Niassa Outreach - Dec 2007

So, just over a year ago I went on a 2 week extended outreach to Niassa Province BUT I never blogged about it! So here it is now... just over 356 days later!

This is what I journaled way back then... "Extended outreach totally blew me away. after I had decided that I would take the plunge and go, I heard that there would only be 2 teams: one to Nampula prov, and the other in Cabo Delgado. I really wanted to go to Niassa, so I was disapointed, but I'd comitted to co-leading a team so I would just go. I saw carlos one day about a week before outreach and randomly said that I wanted to go on whichever team he was on. He said,' That would be great, I'm going to Niassa Province" I nearly jumped up and down with joy! I finally had the opportunity to go to Niassa. So exciting - and then I met my team. Co-leading with me was Jarod and Erica, the 2 HG students that to me had stood out the most for their leadership qualities and ability to have FUN. So I was really happy. I didnt really know the others on my team, but I figured that I would get to know them pretty quickly (trauma bonding!). We also had a really good team of Mozambicans going with us, as translators, worship leaders and cooks.

We were:
Carlos Wacha: Fearless Leader


Erica Grimaldi: Co-Leader


Jarod Ely: Co-Leader


Ruth Donaldson: Keeper of the Cash


Ruth Alexander: Assistant to the Cooks


Rosalind Walker


Sharon Ridenour: First Aid/Nurse


Kara Rowley: Midwife (you never know!)


Jessica Wereley


Stephanie Mueller: Assistant to the Cooks


Emilee Johnson


Marisa Gourley


Don Foster


Lopes Mozambique: Our Driver


Johnny: Worship & Translation


Egas: Translator


Lazaro: Worship


Assane: Cook


Antonio Balanca: Cook


Teresa: Cook


and of course me: Token Missionary, co-leader and Sound Person
.

Using the adage that "A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words" I have decided to tell the story of the adventure with photos!


Team Niassa!



We camped in villages...



...and we camped near the mountains



And I slept in my pickup most of the time (until the generator leaked and I had to evacuate!


Many an hour was spent in the back of this camião


And some of the time was spent behind it too!


It was a long and dusty road


As I just said"It was a long and dusty road"...


A desperate effort to keep the dust at bay!



We were there to spread the Good News


Dancing...


Fighting off swarms of flying bugs...



...and Preaching our way across the Province


The outreaches served a dual purpose... Generator = Electricity!





We had the biggest, most airy kitchen in the world!



And our leftovers always went to the kids in the village


The man in the tree we called "Mango Man"... he was one of the Niassa Pastors who travelled with us, and he JUST ate mangos. All the time, breakfast, lunch, supper, snacks. For some reason he had a diarrhea problem...




It wasn't all just work work work - we had some down time too!




The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful


We spent 2 nights at the Iris base in Lichinga



Where we enjoyed CLEAN and airy bathroom facilities for the first time in a while...


We also took some time off to visit Lake Malawi (Lago Niassa)


But for the most part this was the first thing we saw in the morning...


:-) OK people lets do the Can-Can!




So there you have it - a quick look at our outreach. It was amazing, we saw miracles and healings and the team was just such a pleasure to be with! Truly one of the good memories I will treasure from my time here in Mozambique"

Jungle Fever!

This past week a team from SunWest Christian Fellowship in Alberta, Canada came and they built the most amazing Jungle Gym for our kids! The grand opening was last week friday, and even Heidi took a turn to play!







The kids absolutely love it!

Victor at the Beach

We had some beach fun at Murrebue the other day with 2 of our kids: Victor and Carlitos - my dad had sent a bright green inflatable tube with me, and we had a blast playing in the water with it. Victor absolutely loved it - he loved diving head first off of it too, so we had to watch him carefully! (Carlitos was scared of the green thing, we put him on it and he screamed! - so he went off and payed in the sand)

Jessie and Victor

It was quite windy, so we had hold on to the tube at all time, else it would have blown away!



