Life's joys, life's trials

Oh hello, hope I'm not disturbing any important animal business here under the humans' outdoor kitchen... Will you all be long?

These Zebras and horses were occupying an outdoor kitchen at Bundu Lodge where we stayed on a recent trip to south africa as we had meetings to attend at Mercy Air and business to get done done...there's always business to get done! Janette Stone accompanied us and this sort of closed off her time in Africa as she left from here to go home to Canada shortly after we left to return to Mozambique.

We were driving and although we find the whole affair of driving for 2 x 9-10 hour days familiar and in some ways interesting, we're starting to think there are times it would best be done over 3 days. For one thing, it would make for no night time driving which in itself would increase the safety factor a lot since these roads are poor at the best of time and treacherous at night: no (or narrow) broken shoulders, pot holes, animals on the road, pedestrians on the shoulders, vehicles with no lights, no reflectors even, and there are always those who have had a few too many.

Anyway, we stopped at his place at about the half way point, mostly for old times' sake. We stopped here on our first ever trip up north while we and our friends were still "scouting out the land" for a possible move. That was shortly after the end of the war and things were in MUCH worse shape. The highway was a mere crumbling strip of asphalt being taken over by briars and littered with burnt out vehicles.  We were about 10 people on that trip, so we ordered sandwiches from the humble assortment available on the menu, mostly cheese sandwiches and egg sandwiches. The waiter disappeared momentarily then came back to say, "We have no cheese, and we only have some eggs, and we don't have enough cokes for everyone." Something to that effect, anyway. One of those cases where they really should have changed their menu before setting it in front of clients :)

Oh well, that's what keeps life interesting. Today, the place is fixed up nicely and the town is bustling with productive activity. We stopped for breakfast and turns out they had everything on the menu! Progress is a wonderful thing.

This is the place, in the Maxixe area.

We got home pretty tired but also ready to take on the next week's Intensive Seminar once again. We hit a sad bump over the first weekend though when one of our sponsored students who had been struggling with his health for awhile lost the battle and lost his life. It felt terribly wrong to have taken a boy to hospital in the back seat of our vehicle, and then to return him home in a casket. I dislike those difficult moments. There are lots of questions, and heaviness. But those are also the times that stretch and grow our faith like no other.  This boy was an orphan and had seen his share of difficulty, but his willing disposition and happy face bore testament to the hope he had inside and he will surely be missed. We are so grateful for the time given to us all to invest in him and love him and we look forward to seeing him again one day.

The following week, ready or not, rolled around. About 50 monitors attended the seminar, and it was a great time. Six of the monitors were ready for the health course (it's the last of 25 courses they have to complete in order to graduate), so that kept me busy for the week. They were a very engaged group and we had some discussions that were motivating for us all. At the end, they all passed their exam with good marks, yay!

Here's Dwight feeding our latest wildlife project: Punkin (we got her at the end of October). She's a duiker and was orphaned, so kids came looking to sell her and Dwight couldn't turn her away.

Our weather has been terribly dry and unseasonably cool this year, but a few weeks ago the heavens broke loose a bit and we got some much needed rain. Oh we needed it so badly, people couldn't plant their crops and animal numbers (wildlife and domestic) were dropping. Not enough to eat = sickness. 

One thing that does happen when it rains though is that flying ants come out in hoards! They beat crazily about lights, lose their wings, pair off, then that's the end of it and all you're left with is the job of trying to clean up those silly, feather weight wings. It's nearly impossible.

Once seminar was over, it was time for Dwight and I to get a bit of R&R time. Felt like it had been forever and we were really very tired and so ready for it. So we headed south to our favorite spot again.  It was a good trip except for the flying ants (I guess). We hit several "herds" of them, and oh my. What. A. Mess. You can't wind-wiper off, that just smears them. You need some soapy water and a serious scrubbing tool.

Service station shops are few and far in between, but when we found one, we'd stop and dwight would dutifully clean the windscreen. Once it's been real messy, it always surprises me just how crystal clear it looks once it's been cleaned.

So there's an elephant crossing south of the Save River. I have never seen an elephant cross there in all our years, but I like that they obviously must since there are signs. One sign even says "Afternoon Elephant Crossing", or something like that. Just so you know, in case you were wondering.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our getaway and prepare to pick up tomorrow where we left off.  There's quite a bit of driving to be done, so let's hope flying ant season is over.

Instructions

Although sometimes instructions seem redundant, or untimely, they are always important. That's because following them can save you lots of good things like time, effort, and even valuable points on a test. Thankfully, I wasn't the one writing a test this week. But these youngsters were.

This is the group of 5th graders who recently "graduated" from the mission school's Grade 5 and who want to go on to Grade 6 next year at an external school. This will be necessary until we are granted permission to add higher grades to our school.

One of the steps in the process is that students undergo a simple evaluation of the 3 "R's" (reading, writing and arithmetic). In the above photo, they're getting a quick orientation to the process as well as an introduction to staff members who will be monitoring them during the test.

Then, they split off into groups of 6-10 for their evaluations. Joao and I took one group on our veranda.

Hmm, serious stuff.

Once I was done helping with the reading evaluations, I took a few moments to pop my head in on the other groups.

This group sat in the "internet office" under Celestino's watchful eye (he's quite the stickler for discipline and detail). For the brief moment I was there, I heard him reminding the youngsters to "...observe the instructions at the top of the math page. It says to 'Calculate'. I want to remind you that when it says 'calculate', it means show all your work, fully, in proper form. Don't just give the answer. You'll be docked points for not showing your work."

I gulped hard for the kids, snapped this photo, silently wished them all the best, then backed out so they could concentrate.

