Half Lemon, Half Orange

This week I asked Simon, one of the Health Care Workers, his opinion about a certain situation. His response?

“Ehmmmmmm…I’m thinking, half lemon, half orange.” He said with a wide, confident smile.

“Oh, you mean it’s so-so? Kind of not-so-good, kind of good, then?” I asked.

“Yeeeessssss!” he said nodding his head enthusiastically as the smile got so wide that his eyes crinkled at the edges.

I think I’m going to use that “half lemon, half orange” expression a time or two myself. It seems fitting for those situations that are of a not-so-good, sort of good kind of nature.

In fact, today was a "half lemon, half orange” kind of day. We had decided that although we had other work that urgently needed our attention, we should make a quick trip to town to pick up some stuff before we got totally absorbed in the leaders’ intensive seminar next week. It’s always nearly impossible to get away when those seminars are on because each day’s schedule is back-to-back sessions. We thought we’d do a quick morning trip and be back by lunchtime. That would give us the afternoon to focus on the work we really wanted to get done.

So off we headed into Chimoio, our nearest business center about 45 minutes away.


First, we needed cash. This is not a cashless society--at all! The cues at the ATM’s were ridiculously long though, and banks were closed, so we had to resort to trading foreign currency on the “parallel market” (aka: independent money changers who ply their trade in the streets, many times, right outside banks).

Then we headed for the propane gas outlet in high hopes they’d be open on Saturday—not a popular notion here to be open on the weekend-- AND that they’d have some full cylinders to exchange. (We run gas fridges and stoves, so propane is about as essential as water for us.) Wouldn’t you know it…they had one full tank for us. (Bingo! Orange ☺)

Then we headed for the grocery store to pick up our week’s groceries. Things were busy, but then they usually are at our one and only true grocery store in town. When the full bill had been totaled, I pulled out a credit card to pay (this is the ONLY store in town that accepts credit cards—what a luxury). When the lady at the till saw my credit card, she said apologetically, “Ohhhhh…we can’t take cards today. The machines weren’t working and the bank has removed them all. You have to pay cash. We accept Mozambique Meticais, South African Rands or U.S. Dollars.” (lemon. major lemon) We had not counted on this new development. Cash flow is always a challenge here because, like I said, we’re not a cashless society at all and banking/dealing with multiple currencies is a real challenge! After some “Ohhh’s” and “Hmmm’s” we decided on a careful combination of Rands and Meticais. We certainly couldn’t leave our week’s food supply sitting there at the till!

Once that and a few more stops were done, it was time to head home. Oh, but to be on the safe side, we decided we should get some fuel. So off we head to the nearest fuel station. Problem is, there is a critical fuel shortage here right now so it took us 3 station stops (of arm waving and “No! No fuel here!”) to finally find the one and only gas station in town that had fuel (orange, I guess). You can tell if a station has fuel these days because of the long cue outside. So we entered the cue (that, would be a lemon) which at that point extended outside the station into a lane on the wrong side of a main highway.

We're the silver pick-up above. Gas station in the distance.

Yes, it was a bit disconcerting to have big semi’s barreling down on us! (Remember that we have right-hand-drive vehicles and drive on the left-hand side here).

I think the entire countryside showed up for fuel right then, everything from pedestrians wanting as little as 500 ml to huge buses (below) that wanted goodness-knows-how-much and did their best to cut in line. Actually, nearly everyone was cutting in line. For almost an entire 2 hours, we waited, in line, for 32 litres of diesel.


This guy just kept inching closer and closer and would have run us right off the track had Dwight not gotten out of our vehicle and gone and talked to him through his front windshield (he seemed oblivious to my talking and arm-waving right beside him).



In fact, he actually ran right into the guy behind us. There was a rather heated debate going on about then. Just one of many, mind you. I imagine that maybe the gold rush was something like this?


Finally we made it to the pump and got our fuel. ☺ Phew. By the time we got home, it was nearly 4 p.m. Time to make a fire for hot water, sort out a few details for the pastors who were arriving for the seminar, and get supper on. So much for getting much else done!

Here are a few of the promised photos of delightful, recent developments (yeah, oranges).


The Mercy Air plot, house foundations being dug and garage/storage area which is already up (building at top of photo).

