Tools to move the job along

I know. Mary Poppins actually sings that "a song”, not tools, will move the job along. But a song only goes so far when you have a huge field to plow and a year’s worth of maize to plant, all by hand. In the hot sun. Even on days when you don’t feel so good. So you can understand why Pastor Pedro and his wife are smiling here as they receive this donated plow. This year, for likely the first time ever, they’ll have cows and a plow to work their fields.

It was a happy outing for us and a bit of an adventure too for our newcomers as we bounced over bad roads and even bush whacked a bit in order to deliver this plow to Pastor Pedro’s home. We were welcomed with such warm smiles!

After the plow was unloaded, its blade and wheel had to be fastened and tightened. There were many hands to get the job done plus a fair share of “oversight” by little ones—just to make sure the job was done right!


This means it was a great photo op too!


This is Pastor Pedro’s granddaughter and her friends



It was quite the neighbourhood event. Even passersby stopped to see what was up.


These are the cows that will pull the plow. They were bought recently and are getting used to their new corral.

Here, the women sort through raw peanuts to select good ones for planting.


I can’t imagine preparing and planting huge fields with a cow and plow, never mind by hand, but I do know these “tools” will be a huge help to this family.


This week, Keren arrived from Three Hills, Canada. She’s a nurse and a short termer who will be with us for about a year. I have a number of jobs lined up for her including helping me complete the preventive health manual and do some home visits (and so on, and so on), so she’ll be a busy young lady! She also needed something to help "move the job along" while she’s here, so she went to Chimoio yesterday and got it:

She’s the proud owner of this set of wheels which, I can guarantee you, more than just a few around here envy her for right now.

And last but not least, I couldn’t help but get some shots of a Praying Mantis crawling on Murray’s stuff. The mantis seemed genuinely as interested in the camera and us as we were in him.





Below: He stretched up toward me in this shot and actually jumped right onto my camera!

Here, Glenn gets a shot while the Praying Mantis stretches up to get a better look at Glenn.


I better sign off for now. This post comes early because we are preparing to head out on a group trip over the weekend—a bit of a getaway at Paindane Beach. It’s about an 18 hour drive round trip which is the downside, but it is just about the most beautiful spot along the Mozambique coast and for that, it’s worth it. I’ll post photos of it next week.

Until then!