Wednesday, December 27, 2006

The View From Where We Live

This is the land of outcrops, or at least this part of Mozambique is. Beautiful isn't it? Zimbabwe is just beyond that farthest mountain (not sure if it fits that category). The top picture was taken from the old farm across the fields. This bottom one is from the new mission farm, this is the view if you stand beside the new woodshop being built.

Here's the guest cottage we will be moving into. This is the day the roofing was put on (thanks Jeremiah).



A view of the inside. Foreground: kitchen, room at far end: front room, then a veranda off that. This is a pretty small house, so the veranda will have to house my washing machine, freezer, office desk, etc. It'll be a multipurpose room!

Well, I can hear the bang of thunder drawing closer and closer, so I should post this before I lose signal! Thanks for all your comments folks, it's the icing on a blogger's cake.

TTYL

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

African Christmas without kids, snow, etc.

At least we had electricity now and again to run the fan, lights and CNN! But that's not what made this year's Christmas feel weird. It was partly because we have no kids to provide some of the motivation to "get the show on the road" this year. Part of the weird ness was just because of the busyness of late, too many trips and being away from the house. The fact that all my baking pans and nice dishes were still packed in the container didn't help. Even our turkey had to go in a tin foil roasting pan this year.

Trying to decorate without power for lights and after a long, hot day working on the other farm. Not alot of Christmas spirit here!


Our Christmas day braai (BBQ dinner) in high 30's weather. Pant, pant. The food was great though, as was the company. After the sun went down we had a good game of Badminton. Then we were really sweating!


One of the nice tents we purchased for team visits. I just realized I pretty much match the tent colour!

My other two kids...or they might as well be since they spent TONS of time in our home when they were younger. This is for you, Russ and Amanda.

I better get this posted before I lose it all! Enjoy the white stuff for us:)

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Smooth Sailing, At Least For Today

I write this paragraph as we drive south on Mozambique’s EN1 highway…the one highway that connects the capital, Maputo, in the south to the remainder of the country. We’ve made this trip many times, but today’s trip is different. Our maiden voyage along the EN1 in 1996 was tortuous. It seemed as if the 18 hour trip consisted mainly of negotiating our way through one huge pothole only to enter the next, and so on. Overgrown thorn bushes encroached on the crumbling asphalt reclaiming territory long lost. But where pot holes and scrubby thorn bushes ruled, there were few signs of human life. That was 10 years ago. Today, many sections along the EN1 are lined with patches of cleared land as people move in and plant crops of pineapple, cassava and spindly maize. The unruly bush has been cut back and subdued. The potholes are another story. They have stood the test of time and progress. Despite a number of road rehab projects funded by the nations of the world conspiring together to rid the EN1 of potholes forever…the potholes have managed to re-group and resurface time and time again. Today the EN1 is oddly different. As the result of yet another, apparently a bigger and better recent road-rehab effort, we have fairly smooth sailing (with painted lines to boot)! Apart from a handful of stubborn potholes that have successfully reclaimed their rightful piece of asphalt, the EN1 is currently 98% pothole free! Of course, the rainy season is yet to come. We’ll see who wins the next round.


The sun setting over Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. We made a 1 day quick trip there with Ed, Dorene and Jeremiah. It was a unique experience, the heat was intense, and this picture turned out even better than it looked to the naked eye I think! I love it.






Other news: (in point form to save time and the work of reading for you)

-Our dog, Mushu (NB: we didn’t name him), had tick fever (Biliary) just after Ed and Dorene’s arrival. He was so weak he couldn’t even turn himself over in his bed (read: this mommy had to turn him frequently and carry him places). I tried to treat him for the first few days in vain. Finally we took him to town and amazingly found a lab that ran tests (he’d rather I not detail them…he was not impressed). Equally amazing—he was diagnosed and the drug we needed was available so he got, yes, another poke. (Oops, that’s giving one of the tests away.) Point of interest about the drug: the only available form (in bulk—a powder for reconstitution) was a packet sufficient to inject 3000 kg’s worth cattle mind you! I think it took some fancy division efforts on the vet’s part to figure out how much to give a little 7 kg dog.

-After working themselves to a standstill for several weeks, Ed and Dorene’s return date summoned them home to cooler temperatures. We miss them already. Oh Dorene, another “squirrel” came to call after you left. May he rest in peace, tail intactJ. I guess he missed you too!

-Did I mention our Litchi harvest? Wow, here's a picture of just how wonderful it was. Around 5 tons were harvested altogether, 3 tons were of export quality. The company we sold to said our Litchis made up around 70% of Mozambique’s export market to Europe. Wow. We’re pretty proud. And wow, that’s not very many Mozambican Litchi’s on the world market! There are lots of farmers coming to us to buy seedlings but it will take several years before their trees can produce much.



