Looking Back, Looking Forward

Rain in January: hope for good harvests in 2011.

It’s already half way through January and I find myself feeling like somewhere along the way I blinked, and Christmas was gone. Maybe it was a combination of the busyness of work and the fact that our families weren’t around to celebrate with. Either way, it went by far too quickly. So in an effort (maybe a semi-conscious one on my part) to extend the “Christmas feeling”, I have extended my personal time allowance for listening to Christmas music for as long as I want until I have decided I’ve had enough. But that's not any Christmas music—only Handel’s Messiah--which when you think of it really is appropriate all year round.

Despite my hanging onto my bit of extended Christmas, time marches on and with it, all the scheduled activities of the New Year.

Students in Mozambique are busy registering for school and helping get school-yards tidied up so classes can begin.


Here is a peep at some of the facilities a local school uses as a classroom. We hope to be able to help this school build proper classrooms one day.

Ray showing how school benches are put together.

Dwight and I, hmm, I think we were sitting carefully trying not to topple off!

There is a serious shortage of classroom space in many rural schools, so we are very thankful for the beautiful building we have!

Getting ready for school also means meeting with "external students" (those boarding at other schools to attend higher grades) to coordinate their housing needs as well as do some forward planning with them.

Some of the external students.

This year, we are preparing materials and launching a new module for our adolescent students that deals with planning their futures and making wise personal decisions for their lives. Having been a homeschool mom, I'm very excited to see this coming together. Last week, Joao launched the first introductory session of “Preparing for Your Future” with these students.

Joao, the mission school's teachers (preschool - Gr. 5), and me.

Work on the mission school’s health clinic has made progress, thanks to Pindurai, Simon, and Ray and Julie who took a day to tackle it together.





All it needs now is glass in the windows and shelves and doors--which are being prepared in the woodshop (below).


Last photo: the Klipspringer (aka "Buddy") doing a bit of looking-forward of his own by practicing his bunting skills on my pillow. Whatever. Those future plans had just better not involve using those sharp new horns on my legs...buddy!

I better run for now. Got "to do" things waiting for me, people to see, and at the end of the day, some great Christmas music to listen to :)

ttyl!

PS: Date stamped photos: photo credit to Julie.

What’s going on?

All kinds of stuff actually, but it was Friday before I realized I had no photos of any of it.

I had spent most of the week between a few home visits and (mostly) buried under mounds of paperwork, from assignments and health manual editing to writing up schedules, sundry guidelines and emails. Suddenly, it was Friday. And I hadn’t taken a solitary photo all week to post here! So I turned my back on my little worktable, grabbed my camera, and headed out the door for a quick photo shoot.

I discovered all kinds of productivity and progress as I sprinted from site to site:

At the main office, short termers, Chris and Corissa, were hard at work on the mission school's database.

Then I popped over to the Mercy Air site. The garage there is serving many purposes, one of them being a vehicle-fixing-garage. Need something fixed? Get in line :)

The guys have sure enjoyed learning from Rick during his time here.

The right hand side of the fix-it garage is Ron Wayner's carpentry shop. And, I'm very pleased to say, the cupboard on the table is one Ron's been working on for my kitchen. And cupboards in my kitchen are greatly needed! Did I mention how pleased I was?


Preparing for pouring the slab at the Mercy Air house. This back-fill dirt is dug out and loaded on the truck, by the shovel full, then unloaded also by the shovel full, then with hoes, rakes and what-have-you, pulled to where it needs to be. Then it get tamped down, by hand. Building out here is quite the process!

The deepest part has yet to be filled.


Moving along here, I popped by the woodshed. Here's Marcos, Gabriel and Andy busy working on their respective tasks.

Marcos shows off the shudders and doors that will be put in the Chitundo Health Post. Beautiful!

At some point, the roof was put up on the extension off the woodshop. Pretty sure I saw photos of Chris and Carissa working on this in the hot sun.

Then it was over to the camp kitchen. Here, holes have been dug for pillars to put up a thatched camp dining area. (Machesa, as they're called here.)

Peter and Casseni work on iron structures for the pillars.

From the camp site, and happy I had at least a few photos, I headed home to keep plugging away at the mound that I was pretty sure awaited my return.

Today, I made a point of remembering to take my camera along when I headed to Bero’s home to do a dressing change. Rick came along on the home visit and took photos...so, here I am:

Bero with his brother, his wife and child, and the guys' sister (far left).

While I change his dressing, we talk about life and usually at some point, I quiz him on his math. I'm sure he just loves that :P

Here is some of the week's action that Laura and Rick captured.

Laura spent hours cleaning and sorting used clothing, then distributing them to the staff. New work clothes are always welcome.

Keren and Laura have been busy preparing for health class and girl's club at the school. Here are their hand-made teaching aides.