An orphan/widow home that went up and was painted in our absence. I think it's beautiful. Note the guinea fowl between the house and the stick hut :). I know, they're small in the photo, but I love the fact that they're there.

Brand new latrines at the nearby preschool. Gotta love the pink flower which, of course, denotes "girls".

I better run, we'll soon be offline for the night. Here's hoping you have more oranges than lemons this week.

Good gets Great!

Seeing the school kids’ excitement this week when their new desks arrived reminded me of how much these kids love school. Years ago, when friends of ours paid the school a visit, they asked the kids if they liked school. They probably were expecting the usual chorus of sighs and groans but were taken aback (and captured the moment on video) as the kids in perfect unison shouted “We LIKE school!” But I digress.

It was quite the procession yesterday at the mission school as the students lined up to wave, clap, dance and sing as the truck loaded with new desks slowly approached.

These desks were purchased with funds raised by students at Thorsby Elementary School in Canada. Initially, they hoped to be able to raise funds for several desks, but as the kids, their families and in fact the whole community caught the vision, they were able to fund raise for many more. Both they and we were excited to hear that in the end, they were able to raise funds for more than just several--twenty-two to be exact. But the surprises in this story don’t end here. When we placed our order a few weeks ago, we realized that based on the current price, we in fact had enough for 24 desks! How cool is that?! It’s wonderful and certainly the perfect way to wrap up a story that went from good to great. Amazing, actually.

Some of the students even had new uniforms on which they were so very proud of. We were too! A lot of work goes into the running of a school, but the reward—helping to give children hope and a future—is worth every minute of it.

Everyone pitches in to unload that precious cargo.

Hmmm, the challenge of fitting big things and bodies through a doorway at the same time.

Hand waves to say thank you from older kids above and very cute preschoolers below.

Last week, Ron and Barb (Mercy Air founders/directors) came to stay at the mission for about a week since they had a flight to bring a work team to Chimoio. Usually, accommodations, etc. are provided for the pilots while whoever chartered the flight goes about their business, but Ron and Barb decided that since they were in the area, they would rather come out here to the mission farm to work and spend time with us. While they were here, Ron got busy putting one of my kitchen cupboards together and did some unique handcrafting of some log off-cuts that no one saw much potential for. It’s not quite finished yet but it’s beautiful already and very fitting for a kitchen in the African bush!

They will be returning next week on another flight. This time they’ll bring visiting family members along to spend time with us. The ladies want to paint the walls at our house and the guys would like to carry on working on my kitchen cupboards while they’re here. More power to ‘em, I say!


We decided we’d better get the kitchen floor tiled and ready for cupboards next week. Nice, huh? ☺

Some newcomers:

A guy came to sell wild guinea fowl chicks to us this week. They’re very young and we don’t really expect they’ll survive, but the guy was very hungry and was obviously hoping to sell them so he could buy food. They’re sure are cute though.


Some sort of mud-wasp obviously figured the keyhole on our veranda door was the perfect place to build his nest. Ummmm, buddy? Not a good plan!

I should run for now since I have a campsite to finish setting up for arriving guests, a course assignment to finish, and I really need to get packing/preparing for our upcoming furlough. We leave March 10th for Canada (via Brazil) and will be traveling and sharing about the work here with the many who take the seemingly innumerable needs presented to heart and give so faithfully.

The added perk, of course, will be seeing our kids and family again. Yes. Good gets great!

Family visit and a new bicycle for Bero

On Sunday, we made a trip that we’re quickly becoming accustomed to—the way to the Beira airport. The badly pot-holed patches along the highway didn’t seem quite so bad this time around. Maybe there had been a few repairs. Maybe we’re getting used to it. Or maybe, we were just excited to see our family again. Steve (Dwight’s older brother), Karen and Kim arrived dog-tired and one suitcase short, but otherwise fine considering the 33 hour trip. It’s taken them a few days to get over jet lag and get sleeping at the right time, but I think they’ve been busy enough that they haven’t thought about it too much! We spent the first few days showing them around, seeing the different mission activities, all of which Steve captured on video. We ladies were busy chatting quite a bit, so I think he captured some of that too!

Karen sewing some much-needed white board covers.

Dwight describing the layout of the proposed training center. Steve, capturing it on video.

