Video: What is Extended Outreach all about?

This footage was put together from various of my fellow team member's cameras, and I thought it sums up outreach :-) Enjoy!




OK, well, of course outreach is more that just that... :-)

I was on outreach...

I totally did not get around to letting ya'll know that I was actually leaving to go on the extended outreach - things just got so crazy that I didnt get time to get online - but I'm back now, and preparing to go to Language School in Portugal... I'll write an update soon on how outreach was, but if I had to sum it up in 3 words it would be: IT WAS AMAZING!

So keep a look out for a nice long post with pics and all!

Final Week

HG is coming to an end, and this week is looking to be SUPER CRAZY busy busy busy. Extended outreaches leave this coming Saturday, and our days are packed solid with preparing for graduation, team building day, outreach and then there are still a myriad of things to be finalized (generators to be fixed, lights to be bought, scuba diving to be done (just kidding)... :-) I was trying to schedule having a meal with one of the students, but this week I'll be surprised if I can even find time to eat :-{

Malaria :-( AGAIN!

I've just had malaria (AGAIN!!!!) and was in bed for the entire week... But I'm feeling much better, mostly have my energy back but still just taking it slow. Its nasty. Horrible.

Fondue in Pemba

We had a real swiss cheese fondue last night! My Swiss friend bought it when he was in SA last month, and yesterday was the day the 4 of us decided to try it out! It was so yummy. Obviously we dont have a real fondue set, so we improvised with a stainless steel pot, some tea candles, and a wire spring contraption to keep the pot above the candles.





It worked quite well for the most part, but just before we finished the cheese, the pot sorta slid off the wire and we had to eat the last bit of cheese VERY quickly!

Video: Little Victor!

He is 17 months old now and he's started walking!!! SO cute!





He also went for a ride on one of our 4 horses - he enjoyed that loads:

Medical Outreach - Montpuez

This past weekend I went on an overnight/weekend outreach to Montpuez - it was a joint medical outreach so something totally different from the usual outreaches I've been on!

Montpuez is due west from Pemba, and the road is smooth and tarred all the way - although we went into the bush bush down a dirt road for about an hour to get to the village where we were going to stay the night.

The Holy Given students had to ride on the back of an open camiao - at least it didnt rain!


My car is AMAZING, I love it!!! So handy and practial and useful! It has made my life so much easier in terms of carting sound equipment around and setting up in the villages at night I feel more secure about the equipment not being messed with.

I set the sound desk etc up in the back of my truck, so I have a place to sit during the movie and also I can close the doors to prevent the system disapearing!

This is our "high-tech" setup, it works really well! The Mediaplayer has replaced the DVD player we used to use, and the hard drive based system has been invaluble, worth every cent!

All set for outeach!

Unfortunately it RAINED that night, so we only showed about 1 hour of the film before I decided to pack up - we were all soaked by the time the system was in the car, and the whole team was in bed by 7:30pm! It was the first time that I've been in bed before midnight on an outreach, and sleeping for 10 hours was brilliant!

Tent Land - This village has not church building, but the pastor opened his yard for us to camp in

All the cooking is done over a fire - here they are heating the water for coffee in the morning!


Just look what missions has done! These are my friends Eric the Doctor, and Raphael the Accountant!

Saturday dawned slightly cloudy, but it was not going to rain - there were some patches of blue peeking thru the clouds, and by 7am it was starting to get kinda warm.

The Medical Landrover

The Medical team (headed up by Dr Angie), started setting up the brown tent where they treat and pray for anyone who needs medical attention. The problems they encounter range from asthma and scabies to basic wound care, so they are kept really busy! All the kids in the village are also de-wormed, and they stand fairly patiently in line waiting for their turn. Each kid is also prayed over, so it's an awesome ministry opportunity.

Dr Angie de-worming some kids

In the Medical Tent: This little girl has asthma and her fatehr was told by the witchdoctor that there was nothing anyone could do to help her! (Dr Angie was able to help her of course)

We did some more evangelism in the village while the medical outreach was happening, so the sound system was setup again




It was a good outreach - the 2nd night we were in Montpuez town, and there were a number of hecklers and 3 fights broke out while were preaching, but we showed the Jesus film and even though I was sitting with the sound system, I heard from some of the students that there were a number of healings! So good! :-)

My first week on HG staff

My first week of being on Holy Given staff, and man oh man is it busy! But its so much fun. This is an amazing group of students, they are so eager to get involved and really don't mind going the extra mile.

I did sound training with all the guys again, and they've been doing their own sound for school since the start of HG (its going good), and the outreaches are also going really well. It is quite a task keeping all the systems juggled - there is an overnight outreach every Thursday, returning Friday afternoon, but then 2 teams leaving every Friday morning for weekend outreach. And there is school everyday. And even tho I have 4 systems, I want the guys to practice on the outreach systems, so making sure that an outreach system isn't accidentally setup on a Friday when its meant to go out is a challenge... Good thing they are all color coded: Red (the small Yamaha Stage Pass system) and Yellow, Green & Blue (Mackie SRM450 outreach systems)!

So the systems have been going really well, although on this past weekend's outreach the 'Yellow' system's generator stopped working on the 2nd night, so they borrowed a small one from someone in the village, and this resulted in one of the guys on the team sending me an ominous text message: "We have some work for you..." Oh no! :-§

Well, the generator they had borrowed didn't have a voltage regulator built into it, so one of the plug strips went 'poof' (I'm told there was smoke and sparks!) and the little sound desk [a Yamaha MG10/2] stopped working too. Fortunately when I tested the little sound desk today it still worked, I'm SO relieved, as they are no longer in production so getting a replacement sent up from South Africa would have been next to impossible. The plug strip is a goner tho - good thing I got 5 extra ones in my storeroom! :-)

I am also responsible for the 'Village Feeding'. Heidi's heart is that no one goes hungry, so even tho the village kids are not allowed on the base during the day, they are allowed in for an hour or 2 for lunch. It gets kinda rowdy up in the kitchen/dining room, so the village kids are fed in one of the classrooms are the bottom of the property. My job is to make sure that there is a team of students who do this everyday. I made a schedule and the students have been AMAZING and run with it. No problems!!! (I told you they are a great bunch!)

I'm also trying to find some of the 'lost luggage' - doing it as a favor for Eric who helped me out with sound for the week that I was away - so I go to the airport everyday searching for the bags! The 2 students have been pretty chilled about it, they have been living out of whatever they had in their carry-on for the past 2 weeks! I did try and cheer them up tho, and I told them about a student from the previous school who's lost luggage only turned up the day before he left Pemba! I dont think they appreciated me telling them that! :-p

So it's going really well, God is doing some amazing things in the student's lives, and it's really exciting to be part of it all!

Heading North

I'm on my way to Pemba after 2 short weeks in South Africa! My exams went well, but I'm glad that they are finally done.
Holy Given started on Tuesday, so I've missed the first few days of school - but I'm sure that I'll get settled in real quick and get to know all the students that I will be working with for the next 9 weeks!

I'm studying really hard. Serious....

OK, so I'm not really throwing myself into studying as much as I should be - but I have a valid excuse: Raphael and Eric travelled with me to Pretoria to renew their visas, so I just HAD to show them a bit of South Africa! It was their first time in my country, and you know what they say about first impressions...

So I took them to our big mall (Menlyn), I took them to visit an old Dutch fort (Fort Klapperkop) and we went to Pilanesberg National Park, to go look at some animals. It was so much fun to have them here - and I think they liked it too!

A 'Disinfector' used to clean the soldier's uniforms 

Here are some photos taken by Raphael at the game reserve: (click on the thumbnails to view the larger versions on Raphael's website)




So this past week has been fun, but the guys left today... I guess now I have no more excuses! I write my first exam on Oct 15, and the second one on the 17th. Then I head back to Pemba to join the staff for the next Holy Given School of Missions [HG7] starting soon.

Outreach in Pemba

Last night we went on outreach to a place 6 minutes away from my house - I've never been there before - its a village just off the main road, in a fairly muslim area. For some random reason we left the base at 3:30pm... arriving at 3:36pm, and considering that the sun only sets at 5:30pm we had some time to kill! I sat in my car and studied for my upcoming exams while waiting for the sun to set.

Finally its time, and the guys get everything set up real quick, too quick actually cos we had to play the swahili dancing music for about 25mins before it was dark enough to start the film.

Its Ramadaan at the moment, and one of our student pastors came to me and excitedly informed me that he had stationed 6 other pastors around the generator, because there were banditos in the city and they could easliy take off with the generator. I thank him, and then he adds, "...and usually, here in Pemba city, after the movie, the people like to throw rocks at us. But its OK, because God is good!" *gulp* OK.

I had set up the sound desk and media player in the back of my car - it makes it easier to look after it, and also gives me a comfy place to chillout while the movie is going. I usually sit there and study, or if I have a good book I sit and read.

