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? :-)
Friday, September 05, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
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.
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 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.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
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)
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)
Friday, June 13, 2008
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! :-)
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! :-)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Coming Soon... HS8!
Just a few days to go before HS8 kicks off! Things are a-buzz here in sunny Pemba as the students start trickling in AND to add to all the excitement it is Children's Day on June 1st, so we are gearing up for a busy busy weekend. (Yippee for a public holiday on Monday though!)
I have practically finished preparing all the sound systems - just a few more cables to make - and I also have to move ALL the sound stuff that is currently nicely stored in my house mate's room back to the sound room, seeing as she is coming back this sunday... :-) But all in all it's looking good, and I'm really excited to see what life changing things happen in this school!
I have practically finished preparing all the sound systems - just a few more cables to make - and I also have to move ALL the sound stuff that is currently nicely stored in my house mate's room back to the sound room, seeing as she is coming back this sunday... :-) But all in all it's looking good, and I'm really excited to see what life changing things happen in this school!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Cool Nights
Back in Pemba and things are cooling down quite a bit! The nights are chilly enough for me to switch off my fan and snuggle up under a thin blanket! Its lovely!!!
At the moment I am busy preparing for the next Harvest School of Missions (HS8), getting all the sound systems upgraded and ready for the many many outreaches we will be doing. I am also 'on staff' for this school, meaning that I will be more involved with the actual running of the school and all the programs that will be offered. It will be a busy time (as usual), but I am looking forward to a brilliant, uplifting and encouraging school - is all kicking off June 2!
My other big job is getting the church system installed, but this is proving to be a bit of a challenge - part of the floor of the church will have to be dug up to lay a pipe with all the cables running to the stage. A fairly straightforward task, but getting hold of the maintenance guy is a like playing cat & mouse! But I hope to have that done before the students arrive...
At the moment I am busy preparing for the next Harvest School of Missions (HS8), getting all the sound systems upgraded and ready for the many many outreaches we will be doing. I am also 'on staff' for this school, meaning that I will be more involved with the actual running of the school and all the programs that will be offered. It will be a busy time (as usual), but I am looking forward to a brilliant, uplifting and encouraging school - is all kicking off June 2!
My other big job is getting the church system installed, but this is proving to be a bit of a challenge - part of the floor of the church will have to be dug up to lay a pipe with all the cables running to the stage. A fairly straightforward task, but getting hold of the maintenance guy is a like playing cat & mouse! But I hope to have that done before the students arrive...
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Slideshow: Road Trip... Pemba to Pretoria
Here is a short little 'video' of the road from my recent 4-day road trip from Mozambique to South Africa!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Road Trip!
That time of year has come again, where I have to renew my 'carnet de passage' - the temporary import permit for my car. To do that, I have to drive down to South Africa...!
I am setting off on this marathon drive early, 5am and will hopefully be arriving in Pretoria (South Africa) late Saturday evening. Please pray for a safe drive, good companionship and laughs, and that all the radar speed guns will miraculously jam just as we pass ;-)
The proposed route is as follows:
Day 1: Pemba - Mocuba
Day 2: Mocuba - Inhassoro
Day 3: Inhassoro - Lindela
Day 4: Lindela - Pretoria
So, as usual I shall let ya'll know how it goes...
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Christmas in April...
Is it still Christmas? Well here in Pemba it apparently is! The last vestiges of the festive season can be seen in the lone christmas tree shaped light hanging across the road near base 1... it's kinda funny seeing as all the other light are fused, just this one is still shining brightly! :-)
Merry Christmas?
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Mieze Grand Opening
Mieze is a little village just 20 minutes out of Pemba, and has been the focus of much of our activity these past 2 years: It started out as just another Iris church, where orphans were looked after by the local pastor, but it has grown into something so much bigger (& better)! So…
This past Sunday was quite a special day for Iris – our very first Children’s Village was opened! It is fully staffed and run by Mozambicans, with only minor oversight from Papa Don, but it’s really the start of the realization of Iris’ vision - to have the majority of the orphans in villages like these - and I was privileged to be part of the grand opening on Sunday April 6!
They have a chicken farm, a goat farm and good, clean, easily accessible water means crops; so in reality they are self-sufficient! The kids who live there are part of one big family, where everyone helps, nothing is just handed to them on a plate.
The day started with a shortened church service, and I think that the award for ‘most energetic dancing while singing’ goes to them,
they were just bouncing up and down, and jumping constantly in the little sauna they call a church.
I do not know how they do it; it’s one of the hottest mud buildings I’ve ever been in! But it was good. (You can just just see me in the corner!)
After the service all the people were invited to join them for lunch, a special chicken meal prepared by all the kids and adults, using their very own chickens!
Then Papa Don arranged for a truck to take all the kids to the beach after that, so all in all it was a lovely day for them!
This past Sunday was quite a special day for Iris – our very first Children’s Village was opened! It is fully staffed and run by Mozambicans, with only minor oversight from Papa Don, but it’s really the start of the realization of Iris’ vision - to have the majority of the orphans in villages like these - and I was privileged to be part of the grand opening on Sunday April 6!
They have a chicken farm, a goat farm and good, clean, easily accessible water means crops; so in reality they are self-sufficient! The kids who live there are part of one big family, where everyone helps, nothing is just handed to them on a plate.
The day started with a shortened church service, and I think that the award for ‘most energetic dancing while singing’ goes to them,
they were just bouncing up and down, and jumping constantly in the little sauna they call a church.
I do not know how they do it; it’s one of the hottest mud buildings I’ve ever been in! But it was good. (You can just just see me in the corner!)After the service all the people were invited to join them for lunch, a special chicken meal prepared by all the kids and adults, using their very own chickens!
Then Papa Don arranged for a truck to take all the kids to the beach after that, so all in all it was a lovely day for them!
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