We have also recently received some donations of beach play things - some shovels, buckets and a cute little water mill. I built a really cool sand castle - but the kids didnt see the sense in it - they were more interested in using the buckets to fetch water! Finally I dug a 'doorway' thru one of the castle walls and got the boys to pour water into the 'courtyard' and watch how it runs thru the door and out. They enjoyed that!


Victor playing in the sand


And of course, you can never leave a sand castle standing and Carlitos had a fantastic time stomping on the 4 castle turrets. It was great to get out and relax over the weekend!

50 years of being a CITY

This weekend Pemba celebrates the 50 year anniversary of being a city! They have been promoting the celebrations by driving a HUGE flatbed truck around town blasting out music.



I love the way that the speakers are tied to the back of the truck! :-)

Over this weekend there will be parades in town, and our 4 horses will also join in the fun...

Random Facts:
Pemba was founded by the Portuguese in 1904 - they called it Porto Amélia, but back then it was just a little town! Pemba was renamed in 1975 after Portugal granted Moçambique their independence. Pemba is also home to the 3rd largest (and deepest) natural bay in the world! (and it has been my home for the past 3 years!)

Accounting 101: Payroll

While our wonderful Swiss accountant is off in Brazil to be married, I have been asked to take care of just one tiny facet of his job: Payroll. Iris Pemba employ over 300 local workers, (NO the missionaries do not get paid!) and I have to make sure that they get their money! We usually pay at the end of the month, but because of some other pressing matters, the data I have to use to prepare the payroll was only given to me this week. So it was a busy busy week! But it all went really well.

I spent nearly 10 hours sitting at a white plastic table, stuffing various combinations of dirty bills into envelopes, and needless to say after a while my brain got really tired! I had some help tho for the last few hours, so I was happy! This month I think the idea is to pay some of the workers who have bank accounts directly thru the bank... which would mean less envelope stuffing for me, BUT all the time sheets and spreadsheets have to be 100%, and the encryption program will be tested for the first time.

Looks like us here in deepest darkest Africa is catching up with technology eh? :-)

Photo Update: Tete Food Distribution

Here are some photos of my 3 weeks in Tete Province doing food distribution. We were able to distribute food to ±1 300 children in 9 districts.
That is about 26 000 kg corn, 2 600 kg beans and 1 300 litres of oil!

(Jessie, one of my amazing team, wrote an update on her blog on 20 July 2008, have a look!)

The bridge across the Zambezi River dominates the skyline


The Team: Sitoe, Carlito, Jessie, Annelie, Nikki, Pastor Jeronimo, Travis


Pastors Jeronimo's house - Day 1, making the plans for the coming weeks - we were quite spoiled, he has electricity!


Outside Pastor Jeronimo's house in Canangola, on the outskirts of Tete. In the foreground is the 'kitchen' where the food was prepared.



The little market in Canangola just outside Tete where we bought the first few tons of corn


Here we are measuring out the corn to make sure that the bags really contain the amount of latas we are paying for


The prices spiked when we arrived, so we sent in our negotiator to get the price of corn back down to 125mtn (±$5) per lata (20kg)


Sitting on food for 200 kids in Tsangano


Handing out the beans in Moatize


We had to document and photograph each child that received food


But first we had to make sure that the kids were who they said they were and that they really were being looked after by the caretaker... Matching names to faces using the lists of registered orphans in Canangola


We lived out in the mountains near Tsangano for 4 days:

African 'Drive-Thru Take Away' :-) Chicken and Fries sold next to the road - quite delicious actually!


Driving into the 'bush bush' to get to the village


On the way we saw some boys who were dressed as antelope with long horns stretching out from a grotesque face mask. I think we scared them as much as they scared us, because they bounded away into the bush with a machete in each hand.

There is never a shortage of eager hands...

