Pit latrines and shower areas had been franticly dug in the week leading up to the conference, now no matter which direction you looked you would have no trouble locating a latrine - huge white ‘S’ (for women) and ‘H’ (for men) letters were painted on the bamboo walls (and for those that could not read, little stick men and woman were painted too!) There seemed to be some people who had never used a latrine before, so the conference organizers spent 10minutes during announcements clearly explaining the do’s and don’ts of using a latrine. They had also painted huge stick figures on the walls inside each stall, CLEARLY showing the correct and incorrect usage. That just cracked me up!
I had thought that we were going to show the JESUS film the first night, but instead they gave me an old VHS copy of some movie about a guy dying and going to hell and not liking it very much… it was in Portuguese, so not many of the people understood it, and the power cable kept being pulled out of the socket/falling out by itself so then it took time to restart the projector – so we never did see the end of the movie! But the people had fun singing and dancing and for once they weren’t upset when I said I was switching off the system – cos supper was served! Everyone rushed off to go eat and I was left to pack it up by myself (as usual) fortunately there was a guy that had forgotten his phone in the sound room, so I made a deal with him – he helps me, and once its all packed away, I’ll open the room for him to get his phone. It worked, and he somehow got more guys to help out so it went fairly quickly! Then as I was just despairing about getting a ride home (it was 10pm) I saw a Landrover drive past – yay!
The next morning the conference kicked off for real. During the night more people had arrived, and as the day went on more would still come, we were expecting about 3000 people in total from the other districts!
Well after an hour and a half of energetic singing and dancing the people settled down in the dirt and on the grass mats and to listen to the head of our missions school, Lesley Ann Leighton. After the ministry time the band came up again and the crowd went wild – kicking up another dust cloud as they praised the Lord. The bell for lunch rang and quickly the tent was deserted…
Each afternoon for the duration of the conference, Heidi had scheduled 4 workshops to run concurrently – and she had let me know the day before that I had to make happen a sound system for each of the 4 venues…
When I found out about this stretch of my super powers, I had quickly gone to where the mission school was having their class and asked one of the staff to get me 6 volunteers to do sound. Josh went up to the front and said, “I want six guys to put up their hands!”
Most of the guys dutifully raised their hands - not at all knowing what they were getting themselves into – and Josh picked 6. “OK – you’ve all have been assigned to extra work duty this weekend. See Nikki after class. Thanks”- I like his style! I might add that Josh had been a Marine before he had come here! When I met with the guys after the class to outline what I required of them, one of the guys gave a sigh of relief that the assignment had to do with sound – when he had put up his hand he had thought that maybe it was for “clean the latrines” duty!
I was so thankful that I had those 6 guys to help out – the workshops went off without a hitch and I was able to go home for 3 hours each afternoon to take a nap before I had to be back to re-setup the sound system for the evening session!
The evening sessions were amazing – all the people in the surrounding area had come too, and there were loads of people: singing, dancing, cheering, shouting, having fun - but it was loud.
So loud in fact, that I’ve lost the ability to hear some of high frequencies with my left ear. The minute I realized that, I sat behind the sound desk with my fingers plugging my ears. I couldn’t risk more damage. Now 2 weeks after the conference it hasn’t recovered, and I’m not sure if it will. I’m going to get some proper attenuating ear plugs made when I’m next in South Africa to stop my ears from more damage. So that’s sad.
But the conference was good – I think that the people in the villages, those that live in the bush bush, went home feeling encouraged and not forgotten.
On the last day of the conference Heidi held a huge wedding ceremony for anyone that wanted to get married – there were 17 couples that said ‘I do’ that day. The message was about ‘Love’ and it was really sweet. Some churches in America had donated rings, and after Heidi led them in their vows our senior pastor went to each couple and they tried out the rings till they found one that fit. Each woman got a ring! Then Heidi said, ‘You may kiss the bride’. It was the FIRST time that I have ever seen a Mozambican publicly display affection, and this was not just one couple, it was 17 couples, all of them kissing. And they kissed for along time! ☺
It was a busy 4 days for me, and after working nearly 45 hours in total, I was fairly happy when it all came to an end!
No more little campfires in the outdoor classrooms, no more people scattered around sleeping where they could find space on the ground, no more laundry hanging on all the fences, no more 4000 mouths to feed 3 times a day. The people had all piled back into the trucks, and by Thursday the base was empty, and quiet.
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