-The local people have been asking me which days I’ll be working in the clinic. They say they need to see me because I “know stuff” J. Even though I haven’t had an official day doing work in the clinic yet with Ernesto, I’m approached on a regular basis by people with physical struggles. Some cases are baffling and some are straight forward. One of our staff, who may have had a mild stroke, was put on a sedative twice a day (for several months) and his complaint was that he was sleepy, stumbled often and was having weird dreams. I told him to drop the sedative, which he did, and he says he feels better already!

-Okay, end of point-form news items that were a long read anyway!

I had the below blurb ready to post awhile back but internet was down during our first few weeks back in the bush. I’ve decided to go ahead and post it now anyways.

November 22nd, 2006
THIS OLD HOUSE…

…has seen many faces and lodged many people in the last 2 years, but it’s obvious the housewife has not been around! It was good to finally see our old home again, but the natural deterioration of things has made for a rough start. At a glance, the house itself looked fine, but housewives always see more than meets the average eye. At least that’s what my family tells me. The nooks and crannies, pantry shelves and many other places practically called out to me to relieve them of the dust, cobwebs and packages of obsolete items they’ve been holding for quite some time. Our attic is alive with a variety of energetic rodents, and my counter tops swarm with ants if I leave even just a crumb of bread behind. My flower beds on the other hand show signs of the struggle for survival against the long dry winter. The12v power source in our house also took strain during this time and the batteries have little reserve, so we’ve had a few candlelight dinners. And until we get our refrigeration up to speed I expect we’ll have warm water with those dinners L. The solar lights we brought back from Canada to place in our yard are definitely the brightest spots for miles around! On a more positive note, we know from past experience that re-entry to bush life is always bumpy, but in time it gets better. We only have a month and a half left before we move out of this house and hopefully into a finished guest cottage on the new mission farm. Many of this old house’s ills (mice, leaking taps, an ant invasion…) will simply have to be remedied by the new owners. If I can wait that long.

This is the day after our arrival home. I realized I couldn't unpack into the pantry until I had cleaned it out first. Here's a shot of that glorious moment!









Tomorrow we pick up guests in Beira (Ed, Doreen and Jeremiah) and I think we’re ready for them…sort of. We bought food yesterday and got a freezer working so at least we can feed them. There’s lots of work waiting for them so maybe they’ll be too busy to notice their slightly shabby surroundings! Ha, ha. Right.

Our pets were fine on our return having been taken VERY good care of. Mushu (the dog) seems happy enough to be back with us, but our cat, Ebony, is taking a bit of coaxing. She moved in with one of our Mozambican staff who’s living nearby and she’s in no hurry to give this young guy up for us. I guess we’ll have to beg, plead and bribe her back. Cats! That’s why they say cats have staff, not owners.

I guess this nutshell version brings things sort of up-to-date. When Dwight gets our generator up and running today we “get to” do laundry. Yes, when you take power out of the equation, certain things move out of the “have to” and into the “get to” realm. That’s probably true of most things in life.


Three girls sitting at the front in church listen to Ed preach. Looks like they're pretty intent on what he's saying! It's quite common for the women and kids to sit on the floor for meetings if there aren't enough places to sit. They don't seem to mind at all. I've tried it too, but I on the other hand, minded. Everything hurt after about half an hour, ankles, knees, back, even my wrists hurt from holding me up. Ouch! What was it the preacher spoke on that day??? I'll have to think long and hard about that one. But hey, I SURE remember the pain! What a pansy.

I guess I'll close with that. We'll be in South Africa over the next 3 or so days getting a ton of business done, then it's off to the bush again to celebrate a hot Christmas. TTYL.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Inter-bush-net

Yes, after a rough re-entry with no internet hook-up for several weeks...we're online again. Sort of. There's so much to write, and I've started just that many times in my thoughts, but now that I sit down under the open sky in +37 weather I don't know where to begin! I also don't have much time so that sort of dampens creativity too. I've taken some pictures that are quite descriptive on their own, and as soon as I can, I'll post them. We had about a week to settle in, get our house habitable again and ready for company before they actually arrived. It's been a whirlwind of cleaning, rediscovering, unpacking, cooking, talking, building and laughing together. Ed and Doreen head home in just a few days and what a huge help they've been in helping us get roof trusses up, windows in and a gazillion other jobs we lured them into! We love them. Jeremiah is here a little longer and spends so much time in the hot sun it rather worries me. He seems to like life in Moz though and even has a friend Camelian (?sp).

Otherwise, settling in is going to take some time for me. I've been gone for awhile and will have to be patient with the process of readjusting. I still have our little doggy shadowing my every step like before, and our cat, Ebony, has come back home to us. (She had moved in with a young Mozambican gentleman, Joao, and they were pretty sweet on each other :D).

I better run along for this time. This is just to let you know we're still alive and kicking in Mozambique!

TTYL