The movie ends and I look around at the crowd to see their reaction - ready to throw the equipment into the back if they got violent, but thankfully nothing happened. It was a very 'hard' area, the people were not very receptive - although I did see one guy wearing a skull cap put up his had for salvation. Awesome!

Rule #1

So I was eating a bowl of matapa tonight (random green leaves - sorta like spinach, but not quite) and as I was eating I wondered why I just swallowed mouthfuls without chewing.

So I stopped and chewed..*crunch crunch*
Then it dawned on me: Rule #1: SAND will be present in all food!

...And that, is why I never chew the center food! Makes sense when you think about it :-)

Lotsa Typing!

I'm at a bit of a loose end at the moment - my sound systems are either totally broken and need to go to South Africa, or they are 100% fine! So, unless I spend time in my sound room aimlessly shifting heavy equipment around, I have a bit of time to kill. So I'm helping out in some of the other departments - This past week I've been helping in the accounting office - there was a large backlog of receipts from the petty cash that had to be captured so I spent every morning in an office typing typing typing. It's kinda fun, decipering the portuguese receipts!

Then our bible school has started and the girl who usually runs it has gone on a well deserved break, so one of my other friends has taken over... kinda overwhelming! So for this week I'm helping out there - some of the name badges were wrong (name and photo dont match...) so we had to redo a lot of them. But there are lots of little admin things that need to be done, so I guess I'll be kept busy with that - then its back to the accounting office to start capturing the backlog of receipts from cheques that were issued!

So nothing fun and exciting this week, just work! :-)

A Day at the Beach with the Boys

Photos by: Raphael Vaney

Saturday was a fully packed day with lots happening - I am glad that I had Sunday off too, to recover from all the 'relaxing' I did!

As usual the day started with pancakes (which were delicious!), then I went to pick up 12 of the Iris boys (aged 10-12) who live in Raphael's dorm. I had offered to drive them to Murrebue - and they were very excited to finally go. The morning had started off rainy, but by 11am the sun was out and the sky a perfect blue.


There were 12 boys, Rapha, Brandon, Eric, 2 dogs (Bala and Jahu) and myself going - so we took 2 cars!

At the beach Rapha played soccer with the boys while Brandon, Eric and I took the dogs for a long walk down the beach, stopping for a chat at a soon-to-open restaurant run by a lovely Italian family.

By the time we got back to the Murrebue restaurant the food had been served and the kids tucked into their chicken meals. I had ordered the battered and fried prawns - mmm mmmm mmmmmm! so good!

After lunch the tide had finally come in, so we could go swim!




- everyone headed into the ocean and we played a totally unorganized game of "volley balll/'piggy-in-the-middle'/throw the ball to anyone you want to" with the boys. It was very energetic to say the least! Raphael and Eric where throwing the boys into the air so that they could do backflips into the water,


The boys also started a small seaweed fight and some of them would sneak up on me and grab my ankles! They loved it - and it was great to see some male missionaries around who could just play with the boys.

So loads of fun, but I was exhausted by the end of the day - when we dropped the kids back at the center they each came to give me a hug and say thank you!

The day didnt end there - I made dinner with my neighbours, and then we watched a movie - so I got to bed quite late, but it was a fun day!

Tsunami...

We were in the middle of a 'goodbye' Travis party, all just chilling, listening to him play guitar, soaking - when suddenly Musy burst into the room, her face white. I thought that something had happened to her week old baby, Bella. But instead the most unexpected words came out of her mouth: "A tsunami is going to hit Pemba in 2 hours, we have to evacuate NOW!!"

There was a silence, and then suddenly everyone is up, outside. I text my parents to get more info. All 120 of the bible school students had to be told, all our staff. People were already in bed. Very quickly everyone is home, packing the essentials - wondering if its really going to happen, and at the same time not quite grasping the concept of a wave splashing down on our houses.

My housie is in South Africa at the moment, so I text her and asked what I should get out of her room. Finally I have everything in the car, dog included.

By that time the 'HUGE' tsunami had hit the Seychelles, and it had been a whole 15cm higher tide than usual. So we started relaxing at bit, but we still had to evacuate. Some of the Mozambican staff didnt want to leave their houses. The men said "We'll just go to the beach, and when we see the wave coming we'll get our families and go to higher ground" *... yes, great idea...*

All the kids were sent up to the school at the top of the hill, and they even took the drum kit! It was quite noisy to say the least, but finally around 22:50pm when it was clear that nothing of significance was going to happen we finally decided to let everyone go back home.

I wanted to go see what this 15cm wave would look like, and 2 of my friends were keen too. So we headed for the beach, and at 23:39pm (the given time of arrival) we stood looking out to sea. We were sorely disapointed... the tide was out very far (which is usual) and we could not even see where the waves were! So at midnight we decided to head back home.

So some excitement, some scares, but after a good night's sleep we are back at work today!

Round 2...

Well I think i've just had malaria, I'm getting better by taking the malaria meds, so even tho my test was negative the doc is certain that it was a false negative and that I had malaria...

BUT we caught it pretty early so I'll be 100% in no time! Right now I'm in the 'argh-my-body-hurts-and-even-making-a-cup-of-coffee-exhausts-me' phase, which indicates that it was malaria, but it also means that I'm getting better! :-)

This little Piggy...

A month or 2 ago we discovered what to me might be the bestest thing about Pemba. A butchery! Tucked away around a corner on the road leading into one of the local village markets stands a small building, a plain store front with only a cardboard sign advertising mineral water - there is no storename, and nothing to indicate that it is a butchery.

Inside the owner, a sweet little portuguese lady, deals with the crowds - she opens at 8:45am and usually by 10 all the good cuts of meat had been sold out.

Yesterday we decide to go buy some meat - she has a selection of beef, goat and chicken. We wanted some good 'primera' beef, or if that was sold out 'segunda' beef would be fine too.

Its cheap too, for 1kg of 'primera' its only $6, for a kilo of 'segunda' its $4.50. (well cheap considering that at the local restaurants a single steak would cost your $12...)

Well we arrived and found the store fairly quiet - we know we are kinda late, but we hope that the good stuff was still available.

"Tem Primera?" (Do you have Primera?)
"Sim"

Oh yeah!! She still has nearly 3kg of primera and we buy it all. We also buy 2kg of ground beef (some for us, some for our neighbor)

Just as we are about to leave, a truck pulls up infront of the store, and the driver comes into the store. In a whisper he asks us, "Do you want some PORK?"

Are you kidding??? Pork was next to impossible to find here in this largely muslim town and recently I had been dreaming about a good pork chop. Of course we wanted some pork! The guys quickly scans the area to see if anyone is watching. The coast is clear, and he holds up half a pig. "Front or Back?" - I pick the front "Chops?" - Oh yeah! "How much do you want?" - Everything!! :-)

People come into the store and quickly the pig carcass is hidden. They leave and the workers start cutting me my chops. The guys uses his body to block the view to the ferocious looking meat saw - If the locals found out that they were cutting pork on the same saw as the beef there would be some serious trouble!

Finally we get our chops (just under 4 kgs) for $3.50 and we head home VERY happy!

Any deaf people here?

I went on outreach last night, it was a bit of a confusion (as usual) as to where we were going, and we didnt even go to the place where we had originally planned! But it was all good when we arrived at the village - a huge (1000+) crowd turned up to watch the Jesus Film, and they were fairly open to the gospel message. When Heidi got up to preach afterwards she called all the deaf people forward. She asked their family and friends to being them. She asked again and again.

NO ONE came to the front.

Finally one of the village elders came to her and said, "We have no deaf people here, they were ALL healed last time you came!"

WOW!!! :-)

So that was awesome, there were at least 48 believers who had already established a church, and many more were added to their ranks last night. So even in all the confusion and going to the wrong village, it all worked out for good!

The rest of the team stayed the night in Mieze, a village close to Pemba where we regularly do Medical Outreaches, and have a large church and a small orphanage established. I opted to drive the 20mins home and sleep in my own bed, but the visitors wanted to experience a night in the village.

This morning I drove out bright and early to setup the sound for the morning service - I set the speakers up outside the bamboo mud building, one pointing into the church thru the window and the other for the overflow outside. (If I'd set up inside the church we would have been deafend!)

Inside the church they had strung twine across the room, and hung pieces of paper with scripture verses on the lines. They had also picked wildflowers/pretty weeds and hung them too. The church was packed and Heidi had to dedicate 5 little babies, and marry 3 couples.

It was a really good time!

Art Show

Last night I did something new and fun - I went to an Art Exhibition in downtown Pemba. It was fairly interesting! The artist had about 20, oil on canvas, mostly abstract, very colourful paintings on display in a badly lit basketball court! Afterwards Jessie and I went out for chinese - just the 2 of us, we havnt done that in forever!

Watch out fishies, here I come!!

