Sunday, September 04, 2011

Getting There

There was a bit of a panic one morning last week. We were just finishing our routine morning meeting with staff when I caught a quick movement out of the corner of my eye. One of the guys had something on the end of a stick that he held stretched w-a-a-ay out in front of him, as far as possible, and he was rushing to dispose of whatever it was. It must have been pretty dangerous, so my curiosity was piqued.

“Wait, wait! What is it? Let me see!”

The guy stopped mid-step and turned around ever so carefully. There, on the end of the stick, was no snake, no furry, ogley-eyed spider, nor anything too horrid at all for that matter. It was a plain old chameleon. A fairly frightened one at that who was moving as quickly as possible toward safety!

Unfortunately for the chameleon, his species are programmed for disguise, not speed. And so his attempts to “scurry” were quite pathetic. At best, he swayed backwards and forwards repeatedly, in super slow motion, as his front foot reached forward, poised for eventual touchdown.

It’s pretty safe to blink, even several times, when watching chameleons walk. You won’t miss much.

They're quite harmless, but many here believe they’re deadly poisonous. I reached for the stick to rescue the little fellow and to relieve the guy holding him. As I did this, an animated discussion broke out as we shared our differing ideas about chameleons and the possible danger they pose. Some voiced concern that chameleon eggs on cassava leaves could easily be eaten by accident and poison a person. I was more concerned about the level of cyanide poisoning in the leaves themselves. They thought I was funny. I thought they were funny. We all had a good laugh.

The chameleon thought it wasn't so funny at the time but it could be later, after he’d reached safety. If he could just put that foot down and actually get there.

I think Raimundo (holding the stick) and I have similar thoughts about chameleons.
He doesn't seem too worried.

While we were having some fun but also challenging moments at home base this week, Dwight, Rick, Joao and Pastor Ricardo spent just shy of 2 weeks picking their way over dangerous highways and bad dirt roads to visit, teach, and encourage pastors and people in remote areas. I traced their path as best I could (below). The round trip covers approximately 1200 km.


Need I say why I don't accompany my husband on these trips? Conditions are rustic and besides, there are dangers along the way too. Who knows, maybe one day I'll muster the needed sense of adventure and go along. But not yet. Thankfully, Andy and Dwight took some great photos which I'll share here.

Rick, Heather & Co. hauling a trailer load of orphan gift packs for Chiriza and Chueza.
Good thing they were well wrapped on the bad, dusty road!

Crossing the Chiri River on the "ferry".
These bigger rivers are know for both hippo and croc attacks.

While Dwight drove, Pastor Ricardo "manned" the phones.
Dwight's phone is a busy one. Apparently Pastor Ricardo's is too.

Graduating pastors in Guro

Lunch with the Community Leader in Mutarara

Unique Christmas Gift packs, carefully shopped for and put together by Rick, Heather, Pastor Mariano and others, were distributed to orphans in programs in Chueza and Chiriza.

Awaiting gifts and lunch.



Gifts are so fun!

Grannies and elderly women who also receive help.


The Chueza church runs a garden to provide vegetables for orphans in its orphan feeding program. The walk there is several kilometers long.



Desperately needed pots for cooking were delivered on this trip as well.


Fresh produce from church garden in another area called Baue.

Follow up for the women's literacy program is also provided on these trips. Here, one of the remote women's class teachers receives supplies.


Here, a woman receives a certificate for completing a course in leadership training.
I love seeing the women involved like this.

"Work-for-food" project in Sinjal.
Bricks made will be sold to generate income to purchase more grain.

Checking out a possible remote base in Sinjal for the mission.
A place to call home while so far away from home would be ideal on these remote location visits.

Who knows...maybe I could be lured off on one of these crazy trips after all? There may be a few dangers and some adventure, but it would be a great experience. Maybe one day I'll get there.


Saturday, August 27, 2011

About struggle, and car snorkels

I was watching Raimundo spread a layer of manure on my flowerbeds a few weeks back. I wondered (out loud) if he was laying it on a bit thick, but he figured the amount was just right. We both kept a curious eye on those flowerbeds over the next few weeks as he watered them faithfully, and turns out he was right. The previously scraggly and anemic looking plants are turning lush and healthy.


It reminded me again how even seemingly useless things can work for good. They say that about struggle, too. Apparently struggle is good. Funny how that works.

So in that light, something good will result from the struggles we faced this past week. Struggles like some people close to our hearts having serious health issues, team members having a car accident, and us having major hassles with our internet. I'm currently on a rather pokey little cellphone modem.

Thankfully, those with health issues seem to be on the mend and the vehicle seems to be the only “one” in the accident that sustained physical damage. (And that can be fixed.) Our internet problem, however, is being stubborn. Let’s hope that if we’re patient and keep working to sort it out, good will come of that too.

Anyway, on to the photos.

Rick Cogbill and Todd Green wrapped up their time here this week being their usual productive selves. Rick focused and made good progress on construction of the automotive workshop.

Huge crater dug with the backhoe that will be filled with rock. This is where the workshop drains will empty into.

Peter busy building the work pit (?term) so mechanics can stand beneath vehicles while they work on them.




So they can avoid this type of scenario...

(Todd and gang resurrect the Isuzu, again.)

Washing the minibus.
I bet it's a nice break for the guys from all that theory they learned earlier in the day!


