Quest for a Hippo

So Much Has Happened

2009-07-16T02:02:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the long delay without a post. Internet has been very limited and everyone has been extremely busy. I have decided to just share a quick list of some of the things that I have been working on since the last time I posted.

Last time I posted, we thought we had a property for our 2nd house to move to, and we did, but the property fell through twice within a week. So we were frantically searching for a new property on the last day of the month and trying to move on the same day. We were also working on trying to get our previous house ready to move out of with fresh paint on the walls, fixing sinks, installing a new shower head, repairing wood floors, landscaping, and repairing kitchen cabinets.

The property that we ended up moving into meets our needs and the children's needs far better than we could ever imagine. It is a beautiful house with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a big fenced in yard, it is closer to our other house, and has a flat behind it that is included in the rent, which works great for housing visiting teams. The house was a real answer to our prayers. We have been working on getting the washing machine hooked up, water filters installed, and other small jobs that needed be done to make the house just right for all of the children that live there.

We have also hosted two big teams and a bunch of individual visitors in the last few weeks. They have been a lot of fun to have around and so much help. I have really appreciated everyone that has come to stay this summer. They all have been wonderful.

I got to take Telma out for her 4th birthday dinner. It was a really fun night where she played and ate so much. She ate the following: 1/2 chicken, french fries, salad, two cokes, ice cream, and some cheesecake. When I had the server take away her plate of chicken bones that she had been picking at for over 20 minutes, and had no meat left on them, she got really upset with me. The night also include Telma getting really frighten in the bathroom by the automatic air hand dryer. She accidentally stepped under it on her way out of the bathroom and it turned on. She screamed and didn't want to go back into the bathroom to clean her hands after dinner. It was a good night out and great to be able to celebrate her life.

I the last three days, we have received three new boys into our now very large family. Social welfare continues to bring the children to the house and it is becoming harder and harder to even consider saying no to them. Our two houses are the only places in the area that are currently taking in young children.

The first boy, that came on Monday, didn't have a name, and we have no information on him. We have started to call him Donavan, but the children all call him Mi Nio (sp?), which means the boy in Portuguese. On Tuesday, Didito arrived at our house from the hospital. He appears to be around three years old, and was involved in a really bad bus accident. He was the only one that survived and has been in the hospital for the last few weeks. His mother and father were on the bus and passed away in the accident. We find him often in the corner crying wanting to speak with his mother. On Wednesday, another child arrived at the house, named Charlesy. He is mentally disabled and has a very high level of need. All of our children's beds are full and I am currently having more bunk beds made by my friend Sergio.

I am also currently in the process of installing a roof on our educator, Mimi's house. I purchased all of the supplies on Tuesday and delivered them to her house. The final pitches for the roof are being finished in concrete, and we will be heading to her house in Machava to work on the project and hopefully complete it on Friday morning.

Pieter and Rika are long time friends of Heidi Baker and we found out earlier this week that she is going to be in Maputo on Friday and speaking at a youth conference. It sounds like I will have a chance to go hear her speak and possible met her with Pieter and Rika. If you are not familiar with who she is and what God is doing through her in Mozambique, I encourage you to google her name or Iris Ministries. The work that is happening through their ministry is unbelievable and I really feel privileged to have a chance to hear her speak.

As you can see, things here are really busy. I leave for Nepal a week from today and will be spending two weeks there with Pieter and a team on an outreach project. I am really excited about the new experiences, new culture, and time with a bunch of great guys.

A Search for a New Home

2009-06-20T14:40:00.000-05:00

For the last two months we have been in search of a new property to move our second house of children to by the 1st of July. The area that both of our houses are in has started to become more developed with new businesses and lots of new building projects. These new developments have caused our little town to be the popular place for the people of the Maputo area to want to move. All of these factors have made the housing market very scarce.

During the search for a new property, we have been on a waiting list with 15 other clients looking for similar properties with the same guidelines. Our guidelines include: 3 bedrooms, kitchen, indoor bathroom, room for visiting teams to stay, and a yard big enough for the children to play. These expectations have made the search for a new house even more difficult.

Yesterday afternoon the realtor took us to look at a property and it looks like it is going to meet all of our expectations. The rent is a good price and appears to need very little work done to it. The house needs maybe a new water pump on the water tank and a fresh coat of paint. This also means that we must start working to get our previous property cleaned, painted, and fixed up, so that we can move the children out and to a new home.

Also this next week, Pieter, Rika, and the boys are leaving town to find some vacation time away to process all that has happened in the last few weeks. This will be good for the Boersmas as we cover for their family and send the last of our staff at the 2nd house on holiday. This will also mean that my Internet connection and email will be very limited here in Mozambique while they are gone.

Haircuts & Mr. T

2009-06-13T08:39:00.004-05:00

On the agenda for today was to give the boys haircuts.

The A-Team van just happened to pull up to our front gate as I was getting the clippers out and ready for my makeshift barbershop.

After the quick photo opportunity with Mr. T, I trimmed the boys up, so that they are clean cut and ready for the rest of their day. I have also been doing the cooking for the children for the weekend, while we send the local staff on their holiday breaks. I would like to think that the children have taken a special liking to my versions of their favorite Mozambican dishes, but then again there isn't much that you can do to spice up a good porridge.

Policia @ the Gate

2009-06-12T09:40:00.004-05:00

Today is Friday and we had police at the gate of our house two different times this morning. Both times they had different boys, both children 9-10 years old, without places to stay. It is hard to turn the children away, but we just don't have the space or the facilities to offer children that age services. We sent the police and children on to the social welfare office, where they will hopefully be directed to another center that works with their age children.

We have taken in four new children in the last four weeks, and six children total since the month of March. The need for homes for orphans is so high in Mozambique. Pieter and I were talking about the high level of need this afternoon. Both of us are confident that we could have five houses full of children within two weeks, if the funds and workers were available.

There are many other projects in the works, but all are operating on African time (translation=slow). Things are getting back to normal, structures are being reestablished, and the children are getting back into their routines. It has been good to be here, and able to support my friends that are here year round. We have already shared many laughs and a few tears. Life is good.

update: 5:49 pm. new pictures uploaded to flickr. please take a minute to check them out. Also, we haven't forgotten about the decidedly different photo project updates are hopefully coming soon. Amy and I are working away to get some posts ready for public viewing. Check out last years work while you wait.

Getting My Feet Back on the Ground

2009-06-08T09:19:00.003-05:00

This last week has been really busy, but don't feel like much has been accomplished. Mostly planning and scheduling staff holidays. Many projects are in the works. The Boersmas and I took a quick day trip to South Africa on Saturday to buy food, tools for work projects, and supplies to complete various tasks.

I was struck down with the stomach flu last night, and it has put me out of commission for the day. At one point last night, I wondered if this is what it felt like to die. I don't think that I have ever been that sick. I am feeling better now and hope to get some things accomplish before bed tonight.

We are working hard to find another property to move our 2nd house to, before the end of the month. It is very important that we find something that has more room for the children and facilitates our ministry better. We continue to search and hope that all are praying that God will bring us to the right house soon.

People continue to bring children to the house. I have lost track of how many new kids we have taken into our homes in the last two weeks. The kids are beautiful, and most are doing well health wise. It is good to be here at this time, but emotionally, spiritually, and physically draining.

I have not had time to take many pictures and have struggled to find a internet connection that will work for uploading. I want to share some of my new photo work, but will have to be patient, until I find connection with good uploading speed. Thanks for continuing to follow my life in Maputo. Look forward to sharing more as things continue to develop. Check back often.

update: 11:00 am. I uploaded a few new pictures to my flickr account. check out the link to the right

Update from Mozambique

2009-06-02T16:01:00.004-05:00

I made it to Mozambique just a few hours ago, and much has happen here in the last few days. To bring you up to speed, I thought it would be easiest to share two quick updates from Pieter, that were sent in the last two days.

Please read and continue to pray for my friends and our team here in Mozambique.