... after only 2 years of saving and trying to find the time to do it - I am FINALLY DOING IT!

PADI Open Water Diver

My roommate (Jessie) and I started the course yesterday, and today was our first dive - we'll be doing more over the next few days, but its AWESOME - so beautiful!! I can't think of a more beautiful place than Pemba to get certified... So I'm really enjoying this little 'holiday' I'm having - its great!

... and I'll let ya'll know if I find Nemo :-)

Bye-Bye HG5

HG5 Graduation on Wednesday had to have been the longest graduation in the history of the known universe... over 5 hours long! And that was just the part in the tent where I had to do sound... But it wasnt all bad, just long. And I was hungry cos I was silly and had only eaten a few cookies for breakfast! But it ended eventually - I delegated the packing up of the system to some of the students and then I left at round 6pm.

Thursday saw me frantically working to tie up all the loose ends for the extended outreaches... I had been prepping the whole week, but now I realized how much still had to be done and there wasnt much time left... So I was up till 3am finishing up stuff (the fact that I had gone out to dinner for Josham's birthday didnt help matters much, but it was his birthday, so I figured I could sacrifice some sleep). One of the things that really stressed me out was the fact that one of the screens we use to show the JESUS film was missing. Just GONE! But I knew it HAD to be somewhere, so I went in search of it - I looked in each and every mission school house, I questioned people, I begged them to let me know if it turns up. Nothing! But I had to send a screen out and so I went to Margaret our sewing lady and asked her to make a white sheet to fit some bamboo poles - a makeshift screen. Not the best, but at least something. Finally at 8pm I get a text - the missing screen had turned up. I was SO relieved! One less thing to stress about.

Heidi had instisted that she wanted to go on an over-night outreach that night (so that was another thing that I had had to organize that day - and I had to find a sound person who could go), which meant that half the equipment needed for one of the extended outreachs wouldnt be in Pemba. But as always a plan was made and the equipment was arranged to come back late Thursday night... and locked away in a room to which I do not have a key. (I didnt arrange for that to happen, it just did)

Then Friday - the BIG day, all 3 teams left for the extended outreaches. I was there at 7am to finalize some things - namely trying to get into the room to which I didnt have a key. I call Neto, my 'assistant', and ask him to please bring the key, and to hurry - they wanted to load the trucks... So Neto eventually arrived. WITHOUT the key. GRRRR, so frustrating!!! But his house wasnt too far away, in the village behind the center - so we hop in the car and I head into the village. The road cannot be called 'good' at all, but it is oh so much fun to drive! We get the key, we get into the room, and we get the equipment needed for the outreach. YAY!

Finally we can load it all onto the back of the 3 open trucks that will soon be heading out across Mozambique - There is so many people, so much stuff!!!

I was amazed that there was even room for the people on the back of the trucks - they were sitting on all the bags, pots and sleeping bags... I'm sure it'll be fun - one place is over 18 hours away! ...hope they brought sun screen :-§

Finally at 10am everything is loaded and they are ready to go - I slip away quietly and head home. I'll take a little nap... 6 hours later I wake up!!! Where did the day go??? :-) But its all good - things will be nice and quiet for the next 2 weeks (i hope) then the teams get back and I'll see if the sound systems survived!

Church in Progress - Photo

We are building a REAL church building here in Pemba - soon the green and white striped tent will be a thing of the past!



There will even be a room in the back for me to store the sound equipment in - so no more lugging heavy sound systems up a hill... not that I actually do any of the carrying :-)

Victor

This is Victor Jose - his birth certificate says he is 13months, but developmentally he is more like 7 months. Jessie has him over at our house quite often, so I get to play 'Aunty Nikki' and babysit! He is adorable - sorta starting to crawl, and he has 5 teeth!

He is such a happy baby, and he loves to 'dance' to our nokia cellphone ringtones. His mother died, and his father had him registered as an orphan... not sure how that works, but according to the government little Victor is an orphan, even tho he has a father! Crazy!

Strange Noises

This morning I was woken up by loud crashing, banging noises. It sounded like someone was breaking down one of our neighbors' door... both Jessie and I rushed to look. We were astonished to see that yes, someone was indeed breaking down our neighbor's front door! But it was all good - Dr Eric, our resident medic was locked inside his house - his lock has broken and he was unable to leave his house! Josham had to come to the rescue. It was so funny!

Yay for Alpha!

We finally have decent qualified security guards at base 2!!! YEAH!!! It was awesome today to not be mobbed by village kids as I got out of my car. Usually even when I am just quickly downloading emails, the kids will surround the car banging on my windows, the doors, trying to open the car doors, pick at the paintwork, adjust the mirrors. Its horrible! But today it was quiet. Peaceful! AWESOME!

I even had to sign in at the front gate when I arrived - all the usual theives, bandits, village kids and vendors were kept outside in the street, away from our center kids, away from the mission school housing, away from the tools and equipment. It has been a long long loooooong time coming - lets hope these Alpha Guards keep the banditos away at night too! So happy!!!

Its been a while...

So I realize that I havn't written in ages, and as I think back I can see why. Well - its just really hard to put into words what my daily routine (if you can call routine) life is like. Especially now that Holy Given is here things have sorta settled into a groove - life just goes round and round without too much effort. Although living in Pemba requires effort to start with so what I meant was that it doesnt require too much EXTRA effort!

Some things have happened tho: both good and bad - let's start with the bad...

My car broke down while I was in town one day and I had to be towed back to my house - at first they thought it was dirty fuel, but it turns out to be an electrical problem. Fortunately there are some friendly South African mechanics in Pemba who helped me out free of charge! I was so grateful to have my car up and running again because the next day a good thing happend:

My parents came to visit me! Well, technically they didnt just come to visit me - they were team leaders for Georgian Banov's team and so their time was divided between the team and me. But it was great to have them in Pemba, for them to see where I live and what life is like up here!

Also I ran over a baboon. I was driving back from an overnight outreach early (We dont have many sound systems working at the moment, so I had to get the sound system back in Pemba for it to be used again at another event!) so, I was driving and suddenly a baboon ran out infront of me. I was on a dirt road, which meant that braking wasnt even an option - he went under the car between the wheels, and my mom (she was with me) says that she saw him get up and limp to the side of the road so at least I didnt kill him... oops.

Banditos

Its taken me a while to proccess it and get to a point where I was OK writing it down - so here goes!

Saturday June 16 was a regular day off, I woke up late and then Jessie and I made pancakes (both American and South African versions) and we went over to 'Mantown' and had breakfast with the guys - then some of our boys offered to wash my car! Plans were made to take one of the boys, Luis, to Murrebue Beach, about 20mins away from Pemba - it was his birthday and it would be a treat for him and a few of his friends.

We set off at noon, and the boys piled out the car, Bala in tow with a soccor ball and much laughter. They ran down to the water and I decided to take a walk down the beach with Bala - Jessie and I talked for a bit, trying to decide if it was safer to leave my car keys in her bag at the restaurant or to take them with me. I took them with me. I also had my phone with me, so I clipped it all together and hooked in on the inside of my trousers. My mp3 player I tucked into my underware. Bala on the rope I set off down the beach. I love walking here - its desrted, and stretches for miles. There were some fishermen out in their little dugout canoes and a few of them had already beached and dragged their boats up the sand dunes.

I had walked for nearly 2km down the beach when I thought it was about time I turned around - Bala was being SO cute, chasing the little crabs - she'd cornered one but it was standing its ground - defending itself with tiny tiny pinchers. (Bala finally gave up)

I had passed many fishermen sitting on their boats while I was walking down the beach - but now they had already left for the village. There were just 2 little boats still out in the water, and they were also heading towards land.

One of the other missionaries, Papa Joel, was also out for a walk - coming towards me - we stopped, said a few words and then I continued on back to the restaurant where Jessie and the boys where playing. I had hardly gone more than 100m when I drew level with the 2 fisherman, and 4 guys started walking down towards the water. They sort of cut infront of me, and they were scared of the dog - so I thought they were the fishermen's buddies - going to help them beach the boats.

Then I saw the knives - long bladed machetes. The ring leader was wearing a red shirt. He pointed to my earphones, I looked up the beach towards the restaurant fro help. No one. So I started screaming. They pushed me down into the water and I struggled. I bit, scratched and kicked for all I was worth. Beside me Bala was barking and (biting I hope). Suddenly they were gone. Running up over the dune and into the bush. In shock I look around me. To the side the 2 fishermen are still at sea, behind me Papa Joelie was running towards me. I glance down at my waistband and I realise they got my car keys and phone. I get up and run. And run and run and run and run. When I am exhausted I double check that they really had stolen my stuff. I discover my mp3 player still tucked in my underware. But they have my car keys. MY CAR. My car, its parked next to the restaurant, no one will be watching it - they'll try to steal my car. I have to get back. I have to run. One the last dregs of adrenaline I start running again. I'm soaked, covered in sand and my trousers were not designed for jogging on the beach.