And last but not least, this is the Chitundo orphan home that got painted this week by Chris and Corissa. Lookin' good! (thanks for the photo Heather)

And with that, I shall say goodbye for now. I've got some supper to put on, company to enjoy, and I know that mound of stuff is still waiting for me too.

Brace Yourself

It’s been quite the week and I have LOTS of photos to show for it, thanks to a cooperative effort by all the budding photographers around here (Carey, Heather, Matthew, and others)

I’ll start off with this photo of supper at our place

with Ron and Barb Wayner (left) who are just back from the U.S. and ready to continue work on the house



plus the air strip, hangar and other buildings and infrastructure at the mission. They’re currently staying at our old place, which is pretty bare, so it’s quasi camp-style living. We’re doing what we can to help them get settled and they help us remember to laugh. ☺

Others in dinner table photo: Jeff (far end of table) who is here to help them prepare for a visiting team (due to arrive on Monday); Andy, who just arrived this week from Switzerland; and Joao (beside Dwight) a sponsored university student who is just finishing up another volunteer term with us.

Below: Carey, Joao and Jeff at the campsite which is getting fuller by the day


We had to deal with a few urgent situations this week. One was an evening call from the mission’s sponsored kids who are boarding at and attending Chitundo school. Apparently, there were a few thugs in the community trying to abduct children (link). The community and the kids were terrified so we sent the mission’s guards to spend the night there to help bring a sense of security and calm.

One of the perpetrators was caught although a lynch mob had already formed by the time the police arrived.

After that incident, we had another call from Chitundo saying that one of the sponsored students was very ill. Carey and Keren took him to Vanduzi Hospital and while they were there, an angry mob came screaming past the vehicle pursuing yet another of the same group of child abductors. This problem has existed for quite awhile, but it has intensified recently.

Meanwhile, back home “at the ranch” (it was a crazy week so my chronology may be a bit off…)

A new, big and much more capable generator was finally hooked up and the old, tired one (foreground) will be used for back-up and weekends when the load is light.

Work on existing projects carried on. Here's Gabriel, busy in the woodshop.

Progress was also made on the structure for wood storage for the training centre.

And the training center’s water tank got installed, yay! This will make it MUCH easier to do construction there rather than haul a smallish tank, which is what we have been doing. We don’t have big machines for big jobs here so it’s all grunt work.

(Ok everybody, just roll the tank up the ladder :P)

Jeff, Dave and Charles

Out in the field, holdin' 'er steady.

Hooking up a portable generator to the borehole to fill the tank.

We also heard that one of the elderly widows in our Mercy Ministry program has not been coping well recently. She is quite debilitated from years of leprosy and although she manages fairly well on her own, she has the occasional fall. Since her last fall, she's had a very sore hip. When I mentioned going to hospital to her she flatly refused and said she’d be better off right where she is: at home.

Here, Simon (Socorrista/preschool teacher) talks to her.

Problem is, the only way she can get around is by shuffling along the ground using her hands (specifically to use the latrine). She has help by some very supportive neighbors and family for her activities of daily living, but we clearly had to invent some sort of “en suite” bathroom facility. So that became Friday’s project for our head bricklayer.

Peter and Dwight make a plan.

Somewhere, amid the week’s emergency calls, home visits and other work, a few snakes came by. Too close by for comfort, according to the litchi orchard workers who are particularly vulnerable since birds and frogs love the orchard and snakes LOVE hunting birds and frogs. And there is no antivenin nearby.

Orchard Snake Hunter (left), Helper (right), with a (dead) spitting cobra

Obviously this snake became a very popular photo subject :)

"Hi Mom"

Then there was the puff adder:

A puff adder packs a nasty bite but I still think they’re beautiful.

Keren had her hands full not only of snake, but with a few challenges of her own. She’s working on legal paperwork like her visa and passport renewal—never easy when you live at the end of the world far from major centres and with only a select few spots within cell phone range. Here she had to sit under the trees and write notes in the dirt while talking to the Canadian Consulate in Maputo.

"Nobody walk here...k?"

Challenges aside, she’s pretty excited about her family who are due to arrive next week.

Then, the orphans in our program came out for a fun time this Friday with Rick, Heather and others who joined and participated.

Rick’s parents have been here visiting since last week too. Here they have a chance to do what they do so well even back in Canada…love kids!

No photo for this development, but Bero is now booked for his first burn contracture surgery on February 24th in South Africa. What a big step for him!

And that I believe wraps up the bulk of this enormous post. Oh, hold on, bugs! Can’t forget the bugs! A bat too.

This guy decided our closet was a great place to sleep for the night. Uh, no mister!

Dragon Fly (not sure the red abd and blue outline show up very well here)

And this beetle is about the prettiest I've ever seen. This green on his ?head was like an iridescent green marble. Actually, it looks like an eye :)

His back is just as intriguing:

(Yep, just for you Royden)

With that, all we who have had a hectic week here at the mission in the Moz bush, do bid you a restful weekend. Hopefully we’ll have one too!