From Pieter:

Dear Friends,
We returned to our Mozambican family late Friday night. So much has happened in our lives the last few weeks and we feel so overwhelmed right now. The loss of Baby Josef was a big shock for us, our staff, and the children. It was even harder to process with the death of my mother. The only thing that kept us going is the knowledge that Jesus is in control.

During last week Social Welfare also dropped of three more children. The chief of Social Welfare now wants to integrate all our healthy children, because we are the only people taking babies. Now that we say our houses are full he wants to make space by moving the older children. This is not our vision, please pray for us as we try and communicate this to the chief. We want to walk with our children for a lifetime.

Today we celebrated children’s day here in Mozambique and it was so much fun, to see the children eat, play games, and even singing a few songs. I think it was a time of healing for our staff and children.

Please pray for Rika and I, we are really struggling emotionally right now and we are overwhelmed by so many things happening. I had no time even to process the death of my mother. We hope to take a short break the next few weeks, as a family. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support.

This was sent out the following day:

Americo arrived at our home a few weeks ago, he is a year and two months old. His mother and father died because of AIDS. He was already on anti retroviral, but his auntie stop giving it to him four months ago. His feet were swollen from malnourishment and he was dehydrated the day he came to our house.

This morning Americo died on the way to the hospital. He slept last night with one of our volunteer workers Amanda and when she woke up this morning she realized he had trouble breathing, we rushed to hospital and on our way there he died.

When we took him in we knew he was very fragile and ill, but we had faith that he will also be healed by Jesus. We know he is with Jesus now and for a few weeks he was loved and cared for by our family and staff.

We do not have words right now to describe all that we are going through right now, we still have faith and hope. Our educators are not doing well and I can see that this is very hard for them.

Thank you for all your prayers, but please continue to pray for us.

Pieter and Rika.

My Bags are Packed

2009-05-31T06:45:00.001-05:00

The day has finally come. Departure Day. I fly out at 12:30pm and will be flying through Houston to Amsterdam. Amsterdam to Johannesburg, South Africa. I will spend the night in Johannesburg with a friend and then fly to Nelspruit, South Africa, where I will spend the day and night with another friend. On Wednesday morning Pieter will be out to pick us up and take us into Mozambique.

This morning, I woke up feeling somewhat overwhelmed. This is a new feeling for me when leaving for Mozambique. In the past, I usually am filled with excitement, and wonder of what adventure I am going to find. But right now, with the circumstance and what has happened in the last few weeks with my MOZ family, I just don't know what is really going to be required of me.

Please pray that I will be able to support my friend's spiritual, emotional, and physical needs well. Also that I would be a good listener. That I would offer extreme flexibility, understanding, and have no expectations of what is supposed to happen. Pray that I would have patience with those around me. That I would find a new capacity to serve others and love them well.

Thank you for reading and following along with the adventure. It is going to be a busy summer, with lots going on. I wish that I had more insight into all that is going to be taking place, but I will have to leave you in suspense. Please check back often, and make sure to leave a comment, so that I know people are following along with the adventure.

Quick Update/Prayer Request

2009-05-27T07:05:00.003-05:00

As you already know we had one of our babies passed away in his sleep early last week. It happened while Pieter and Rika were in South Africa getting supplies for the house. On their way back across the border into Mozambique, they had the keys to their vehicle stolen. All of their possessions were locked in the car, which included their cell phones, and the car's alarm was also armed. They had no where to go, and no other option than to have the car towed all the way back to Nelspruit (about 1.5 hours back into South Africa), where there is a toyota dealer that would be able to help them with the keys and ignition so they could be back on their way. By the time they got back to Nelspruit it was dark, and they dealership was already closed. Pieter, Rika, and the kids had to spend the night in Nelspruit and wait to get help the next morning.

When Pieter arrived at the dealership and they opened the car he saw that his phone had many missed calls. The voicemail shared that they need to get home immediately because one of the children at the second house had passed away. The car was still not ready to be taken for the drive back to Mozambique.

While stuck in Nelspruit waiting on the car to be fixed, Pieter received another phone call from his sister. The phone call was to inform him that his mother had died of a sudden heart attack. After much deliberation and feeling helpless not knowing what to do, the family decided to head to Capetown to be with their family and help with preparation with Pieter's mother's funeral. They are currently in Capetown, his mother's funeral was on Monday (5.25.09).

It has been a hard week for us all involved, but especially hard for Pieter, Rika, and their family. I'm sure they would appreciate all of your prayers and support throughout this hard time.

I leave in just a few days(4) to be with them. Life is somewhat hectic, as I finish up work with 3 more days of teaching my wonderful 5th graders, and attempt to pack my classroom for a major move to another building for the next school year. I am also working on packing my bags for the 2+ month stay, trying to fit in a royals' game with my dad on his visit to see my brother and I, and really want to make some time for some time with friends within my awesome community here in Kansas City. Busy, but very good.

Did you know that hippos hibernate?

2009-05-10T16:52:00.007-05:00

So here is a little known fact... This blog is about to come out of it's dormant/hibernated-state and you will see new writing very shortly.

My tickets are bought (bags not yet packed), but I am leaving on a jet-plane very soon. I plan to fly out of Kansas City on the 31st of May to my second home in Mozambique. I can't wait to be back with my friends there, serving alongside them as they rescue children. I love that I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a part of this amazing ministry that takes responsibility for the homeless, abandoned, orphaned children in the community.

Over the last 4+ years I have grown to see everyone there like family, and can't wait to return to live, and do life with them for the summer. I will be in Mozambique for June, July, and the first part of August, so make sure to check back frequently for updates, stories, pictures, and hopefully lots and lots of adventure.

Tell your friends, family, and anyone else that might be interested in following, as this hippo website comes out of hibernation.

i miss these people!

2008-07-11T10:40:00.004-05:00

the beds

2008-07-11T10:39:00.000-05:00

The bunk beds are made; the mattresses have been bought, the fitted sheets are on the mattresses. The rooms are painted and look beautiful. We still need to buy the curtains, duvets and duvet covers. The girls were very excited to tonight sleep in their new beds, while Marcelino looks at them in jealousy because his bed is not yet complete. The boy’s beds are almost finished, their room has also been painted and we should have them sleeping in their new beds in the next few days.

Getting beds for the nine children was a project that I wanted to make sure to accomplish while I was in Mozambique. They have been sleeping in "pack and play playpens" since they arrived at the house and many of them are about to out grow those playpens. They are also very worn and beat up. New "big kid" beds were definitely a priority for me to figure out while I was at the house.

Sergio, who is a welder and handyman who lives next door, built the beds for me. I had fun assisting him with just a little bit of the work. Pieter and I spent 2-3 days searching the city for nine mattresses at a reasonable cost. We were able to find them and as an added bonus the place said that they would deliver them to the house. I was a little bit skeptical when paying for the mattress that I would actually see them show up at the house, but just a few days later they arrived. We next spent some time searching for sheet and blankets, but were pleasantly surprised when we found out they would be arriving from the states with a lady coming to the house from Arizona. The mattresses have protectors on them for potty training and they really look nice.

It may seem somewhat silly to be so excited about something as simple as a set of beds, but I really wasn't sure if I was going to be able to pull this project off. I can't wait to receive more pictures of the rooms as the final touches are put on them.

Paulo’s Home Visit

2008-06-23T01:52:00.003-05:00

We left the baby house early Saturday morning, with Paulo dressed in his best clothes ready to visit his father’s house for the first time in his life. I wasn’t really sure how far of a trip it was going to be, but was under the impression that it would take a good majority of our day to complete the traveling.

It has been a lot of fun to share these experiences with my friend Christie from back home. She loves the new experiences about as much as I do, and for that I am grateful. Many times during this day trip, we found ourselves in situations that made us laugh out loud at the absurdity of our circumstance. It has been such a blessing to have a good friend to share these times with, and also easier to get people to believe these unbelievable situations that we find ourselves experiencing.