I see Jessie, she looking confused becuase Bala is running loose, and I'm running... The wind kept snatching my words and blowing them back towards the ocean. Finally she hears me, 'I was mugged, they have my keys', over and over I say this. I run past her to the parking lot. My car is there, no one is around. I just sit down on the sand.

Papa Joel had tried to keep up with me, but I was to fast for him. He tells me that they were kicking me, and hitting me with their knives - I found the bruises later. Bala's nose was bleeding and she was suddenly very aggressive towards Mozambucan men carrying implements - she also wouldn't let me go anywhere without following me.

~ 1 Week Later ~

I am OK now, for the first few days afterwards I didnt want to leave the house, when I tried, the world closed in on me and I would focus on the shadows and all the banditos that could possibly jump out at me. Kids scared me. Men wearing red scared me. So many people prayed for me - and I am so thankful for that!

I went back to Murrebue this past Saturday - this time walking down the same stretch of beach with 5 men and carrying a huge machete of my own. I was OK - but it will still be a while before I walk anywhere near the beach alone... which is a shame cos I used to love walking with Bala on Pemba beach in the evenings before it got dark.

Driving Fun!

Outreach last night was amazing – well it was a normal outreach after a normal stressy day, but the drive there just made me SO happy! I loaded the sound systems; my 3 helpers jumped in the back and off we went to a place that was 'not to far away'. 40km down the road we turn off onto a dirt track and what a dirt track it was!!! Treacherous sand, a rocky riverbed, 2 hills to climb - 4x4 heaven!!! It was fun – and what made me even happier was the fact that after the outreach I would get to do it all over again!!! J

Children's Day - June 1

The outreach last night went well, my little Media Player worked wonderfully! Yay, we have finally eliminated DVDs and DVD players from the movie showing process. Goodbye scratched DVDs, goodbye broken dusty DVD players!!! Now I just am praying that the teams will have some respect for these little $1000 pieces of equipment... they look after the projectors really well, so there is hope.

The sound systems are looking better everyday, slowly but surely order is being restored and I think that I could quite possibly be ready for next Tuesday!

In the meantime, its Children's day today and all the kids are going to get presents and a chicken dinner. There will be games and their rooms are being decorated! My roomie was in charge of organizing it all - and its a LOT of work, I think shes been more stressed than me - also she's still in charge of ALL the kids and there are a few who are sick at the moment, and yesterday she had to leave our 4 month old baby, Natalia, at the hospital because she has malaria and they need to put her on an IV with quinine. Jessie was devastated, the hospital is a fairly scary place... not to the standard of a western hospital, so we are just hoping that Baby Natalia will be OK.

Then with Children's Day, there is the hope that the clothes we are giving to the kids fit, that they will like the clothes we give them and that when lunch is served to the 2000 people that are coming to the center today there will not be riots (and that the chicken doesnt run out before the people all received). But it should be a fun day - and its for the kids, so I hope they enjoy it too!

Tomorrow will finally be a day off - after 11 straight days without a break I am sure ready for one!!! We are planning a trip to the beach, Murrebue, and just doing nothing all day!

My thoughts for today...

I'm back in Pemba, arrived monday night after getting the 1000 tennis balls I was waiting for. It is great to be back home! But things are totally chaotic here. I think I might want to cry. The sound systems are a wreck - I might have 1 working system... but I need 5 before next tuesday when the mission school starts. And the things I need to make it work are BIG things, like generators and speakers - not just little connectors or microphones. I'm so tired of buying new things and just them being messed up within 6 months - I feel like saying 'NO!!!' but I cant, cos then the evangelism wont be as effective/wont happen.

I looked at the sound room where I lock all the systems away. I had it nicely organized into sections, each system seperate. Now everything is just jumbled into one heap, broken and working together. I looked at the toolkits I have made up for the outreach teams - they are all empty, the tools just missing. I feel like just not bothering to replace the toolkits - let them suffer if something breaks when they are 5 hours into the bush in the middle of nowhere. Then maybe they wont steal it. Of course nothing was stolen, its just missing. Do I sound frustrated?

So now I am faced with the enormous task of getting it all sorted before Tuesday evening when the Mission School kicks off with an guest speaker from the States. Oh, and did I mention that I have to have one system working perfectly by tomorrow night so that nothing will go wrong when a film crew that is here at the moment can experience an evening bush outreach...???

Nearly Back in Pemba

Well here I am, 1 week later and only 5 hours before I get to Pemba!!! I am in Nampula at an internet cafe, wasting time... I have to buy 1000 tennis balls and they´ll only be ready at noon... so I have 3 hours to kill.  There is an interesting rock formation mountain thing with a little house ontop of it, so now I´m trying to figure out how to get up there! (hoping to find the info on the internet)

I´ll write a complete update of my journey up to Pemba, it was fairly interesting - made loads of detours, stayed in many places and of course drove a LOT! So keep an eye out for that!

Photo: Where I live: Centre 1

I came across this photo of Centre 1, my HOME in Pemba! It was taken by Will Hart, one of my fellow missionaries. (See their website)




1: My House where Jessie & I live with our puppy, Bala
2: 5 Appartments: Jacques and Mary, Dr Eric, Betty Johnson & the 2 Pedros' Appartments.
3: My Old House area (used for male Mission School housing)
4: My Old room (used for male Mission School housing)
5: The water tower
6: Mozambican staff housing & Accomodation for our older Mozambican boys (its all behind the baobab tree)
7: The Old church
8: Mantown - Long term missionary accomodation for guys
9: Housing for our Mozambicans Bible School Students
10: Katie & Octavia's House
11: Where Papa Joelie and Josham Live
12: Julio (Our Mozambican Administrator)
13: Norberto's room
14: Where Ania, Shara & Melissa live
15: The 'Elijah House' where Heath & Emie and their kids live
(also in that area, Doctor Angela's House)
16: The Parking area
17: Kent & Andrea
18: Will & Musy (and Baby Joshua)
19: Angela, Teisa & Yonnie
20: Old Administration Offices & Store rooms
21: The Old Kitchen (no longer used) - but this is where they deliver supper to our centre
22: Store Rooms
(The Hand-Pump well is located between 20 & 22)
23: The Generator

So there is where I call HOME!

My Helicopter Ride

OK so while I am waiting for the anti-malaria tablets to fully envelope my body with its potent anti-malaria mosquito formula I thought that I would tell you about the helicopter ride I had at the beginning of April while I was doing flood relief!

Just to recap the events leading up to the ride: I heard about an area called Malingapansi where apparently they had not received any food aid. This are was completely cut off, and only accessible by canoe, or helicopter. Thru some contacts at the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), a helicopter was arranged to take myself and an official from the Mozambican Disaster Management Agency (INGC) to make an assessment of the area. It would be my FIRST ever trip in a helicopter and I was very excited (and totally flabbergasted that it had actually been arranged and was going to happen!)

So the morning dawned bright and clear... I would know, I was awake. Not by choice believe me, that is just when the village wakes up! Miguel, my translator was going with me - I can speak Portuguese, but I'm not fluent enough to speak to government officials - and it is his first time to ever fly. So he was really excited too.

We had to meet at the 'White House'; a large white tent set up to be the Air Ops command centre, at 9am. It is staffed by South African Air Force personnel, and we sat and waited while they sorted out the paperwork for the flight. Our pilot asked me to point out Malingapansi on the map. Slight problem... I had NO idea where it was. No one actually knows exactly where is was, except the government administrator in Marromeu who had contacted us about the place! There was a slight uproar as the pilot tried to figure out in which direction we should fly!

When Colonel Fringe, the INGC representative arrived he solved the problem quickly: "We will fly to Marromeu and get directions there". Simple as pie!

They called the helicopter 'Augusta', I thought that was weird until I realized that was cos it was an 'Augusta'!


~Augusta MH68 Helicopter~

The rotor blades started spinning and we had lift-off. It felt like I was in a car, except for the fact that I was hovering above the ground. That was until the pilot suddenly made a mad dash for the fueling station just a 100m away, then it stopped feeing like a car and started feeling very much like I thought a helicopter should! After we had re-fueled we headed to Marromeu, skimming along quite close to the water, following the twists of the Zambezi river. We saw hippopotami!! And there were many canoes in the water, the people fishing - they looked up and waved, some jumping up and down excitedly (the people in the canoes wernt jumping up and down... these bouncy people where on sand banks in the middle of the river). We were flying so low, so they could see us wave back at them! :-)

It seriously felt like I was travelling in a car! We arrived in Marromeu, circled and landed in an open field next to the road. Within seconds we had what felt like half the town lining the roads on all sides, and the Deputy administrator arrived on his bicycle 2 minutes later. The Administrator who had told us about Malingapansi was not in town today, but the Deputy was able to give us directions to get there:

"Just go straight towards that tree, and then after a while you will see big flat plains. Go across them. Then you will get to a bend in the river, and you must turn right, then you will see some buildings. That is Malingapansi."