Below is Matthew's little flock in the main office. They looked like they were pretty much done other than each still taking his/her turn outside to read their assigned piece of literature.

The two guys in the doorway are two of the school's teachers who accompanied the students. They were pacing back and forth, like worried parents, offering words of encouragement here and there.

And here's Prosper's group in the shade of the big tree in the front yard of the office. I see one boy looking up at the birds. Not tooooo much stress here.

All in all the process didn't take more than about an hour and then the students were off to their homes to enjoy the summer break. Celestino brought me their papers afterwards to quickly go over the results and pointed out that some of the students lost points for not having paid attention to the instruction "calculate" on the math page. "Calculate," he informed me, "doesn't mean to just write the answer. It means you have to show all your work, and your work has to be in order. 10's in the 10's place, 1's in the 1's place, and so on. Otherwise you make mistakes."

I sat straight and said, "Wow, Celestino. Sometimes I miss reading instructions too and just jump into the work. Good thing I didn't have to write this test...I may have flunked it entirely!" I was half joking, half serious. Half joking because the way they do long division here was mind bogglingly different to me. I recall learning a rather upside-down method in Brazil long ago, but I think this is even different to that!

Anyway, I'd meant to post this photo last week but I think it got left out by mistake. This is us, Francois and Joao (far right) with some of the school's first students when "school" was held under the trees. They are now adults and either settling down and starting their families or pursuing a vocation.


Below is oldest photo of the school I have on my laptop. By this point, we had transformed an old dilapidated farm laborers' dorm into a large one-room school house by covering it with a big thatched roof, extending the building's width, and putting blackboards on the walls. On Sundays, it was used as a church.

To wrap things up for this time, here are a few shots of a home visit Celestino and I made to a young mother who suffered a puff adder (viper) bite a few weeks ago. Thankfully the wound is healing up well and she is able to walk. After a few visits, we decided the family was ready to take over her dressing changes on their own, so we left supplies and all the instructions needed.

Celestino was the one who demonstrated and gave the instructions, of course. Concisely, and with attention to detail, as always :)

At the end, when we asked if the instructions were clear, the young lady nodded her head without hesitation. And so did this entire line of cute little onlookers as well.

That's good. Learn it now, kids. Be that attentive to instructions always and you'll do better, in general, on just about any of life's tests!

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.)

Warming Up

Winters in this part of Mozambique are cold, and this winter has been especially cold. Some guests from colder climates sort of smile when we say this. I suppose once you've tented in -10C, +10C doesn't exactly rate. But this week, it didn't look like anyone minded standing in the sunny spot for morning devotions after a long Mozambique-cold night.

At 7 a.m. the sun's rays are still rather weak, and only come in at a slant, so sunny spots are scarce. But when you're really cold you find those spots. I do anyway, and it looks like these guys do too.


You know how some days take a weird twist? Well, I seldom take my camera to morning devotions to take pictures. I'm not sure why I snapped this one below either, and I had no idea at the time (neither did they) what was hanging in the tree right behind them.


Until Heather, who was beside me, pointed and whispered, "Is that a SNAKE hanging from that tree?!"

Yep. A twig (bird, or vine) snake.
Cleverly disguised and swaying ever so gently even though there was no breeze.
Probably he was cold too and this was the only unoccupied sunny spot he could find!

It was sure hard to stay focused on devotions.

Dwight later lifted him onto the branch so we could see him better. I think he's stunning.

There's been an increase in snake-track sightings this week (by me, anyway), and thankfully our days have been warming up. So I guess the +40's are on their way.

Big fat snake track.

Little, skinny (juvenile?) snake track.

Unfortunately, the cold winter has meant we've seen an increase in then number of burn victims at the health posts too. Mostly it's children sleeping too close to hut fires to stay warm at night and the blanket or their clothes catch alight. In one particularly sad case, a young boy sustained extensive 3rd degree burns to his chest, back and one upper arm. We couldn't get to his home by vehicle so had to walk there to get him and take him to hospital.

The men carry the boy the 20 minute walk, on a grass mat, to where our vehicle is. Concerned women family members follow.

(This happened during seminar last week. Several monitors who were visiting a local bush church came across this home and helped out by calling us then gave money to help with related costs. I was moved by their kindness.)

Because the burns were so extensive, and because the child had other special needs, he was taken to Vanduzi Hospital.

We are thankful that the others can be treated at the health posts and for donations toward blankets that have come in for them.

Moving along here... Besides being a cold week, last week was a busy one too with people coming and going.

We welcomed Rick Cogbill, Todd Green and Ed Hyslip who are here to teach a mechanics course, fix vehicles, and contribute in a number of other ways. We also said goodbye to Tony and Leila, and Urs as well.

(Urs, straight above. Willing servant...everyone misses you already.)

It was great to have Tony and Leila here participating in the seminar...

And Leila's Brazilian Portuguese came in very handy for interpreting for a few days for the mechanic's course.

Todd Green teaching a session while Leila interprets.

Some of the donated materials for which we are very thankful!
To see more photos of their activities, check Rick's latest blog post.

Otherwise, there was the usual hum of building activities.

Here, trusses go up for our car port. (The previous one dangerously collapsed during rainy season.)

Andy making progress on his carport/room he hopes to move into soon.

This water tank was purchased largely by a donation from Brazilian partners. It will be used to provide running water for the mission's primary school and health post.
Running water is a good thing :)

Work carries on at the training center. We're so thankful for this machine that helps speed the job along!

We're also thankful it actually got up to +29C one day this week. Even if it means snakes are out and about more. And even if it means we'll soon to into the intolerable +40'sC. Somehow it's always nice when things warm up a bit.