As we squeezed into our first chapa ride of many for the day, we headed south from the city of Maputo. It was a long ride to area called Boane, which I had never been, while here in Mozambique. It was far enough away from the city, that we had a hard time getting a cell phone signal, and it was also noticeable that life was even simpler in this area than in the city. We then arranged a ride in the back of a pickup with 35-40 of our closest friends. It ended up that because Christie and I had baby Paulo with us that we rode in the cab of the truck for this 2 and ½ hour ride.

After waiting for about 45 minutes for the driver to round up the other travelers needing a ride down this long road, we finally left this small village. It was soon very clear to us that even though it had been 2 days since it had rained, this road was still very muddy and some would say possibly impassable. These people that would make such bold statements are obviously not from Africa, much less Mozambique.

If you can imagine a minimum maintenance road in the States that has been closed because of a flood washing out the majority of the road, and the part that is left is thick, wet mud and water. Take that image and put it in the middle of nowhere, so that if you do happen to get stuck there isn’t much hope of getting out, unless you walk yourself out to the nearest town many miles away. This was the situation that Christie and I found ourselves in, and we both were having the time of our life. I found myself looking at her and thinking, “I can’t believe that I am in Africa driving toward the Swaziland border in the middle of the nowhere, I can’t see civilization in any direction that I look, and I am sharing this experience with a great friend. Can it get any better than this?”

The drive was long in distance and also in length of time. It was very slow at times because of the road conditions, but miraculously our driver got us through and to the last stop on his route which was as close as a vehicle could take us to where Paulo’s dad lives.

We started to ask around, talking to the locals, trying to find out if they knew where Paulo’s dad lived, and it soon became clear to me, that my fearless translator Luis had forgotten Paulo’s dad’s name. Here we are now, seven hours drive from home and we don’t even know the name of the man that we are trying to track down. For anyone that know my friend and translator Luis, this is not out of character for him to do things like this, and I love him for it, because it gives me things to tease him about. As we continued to talk to the people of this remote village, one of the guys thought that he knew who we were looking for, and agreed to walk with us out to where he thought the man lived.

We walked down this road for at least two miles and as walked we teased Luis about the snake that had slithered out of the tree we were standing close to in the village. He panicked, screamed a little, and ran away faster than any of the men and more importantly women that were standing in our circle under the tree. His story of what happened differs greatly from Christie and my memory of how it happened, but I think that our version is more accurate and much more entertaining.
As we neared where the man helping us said that he thought Paulo’s dad lived, I saw a man in a full suit walking down this red dirt road toward us. As he got about 50 feet from us, I told Christie and Luis, that I thought that I recognized him from his visits to the house to see Paulo, and I was almost positive that it was his father. I took Paulo and walked toward the man who stood in disbelief that we had really traveled all of the way out to his village, with his son, to visit him. He stood there, obviously dressed in his best clothes, and it was obvious then that this was a really important to him that his son had finally come to visit him.
For those that aren’t familiar, Paulo joined the rest of the children at the baby house last summer, when his mother abandoned him. His father found out shortly after, but wasn’t able to provide adequate paper work or housing to convince social welfare to allow him to take Paulo. Paulo’s father, George is a neat man, who obviously cares a lot for his first-born son, but can’t provide for himself, much less his boy. I am so glad that I have the opportunity to be a part of what the baby house continues to do for these children and their families.

As we sat in front of this man’s house and he sat with Paulo in his arms, not much was said, but it was obvious that what was happening was good, and I really enjoyed just being able to sit there and be a part of this man’s joy. He sat and just enjoyed having his boy on his lap, being able to hold him while sitting in front of his home.

As the time approached and we need to leave in order to be able to get back to the baby house that same day, we all walked the two miles back to where the pickup had dropped us off. Paulo’s father carried him the entire way, and it was so obvious of how proud he was of his son. Everyone that we passed wanted to see the boy, and when we finally got back to the little village, he showed Paulo off to everyone that was sitting around the tree.

After standing for 30 minutes or so, a mini-bus came by and we were able to catch a ride back to the main road. This driver went so fast on this road that was in such a poor condition. We made the trip in ½ the time that our ride to the village had taken. The ride was so bumpy and included Luis laughing at Christie and I as we were airborne multiple times throughout the ride with Paulo in our arms trying to keep his head protected from hitting the ceiling and windows of the bus. When that ride was finish, we were able to get right on another larger bus at the stop that was packed to past the maximum occupancy, and made really good time back to the city of Maputo.As we were walking home at the end of the day Christie and I were processing through our day and how much we love these “African” experiences. The part that we love the most about it is these situations would be so outlandish in our homeland of the United States, but are everyday norms for the locals of Mozambique. It isn’t out of the question to squeeze 60-70 people in a bus that has a posted capacity of 26 people. It isn’t hard for the people of Mozambique to imagine driving down a washed out, muddy road in a two-wheel drive mini-bus, but most Americans wouldn’t attempt to travel down this same road in the strongest SUV that money could buy in the States. We both love the fact that we are able to have these experiences with the people of Mozambique. Life is good.

Gloria's Water Project

2008-06-22T06:13:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite people in Mozambique, shares a close resemblance to Mrs. Butterworth. She brings joy and happiness with her singing and laughter to the baby house. She is the “big momma” of the house, and it would be the same without here. Gloria is one of the hardest working ladies that I have met since being here. She works extremely hard while at the house, looking after the 10 children at the 1st baby house, and then she goes home to take of her daughter, her grandchildren, her boyfriend, and his family. She completes each of her days at home by walking an extremely long distance, at around midnight to a well that turns on in the middle of the night, to get water for her family.

I came to Mozambique this summer, knowing that I wanted to assist in making her life a little bit less difficult by installing water at her house. This last week, we spent two days digging a 2 foot deep trench through a rock and cement road, and to the back of her property. The pipe has been installed and faucet is ready for water. We are now just waiting for the water company of Mozambique to come out and install a water meter and connect the piping to the water main.

Gloria insisted that we let her swing the pickaxe and help with the project at her house. As you can see in the picture below, the neighborhood children thought it was just as funny as we all did. Thank you to the Siler Family for their financial help with this project!

Idrussi’s Home Visit

2008-06-22T05:16:00.003-05:00

I have been looking forward to returning this summer and being able to do home visits with the children again. Our first trip was a visit to Idrussi’s grandmother and the village of Camp 2000; this was one of my favorite visits from last year.

We set out in Pieter and Rika’s new vehicle, which made our travel much easier. It also allowed us to take many people from the team to see Camp 2000. One of the neat things has come out of our first visit to this village, is that Pieter and his team have decided that they are going to start working with the people of this village that is North of Maputo. They have already been out for a couple of nights stay with the people and are building new friendships with these people.

As we unloaded bags and bags of clothes to give as gifts, many people on my team were very wide-eyed because of the drastic difference in standard of living of this village compared to where we have been staying in Matola.

We set out walking through the deep sand with our arms weighed down with clothing and also our special guest Idrussi. This was his first time to return to see his grandmother since I brought him last time. He was unable to visit with Pieter’s team last time because he had come down with a case of Malaria. Walking into a village that doesn’t have many visitors to begin with, with a group of 6 white girls causes heads to turn.

We finally arrived at Idrussi’s grandmothers house, and shortly after the majority of the village had also arrived to greet us. It was neat to return with some of the pictures printed from my previous visit. There was one little girl that ended up being one of my favorite pictures from my trip last year. As I handed the pictures and looked through them with Idrussi’s grandmother, I showed her the picture and asked if the little girl was still here, and she just happened to be standing right by my side. I was able to show her the picture of herself and she smiled so big, it was amazing to see how much she had grown from the previous year.

As the clothes were divided into piles to be passed out, a few of the girls on the team passed out candy and snacks to the children, and I tried to capture the experience through the lens of my camera. Pieter pointed out to me, the there was an extreme lack of men present in the village. The only males present, either came with us (Pieter, Luis, and myself), or they were under the age of eight. It was obvious that there must be men present, because there was not a lack of children or women that were pregnant. It was just interesting to me that they were nowhere to be seen, and I still haven’t been able to make sense of the situation.