The pilot wasn't impressed to say the least, and he went to fetch a map, hoping that the Deputy would at least be able to point out on the map which grid block Malingapansi was in.

There was some 'oooing and aaaing' as they tried to figure out which way was north, but finally the deputy pointed at a block on the map and said, 'There'. So now we had a general direction that was a bit more specific than the directions we'd been given!

The kids who had dared come closer to 'Augusta' scattered as the blades started moving. We were strapped in and ready to go. After a few minutes in the air we crossed the plains, and finally we saw some buildings. The pilot circled twice trying to find a field big enough to land in, and by the time we had landed the WHOLE village was there! The doors opened and the village chief ran forward. Colonel Fringe asked the vital question, "Is this Malingapansi?". "YES", came the reply.

We had made it - the chief led us down the main road (the only road) towards the brick administration office.


~The Main Road in Malingapansi~

There was a flag pole in front of it, proudly flying the Mozambican flag. I won't go into detail about what our assessment was, You can read about the that here.

By the time the meeting was done, all the chiefs of the 10 other villages had arrived, and all had huge toothless grins, everyone wanting to shake our hands, and each asking "How do you do?" (in Portuguese of course). This was a HUGE honor for them! The meeting over, we were lead back to the helicopter, our entourage of the whole village following us back. The now 'back to nearly normal level' Zambezi River was quite running close to the road, and I imagine that this whole area had been underwater during the worst of the flooding.

The engine on, the crowd scattered, and we lifted off for the last time.


~Lift off from Malingapansi~

The pilots set the course home and we flew high above the earth, the trees specks against the green of the grassy plains. It seemed like the trip back was faster than the flight out, and in no time we could see Caia in the distance (its quite a large town actually!).


~A small part of Caia from the Air~

Back on the ground we got out quickly, the engine still running, and by the time we got to the edge of the runway only a few steps away and turned around, 'Augusta' had disapeared; off to go refuel and go on another mission.

It was fun, quite an experience - Not something that I ever imagined I'd do when I signed up for the Flood Relief, but really cool!

Gettin Better

Tuesday, May 15, 2007
OK here is an update! I am pretty much recovered now. I woke up 3 days ago and I felt sorta normal... the pain had mostly gone (my skin had been very painful to the touch), the swelling had gone down loads and I could get out of bed without having to rest for 2 minutes first! Everyday since then I have been improving.

I have started swimming at a local gym (since monday), taking it slowly, and I can feel the difference in my energy levels already, which is, after 3 weeks of feeling SO sick, really wonderful.

So, at the rate I'm going I should be well enough to leave early next week for the 40 hours of driving it will take to get back to my house in Pemba!

*****************************************

Friday, May 11, 2007
I am out of hospital now and doing MUCH better. Still pretty sore & tired, and my body is working hard getting all the 'nasty' out of my system, but I can feel that I'm getting better each day. I sure wont be travelling to moz again without anti-malaria tablets!!! You kinda get lax when you've been there for over a year, it stops being an 'exciting safari' and more day to day life - and taking a tablet everyday gets kinda annoying. But from now on I'll take them, everyday!

So for now I am just resting - from the day I start the malaria tablets its takes 2 weeks to fully protect my system, so I am aiming to leave South Africa 2 weeks from now. I probably wont be going back to the flood area - things have quietened down quite a bit and I am told that the sound systems in Pemba are in some need of serious TLC!

In Hospital... AGAIN!

I was discharged from hospital with a clean(ish) bill of health last tuesday (the malaria parasites were dead), but was readmitted on friday night again. The cerebral malaria had affected my spinal cord which caused numbness and weakness in my arms and a constant horrible headache. This is only the 2nd case like this that my doctor (a specialist in tropical diseases) had seen this year, and apparently its very rare.

The malaria has also caused the red blood cells in the very teeny tiny blood capillaries to clump together and the doc described the red cells as 'sludgy' - this just affects the availability of oxygen to my limbs and brain, causing pain and discomfort.

The neurologist is treating me on Cortisone, and I am feeling so much better today! I have energy and for the first time in 2 weeks I actually am starting to feel better! I have an appetite now, and was contemplating a walking tour of the hospital... but maybe later!

My specialist doctor will see me again on monday (he was off for a well deserved break this weekend) and then between the two of them they will see what else needs to be done.

So I am (hopefully) on the road to recovery and maybe my next post will be an update from my home in Pemba!

Importing my 4x4 (Not!)

I have interesting news for ya'll, apparently (according to the Mozambican Customs Officials) this is a prime example of a DOUBLE CAB 4x4:


Pray tell, where do you see a second row of doors?

Anyways, they wanted 35% import tax on my "luxury double cab 4x4", either that or I could pay 5% import tax and a 20% bribe to them, thereby 'SAVING' myself 10%...when in fact I should only have pay a 5% import tax on a single cab 4x4. So I've just refused to pay the bribe money, not out of principle, but dang it - I could really use that money for myself!!!

Africa is so CORRUPT!

SO, after much much much hassle and frustration I am not going to import my 4x4 to Mozambique. It will stay a South African registered vehicle and instead I will get a year temporary import permit or 'Carnet de Passage' from the AA.

We only found out about this option in the last few days, but becuase of the conditions of this CDP I may not apply for Residency in Mozambique , which means that I still have to either exit the country every month, or extend my visa every month for 3 months at the local Immigration Office before having to exit the country. A hassle, but an oh so wonderful excuse to have a short break every three months (granted the cost of buying airtickets from Pemba to either South Africa/Kenya/Tanzania/Zimbabwe/Malawi every 3 months aint that great!... plus accomodation, transport and visas... So I usually just come to South Africa and stay at my parents' house)

So hopefully this is where my car saga ends...

Malawi to Pretoria in 4 Days...

So now we had given out the last of our food and were planning to head back to Dondo to restock, but my visa and car papers were about to expire, so I scheduled a quick trip up to Malawi to 'go around the flag pole' and get everything renewed for another month. Getting from Caia to Malawi should not really be too hard, the map says its only about 90km... that is 90km of dirt roads, potholes, washed away bridges and a 3.7km long train bridge across the Zambezi. The train bridge has been used as a vehicle bridge for the last few years, but recently work has started to repair the bridge and railway... I went to the WFP office to find out the opening times for vehicles crossing the bridge (the UN have made an agreement to allow food aid to be trucked across at certain times) and I was told it opens at 7am, and again at 12noon. All sorted, we will leave Caia at 5:50am and be at the bridge at 7am when it opens.

The next morning, FRIDAY, 06:55 we arrive at the bridge. The guy operating the boom looked at us and said, "Sorry the bridge is closed now, it opens again at 12." Oh no! But its 06:55!!! I pointed this little fact out to him and said the brige should open in 5mins, and he said "no, it CLOSES at 7am!" I am determined to cross the bridge, even if I have to pay the guy. "It is still 5 mins before 7am, we can cross in 5mins, no problem, PLEASE!"... He looks at me and opens the boom! YEAH! I didnt have to pay a bribe or nothing.

The drive across was pretty cool, its a LONG bridge and your wheels straddle the old iron tracks, they have packed planks of wood for you to drive over, it sounds interesting too!

When we get to the other side the boom is locked, but the guy is there and he opens for us. I roll down my window and double check the opening time for going back to Caia. He confirms that it opens at 12noon. He thinks I'm slightly crazy to be going to Malawian border and coming straight back again.

Finally I get to the Moz border and do all the paperwork, then I drive the 4km to the Malawian borderpost and pay all I have to pay, get stamped into the country. I told them I'll be back in 15mins and then I drove 3km to the first town, and there dropped Tor, a Norwegian guy who had been helping with the flood relief in Morrumbala, and who was now going to be hitchhiking thry Malawi. When I returned to the border within 15mins they laughed at me, and proceeded to stamp my car and me out the counrty. I drove the 4km back to the Moz side and redid all the paperwork and paid all the entry fees. Yeah, I was legal for another month! I picked up Miguel (the translator) who had waited at the Moz side for me and we headed back to Caia.

We were just within cellphone reception when my phone rang, it was my father, he had received a message from our Administrator in Maputo, the guy who was dealing with the import of my vehicle - Francisco wanted me to be in Maputo on Monday morning early!

I text the guys in Caia, told them to pack up and be ready to leave for Dondo at 1pm when I got there. Get to the bridge at 11:30am and wait till 12 for them to open it. 12 comes and goes, 12:15... the boom operator wanders to the car and says, "Oh they are still working, we will open in maybe 30mins" GRRRR! 12:45... still nothing happening, then the boom guy wanders over again, carrying some green plastic containers, "Can you give this to the guy at the other side, its his lunch"... Of course no problem, does that mean they're going to open the bridge now? Of course not, silly me, when they say 12noon, its secret code for 1:15pm. I really must remember that!

