Neilson’s) and we got Hans involved trying to troubleshoot our electrical system. He ended up knowing that there was another panel that you could open and find some fuses that were in-line before two other boxes and the electric meter. When we looked there we found the problem. Someone before us had just jumpered the fuse system with #12 copper wires. One of these wires had started to burn on one end and with the heat had started to melt the plastic. It was pretty well fried, but for now we could only clean the wire, re-jump it and go get some real fuses tomorrow. No hot water or stove until I get that fixed. At least we have light and computer. Somehow I thought I should be able to get away from home repairs by being a renter. No such luck in Mozambique.

Speaking of computers, it seems that our Net Cabo network has changed systems without telling the users and we have had no internet since Tuesday. If you get this you will know we can communicate with the rest of the world again. Vonage has not been working the last two weeks as well. Just when you thought it might be working, think again. Sorry, we had hoped to call on Easter and hear some of your voices.

To end on a more positive note, we watched a great video from Crag Hill on leadership this week. It really is appropriate for where leadership issues are at WR right now and helped explain potential direction for the future. There is a possibility we can help bring the Family Foundations ministries here to Mozambique. Please pray with us for wisdom, discernment and implementation of this possibility.

Well, Rachel thinks I am writing an epistle, so I guess it is time to stop. Love you all,

Steve and Rachel

Palm Sunday

Bom dia a todos,  

 

We are having a lazy Sunday afternoon.  This morning I taught SS for the first time and had a good time with five 8-10 yr. olds.  They had fun acting out the story and were generally well behaved so it was a good start.  At our church we teach once a month which is not ideal for the kids but works for the teachers who travel so much.  Our pastors have been in the U.S. for 3 months and it was great to have them back.  The church is going through a slump and needs leadership that is united and working together.  Steve has been asked to be an elder (again) and is considering meeting with them until we go to the U.S. in Aug and then seeing where we go from there when we return.  We may not be living in Maputo then, which would make it difficult to be in leadership. 

Last Thur. we said good-bye to Joanna which was not as much fun as saying hello to her.  We really enjoyed having her here and she says she will be back so that’s good.  Last weekend we were in Maxixe and enjoyed a wonderful day at the Tofo beach.  We jumped the waves, explored tide pools and walked the beach.  The tide pools were incredible with live shells, crabs, a sea slug, small fish and more.  There are a lot of fascinating critters in the sea! 

We met a very interesting Italian man who has been traveling the world for the last year and a half and has visited 54 countries.  He is an architect who now lives off the rental of his house.  He hitchhikes as much as possible, camps or sleeps in very low-price places, etc.  He wasn’t very impressed with the U.S. because of the lack of public transportation and other high costs, although he did like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone.  He is working his way up through Africa back to Italy and then plans to move to northern Peru by Ecuador.  He’s decided it’s the ideal place to live and raise a family.  

The main reason we traveled to Maxixe was to visit a coconut oil plant.  I, Steve, had gotten a name of a South African farmer who had a micro press that was developed by the Australian group that David Hagen worked with and was producing some of the oil we bought.  I pretty much knew what we were going to see from the research I had been doing, but it was very enlightening to hear about some of the detail of oil production and challenges he had faced in starting the press.  We also looked at some land that WR has gotten permission to develop and are considering what to do with that option. 

Overall, it looks like we will do something with coconut oil and byproducts next year starting in October.  The next steps are working on the business models, financial plans and details of starting something like a real business in Mozambique.  It would have to be different than the chicken process as there we just let them run every aspect of the activity except for the supplies and finances.  With oil production, there are lots of different aspects to consider and management of the quality, marketing, etc.   

Yesterday we had a mini-adventure as we celebrated our anniversary on Catembe, which we can see across the bay from Maputo.  We took a short ride on the ferry and then drove around a bit.  It is a fairly rural area and there is not a lot to see.  But we satisfied our curiosity and had a good meal overlooking the bay at a nice hotel/restaurant.  I don’t think they get much business as the beach is not so clean there and there’s not much to do.  Their prices are way over what the locals can afford so they are dependent on outsiders.  While we waited for the ferry in Maputo we visited the newly opened “Park of Love,” had some ice cream and observed a bridal party having pictures taken.  It was fun to see a bride and groom and realize that’s where we were 28 yrs ago. 

Between the fun times we’ve had work and challenges as well.  Whoever said that at times missionaries are challenged most by other missionaries was right.  Pray that we will have grace and right attitudes as we work together.  We also got pulled over by a policeman again for turning right where we were not supposed to.  I think they are just looking for ways to make money and harass vehicles with SA plates.  We are ready for a different vehicle as this one has gotten us pulled over nearly too many times to count.   

This next week we will start another Train the Trainer series in Zimpeto, just out of Maputo.  We will meet three times a week for three weeks and Steve will only be there as he has time between chicken runs.  These training times are fun as the participants start teaching the lessons themselves and learn by doing with some coaching by us.  We are working with OMS, a mission agency that has asked us to do training and is setting everything up.  It’s nice to only be responsible for the actual training and not all the other logistics.

 

Enough for now, we love you all,

 

Steve and Rachel