Getting Ready to Go

As we are leaving on Saturday for a month away, you might find this space static for awhile. Hopefully we won't have any grand tales of adventure that we feel we must share with you all. Just 7 hours of driving on Saturday over mostly cement roads (part of that with enormous potholes) to stay with other missionaries. Then taking the ferry over the Zambezi river next morning, and another 5 hours or so to our friends at Maforga mission near Chimoio. Next week is AIM's national conference in Chimoio, where we'll go on Monday. Then a couple days with friends after that, then the long drive north through Tete to Blantyre, Malawi. We'll be in Malawi for about 2 weeks doing medical appointments, shopping and some vacation. We are much looking forward to it.

We are experiencing the usual stuff here at the moment. Our water has been on and off for the last few days. The person who brought the water bill explained that when it rained, more water came into the dam and they had to turn off all the water pipes to clean that new water with bleach. I don't know. . . I think it sounds like he doesn't know what the heck he is talking about! We did have water for 30 minutes on Tuesday morning, and then 30 minutes Wednesday morning. As soon as it came back on, I ran to the washing machine to fill it up and wash, but discovered that the power meanwhile had gone off. Sigh. See, I thought I was being really clever and brought white towels with me to Mozambique. And all of these needed a good wash before we left. Nothing stays clean here. The water isn't even clean! I have a nice big bathtub to soak in, but once I filled the tub in anticipation and couldn't bring myself to climb into that brownish water for a luxury bath. :-) With a shower, you don't notice.

Later, the power came back on, along with the water, so I could turn on the water heater and carry buckets of hot water from the bathroom to the washer outside. About 8 buckets each load, two loads. Then the towels were hung outside in the sun to dry (as is all our laundry) along with the other 4 loads of laundry, including cloth diapers. Meanwhile, our house worker was peeling and slicing a mountain of sweet potatoes for the dish I am making for our Thanksgiving dinner tonight. We'll have about 30 people meeting together to enjoy fire-roasted chicken and the various side dishes we have brought. Happy Thanksgiving!

When Kevin went to pick up Toby at school yesterday, he found him sitting and watching the children playing, which is extremely unusual. He found Toby pale and ill, and immediately took him for a malaria test, which was positive. We started him on the medication immediately and he seems to be improving. He'll be tired for about a week, probably, and we are glad that we will have 2 days drive in the car to keep him still. He has the kind that is resistant, and we'll dose him again in a month to kill the parasite but good. Poor kid really was feeling ill last night but seems to be on the mend. Please keep him in your prayers.

Kevin meanwhile has been going over the car, preparing everything for the many miles we will drive, on some bad roads. Much bouncing ahead! We leave behind all of our pets and an empty house. Please pray for the safety of all! All of our chicken eggs will go to a local orphanage while we are gone, so we pray that they produce well.

Christmas will find us at Lake Malawi, in a cottage at Monkey Bay. It will be a bit lonely, to be honest, so please pray that we are able to find others to celebrate the holiday with. But we are very thankful for the restful time that we will be able to have. It is the "hungry time" here in Mozambique, the time before gardens are planted and harvested, and we find the many requests for help very tiring. Our resources are small and we are just not able to help many. And there is always the dilemma of who to help and how much, many questions there.

Tomorrow afternoon we will pack the car, with full toolkit and a trunk of Christmas gifts sent out by loved ones for the boys. Off we go!
-Cami

Earthquake in Nampula

Wow, pretty exciting! An earthquake in Nampula! However, thankfully I don't have tales of desparation or horror to share. No collapsed homes, no mudslides. Instead, I have only this to relate: When the shaking started, I woke up, shook Kevin's arm gently and said sleepily "We're having an earthquake". He stirred, said "Yes, it's an earthquake" and went back to sleep. And then I did too. I think we ought to lose our parenting license - oh wait, we never did get that. We SHOULD have raced to take the kids from their beds and safe into the yard. Thankfully, the earthquake was not a "big one", just enough to shake our house a bit. Anyway, that's all the news! - Cami

Lying to the Believers

This morning I visited a nearby church with my neighbor. I had promised to go with her one day because I wanted to encourage her to be part of a church (she had fallen away for some time) and today was the day. It was very pleasant to be with her and I know she was pleased that I took the time (3 1/2 hour service in 98 degree heat!) but being there at the church was very uncomfortable.