Finally we get over the bridge, over an hour late. I still have to get to Caia, load the rest of the team and then its a 5 hour drive back to Dondo, and I wasn't keen to drive at night, the road is badly potholed and also when its dark the Mozambicans are attracted to the road like moths to a candle. Loads of foot traffic and only about 1 in 50 bicycles have reflectors, and NON of the pedestrians wear reflective clothing, even when they are walking in the road, in the middle of the road. SCARY. So I dont like driving at night.

We ended up only arriving in Dondo at 7:30pm, so tired!!! It was a long day for me, and if I was to be in Maputo for Monday there was still quite a lot of driving ahead.

SATURDAY morning I load the car and set off for Inhambane, its 8 hours away and appart from the bit before Dondo the road is good. (OK and the bit before Inhambane is bad too). I am driving alone, I had my music and a thermos of strong coffee so I was fine. I stay at a place in Lindela (Quinta de Saint Antonio), a guest house on the main road run by a couple from South Africa - Good clean chalet to myself, with hot running water and a decent bed - they even had sattelite TV and a DVD player with some DVDs. It was amazing!

SUNDAY morning I had a late start, its only about 4 or 5 hours to Maputo. I stopped in the next town to refuel and just as I left the gas station I was still in the town, so I slowed down to 60km/h, after the town ended I didnt see a 100km/h board so I figured it must have been stolen, but there were no houses so I saw no reason to drive slowly. I got to my usual speed of 140km/h and watched the scenery flash by. I was going down a hill and just around the corner, ahead in the road, hidden from view was a police car and 4 cops! They couldnt see me yet, but I could clearly see them from above. Thats when I realised that this was still a 60 zone. I hit the brakes and as I came around the corner I was innocently crawling along at 45km/h. They were in the road radar gun outreached as they painted my car. I could see the disapointment on their faces as they retreated! Score 1 for me, 0 for them. YEAH!

Straight after I passed the cops I was crossed a lagoon which I think is the most beautiful part in all of Mozmabique, the ocean is going into a lagoon (with a low brige across the water) and its very shallow there, so the water is crystal clear and there are dead tree stumps sticking up out of the water. The water is a turquiose light blue, but its clear clear clear, with palm trees lining the shore in the distance. Its a gorgeous view, my favorite. Should remember to stop and take a picture next time...

I arrived in Maputo in good time - I always stay at the Iris Children's center in Zimpeto (They also suffered some damage with the recent bombing when an old military ammunition dump exploded - but no fatalities).

MONDAY - I went to see the customs people early the morning, they wanted to take some photos of my car to work out if it is a single or a double cab... its obviously a single cab but ITS the clearing agents made a mistake when they inspected my car and now its causing a LOT of hassle for me - ITS refuses to change their mistake and the Mozambican officials see this as a perfect opportunity to line their pockets with some extra cash... So they took their photos and discussed and finally said that they will have a final answer for me on Thurday...

I got back to the Zimpeto base and right there and then decided that I might as well go to South Africa. Visions of Dros' 1kg rack of ribs floated before me and I swear I could even smell the bbq basting...

After a quick oil change (my father nearly had a fit when he heard that I hadnt changed the oil yet, and I had driven 14000km, apparently I had to change the oil every 7500km. OOPS!) I set off for Pretoria. I left at 3pm, and I arrived at 10pm. Not bad, hope there were no speed cameras!

Distribution

Well finally after a week of running around in cirlces we got some food to people in need! There was a village where some people had lost their farms, and a few their houses, but so far they where not on any official lists and the only way we heard about them was thru our church in the area.

5am, dawn has hardly broken and we are on the road to scout out the village where we are going to go do distribution later that day... We got back to the base at about 8am!

First hurdle: Getting a 4 ton truck. I had an agreement with the one that was delivering stone to the construction site where we are building the church, he was to arrive at 8am the next morning. When he didnt show at 8:10 I decided to find another one, but there were none to be found, not at the usual camiao hire area, nor at the ferry. Just then a team from America who had driven up from South Africa arrived and I had to go meet them, so I sent Chris to go find a truck. He found one and it 'quickly' went off to fill up with diesel...haha. After about 30mins I went to find it. It had a flat and was trying to find a spare...

Eventually we make it to the WPF warehouse and load the truck with 4 tons of maize flour and 100kg beans... then the fun began! We were about 30km out of Caia, down a little footpath when we came across a little muddy puddle/stream that we had to cross. I got thru easily but the truck, well it kinda got stuck! We first tried towing him with his old frayed rope, then I remembered I had a good tow rope in my car, it was only goot for up to 5tons, but I thought to give it a try anyways. Well it broke. So then the African way of doing it started. We used the broken tow rope (now sorta fixed), the other broken frayed rope (now fixed) and another rope I had with me and they tied these 3 ropes more than once between my car and the truck. Then we got 50 guys to push while my car pulled. It was quite a sight and with a great heave-ho the truck was un-stuck! It was not moments later, while turning into the drive of the church property that the truck fell prey to the deep sand. We were only about 200 meters from the church so I drove to and fro with my car carrying 1 ton at a time until the truck was empty. Then we had to do the whole towing thing again! Then to top it all off, basically whenever the truck stalled it had to be push-started... or in my case, pull-started, so that was quite fun, interesting to say the least.

While all this driving and towing and pull-starting was happening the pastor was in the church preaching, so when I got there the distribution was ready to start. We personally gave food to about 100 families in the hour and half we were there, but then it was starting to get dark and I wasnt keen to get lost in the myriad of foot paths there were around this area.

We got home at 6pm, a full 13 hour work day for me!

Then today we gave out the last of the food, there were 5 churches that were affected and we sent messangers to 4 of them to let them know to come to Caia to receive food. The 5th church was too far away for people to easily walk, so we went to them. It was a surprise visit, they had not been expecting us so it took quite a while to gather them - so we dropped the food and showed them the portions to give and we left to go do the distribution in Caia 'city'. Some of these 4 churches that were coming to us were still in-accessabile by car, so it was a good thing they came to us.

They started arriving early, but 9am there were already a number of people waiting for the distribution that was due to start in the afternoon. We arrived back from the morning distribution at about 1:30, and immediately started giving out food to these people. It kept us busy till about 4, and each family received about 12kg maize flour, 1 kg beans and 1 litre oil.

We are quite tired now, its exhausting work, but so fulfilling!

What I found in Malingapansi

Malingapansi District

Assessment Report

This is an isolated area located between tributaries of the Zambezi River. During the floods they were classed as an official refugee center until end of February, after which time the people we relocated to higher ground fairly quickly. Because they were no longer classed as a camp, they were removed from the official lists requiring assistance. The people are living in their houses again, but all the crops have been destroyed and they have been unable to obtain food, except for the bit they have in their yards, or from trees in the area.

The following is an outline report made on April 5, by Nikki Wheeler of Iris Ministries, and a representative of the INGC, Colonel Raimundo Fringe. The assessment was made with the assistance of the South African Air Force, by who provided transport by helicopter to Malingapansi.

Population: 7500 (±1800 families)
Distribution: 10 Villages forming the Malingapansi District:
Sorcace Muligo
Chilolo
Nhaminaze
Nhamangowe
Mazungo
Daude
Nhando
Milombe
Luawe
Ndode

Location: S18 40 .44 | E 036 06 30

Accessibility: By boat and by helicopter only. Roads are impassable.

Flood Damage: 1500 lands containing crops were lost, as well as farming implements. No human casualties.

Previous assistance by INGC:
March 10 – 800kg sugar, 200 mosquito nets
They have never received any maize flour, beans or oil

Food available at present:
Bananas, sweet potato and cassava

Facilities:
Hospital staffed by nurse and medical technician. Emergency care is available in Marromeu, 2 hours away by canoe.

Schools are operational in each of the 10 areas.

Administrative post.

No electricity.

No cellular phone reception.

Requests:
Food: Maizemeal, oil, beans, milk
Equipment: Boat, farming impletments
Seed
Limited water available for drinking, more wells and/or purification (Certeza/PuR)
This district is very isolated, so regular food drops would be un-economical.

Possible Plan of Action:
Hire a BARGE to transport:

37.5 metric tons maize meal
1.8 metric tons oil
1.9 metric ton beans

Distribution from a central point – people will come to collect food in smaller groups, provide own transport.

Costs involved:
Maize meal =5 kg per person = $10 613
Oil = 1Litre per family = $2505
Beans: 1kg per family = $1886
Transport from Beira to Caia = $1500
Barge Hire per day - 3 days = $3000
Other Overheads = $500
Total Cost = $20 000

Total cost per family = ±$11.11

*****
I met with the INGC today, and the director of operations for this area, Mr Tambiri, has decided that because of the unofficial status of this District, they would prefer that Iris Ministries' resources be elsewhere employed. Should we want to pursue this endeavor, we would have to do it without the assistance of the WFP, INGC and other local government organizations. (Which would be very difficult to do.)