This visit was a good one, and it was definitely worth it to see the joy on Grandmother’s face as she held Idrussi. It will be interesting to see what happens as Pieter and men that he is leading continue to travel out to Camp 2000 to build relationship with these wonderful people.

a quick update

2008-06-15T08:46:00.002-05:00

Things are going amazing here. The majority of the team left yesterday and should arrive in Kansas City at around noon today. I am heading out to Gloria's house (one of the educators) tomorrow to start the water install, and the following day I am putting on my electrician's hat and getting one of the other educators electricity to her house.

I had the opportunity to use my camera to shoot a wedding yesterday. I got some really neat pictures at the wedding palace in downtown Maputo. It is a government building, so most of the time pictures aren't allowed, unless you are invited by the wedding party. It was a neat experience, and some quality cultural exposure.

House church was good today. I taught last week, and totally rocked the gospel groups. It was neat to share that part of our community back home with the people in the house church in Mozambique.

Pieter, Rika, and the family are taking a few days to get away to South Africa this week and leaving us in charge. The educators aren't going to be back until Saturday, so it will be a busy couple of days without much time to catch our breath. It has been good to have my good friend Christie here. We entertain each other and help keep each other sane. Last night, we walked a couple of miles in the dark, after the babies were bathed and in bed, to a little South African restaurant, because we were desperate for good food, didn't want to cook, and had no groceries.

Life in Jail

2008-06-12T13:08:00.002-05:00

Climbing off of the chapa with four of my team members and our fearless translator Luis. We were returning to the Grandparent’s village for the second day in a row. I have been doing my best to make sure that I share as many experiences with the team that has come with me, in the short time that they are here. The experience today was unexpected and definitely unplanned.

We had many bags of clothes to share with the Grandparent’s family. I also brought a soccer ball along to give to their oldest boy, Paulo. The team had a blast playing with all of the children in the village, as they gathered in the street to chase the ball, laugh, and play. The clothes were sorted out, while Luis and I sat and talked with Mary and Jacobi.

As we prepared to leave the house and head to the next family for visit, Tiffany made these famous last words, “Playing soccer with these kids is pretty much made this the best day of my life.” Little did she know that our afternoon was soon going to change. We continued on our way to visit a little boy named Tiki and his family, we walked past a group of guys who had a few drinks and they wanted us to stop and visit with them. As we talked, pictures and video were taken of the awkward encounter with these drunken locals.

I decided that it was time for us to leave and continue on our way. As we started to leave and walk back to the path that would lead us to our next destination, suddenly Luis had a man grabbing his arm and in Portuguese demanding to see his identification card. He asked to see my ID also, but I acted like I didn’t understand what he wanted from me. It soon became obvious, that this man was extremely drunk, and also the more important fact to the story, that he was also an off-duty police officer. He was very aggressive with Luis by yanking him around by the arm, trying to retain both of us, along with the group of girls that had accompanied us to the village.

As this altercation continued, a crowd gathered around Luis and I as this police officer was trying to arrest Luis. He became more violent and was trying to head butt Luis in the face. At this point, I was very confused and didn’t understand what the problem was, and why we were getting stopped. I did understand that this officer had Luis’ identification card and wouldn’t give it back, but was unsure of the other details. As the officer continued on with his drunken rage, Luis continued to tell all of us to leave him and I needed to get the girls home.

My heart was very conflicted because I wanted to make sure that the girls were safe, but I didn't want to leave Luis to get beat up. As the officer yelled at me to stay, I ended up moving the girls up the road to safety, with Luis’ cell phone in hand, calling Pieter to come and get them and also to help Luis and I get out of this situation.

When Pieter arrived in the village, I sent him down to where Luis and the crowd were gathered in the street. He soon returned and the girls and I piled in and we were off to the jail where Luis was now being taken by the officer. As we weaved through the narrow village streets, I tried to bring Pieter up to speed with what I knew about why the officer was taking Luis away. My knowledge was very limited to why, but I did know that the officer wanted to know why we were in the village, and why Luis was friends with white people.

Shortly after pulling into jail parking lot, the crowd arrived and it had grown to be much larger than before. The news traveled through the village quickly, and it now included the majority of the local staff of the house. All of the Educator staff of the house stood among the crowd, as the police chief was now involved, along with this intoxicated officer. It was obvious that the crowd was very much in support of Luis and the outreach work that is done by the baby house. It was a stressful and somewhat scary situation, but it was also a beautiful picture of how much the community stands behind the work that is happening at the baby house.

It ended up, that the drunken officer wanted money from us because we were white. He made the excuse that we had taken pictures of him while drinking (which we did not do), and because of that he was going to arrest Luis and I unless we paid him off in a bribe. He said that he was going to press charges against us, but when we showed up at the police station the next morning to process the paperwork, he was still at home sleeping off his hangover.

hello old friends

2008-06-09T15:32:00.002-05:00

Today, I finally had time to go visit Mary and Jacobi. These two people are the elderly couple that I worked to help last summer. We built an outdoor kitchen with coal stove, and installed water for them. Mary was walking a long distance with buckets to carry water back to her house daily. It was really great to see them both. They appeared to be in good health, and Jacobi is 84 years young. They are wonderful people, who are taking care of 5 of their grandchildren, and it was so good to reunite with them. When I asked Jacobi if I could turn on his water, he smiled and told me absolutely. It was neat to see both of them so appreciative of something that we as American take for granted most of the time. I hope to spend some more time at their house in my next couple of weeks.

I have new projects that I am working on. I have started to work on installing water at one of the educator's house. Gloria is the "big momma" of the baby house, and we became good friends last summer. Currently she is leaving her house at midnight, and walking extremely far to a well, that is only running for a short time during the night, to carry water all the way back to her house for her family. She is so excited that I am going to help her with getting water at her house. I hope that it makes her life easier.

I am also working at Isabelle's house (another educator at the baby house), to install all of the wiring and connect electricity to her house. This will improve her living situation and also create a work space for one of her family members, who is a barber. He needs electricity to use his clippers to cut men's hair.

We have also been painting a mural in the baby's rooms that has turned out beautifully. I will post pictures when I get a chance to upload them. Until then, check out my flickr account for more photos of what is happening in Mozambique.

say hello to the birthday boy!

2008-06-09T15:22:00.003-05:00

check out this new blog

2008-06-08T08:46:00.004-05:00

So I have a confession to make, I have been working on something else while here in Mozambique. It involves another blog, and I think that you all need to go and check it out.

Amy G. and I have created a photo project. Before I left, we set up many different topics that we would both try to capture with our cameras. It has been somewhat like a photo scavenger hunt, where she is looking for an image that represents the topic in the United States and I am trying to find an image that represents the topic while here in Mozambique.

I hope that you enjoy our work. Go check it out at this link: decidedly different. You can leave us comments with ideas for other topics to seek out in this photo cultural study.

New Portraits

2008-06-07T14:23:00.002-05:00

Much to Do

2008-06-06T03:48:00.002-05:00

The house is extremely busy, with so many things to get done. It is hard to not be overwhelmed by everything that is going on.

Today is the first day that all of the help in the house is on their vacation. I feel much like a project manager, making sure that everyone is completing their assigned jobs. I hope to see the house running like clockwork in the next few days.

We are working on painting both of the bedrooms. The colors are beautiful and when they are completed, they will both have murals painted on the walls. So at the moment both the girls and boys bedrooms are empty and all of the children have moved their beds to the kitchen. It seems that they think that it is a big slumber party, and are having lots of fun, but are not getting much sleep.

Social workers from the Social Welfare Office have been showing up daily with new children and families that need help. The last two days they have brought the family along with them, which helps us to assess their situation, but makes it extremely hard to not offer assistance. Finances are spread thin, everyone needs our help, and it is really overwhelming.

Baby Antonio, arrived at the house two nights ago, and is doing well. His little body was so weak that he didn’t seem to have the energy to even cry. It is encouraging to hear him cry when he is hungry. I was holding him this morning before I left the infant house to come to the other house, his body seems so frail, but can already tell that his skin is healthier, his cradle cap is healing, and that he has more strength in his arms. It will be interesting to me, to see him improve over the next few weeks while I am here.