One of the week’s outings included a visit to some of the more recent orphans who were added to the orphan sponsorship program...aren’t they cute?

A quick visit to a nearby preschool the mission is refurbishing. (Steve, capturing it on video).

This week marks the last week of winter break for school kids here in Mozambique, and most of our older sponsored kids have come to do some volunteer work at the mission. Bero is one of those. He lives about 10 km down the highway from here and on his first day of volunteer work, he walked all the way! He was badly burned as a toddler and struggles with upper body contractures, so we decided that if he felt he could handle a bicycle, it would be a great help to him getting him back and forth. When we presented the idea to him, he smiled real big and said, “Oh yes! I can ride a bike AND I have a bicycle rider's license!” (These are required by law here as is registration for any bicycle.) So that very week, when the mission truck went into town, a shiny, new bike for Bero was on the list of items to pick up.

Giving it to him was a happy occasion which Steve and Karen got to be a part of. And yes, we captured that on video too J.

I'll sign off with shot of us on a rock outcrop--the highest point on the mission. It was a bit of a hike up there, but the view was spectacular...as it always is!

All things working together...

Yesterday one of the mission's sponsored students (who attends the Chitundo school) showed up here with an elderly woman who carried a tiny, little baby. She was the baby's grandmother, and had recently lost her son and daughter-in-law. She is a widow herself, and is now left with this baby who is now 3 months old, plus two other children. She had been feeding the baby a mixture of ground peanuts, ground field corn and water. The baby looked very bright and alert, but at 3 months of age only weighed 2.2kg. She knew she needed help, and when Pindurai, one of our school kids, heard about her plight, he took her under his wing and brought her to the mission to seek help. I had just set aside some baby clothes a few days earlier, and we had infant formula at the health post. I was glad also to be able to send her home with some veggies which are regularly donated to the mission's feeding program by a nearby commercial venture (actually, the entity that bought out the farm the mission used to be based on). Since it was late afternoon and the granny still had to get back home 15 km away, I decided to take them plus the food for the 23 sponsored kids at the same time. When I dropped her off, she was SO thankful for the help. She attends a local church and had been praying she would be able to find help for these orphaned grandchildren. Pindurai then helped her carry her goods home. I was very proud of him!

Below: Bags of green beans donated by Vanduzi Lda. Beneficiaries, besides the school children the mission feeds, include orphan homes and those with special physical needs.

Another cool thing happened this week. Last year, we were donated some solar powered MP3-type players that have the entire Bible recorded on them. They're wonderful here because you just set them in the sun and turn them on. We’ve supplied them to people and places where we felt they would get the most use. One of those places was the community health post we run, since there are usually people on the veranda waiting to be seen. Apparently, a few weeks ago, a drunk guy camestaggering past the health post and heard the "radio". He was quitecaptivated by the thing and slowly came closer and closer and finally came right up onto the veranda and sat down and listened for aboutan hour or so. Then got up and left. The next day, the same man returned,sober, and asked if he could listen to some more. As he sat listening,tears started rolling down his cheeks. Ernesto, our health care worker, asked him if he could help him. The man said, "These words are going straight into my heart, are they true? I’m not doing what’s right. My drinking hurts me and my family. I want to stop. Can this God really help me?” Ernesto answered his questions then called a pastor in the area to talk to the man. When Ernesto told me this story the following week, he summed it up by saying, “God got into that man’s heart.” (Ernesto holding the small unit--taken on the health post veranda.)

Other wonderful things worked together for good this week: the pouring of the preschool floor and progress on our house (below). Tomorrow we welcome a team of nursing students from Prairie College (Alberta, Canada) who will spend 3 weeks fulfilling practicum requirements here. Apparently camp life last year didn't dissuade them from returning! We all look forward to having them again.


Last but least...there's one thing that, since yesterday, doesn't look like it's "working together" at all anymore. In my rushing around getting many things done, I made the mistake of absent-mindedly leaving our small house generator hooked up when I flipped the main switch to the big generator. I won't go into detail of how things are wired, but, this is a definite no-no! My dad walked past the small generator about 10 minutes later and figured something was wrong when he heard humming and saw smoke rising from it. :( After it cooled, he pulled it apart somewhat to see the extent of the damage. Apparently, lots. Hopefully it can be repaired, or parts can be replaced. Then it can work together for good again too.