When we walked in, the service had already started and the members were praying. In many churches here, that means that everybody is praying. All at once. Out loud. In this particular flavor of church, it means that you feel like you are surrounded by crazy people, because people are pacing about, throwing their arms into the air, twirling around, or jumping up and down. All the while, literally shouting up at the sky. Shouting the same thing over and over again, weeping desperately, beating their breasts. I wish I was exaggerating, but sadly I am not. It makes you want to turn around and run out again! There are many believers here who think that the louder your prayer, the more likely it is to be answered. In some of the churches we visit, the windows are all covered and doors closed before the pandemonium begins. This is because they believe that where the Bible says you are to "go into your closet" is to be taken literally.

Anyway, most of the service was great. Nice singing, a bit of dancing, great drumming and some church elections done in an orderly fashion. Then it was time for the preaching. The regular pastor was away, so a higher-up from the district had come to preach.

I am sorry to say that the Health and Wealth Gospel is alive and well here in Mozambique. There are various denominations, including the one I visited today, that follow this teaching. The preacher started out well, reading verses from Matthew and Romans that talk about not worrying about eating or drinking, but seeking first the kingdom of God. He went on to talk about how the Kingdom of God is Peace, the continued into how the Kingdom of God is in our homes if we live peacefully. Not really scriptural, but ok. Unfortunately, then he veered into the all-too-familiar teaching that the Kingdom of God is here on earth among us and that if we pray hard enough and seek it hard enough, we will all have riches here on earth. He actually said: "Is the kingdom of God in the sky? NO! It is here!!". After emphasizing that the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking (based on the scriptures), he went on to say, for 20 minutes, that the Kingdom of God is money. Houses, cars, a good mattress to sleep on. Of course, everyone loved it. He kept saying "Do you want the Kingdom of God? Do you want glass windows in your house?" To which everyone replied, shouting: "YES!" They were thrilled.

It is particularly hard to listen to this in view of the lack of Bible teaching that people have. Most know almost nothing about the Bible, beyond the verses that explain they will prosper. These very poor people continue to poor their money into the church, most of which is sent on to the leaders, who are indeed becoming rich! And the poor continue on hoping for the riches which they feel God will soon be sending their way. When it is not forthcoming, the people are blamed for lack of faith, not enough "seed money" given, or not enough time spent praying.

All of this is just another example of why we are here. Denominations like this one will continue on and likely we will not have much impact on them. Usually, folks from this church are not allowed at our classes. However, teaching believers from the other churches what the Bible says, and how to read the Bible, will bear fruit for generations to come. When people understand what they believe, and how to understand what the Bible says, they are less likely to be taken in by these wolves in sheep's clothing. - Cami

Driving Around Nampula

Well, I haven't posted in awhile. Seems like life suddenly speeded up. However, my mom sent me a link to a short video on YouTube of a guy driving around Nampula and I thought some of you would find it interesting. I think it was done within the last 5 years as not much has changed.

He starts off driving up a street that we drive on quite frequently, from Toby's school to our house. If you continue on that first street straight (he turns right) you'll soon turn left onto another street, then right onto our street.

He drives on the two main streets on Nampula in this video, where all the shops and nice buildings are. Not all of Nampula looks like this, not by a long shot, but it gives you an idea of what the shops look like and the college, and the biggest hotel. The minibuses you see driving around are the taxis that everyone uses. 15-20 people per taxi. And this is what the terrain looks like, a lot of scrubland, palm trees, and dirt!!

I apologize that the quality is absolutely awful. But for those of you who are interested, you will see some of the sights we see every day.

What's for Dinner?

Last week, I learned how it is to be a Mozambican woman in one way - cooking the meals. Our propane stove literally ran out of gas, and there was none to be found in town, so I was cooking on a little charcoal stove, outside, for four days.

