Splish Splash

What a week – didn’t feel like I got much done, but looking back I actually did! It was a full week, with loads happening…

The past Sunday (Easter Sunday) was the day that our student pastors graduated – we have about 100 1st years and a bunch of 2nd and 3rd year students – they were all so excited to be going home – they stay on the same base as I do, and we could hear them sing thru the night on Saturday, and they had huge smiles on their faces when they told us about their kids and wife(s) and how excited they were to be seeing them again… So I am glad they were happy! (let me just elaborate on the ‘wife(s)’ bit… many of them as their custom was, took more than one wife, but when they became Christians they couldn’t keep all of them, so they picked one to be their real wife, but they still support the other woman, but they are no longer wives)

At church they each got 2 bibles, a bag full of goodies, a brand new t-shirt and cap, a sack of rice and a bit of money – many of them have nothing nothing nothing at home, just a sold-out love for God and a desire to spread the word. So the church service on Sunday took about 6 hours… I was paste afterwards, but they were baptising a bunch of them in the ocean, so I went for a look-see, but they hadn’t started yet so I decided to leave – they could still be hours! I went to the Naval and crashed in a deck chair under a grass umbrella and lay there watching the waves. It was relaxing!

The next morning we were given a half day off, so no staff meeting, no church – sleep late!!! That afternoon I spent trying to get a lift over to the other centre to do some work, but couldn’t get hold of a driver, and I couldn’t walk cos I had a sound desk and some mics to take with me and the risk of getting mugged is quite high – so frustrating!!! So I stayed at home and studied a bit – then later I went to the Dolphin (a restaurant on the beach) for an ice-cream with Ana, and we walked back on the beach as the sun was setting, so gorgeous!

That day was Yonnie, our resident medical advisor’s birthday and she invited a few of us out to eat at the Pemba Beach – the local 5* hotel, for their international buffet… I was sponsored by someone; usually a meal cost $20! So that was lovely, I ate so much! So good!

Tuesday morning dawned bright a clear – and at 6am Ana and I were in the ocean doing laps! Its great to be swimming again! We marked out 2 points (the tall palm tree and the deck) and only managed 4 lengths before we were kaput! Its hard work swimming in the sea – its real calm, but the salt gets up your nose and the current does fight you a bit! When I got back home though there was no electricity – and it was off the whole day… all my food in the fridge… noooooo! Fortunately there was electricity at the other base so I got a lift over there and tested all the speakers, microphones, cables and inventoried it all – that took care of the morning, and I was just about despairing getting a lift back home when one of our workers came past on his motorbike – I flagged him down and got a lift on the back, balancing 2 bags and my toolkit! But a lift is a lift and I got home in time to organise a driver for the weekly missionary shopping trip.

I am in charge of the missionary shopping trips now, which can be a stretching experience, but I actually kinda enjoy it! The missionary in charge of the Visitors shopping is not here at the moment, so all the visitors go with the missionaries and because there are so many people something that should take and hour and a half easily takes 3½ hours – which is a huge chunk of time to spend on shopping!! Anyways, I was given some food last week so I didn’t need to buy anything, but still had to go seeing that I was the one organising it!

Got home and the electricity was still off – it came on just as it got dark and stayed on the whole night, but that isn’t long enough to pump enough water – so Wednesday morning there was hardly any. And the pregnant Mozambican lady that is sharing our bathrooms at the moment insists on bathing 3 times a day and she uses all the water, which leaves nothing for us to flush the toilets with, so its kinda ripe in there… the electricity went off again in the morning – and they wont run the generator during the day, they deem it a waste of petrol since most of the people are at the other base, except most of us are not… so its too hot to be in my room without the fan going, the kitchen is just about bearable – and I woke up with a sore throat, a cough and just wasn’t feeling good! I ate some antibiotics, flu meds, asprin and cough syrup then went back to a warm stuffy room and slept till 1! Felt a bit better after that – I organised the Wednesday shopping trip from bed (there are too many people, so we split the shopping over 2 days, I still organise the driver, but I don’t have to go on a Wednesday). So just took it easy for the rest of the day. How lovely when the power came on later – I just sat in front of the fan!

Next morning I woke up and my throat was still scratchy, so at 6am I just sat on the beach and watched Ana swim, but I am feeling loads better. The electricity is on today, but there still isn’t much water – getting used to the smell now! Also the drainpipe on our kitchen sink started leaking and then just fell off. So now anything you pour down the sink just runs straight thru onto the floor… we put a bucket under to catch the water (and use it to flush the toilets at the end of the day!) – I am leaving for Dondo on Sunday and I will be away for 5 weeks so right now I just don’t care.

I had a meeting with the base manager, Aguinaldo scheduled for sometime in the morning – I have to get my visa renewed – they only give you 30days at a time then you have to leave the country, but cos Pemba is so far from everything they allow you to renew the visa 3 times at the immigration office before you have to leave the country. My meeting went well, he’s such a nice guy, very relaxed and friendly! That afternoon I made it over to my ‘office’ and replaced a high frequency driver in one of the speakers – but it still didn’t work, so I took a working driver from another speaker and tested that, it worked, so I have concluded that the ‘new’ driver wasn’t so new after all – I will have to get a new one in South Africa when I am there next.

Outreach left at 3ish, we went to a really small village just over an hour away. They have welded a frame and put a canopy over the truck, so we fit less people in, and setting up the system was kinda hard – also we lose the ‘instant stage’ we had, so now they just stand on the ground and talk. But I guess I’ll appreciate the canopy when it rains! A deaf boy was healed, which is always amazing – there is a YWAM team here, so there were loads of white people! It made me smile (as it usually does) there is one part in the JESUS film where the disciples are each called by name – and the kids in the audience just shriek with laughter when they hear the names these white men are called, they have ‘Portuguesified’ the names, so many of the kids have the same names as they do, and they love it – it happens every time, in every village that we’ve been to! All the pastors have left, so we took some kids from the centre with us – one of our girls, Rosa, wants to learn to do sound – so I will teach her when I get back in 5 weeks from my little sound training tour of Mozambique! I’m excited when people want to learn – its so much better than teaching someone that doesn’t really want to know! She speaks a bit of English, but I will have to brush up all the sound ‘lingo’ in Portuguese! Outreach came back at 11pm, so I was glad to get to bed.

Friday 6am went swimming again – its funny – Ana decided to just sit on the beach, and she said that as soon as I started swimming all heads turned to follow me! The beach is quite deserted at that time, just a handful of people washing. I spent the day making cables for all the sound systems, then just before church I went to have an ice-cream with Ania, my housemate – then off to church at 4 and only got back at 7 – there wasn’t a lift so I walked back with 3 of the Mozambican guys – safety in numbers! Made some supper (I had the feeling that I had missed the free rice) wrote this and went to bed, quite tired – I plan to just rest rest rest this Saturday (that is after I fix the keyboard, pack my case for my 5 week trip, arrange a safe place to store all the brand new sound equipment I don’t the guys to use quite yet, tidy my room, clean the bathrooms and the kitchen, throw out the trash and wash the maggots out the bin)… :)