I am also working on building bunk beds for the girl’s bedroom at the moment. I am learning to weld with Sergio, Pieter and Rika’s next-door neighbor. I gave Sergio money to go buy all of the metal supplies for the beds, and we are hopefully going to build them this afternoon. This will get the children out of the playpens that they have slept in since they were infants.

By the way, trips visit to the children’s families are being scheduled and are always an adventure of some sort. I am excited about the visits next week to Idrussi and Quiteria’s families. Both of these trips are really far away, and one will probably end up being an overnight trip, which means camping and hopefully good adventure.

The Team Has Arrived and a New Baby

2008-06-04T01:54:00.001-05:00

After an overnight stay in Johannesburg, the team arrived at the Maputo National Airport. They seemed to have travel well, but were somewhat tired. We spent the day getting situated, unpacking, and organizing supplies. The girls were really excited when they found out that we were going to be spending our nights at the 2nd babyhouse, which is where all of the new infants live. The girls passed around the three infants for the majority of the afternoon and it was an all around good day.

Today, there is a good chance that a new three-month-old baby, named Tony, will join the ranks of the house. It just depends if the Social Welfare Office has their paperwork in order. The house has only been functioning for a few months and is already getting close to reaching its maximum capacity of 6 children. There is such a great need for people to take care of these children without families in Mozambique. The situation is overwhelming at times.

Adding the 2nd babyhouse has doubled the budget of this ministry, and is spreading the finances thin. It is extremely encouraging to see Pieter and Rika show such confidence and faith, that their financial support will continue to show up, and the needs of the children will continue to be met.

Prepare for Departure

2008-06-03T01:59:00.004-05:00

With a few friends seeing us off at the airport, we left Thursday just after 1:00 in the afternoon from Kansas City. Both Christie and I had the thought; “I sure hope all of our bags make it to our final destination.” We boarded the plane and set out on our journey both planning to sit by the other for the next 25 hours straight. When we arrived in Amsterdam, we realized that the Dutch Airline KLM had us sitting apart from each other on totally different rows. We quickly remedied this horrific situation of separation anxiety, by a quick conversation with the help desk. As you can see, our faces say it all, “Thank you KLM, you made our flight enjoyable.”

As we flew across the entire continent of Africa to Johannesburg, I realized again that Africa is so ridiculously gigantic. The size of this continent is unbelievable. It took us over 11 hours to fly from the Netherlands to South Africa. At least three of those hours were spent fly over desert that looked like the picture below. The desert went for as far as my eyes could see in all directions. It was really hard to grasp just how big the sand dunes were, because there was nothing to reference (like cars or houses). It was also interesting to me, just how captivated I was by the monotony of endless amounts of sand. It was beautiful in an obscure sort of way. I woke up Christie to see it, but she didn’t seem as impressed as I was with the landscape.

When we arrived in Johannesburg, we weren’t sure if our bags were going to be on the baggage carousel, or if they had been checked all the way through to our destination that we left for the following morning. We lucked out and found them coming out as we made our way through the South African Customs. This was a relief because we were sure that our bags were going to spend the night in the Johannesburg airport, where bags are often looted and stolen.

We made our way out of the airport and were greeted by my friend Henry, who lives close to the airport and graciously opened up his house to us for the evening. We ate a small dinner, had some good conversation, and headed for bed. Surprisingly, Christie and I already had adjusted our bodies to the seven-hour time zone difference, and went to bed on time and slept all the way through the night. In the morning we took Henry out for breakfast at one of my favorite restaurants in South Africa, and headed back to the airport for our last short flight to Nelspruit, South Africa.

When we arrived in Nelspruit, Pieter, Rika, and their three boys were waiting with big smiles on their faces. It was like walking out to family that I hadn’t seen in almost year. It is so good to be back and sharing life with this wonderful family. It is even better this year, because I am getting to share it with many people from my community of friends in Kansas City.

The rest of the team joins Christie and I tomorrow morning. I will be at the airport bright and early, to greet them with a happy smile. I hope that they have traveled well, grown closer as friends, and are well rested, because they will be extremely busy keeping up with this wonderful household of toddlers.

The Time Has Come

2008-05-28T22:28:00.002-05:00

The day is finally here. I leave tomorrow at around noon from Kansas City and will finally arrive sometime Saturday afternoon to the babyhouse.

Life has been a whirlwind over the last couple of weeks. For those reading that may not know me personally I am a teacher during the school year (this is why I have my summer to find adventure in Africa). Our school year was extended because of the many snow days that we enjoyed earlier in the year. So my 5th graders and I just finished our last day of school earlier today.

Leading a trip, leaving the country for a month, working full time, and trying to keep up with friends that I won't be able to see while I am gone has worn me out. I look forward to my flights with Christie as a time to chat, but also as a great time to catch up on my sleep. The next time you will hear from me, will be from the "motherland of Africa." Take care.

Itinerary:

KCMO to Detroit
Detroit to Amsterdam
Amsterdam to Johannesburg
Overnight layover with a friend in Johannesburg
Johannesburg to Nelspruit
In Nelspruit, Pieter is picking us up from the airport for a 3 hour ride to Maputo and the beautiful kids at the babyhouse.

The Team and Other News.

2008-05-27T02:11:00.006-05:00

Here is a picture of the wonderful team!

They are from left to right:

Back Row: Kate, Me, My Massive Arm Muscles, Missy
Front Row: Christie, Suzy, Maranda, Natalie
Not able to be there for photo: Tiffany

I leave for Mozambique in under three days. I still have two days of work to complete with my class of 5th graders, and the following day I board a plane with my travel partner (Christie). We travel from Kansas City to Detroit, Detroit to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Johannesburg, and Johannesburg to Nelspruit, South Africa. In Nelspruit, Pieter will pick us up at the airport and take us the rest of the way to Maputo. We leave Thursday and arrive on Saturday.

I am extremely excited to be on my way back to see my friends at the babyhouse that have become so dear to my heart and somewhat like family to me. I am also extremely excited to have the opportunity to take this wonderful team of women with me and share the wonderfulness of the babyhouse with them.

In Mozambique News:

Flight From South Africa Slackens
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
NEWS
26 May 2008

Maputo--
Mozambicans are continuing to flee from South Africa, but in smaller numbers than at the height of last week's ethnic cleansing,

Orlando Cossa, the head of Mozambican immigration at Ressano Garcia, the main border post between Mozambique and South Africa, told AIM that on Monday, up until 14.00, a total of 1,194 Mozambicans had crossed the border.

This is a large number, but at the height of the exodus many more were fleeing. The worst day was last Wednesday, when 4,441 Mozambican poured across the Ressano Garcia border.

"We are now seeing a slackening in the number of Mozambican victims fleeing from xenophobia in South Africa", said Cossa. He said that the total number of Mozambicans who had returned, from the start of the violence until Sunday, was 26,434. Add Monday's figures and the total is over 27,500.

However, there is now some traffic in the opposite directions. With an apparent reduction in the number and scale of anti-foreigner attacks, some Mozambicans are beginning to return to South Africa.

During the past week very few Mozambicans indeed ventured into South Africa, but on Monday there was "a significant movement" of Mozambicans visiting South Africa for a variety of reasons, said Cossa. But he did not say how many had crossed the border.

They had told officials that they were going to Johannesburg, Durban and Nelspruit. Cossa said this group included not only traders, going to buy goods that they would resell in Maputo, but also some Mozambicans resident in South Africa who had fled last week, but had now judged it safe enough to return.

Cossa was optimistic that the movement of Mozambicans to South Africa would now return to normal.

As for the movement of South Africans (mostly tourists) across the border, this had continued normally, despite the violence. Cossa denied South African press reports that South African tourists were fleeing from Mozambique for fear that angry Mozambicans would take revenge against them.