This is very sad for me, but I respect their decision and will wait till Monday to receive instructions as to where we will be distributing the 15 metric tons of maize flour, 300KG beans and oil we currently have with us.

Helicopter

I have a warm bucket bath every morning - They have a little outdoor latrine area with a drain so it doubles as a bathroom, its made out of bricks, and when I stand up straight I think people can see the top of my head. Its quite cold early in the morning, everything comes to life at 5am, and I finally capitulate and get out of bed at 6. Disrobing in the cold outdoors is quite interesting, and I think that if a helicopter flies past they would see everything! But there is something really refreshing about being outside so early, and when it started raining while I was bathing this morning it just made it more interesting! We are being fed SO well, Pastor Phombo's wife is cooking all our meals - we've had chicken stew, fried fish, beans with bush-rat meat (interesting!) grilled chicken and of course rice. They even gave us maize meal, Shima, yesterday! Its first class hospitality, so amazing! The village itself is quite quiet actually, I havn't felt clausterphobic at all - the people have respected our 'space' - and staying in the storeroom is SO much better than living in a tent!

Then in a different world, just down the road there are meetings meetings and more meetings. Running around in a circle becuase NO ONE seems to know anything about the camp where there are apparently 10 000 people! Finally I spoke to Julia, my contact at the WFP, and mentioned that if no one else knows anything, then maybe we could rent a helicopter to go see whats what. She said I should wait till the meetings that afternoon to see what people know. At the first meeting when I raised my question the INGC and a guy from the Mozambican Army said, 'there is NO official camp in that area', so I said, 'well there might be an unofficial camp and if there is then Iris would like to go help them...' There were officials grumbling, they said they would check it out, and then the meeting was over. I pulled the INGC official aside and asked when I would be able to have an answer about Maringapaz. He said, well come to the next meeting you can ask about helicopters there. OK... I quickly drive to the UN House and plug my computer into the electricity. I only have 20mins before the meeting starts and I really need to re-charge my mac! The 20mins over and I have 3 mins to get to the meeting I have a bright idea - Miguel my translator wouldn't be needed for the next meeting because there are many others who cannot speak Portuguese so there will be a general translator! "Miguel, would you mind waiting here with my computer? I will be back in an hour or so..." He was more than willing - incidentally he even had his cellphone and the charger with him, so he was happy to be able to charge it.

When I got to the meeting they were all still standing around outside: WFP, World Vision, Feed the Hungry, Moz Army, INGC... waiting for the representative of 'Air' - he arrived, an affable Frenchman who is actually a Sea Captain... but now in charge of logistics for the 3 helicopters and 1 Caravan plane they have here in Caia.

Each person brought their daily report, 'Barges', 'Road', and finally 'Air'. He rattled off the figures of what had happened that day, then moved on the what was scheduled for the next day. "...World Vision food drops...., INGC scouting..., Arco-Íris..." WHAT? I was on the schedule? WOW. There was some consternation and the Army guy was adamant that there was NO camp in Maringapaz. INGC concurred. But I was on the schedule! I helpfully tried to give the army guy the phone number of the Administrator who had contacted us with the news, but he had his number already. Finally it was decided that even if the Administrator couldnt be reached we would go anyways. They asked me who was going from Iris, so I picked: Myself (naturally) and Miguel (translator). It is apparently only a little chopper, space for pilot plus 3. We will be meeting the administrator in Marromeu, then continuing on to see the actual vilage.

So lets see how it goes!

Caia - Logistics

We are in Caia, finally made it - we bought 15tons of milled corn in Beira and hired a truck to bring it up to Caia. We thought he had left at 11am, but when we arrived in Caia at 4pm that afternoon he was still in Beira!!! HE had decided to have lunch, take a nap and have a bath... so, we will not be hiring him again! They kindly called me the minute they arrived - at 5am. Not impressed. But we got permission to use the huge storehouses of the World Food Programme to store the food for free, so that is really good.

We are staying at Pastor Phombo's house, Lois and I are sleeping in one of the 2 storerooms, and the guys have pitched the tents in the old church.

There are things to do before we can actaully go hand out the food - first we have to check in with the INGC and see if the place we have chosen needs help, who has been there, what has been done etc. We want to go to Maringapans, a town accessible only by plane/helicopter. But no one here seems to have any info about them! There is a meeting later today where I will try and see if any of the other NGOs have info, else I will ask about the possibility of scheduling a helicopter to take us out there to 'recon' the place! Its all quite exciting really.

I am writing this blog at the UN WFP headquarters - they have electricity and internet!

There is lots to do, but I am learning to slow down and just relax a lot more!

Yesterday I got another speeding fine just outside Caia. 89 in a 60 zone... I got out my car with the 1000mets in my hand. They were still telling me that I was speeding when I cheerfully said 'Please may I have a fine?' They laughed at me took the money and then started writing the receipt... suddenly they closed the book, gave me my license and the 1000mets and said 'go by yourself a coke or something...' WHAT? they were just letting me go. SO that was pretty snazzy!

Shopping

Day 2 of the shopping spree in Dondo went well and I have very little to report... No fines, only a bit of harassment by the police and I think know Beira inside out now! I decided that the original list was too little - that would only cater for about 200 families )±1000 people), so I upped it all to 1000 of everything, so now we can help 1000 families (±5000 people). I plan to go up to Chupanga next week - there is still one camp open, and the WFP have asked that we continue helping there. We want to work with hem and the INGC, so we dont butt heads and cover people who have already received food that week. Once we give out all we have we'll just have to come to Beira and start shopping again!

So all is well, I spent today just resting - 2 of our volunteer visitors packed 1000 plastic carrier bags with all the stuff I bought: 1 candle, 4 boxes of matches, 1 bar of soap, 1 litre of oil, 1 cup and 1 plate! It took them quite a wahile!

We are also looking at buying another 4 ton truck, in the meantime I'm organizing a 15ton truck to go with us to Chupanga and buy 1000 latas (15tonnes) of corn to distribute there! The owner has given us a fantastic offer: Dondo - Chupanga for 17 000mets (±$650), on the condition we dont want a receipt - SO, this one will be a hand-written receipt! Usually trucks from Beira to Caia cost between $800 - $1000, so this is a great price!

Logistics, logistics... what fun!

Crazy day

We went shopping today. I have a little list, with only a few things on it:

5 bulk boxes of boxes of matches
10 bulk boxes of candles
1 tonne of beans
30 bulk boxes of oil
1000 plastic plates
1000 plastic cups
20 bulk boxes of soap bars
10 rolls of thick black plastic

All I managed to buy after 5 hours in Beira were the plates, cups and plastic rolls!

And I got another speed fine on the way in... the roads are badly marked, so I was just driving when the policeman jumped out and stopped me. Apparently it was a 60 zone, but I really didnt see any signs! Oh well, its 1000 mets, about $44. They didnt have a receipt book so they gave me the fine and said I should go pay it in town, they'll keep my license until then, so I set off into town. When I finally got to the police station the guy who writes the receipts was out to lunch! *sigh* so we drove to Air Corridor to get a ticket for Jessie who has to go back to Pemba tomorrow, and I parked outside the office. I had just gone inside when I saw a policeman go to the car. It apparently was a no-park zone and I had just received a 3000met fine (over $100) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! My pleads of, 'I'm sorry I've only been parked for 1min I'll move the car and not ever ever ever do it again' got me nowhere.

So I moved the car and when I got back the cop took me to go see the 'big boss'. I had a translator with me and we were halfway up the stairs when I begged again for him to just let us go, but he said 'No the big boss saw me talking to you, he knows you have to pay the fine' *sigh* then the cop says something to Miguel (my translator)... 'if you give him 20 he will let us go' ooh a bribe. mmmm 20 mets (less than $1) vs. 3000mets (over $100)... YEAH for 3rd world corruption. I paid the bribe. My first one ever. It was interesting. And cheaper.

moving on: I had bought the black plastic and the plates & cups when it was time to go home, well nearly - just have to stop at the traffic police again to pay the speeding ticket. We got there and found that the guy who writes the receipts had gone home for the day, AND that apparently you can only pay fines in the morning. SO my license is sleeping there tonight.

It was an interesting day, and I hope tomorrow will be less interesting... I'm getting the hang of the road rules here in Beira - they're kinda wierd, for example, if you are in the circle/roundabout you have to stop to let the people from the side streets in. But not always. And there are potholes to dodge, and the cars in the lane with the pothole will randomly swerve into your lane to dodge the hole, so you have to watch out for that too! Crazy!