Now, last year we lived with a lovely family in the bairro (slum area) for a week, and daily I watched the lady of the house do the cooking over a one-burner charcoal stove. It took hours, but I kind of chalked it up to the fact that she didn't have a lot to do and so could kind of dawdle over the preparations. However, I have a two-burner "grill" here at my house and I still found that cooking anything took a great deal of time. Just getting that stupid fire started was such a hassle. The you have to stand and fan it, and finally put your pot of water or whatever on top of it and wait for it to heat. It takes a long time. Thankful for my microwave, I just cooked once a day and we ate leftovers the rest of the time.

And boy was it it hot! The furnace blasting in my face was especially unpleasant in this 95 degree weather. Didn't like the smoke much either.

But back to the point. What I really found was that to cook anything takes a great deal of time. I didn't even want to fry an egg because in order to do that you have to light the fire 30 minutes ahead of time. You have to monitor the food closely because you can't regulate the temperature. For each meal of the day, you must light the fire and hover nearby. Everything is cooked from scratch, and to make the daily staple, shima, takes quite a bit of time. And that is if you are cooking that and not the cheaper option, mandioca, which must be pounded with a giant mortar and pestle, then boiled, then kneaded, then some other things I can't remember. And this is just for basic, daily living.

I was talking to some colleagues about having ladies' meetings, and they cautioned me that the women really only have two 2-hour blocks of time in a day, in the morning after breakfast and then after lunch. That is because they need to return home to cook lunch, then again to cook dinner, and they must be home after dark since it is dangerous to be out past that time in our city.

People talk about African women having it hard. I must confess that I didn't expect this level of work for city women, but for the majority of ladies in our city, this is reality. Which doesn't include of course, washing all the laundry by hand (including cloth diapers), nursing constantly, shopping daily for bits of food to put in the pot, etcetera. They do have a pretty good system with having the children and young people help with carrying water and cleaning the house, though. Absolutely necessary.

This week, I am very thankful for my propane stove. -Cami

Not Halloween

Ok, so we don't celebrate Halloween over here but everyone else is sending around cute photos of their kids in costume, so I'll post this one of the boys as pirates. Those teeth on Ben just crack me up every time I look at them!

There was a little girl at Toby's school who told he had yellow teeth. Apparently he hadn't been brushing his teeth very well. So, we got him cleaned up and sent him to school with the yellow pirate teeth. He grinned at her with those awful teeth and asked "Are my teeth still yellow?" It was hillarious. Anyway, enjoy the photo of the pirates with their foam swords.

By the way, we don't celebrate Halloween here because people don't find the idea of pirates, ghosts, vampires, or witches funny. And they aren't, when you look at the circumstances here. People here still are quite fearful of witchcraft, and people do put curses on one another. It is not uncommon. Bandits and thieves beat people up and rob them regularly, and the spooky creatures of the night are not a joke. So, the skull and crossbones will not be flying on our house because people would believe we were advertising for performing evil magic!
-Cami

Obama the President

Well, as we shared the news of our new president this morning with various Mozambicans, there wasn't much interest. However, when we told them that the new American president was a black man, it was amazing to watch their faces. A slow grin crept over them, ending in a beaming smile. "Wow!" many of them said.

You see, it never would have occured to most of the people here that a black man could be president of a country like America. The USA is revered as the "land of milk and honey" and widely considered the most powerful country in the world (whether that is true or not). And for Americans to CHOOSE a black man as their president. Well, that is amazing.

Here in Mozambique, many black people consider themselves inferior to whites. There are many reasons behind this, related to the tortured history of this place, to the poor quality of education that many receive, and also due to the whites that they see coming through here in their big trucks and seemingly loaded down with money. Whites are powerful, educated people. So for a country of whites (their perception of America) to choose a black man is truly surprising to them. They think to themselves "Wow, a black man can be president in a country like that!" I love watching that realization dawn on them. It is a real self-esteem booster for them and makes me feel so good.

It also makes me proud to be an American. From over here, we see and hear terrible stories of racism from all over the world. There are many places where a black man (or anyone of a minority race) would never have a chance to hold the most powerful office in the nation. But in America, it is possible. Putting politics aside, forgetting about all the issues and about all the people who agree or disagree with our president-elect, I am proud that we are a nation who can look beyond race. And happy for my Mozambican friends to know that THEY are capable of great things, that their color does not mean that they are less. It's a beautiful thing.

-Cami