"Foreigners are going in and out of the country as usual", said Cossa. "I see no relation between the xenophobia and the movement of foreigners, particularly South Africans, across the border".

++++++++++++++++

My understanding of this issue is that South Africa is having major problems with refugees and illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and other surrounding countries. The term that news sources are using for what is going on is xenophobia or the fear of foreigners. Foreigners are often accused of taking away people's jobs and fueling crime.
There have been many riots happening in and around Johannesburg, which has caused these foreigners to flee. Many foreigners are returning to their home countries.

The border that I will be traveling through is the one that is mentioned in the above news article. Over 27,500 Mozambicans have crossed back into Mozambique in the last week. When I have crossed this border in the past, the lines are always long and take a few hours to get through. I can not imagine what it is going to be like with such an increase of people coming across the border. I hope that the people of Mozambique will stay peaceful and not show hate to South Africans that are living in Mozambique.

The Hippo is Returning...

2008-04-20T14:03:00.006-05:00

An Update, Way Past Due

2008-02-03T11:23:00.000-06:00

I haven't written here, since my return to the US, and I feel that I need to post a quick update. I have been work to organize another trip to Mozambique this coming summer. I am hoping to lead two teams for the month of June. We are planning to staff both of the babyhouses (that's right there is now two house) for the month, so that the educators that work in the house taking care of the babies can have a break/vacation. If you are interested in being a part of this adventure, and I know you personally, please contact me and maybe you will be on your way to Africa.

For more information about the Mozambique Babyhouse check out their website at: www.allnationsmozambique.com

I do plan to post to this blog more regularly as the trip comes closer. I hope to have many more adventures to share as I travel back to the place that has captured part of my heart.

Guess Who Made it Home Safe?

2007-07-29T15:30:00.000-05:00

Just to let everyone know, I made it back to the States safely. I will post more when I return to Kansas City. I have posts about my last days in Mozambique and I will post them soon. I just had a minute to post a quick update and wanted everyone to know that I made it back to the U.S. of A.

Also, my phone was stolen as I went through a security checkpoint in Johannesburg, South Africa. If I haven't been able to call you as I promised that I would, then I sincerely appologize. I bought a new phone yesterday and was able to keep my same phone number. Give me a call if you care to chat. More to come soon, please continue to check back for more updates.

Reflection on Departure

2007-07-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

As we sat at the restaurant table waiting for breakfast, and the missionary kids sang their new favorite song, Shout to the Devil, from their newly acquired Guitar Hero II video game, I laughed out loud, but was reflecting about the last two months of my life in my head. I feel that I had grown very close to the Boersma Family in a relatively short amount of time. We had accomplished many things together while they graciously allowed me to stay in their home in Matola, Mozambique. It was now coming to an end, but I knew that I would be returning to continue to build the relationships that I had started while in Africa.
Boersma Family Portrait

As a family, we decided that a good way to spend my last few days in Africa would be to travel together with the children by car to South Africa, where I would eventually catch a plane back to The States. We have had many great meals together. We visited beautiful canyons, valleys, waterfalls, and a place called the potholes. We also spent time at the local shopping mall.

Last night we had another Brai (South African BBQ), which is a huge part of South African culture. Everyone sits around the fire, and the host cooks tons of lamb, sausage and steaks. I quickly found out that hotdogs and hamburgers were considered tacky and not acceptable when hosting guests. It was a good time to sit around and enjoy the company of so many people that have become a part of my life here in Africa.

This morning, I woke to the sound of monkeys running across the roof of the room that I am staying in South Africa. I got up to look out the window and there was three monkeys were sitting in the tree just outside my window. One was trying to get at the window, to make himself a guest in my room. It made me smile, thinking about how amazing it would be to have wild monkeys wake me up at my house in Kansas City. The neighbors probably would have a problem with my wild monkeys; so I just sat on my bed and watched them torment the little dogs that live on the property where I am staying.

I am planning on trying to convince Pieter to conquer his fears of snakes, and take me to a snake park this morning. The park has some of the most deadly snakes in the world and all of their snakes can be found in the area that I am currently staying. I think that it would be a neat “field trip” for the three home-schooled boys.

I leave this Afternoon, where I fly out of Nelspruit’s small airport to Johannesburg. I have a short layover in Johannesburg and then fly to Madrid, Spain. In Spain, I spend seven hours in the airport and then board a plane headed for JFK Airport in New York City. When I reach New York, I will take the subway to Penn Station and then buy a train ticket to Philadelphia where I plan to spend a week with Brandon and Sarah Fazel and their new baby!

I plan to post more pictures and other content about my trip to Africa, so please continue to check up on my blogspot in the next coming weeks, for more about my experiences.

Thelma Came Home

2007-07-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

On Monday morning, we received a call from Social Welfare that Thelma, the new baby girl at the house, was finally ready to come home from the Maputo Central Hospital. She has spent the last few weeks in the Malnourishment Ward, receiving treatment. I was excited to know that she would join the other babies at the house before I left to go back home.

When I came in the house from running errands to the Water Company, I saw her hold out her arms for me to hold her. She was precious and looked so much healthier, since the first time I had visited her at the hospital. She was still very small, but it was obvious that she had made much improvement.

As we sized her for new clothes, it was realized that even though she was 3-4 years old, clothes that were made for 0-6 month infants were what fit her body the best. She is eating well, slept through the night, and it seems that she feels right at home at the baby house, where she has eight new brothers and sisters.

Idrussi’s Home Visit

2007-07-20T21:30:00.000-05:00

When he left the small village of Camp 2000, he was weak, sick, and almost ready to breathe his last breath. His grandmother was sure that she had sent him away to be a part of a child trafficking scheme. She was positive that she would never see her Grandchild Idrussi again.

As we walked through the reasonably new village of Camp 2000, which had been established as a refugee camp for victims of the Mozambique floods of 2000, I wasn’t sure that we were going to be able to find Idrussi’s family. I wasn’t even sure that his grandmother still lived in the village or if she was even still alive. We had traveled by chappa and an old bus for 4 ½ hours and were now walking to a church in the village, where we were told the pastor’s wife could help us track down the family.

As we sat down in the shade that was provided on the side of the simple cement church building, the young lady that had presented herself as the wife of the pastor told us that she would go and find her friend that had brought Idrussi to her over a year ago. As we sat and waited Idrussi shoveled chocolate biscuits into his mouth, and managed to get some of the chocolate on the pants of my traveling companion Luis.

With sounds of children playing under a nearby tree in our ears, the lady returned with a lady named Mary that said she knew where the family lived, we were in luck, but there was a catch. Mary said that it was at least two-hour walk from the church. As I looked up at the sun, which was now high in the sky, I thought through our next step and looked at my watch. We had left the baby house at just after 7:00am, and it was now just after 1:00pm. Two hours from now it would be 3:00pm, plus the two-hour walk back to catch a 4 ½ hour bus ride. I wasn’t sure how late all of the buses ran, and I knew that one of my teammates had plane to catch in the morning. I was also not sure how much I wanted to entertain the idea of spending the night out in this village with Idrussi, who only had a short supply of diapers.

We all looked at each other for a few minutes and finally decided that we needed to continue on in our journey. We walked through deep sand right behind our recently acquired guide Mary. After only walking for a little over an hour, she realized that we had already arrived in the area of the family’s house. This was good news for us because the sun starts to set at 4:30 in the afternoon and traveling in the dark isn’t a good idea in Mozambique.

After asking a local lady from the village about the family’s whereabouts, we walked toward a small grass hut with a man and woman sitting on a grass mat in the shade of a nearby tree. Mary spoke in the native language of Shangon and as the lady rose from the grass mat she started to weep. With tears rolling down her cheeks she approached us, and this is when I realized that this was Idrussi’s Grandmother.

When she handed Idrussi over to Mary over a year ago, she didn’t expect to ever see the little boy again. Now he had returned to her with a Buddha-like belly and a huge smile on his face. He was happy, healthy, and now taking medicine that was helping his body to fight his battle with AIDS. I handed Idrussi over to her, and she hugged and held him tightly against her chest. She repeated, “Obrigato,” which is “Thank you” in Portuguese. Soon all of the small houses in the village had emptied and the people were standing in a circle around Idrussi, as if to witness a triumphant kings return to his village.