Dondo

I am in Dondo! I drove down with my housie, Jessie... It was fun. 2 girls chillin watching the scenery pass by :-)

We were meant to leave early sunday morning, but Saturday I woke up feeling really really really bad! I think it was food poisoning, so I was in bed for the whole day, sunday I wasnt feeling that great, and so monday I just rested. So we ended up leaving for the 2 day trip early tuesday morning instead.

We stayed in Mocuba overnight, so we did 11 hours yesterday and then 9 hours today... I'm getting tired of driving... Mozambique is so looooong and streched out, and I think the roads are worse in the north than in the south - esp the bit just before Dondo, there is literally nowhere that you can drive without hitting a hole, so in the end I gave up trying and just drove straight, its SO bad for the car!

But anyways - Dondo is great - they have hot running water!!! And a Shoprite (grocery store). So we went shopping and got ingredients for a salad. yummy! There is a bad cholera outbreak in Pemba right now, so we had to be really careful about fresh fruit and veggies, so the salad I had for dinner tonight was especially nice!

I will write an update on the flood relief soon - we are going out tomorrow to go shopping for blankets, candles and other things that are not available in the villages - I'm not sure when we plan to head out, probably in the next few days! But I'll keep you posted.

Sand...

I am trying to enjoy my time here in Pemba to the full. So far I've spent all my time sorting out my house, dealing with small issues that pop up and planning on my up coming time down by the floods.

My friends and I planned a bonfire on the beach out near our other base in Maranganha, and we set out at 4:30pm to stop by the Dolphin to get takeout (chicken kebabs) before driving the 20mins it took to get to where Travis had been collecting driftwood. He was waiting for us, and after the wood was loaded it was dark. We set off down the sandy 2-track path next to the beach, looking for the perfect spot to park and make a fire. It was only about 5mins later that I spotted the perfect spot. The road veered to the right, and just to the left was a space for the car to park with a sandy patch for the fire! I drove off the road and onto the firm looking 'parking space' Just as I was about to stop the whole car started tipping to the left. The sand was giving way and it really felt like the car was just going to roll over! My stomach was in my throat and I just kept driving, trying to get out of the deep soft sand and onto firm ground. Finally the wheels just started spinning and the car wouldn't move. But at least we weren't rolling, and the guys got out to assess the predicament.

'Reverse back and it will be fine' So I reverse and we are fine, all is good. Now to just get back onto the road. Josham walked forward and checked out the road and decided that it looked like going straight forward wouldn't work, I should rather turn to the right and cross to the road there. I did as he said. The wheels started spinning frantically and I was wedged fast in the sand! We tried everything: we dug the wheels free, we placed sticks under the wheels for traction, we racked our brains trying to get the car out of the sand! Finally Josham gets down on his hands and knees and looks under the car. The car was no longer resting on its 4 wheels, instead the belly of the car was resting on the sand! No wonder we weren't able to drive out!

I had a spade and 2 plastic dinner plates. We started digging! An hour and a half later we had completely cleared the sand out from under the car, we had moved half a mountain of sand and we were totally covered with is: our hair, our clothes, even in our mouths! Our hands and fingers ached from the digging - it truly was a workout.

We packed more sticks under the wheels, we prayed then Josham got behind the wheel and we all pushed from the back. The car started, the engine revved and with a mighty lurch the car moved forward and onto the road!!!

That was SUCH a relief to be free!

We decided to have the fire anyways, I mean we were here now! So we built a big fire and sat around it eating our lukewarm kebabs, and roasting marshmallows to make s'mores (2 cookies filled with a block of chocolate and the roasted marshmallow. Its squished together to form a sandwich. - very yummy). But it was a fun evening, I enjoyed it... I guess I can only learn from this experience!

@ home

Well I made it back to Pemba in 3 days! It was quite a hectic drive - at least the roads are fairly good so we could cover large distances daily.

Day 1
11 hours: Maputo - Muxungue...
I was cruising along, carefully slowing down to 60km/h at every village, honking at the odd chicken that chose the very moment I passed to run across the road. Near one such village I was slowing down, trying to find the best bush to make a pitstop at, when suddenly I see a policeman waving me down. He sticks the radar gun into the car and says 'you speed, you have to pay fine, 1000 meticais' (approx. $50). *sigh* I had been doing 68 in a 60 zone. SHOCK HORROR! So I had to pay the fine. While paying the fine the officer asked if he could marry me, but I politely declined and went on my way.

We reached Inhassoro where we had planned to stay the night, but it was still early so we decided to head to Muxungue and see what accommodation they had there. We found a really nice 'motel' - 5 wendy houses each with 2 beds and an en-suite bathroom - they even had running water!! The price wasn't too bad so I got one house, but my travelling buddy struck a deal with the owner to stay in his house for cheaper - but he ended up sleeping in the storeroom! I found it fairly amusing.

Day 2
13 hours: Muxungue - Alto Molucue
We crossed the mighty Zambezi today - driving through again Caia was great - the water levels have gone done SO much - all the areas that had previously been accessible only by boat could now be crossed on foot with relative ease. It was shocking to see how deep the water had been though - and all the crops that had been in the valley is totally gone, a few lone corn stalks stuck up here and there as a reminder of what had been.

The road were TERRIBLE, especially between Mocuba and Alto Molucue. Potholes, long dusty detours and more potholes. It was SO bumpy!

When we got to Alto Molucue it was dark already, so we stopped at the local diesel pump and asked the attendant where the best hotel/motel/guesthouse was. He pointed us in the general direction and we headed into the town to find it. But they were full... My ever resourceful travelling buddy asked, ' could we pitch our tents in the yard?' 'Mmm', the lady considered it, and for a very small fee we camped next to the 4x4 in the dusty parking lot! But it was good, was the first time that I used my brand new tent, and it worked very well!

Day 3
9 hours: Alto - Molucue - Pemba
A smooth day's driving, very short! The roads were good and it was WONDERFUL to be home!

Now I'm in Pemba till the 24th, then I'll be heading back down to Dondo (Caia) to help with flood relief. We are expecting 10 containers of food soon and we have to work out the logistics of distributing it amongst the thousands of people still without homes.

...and off I go!

I am on my way to PEMBA!!! Finally after a 3 month absence I will see my friends, my house and my dog again! I'm SO excited!

My 4x4 is packed to the roof with stuff - bags and bags (and bags and bags) of groceries for me, airplane mechanic tools for our resident plane mechanic, 80kgs of dogfood for my puppy, a bag we have named 'behemoth' for my housie, boxes and boxes of books for our Bible School in Pemba, a generator, 2 large speakers, microphones, and a mixing desk (basically a full sound system) for the Iris base in Chimoio, a keyboard for the Iris base in Dondo, a gate for my house, more bags of groceries for my fellow missionaries, large storage boxes for another missionary, a microwave (for me), 5 LARGE bags of clothes donated for the flood victims, and last but not least: 4 jerry cans of fuel for my truck!

We are leaving at 5am on Saturday morning, and my ETA is either LATE Monday night, or lateish on Tuesday night...

Here is my planned route (for those of you who wish to look it up on a map):

Sat 17 : Maputo - Inhassoro
Sun 18 : Inhassoro, across the Zambezi by ferry - Mocuba
Mon 19: Mocuba - Pemba

Please pray for a safe, hassle-free journey!

On the Road Again

Finally I am on my way again - my car's import papers are STILL not totally sorted out, but things have progressed a bit in the right direction - so I'm hopeful that I'll get my Mozambican license plates and registration papers this week still.

I have been on the road for the past 2 days, accompanying Betty Johnson (our wonderful can-do-anything missionary) on a trip down to Durban in South Africa - we had to go collect the workbooks/syllabus for our Bible Schools in Mozambique. We loaded 25 A3 size boxes and 5 A2 size boxes filled with thousands of books! My 4x4 was up to the test and carried the extra 3/4 ton very well. Then we left this morning and 10hours later we are at the Iris appartment in Nelspruit, a stone throw from the Mozambican border. Tomorrow we will be sorting the books and re-packing them to be transported to our 3 different bible schools across the country! (Maputo, Dondo & Pemba).

Thursday we head off the Maputo, where I will attempt to speed up the registration process for the truck (my 4x4). I just wanna go HOME! I miss my dog (Bala), and all my friends!!! Its been 3 months now since I was in my little house - everything's probably full of mildew by now... mmm that reminds me, I really must remember to ask my housemate to clean my room for me!.... :-P

I've been trying to get my car imported for over a month now - one of the longest most frustrating experiences in my life - but it will all be worth it in the end - Once I've driven up to Pemba I will drive back down to the Zambezi pretty much straight away, and team lead one of the Relief teams in Dondo, so my 4x4 will have many more miles on the odo by the time I'm finally back up in Pemba for good!

Life's NEVER dull (frustrating yes, dull no) when you're a missionary with Iris!