I learned some interesting details in the last mechanics session about how/why vehicle engines don’t like being plunged into deep water. I guess they, like me, don’t like gulping water through their air intake system. If a vehicle MUST ford a deep river, you may want to make sure it has a snorkel first. A “car snorkel” is just funny, no matter how you think of it.☺

As the guys packed their bags to head for home, I organized some of the school kids’ artwork to send back with them for sponsors. Organizing school-child art is the highlight of any day.

Pretty sure I see a snorkel on that vehicle :)


3 school girls taking home new Walt Disney character toothbrushes.
Makes toothbrushing all the more fun!

This gentleman, who sadly lost his wife recently, walked several hours to the clinic to get milk for his baby. The lady on the right is his adult daughter who is helping him with child care. We trust for health for this little one.

For this time, I'd better close. Could take awhile to upload this.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God..." Romans 8:28

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Say Cheese...

Updating annual school photos on over 300 children is a bit like a wedding photo shoot, except no one is dressed in white. Thankfully...rural Mozambique is far too dusty to wear white! It also takes us weeks to get photos of all the children.

That's because although the majority of these children attend the mission's school (Grades 1-5), many are sponsored to attend external schools in larger communities so they can pursue higher grades. So there's a fair bit of tripping around to be done by Matthew (field office administrator, below) to get everyone's photo.



"Cheeeeeese...please?"
I can almost hear Matthew saying that to this cute preschooler.

Besides taking, uploading, labeling and resizing a gazillion photos, details like "grade, age, health notes, etc." are also updated. Oh, and the children write letters or draw pictures for their sponsors. The writing and translation of these letters is another big task, but one that can be quite entertaining and rewarding for us as we witness these children growing and developing the skills they will need for life.

This young man is one of our external students.
He's been in our program since he was small and is currently participating in the mechanics course at the mission. (below)

It's been a busy week for me, so I'm a bit sad that I missed out on interpreting. But I'm sure Joao (above, right) enjoyed it!

"Say cheeeeese, little donkey."

Last week, Dwight and I took a day to go pick up a ram (male sheep) in the Serra Choa which is about a 2 hour drive northwest of us. The purpose in getting the ram is to improve the "beefiness" of the mission's current sheep herd.

Dirt road to Serra Choa

Good to see a sign pointing to the local health center.


Loading the ram. He wasn't too impressed with this concept.

Thankfully he was a good passenger and didn't "ram" any windows out.
Helps that Dwight had a pen prepared for him to ride in.

At his new home.

I am including photos of some of our small burn victims receiving their warm, fuzzy blankets at the health post this week. I couldn't be there for the handing out and photo taking, but Celestino (one of the health workers) did a great job!




Beautiful smile, happy mom

Without the participation of everyone involved, both here and abroad, there would be a lot fewer smiles on the ground here.

Thank you, everyone!

Bye for now.

(PS: If you would like more information or if you're interested in school child sponsorship, please email us at sammoff@telus.net.)

Sunday, August 14, 2011

It’s Complicated

Many parallels can be drawn between a motor and the human body. For one thing, they're pretty complex. For another, they both need some fixing from time to time. This can be greatly reduced if things are maintained on a regular basis though. Turns out preventive medicine works for cars as well as people.

I hoped this parallel would come in handy again this week since I offered to help interpret for the mechanics’ course. I know terms like “gear, oil, and bearing” in Portuguese. How much more complicated could things get, right? And if they did, I could always resort to some detailed descriptions, hand motioning, and diagram drawing.

Todd Green, Ed Hyslip, and the mechanics' class

English to Portuguese is one thing, but to Portuguese that is understood in the local context is sometimes a big step further. The labeling of one diagram that snagged us for a while was this:


“Ok guys, the top diagram is of a Plain (“simples”, in Portuguese) Bearing. The second one...(realizing I knew no Portuguese word for "flange"), well, is more complicated.” I was kind of serious, kind of joking. They blinked, shuffled their feet, and waited for me to continue. So I took a deep breath and carried on. It took a fair bit of describing, motioning with the hands, and explaining, but in the end we came up with a term that made sense to them.

This was another fun concept...


All in all things went quite well.

Then there was the practical component.

We always lots of "practical components" because we depend on so many machines daily to get our work done, like our power generator, grinding mill, truck, vehicles, backhoe, etc. And it seems that with machines, if it's working, it's breaking. That's just the nature of machines.

The mission's maize grinding mill.
Situated where it is, this machine saves women from walking countless miles just
to grind their maize so they can cook it each day.

One of the big projects of the week for the mechanics was our old generator. It is fairly spent and is now used as back-up to a newer one. The plan was to rebuild it.

First, we had to get it out of its shed. That took a bit of maneuvering with the backhoe, some chains, and some tension. :)

Once it was safely in the open car port, the guys got to work pulling it apart.

Stripped to the core.

Now that it's in hundreds of pieces, the verdict is that it's so worn that the remainder of its days should pretty much be committed to rest. Prevention has its place but in time, wear and tear take their toll don't they? It's the nature of things. Now we need to think of a Plan B back-up.


A few quick shots of the week:

Ed had a chance to visit the mission school to say a quick hello and goodbye before wrapping up his time up here.

I came across this while marking exams from the health course this week. It made me smile. It seems the exam's structure was a bit complicated and needs to be simplified. (Btw, I love that this guy was unwilling to settle and just circle whatever). I want to give him points for this.

Blankets we picked up this week for the young burn victims who’ve been coming to the clinic for dressing changes. (They were burned while sleeping too close to the fire on these cold winter nights). Looking forward to seeing the smiles these blankets will bring!

And last of all, the tail of a Rough Scaled Plated Lizard seeking refuge from passers-by.


The End