I stood by and just tried to take in this entire spectacle. Soon Idrussi’s Aunt was there at the house, along with an Uncle, and other family members. As they enjoyed holding and playing with him, I soon realized that the children of the village had never seen a camera. I started taking pictures of the kids around me, and then showing them their own faces on my cameras screen. The children loved it, but the excitement soon spread to a few of the mothers that were nearby and they also requested that I take their picture, with babies in their arms, so that they could see.
Idrussi and Family
As the sun started to set in sky, I realized that our visit needed to come to an end. The village said their goodbyes to each of us with a kiss on both of our checks, and we were on our way home. The adventure does not, however, stop on our arrival at a nearby paved road.

Standing at the edge of the pothole-filled blacktop, I realized that we were standing at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. A few small chappas came by within the next 45 minutes, but they were all full without room for the four of my traveling companions. I thought to myself of how I had always wanted to hitchhike, and how it would make a good story to say that I hitchhiked in Africa, and without hesitation, or asking the people that were traveling with me, I walk out onto the pavement and put my thumb up. I had a ride in less than a minute and Amy was screaming, “What are you doing?”

With a casual reply I said, “Getting us a ride, come on. I always wanted to hitchhike, and what better place, but in Africa!”

I climbed in the back of the old pickup with Luis and Idrussi, and let Amy and Pedro ride in the cab with our new friend Felix, the driver. He drove very fast and took us into a nearby town where it was much easier for us to get a chappa home.

This home visit, although longer and more exhausting than any of the others was the most rewarding. I feel so fortunate to be able to be in Africa and be a part of reuniting families, giving them hope, and showing that their baby’s future is no longer hanging in the balance, but now shows great promise. This was my last home visit that I will be able to facilitate while I am here for this summer visit, but I also now know that I will return to Mozambique during my future summers and continue to work alongside of these people that are making such a difference in the lives of the family of this country that has won over my heart.

Richardo’s Home Visit

2007-07-17T15:00:00.000-05:00

As we set out this morning, I had a different team of people traveling with me. There is a new lady that we are trying to get involved with some of the community work at the baby house. Leonora is pretty good at English and this was her first outing for the baby house.

We left the house at around 9:30 in the morning and road the chappa to the Benefica Market. When we arrived, we phone Richardo’s father and he was on his way to meet us at the gas station that was near to where to our location. It was a pleasant surprise that he was coming to meet us and that we wouldn’t have to search to find his home.

We stood and waited for about 15 minutes and I finally saw his father’s familiar face from his visit to the baby house the previous week. He was so excited to see Richardo, and as I handed the little boy over to him it was neat to see them both excited to see each other again. Richardo looks just like his father, and as I followed his dad, we walked toward a larger bus that would carry us closer to his home.

The bus ride was long and I stood smashed between many people most of the journey. When we arrived, I immediately realized that we were in the same neighborhood as last Friday on the visit to Marcelino’s family. The walk was much shorter this trip and we arrived at his little grass hut in no time.

We sat and chatted for about an hour, he showed us pictures of Richardo’s father who died of AIDS shortly after Richardo’s birth. She was a beautiful woman and it was neat to hear her husband talk so fondly about his former wife. After our visit, he took us to the front yard and dug up some roots of a plant to take home. As he was digging up the roots, two ladies came by the house that were friends of Richardo’s mother. It was neat to let them see how well he was doing. The visit went well and it was great to take Richardo for the first time to his father’s house.

Need for a Cure

2007-07-16T23:30:00.000-05:00

My adventure for the day, took me back to Maputo’s Central Hospital. Today’s trip was not to the malnourishment unit, but to a building that is for blood tests and AIDS patients. Baby Luis, one of the AIDS babies at the baby house, had an appointment for more blood test.

As we walked across the now familiar hospital campus, we approached a building that I had not been into yet. We climbed the stairs, with Baby Luis in my arms, and arrived at a double door with a guard posted checking paperwork of all who entered. We quickly showed the guard Luis’ appointment papers, and he handed us a small piece of paper with the number 101 handwritten in blue pen on it. We walked past a front desk where I quickly showed the nurse behind the desk our number and she directed us silently with a point of a finger toward a hallway.

As I walked on with Baby Luis’ head resting on my shoulder, I entered a hallway that was full of people standing shoulder to shoulder. I worked my way down the hall bumping into many people, some very young faces, many old faces, men, women, children, and newborn infants, as I tried to make my way to the waiting area. As I approached the end of the hallway, I realized that the waiting area had spilt out into the hall way because the hospital was already so busy at 8:45 in the morning. The number that was handed to us when entering through the double doors was our number in line to wait for a blood test.

I stood there with two-year-old Baby Luis resting against my chest, and watched many people come out of multiple hospital rooms. It wasn’t that the hospital didn’t have enough doctors on staff, because I would guess that there were at least 12 doctors calling in people one after another into the little room where they took two small vials of blood from each visitor’s body. There were just so many people in that small room, and it is like that all day long at this hospital on every day that the hospitals doors are open.

I have always heard about the “AIDS Epidemic” and seen people with t-shirts supporting Race for a Cure and things of that nature, but until today I was unable to really comprehend the numbers and statistics that we, as Americans, throw around so nonchalantly. Today, I witnessed the face of AIDS, and they were all beautiful. Every single person in that long hallway and waiting room was beautiful in their own unique way, and they will all eventually die of a disease that does not yet have a cure. The little boy in my arms, that I have grown to love over that last 43 days, will eventually pass away from this disease that we, as a society, have not figured out how to conquer.

My experience, of simply waiting in that hospital waiting room and having a chance to work with the children at the baby house, has drastically changed my outlook on people who are living with AIDS. I realize the urgency of the need for a cure for this disease that will eventually take the lives of many of the people that I have had the chance to meet this summer.

The Sweet Serenity of the Ocean

2007-07-15T17:00:00.000-05:00

For the last few days there has been a team of people from South Africa at the baby house. Before they headed home today, they decided that a trip to the beach was needed. It would have been rude of me to try and talk them out of doing such an awful task, so with a little twisting of my arm I decided that I would accompany them on their journey. Really, I was extremely excited that I had the opportunity to go with them because I had said before leaving for Africa that I would like to have the chance to swim in the Indian Ocean.

We loaded up into their 4x4 Toyota Pick-up, and headed out of the gate of the property. I was seated in the bed of the pickup along with a few other that had also been “persuaded” to attend this outing. I love riding in the back of pickups in Africa, it seems to make any trip into the community more rich and more of an experience. I can see more, hear the sounds better, and interact with the people walking along the streets easier.

It was a bit chilly winter morning, so I pulled the hood of my jacket up and kept to myself the majority of the ride there. I had a really relaxing time with the wind blowing on my face and through my goatee. Many people were already out and on their way to church in their Sunday best. I was quite fascinated the first time I saw an African man step out of his grass hut in a three piece suit, but have now come to expect it on Sunday mornings.

As we approached our first stop, I saw water and palm trees and thought that we had arrived at the ocean. I will admit that I was disappointed at what I was seeing. It looked really dirty, smelled of diesel fuel, and dead fish. As we got closer to the water, I noticed that there was a ferry that was going to take us across the water where we would continue toward the beach on the other side.

The ferry didn’t appear to be very safe, but since my mom reads what I write on this website, I will state that it was the safest water vessel this side of the equator. As vehicles load onto the boat, it dropped lower and lower into the water. We climbed on, and I am sure that more than just a few prayers were silently shouted to the heavens in hopes that we would not sink to the bottom of this muddy river.

We arrived on the other side and continued on our way to the beach. I was again surprised as we drove down this dirt road and we were greeted by herds of cattle crossing the road. There were no fences to hold them in, and these big bulls wandered lazily across the road in front and behind our truck. After passing many children and a few older men begging along side the road, we arrived at the beach.

