I have started my 'training tour' of Mozambique! First stop is Dondo, a town close to Beira, about halfway down the country. The flight was better than I expected - I flew Air Corridor, they have 1 plane and its frequently in for repair... but I made it to Beira safely albeit a bit wet- the aircon was leaking out thru the lights above my head and dripped on me and seat next to me! The airhostess gave me a wad of toilet paper and I wedged it in the light - it helped quite a lot, although by the time we got to the end of the flight the toilet paper was saturated and 'drip, drip, drip' it started again!
I got my luggage, walked out the door and met the truck just as they were pulling up. Perfect timing! It is one of the missionaries, Ashlee's birthday, so we head down to the beach restaurant for lunch - I am a visitor so I don't have to pay! I had been to this restaurant before and I knew that they did lovely battered prawns, for real cheap, so I decided to have them again - only I forgot a key word when I ordered, I asked for camerao frito, instead of camerao panado! Fried prawns instead of battered fried prawns! So they came in all their glory: eyes, legs, shell, insides - the works! But they did taste good once I got to the meat!
Got to the base in Dondo, about 30mins inland from Beira - and I was shown the little house I was to stay in. THEY HAVE RUNNING WATER & REAL SHOWERS!!!! That's it, who cares about the pretty beach in Pemba - I mean, they have CLEAN RUNNING WATER here and it works ALL THE TIME!!!! I'm so moving. Except that there isn't really much to do here in terms of sound and that is kinda why I am working for Iris... *sigh* Pemba it is then...
The guy I am training this week works as a night guard every 2nd week and this is one of his work weeks... so I am teaching him everyday from about 4-6pm. Which is more than enough, else it would be an information overload and I don't want that! So I have loads of time to study for my Portuguese and Linguistics exams I write in 2 weeks time!
Their sound system is in a state - most of its been broken for 4 months - BUT I hasten to add, the sound guy, Jeremias, takes fantastic care of the stuff, its when he leaves for a week or 2 that the things get broken. He is a wizz with electrical and mechanical things - he does regular maintenance on the generator (its real old and giving loads of problems) which is more than can be said of the guys up in Pemba, and their speaker stands still have all the pegs and the turny bits!!! I was so impressed when I saw that! But they are happy to get this new system, and I am sure that as long as Jeremias handles it, it will stay good.
Part of the training I am doing involves cable repair - and I'm giving each base their own little repair kit with a soldering iron, pliers etc. I even drew a diagram in Portuguese on how to repair cables, which wire goes where for the different connectors - so today I taught how Jeremias to solder, he took to it quick and did a great job!
One of the biggest challenges has been the language - but I am getting there - I was able to teach today mostly in Portuguese, even if I sounded like a 4 year old!
There are only 6 missionaries working in Dondo, its a very small base so things tend to wind down at around 7pm...!
They have some goats on the property and the boys who are looking after them tied them to some trees behind my house on Monday night (without food), they made such a noise I could hardly sleep! They were gonna tie them there again for Tuesday night, but the lady next door begged them not to, so thankfully the goats were moved. At least we wont have to worry about them tonight - We ate them for lunch!
I really like Dondo - the atmosphere here is totally different - there isn't the constant begging and demanding attitudes like in Pemba - they only have 27 boys living on the property, all the other thousands they support are scattered around the central region and cared for by Iris Pastors. The Dondo team go on 'food distribution' outreaches where each week they take food for the orphans in an area, enough to last them for over a month (per child) - and to do registration of new orphans. Its quite a process to verify all the info, because the funding for the food program is limited, they can only feed real orphans, those who's fathers have abandoned them and their mothers left to look for work don't qualify - its real sad to turn them away when there is just as great a need as with those kids who don't have anyone.
We go on one of these 'Food Distribution' Outreaches this Friday, to a place called Marromau, about 8 hours away - we are taking the sound system with us, showing the Jesus Film (in Portuguese, we cant get hold of the local dialect, Shona) and then giving out the food and getting in the new registrations. We only come back on Monday! And then on Tuesday I go on down to Maputo.
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