... and heads to help unload the boxes of oil




This was our bathroom


...and here is the view we had while brushing our teeth (it was beautiful)


We were doing distribution in a grass-walled building (the church), and the kids practically destroyed the walls trying to stare at us


Locally made chairs - we sat on these for hours!


Distribution in progress


The multitude of people waiting outside for their names to be called


Some of the kids would scour the ground and pick up all the spilled corn kernels.


Each child receives 1 lata of corn (±20kg)


Each child also received 1 bottle of oil and ±2kg beans


Then they walk up to 10km back to their home with their caretaker

We had a bit of 'fun' driving back to Pemba - we decided to drive back to Pemba via Morrumbala...

After taking the 'shortcut' we encountered the broken ferry across the Shire River... just 30km away from where we would have stopped for the night!


Our other option to cross the river was the Dona Ana Bridge, the longest train bridge in Africa at 3.2km, which stretches across the Zambezi River to Vila de Sena (Which is close to Caia, where we could take the ferry). BUT they have converted this bridge back into a train bridge, so we were stuck on the wrong side of the river, and because of the current refurbishing work on this bridge we could not cross here either - so we had to drive all the way back to Tete - a 9 hour drive!


The train bridge with the deceptive remnants of the planks put down to make it possible for vehicles to cross in the earlier days - apparently the new railway tracks start just out of eyesight...



It was fun, challenging and quite an experience - there are other teams who have gone out in the meantime and are continuing what we started.

Going to Tete Province

I am going to Tete Province, leaving TOMORROW morning! I will be leading a team of 4, going for 3 weeks to find, feed and document over 7000 orphaned and abandoned children... I only found out yesterday that I was going, so I'm still trying to process the shock. I have never been to this province before, so I do not know what to expect! Kinda scary, but I know that it will be good and that God is in control!

Please pray for the journey - it is about 30 hours drive from Pemba, and I have heard rumors that the roads in Tete are bad!

The team is:
Nikki Wheeler
Travis Frugé
Annelie Basson
Jessie Turner
The driver of our 5ton truck - Sitoe
and his assistant - Carlitos

We will be meeting with the provincial pastor, Pastor Jeronimo, and he will be guiding us to the various villages where the kids are staying, then we will have to find and buy enough food to give each kid a 3 month supply of: Corn, Beans, Oil and Salt.

This is quite a big project (as you can imagine) and there is NO way that we will be able to connect with each of the 7000 kids on this trip, so we will be the initial team, with more teams following later this month to continue what we started! But we aim to feed and document as many kids as possible.

(Image from WikiPedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tete_Province)

Thinking Outside The Box

What you get when you have:

A projector which for no apparent reason would not focus no matter how much you twist the little focus dial; 4 guys trying to make it work; a random funny comment and a pair of glasses?

... and so the story begins:

Movie nights here at mission school is a night out, literally, a night out. I set up the screen outside one of the student's houses (house 5) and then everyone gathers round and sits under the bright African stars and watches the evening's movie.

Last week everything worked fine - no problems, this week the projector refused to focus at a distance - the largest we could get a picture that was in-focus was maybe 5cm from the lens, and then it was about 5cm x 5cm... not very helpful when you have over 40 people trying to see! A general consensus was that the projector was missing a lens - which inspired the random comment of "We should try a pair of glasses!" - Everyone chuckled, but I figured that we couldn't lose anything by trying, so I held my glasses in front of the projector and it worked! We tried several different prescriptions, but mine was still the best. One of the other ladies had an extra pair that was a tad stronger than mine, but for astigmatism, so I wore them for the duration of the movie and the projector wore mine!

We got some books, carefully positioned the pair of glasses on them, a bit of duct tape and we were all set! The picture was still a bit fuzzy around the edges, but we could see well enough, and most importantly we didn't have to cancel movie night!

I still have NO idea why the projector wouldn't work, nothing weird happened to it between last week's movie and tonight - it just sat in it's bag in a corner of my room. Who knows? But I think that the improvisation of tonight will make me smile for quite a long time still! :-)