We climbed the hill and passed many cabana style cabins, passed through a large gathering of trees and stepped out on to the white sand of the beach. It was beautiful and there were probably only two other families that were on this endless beach that spanned the coast as far as my eyes could see. I have a hard time putting into words how peaceful the next few hours of my life were. The sound of the waves hitting the beach, and having the chance to walk down the coast without anyone else around was amazing. The water was surprisingly warm and the sun felt wonderful as it came down to wrap it warm rays around my body.

Honestly, I have never really been attracted to spending great amounts of time on the beach. Maybe it is my extremely rock-hard chiseled physique, but I have always thought that the mountains were a better choice when put up against each other. After today though, my opinion has been swayed. Although I still love my mountain views and cold weather, I now understand those people who travel to the coast and layout worshiping the sun as the waves lap at their feet. It was a great day of relaxation, and I can again say it is great to be in Africa!

Marcelino’s Home Visit

2007-07-13T23:10:00.000-05:00

Marcelino sat at the breakfast table in his best clothes, eating an early breakfast, so that we could leave the house by 8:00 this morning. At the sight of his new outfit he knew that he was on his way somewhere special and was going to have the chance to leave the baby house. This always seems to make the kids happy.

We loaded on to a chappa and headed away from the city, a place that I hadn’t been, we then switched to another bus that took us even farther from the city of Maputo. It was quite a bus trip with Marcelino on my lap and squished into the chappa. He seems to get very quiet and subdued whenever he is taken out.

We walked a short distance through a small village to find Marcelino’s uncle. As he greeted us, I could smell urine on his clothes, and large amounts of alcohol on his breath. He accompanied us, and actually led the way to the house where the father of Marcelino lives.

We climbed on yet another chappa and traveled to another village that was quite a distance from where we started. As we climbed off of the bus, Luis quickly pointed out that we were across the street from Iris Ministries (the orphanage that he spent much of his childhood living in). This is where our walk of great proportions began. We walked and walk and walked. We easily walked six miles through deep sand and carried Marcelino most of that distance. The area was beautiful farmland, but the sand made the walk hard work.

Standing in the middle of stereotypical African savannah with just a few small grass huts surrounding us, I realized that Marcelino’s uncle had no idea where his brother lived. We wandered and almost everyone that crossed our path if they knew Marcelino’s father, but no one recognized his name or knew the family. I was pretty sure that we were lost, but I had one of my favorite children in the world resting in my arms, so we decided to play. I put him down on the sandy path and we chased each other around, while he shouted at all of us. Marcelino’s uncle and Luis continued to ask people and we finally decided to just head down this path with no direction. I really didn’t have much say in the matter because of the language barrier, so I just continued to follow.

After about 15 more minutes of walking, we asked a man wearing a stocking hat in the African heat if he knew the family. I was astonished when his face showed that he was happy to be able to help and led us to the family’s house.

As we approached the gate, I noticed that their grass hut and plot of land was surrounded with bushes with very large thorns on them. I put Marcelino on the ground, straightened his shirt and pants, and he grabbed my hand as we walked through the gate. His family sat on grass mats in the sun. His father’s new wife was cutting vegetables and looked up at us with a smile as we approached where she was sitting.

A little boy sitting next to her with a pot of old cooked rice sitting between his legs looked up and spoke in Shangon. It was obvious that he was excited from the tone of his voice, but I had to ask Luis what the little boy was saying as he looked and spoke to Marcelino. Luis told me that he had said, “My brother, my brother, I have a brother!” Marcelino walked over and sat down next to the boy, who we later found out is named Michael, and sat down and grabbed his hand to hold. It was precious to see these two brothers reunite.

Chickens roamed around our feet as some of us stood and watched the family marvel at how Marcelino had grown and how healthy he looked. We were told that Marcelino's father was working at the market, wandering through the narrow booths selling small items (we went to the market after leaving the house, but did not have success at finding the father).

As we said our goodbyes and headed back on our long walk to the main road, I couldn’t help but think about how much of a difference the baby house has made in Marcelino’s life. Walking with him in my arms, I continued to think about what his life would look like if he lived out with this family in their very humble grass hut. Without running water, with no guarantee of a next meal, without a daily bath or clothes to wear. I am so glad that I am able to partner with a group of people that is making such a major difference in the lives of children. I see the eight former orphans at the baby house as some of the luckiest children in this entire country of Mozambique. They will have a promising future because of what is being done to fight for their social justice.

New Adventures to Come

2007-07-10T09:52:00.000-05:00

As my stay here in Mozambique is quickly coming to an end (only 17 days left) and things are winding down, I was pleasantly surprised at breakfast this morning. As we were standing around the kitchen and Pieter was cooking an egg, he casually informed me that he would like me to take each of the babies on a visit to their family’s home before I leave the country.

I am extremely excited about the chance to adventure out into the smaller surrounding villages to seek out the families of the children here at the house. I'm sure that each will have a story that needs to be heard. I will keep you posted on my adventures as they happen. This will be a good way to spend my remaining time here at the baby house.

Life Without Water

2007-07-09T04:25:00.000-05:00

As I sat in the back of a pickup truck, I could feel the wind blowing through my facial hair, I was on my way to change the lives of an African family. I sat and found myself wondering if I could even imagine living my entire life without running water in my house.

This is the case of my seventy-five year old friend Jacobi. His entire life has never included a water faucet in his residence. The tedious chore of carrying water in buckets has been a part of his every day routine since he was born in 1932.

To have to chance to lighten the burden as Jacobi and Mary raise their five grandchildren is a pleasure. I feel so fortunate to be able to be here in Mozambique and to be a part of something so simple, but yet is so appreciated.

We pulled into the small market area of grass huts that appeared to sell mostly hardware materials. As I climbed out of the back of the truck, a man greeted me ready to sell me anything and everything, and yes he even had a kitchen sink. I knew exactly what I was after, a water spigot, some pipe fittings, and 30 meters of rubber hose.

Nine hundred twenty Metical (about $35.00) later, we were loaded and on our way through the dirt roads to the grandparent’s house. We arrived and just a few hours later the trench had been dug, the pipe had been installed, cement mixed and laid, and the project was complete.

All we need to do now is have the water company install the water meter, and connect our pipe work to the main water line. I am hopefully that this will be a quick process and they will be out to the house by the end of the week.

(click picture for larger image)

A New Baby in the House

2007-07-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

When Luis and I were at the Social Welfare office last week, working on Aninha’s passport, we were told that they had an abandon baby that was in desperate need of a home. While I was in South Africa, Pieter and Rika decided that we would take the little girl in at the baby house.

Yesterday, I had the chance to go and visit the little girl at the central hospital. As I walked up the many flights of stairs of the Malnourishment Ward of the hospital, I was somewhat nervous about what I might see when I entered the room of children. Skin and Bones. The little room had six children lying in five beds and all of them had an IV-like valve in their arm or in their neck.

The little girl sat there with bones exposed through her skin, but she is beautiful. Her name is Thelma. We are not exactly sure when she will be able to come home with us, but our guesses are some time this next week. Pieter said that they probably would have sent her home with us yesterday, but she had diarrhea, which sat her back in her process of being re-hydrated.

As we sat there in the hospital room, I wanted to pick her up, hold her, and love her, but she looked so fragile that I was afraid to make an attempt. Brittany was the brave soul that finally made the attempt to pick her up. As she approached the bed with her hands held out to pick Thelma up from the bed, Thelma’s arms raised up to show that she longed to be held and loved.
It is exciting to be able to see a new life that is going to be changed and touched by the work that is done by the baby house. I am so glad that I am able to be a part of what is happening here in Mozambique.

Checkout the new All Nations Mozambique website @ www.allnationsmozambique.com. Pieter and I have been working to get a website up and running for the baby house, so that people can have a more regular update of what is happening in Mozambique.

Hippo Sighting!!!

2007-07-05T22:35:00.000-05:00

Although this blog isn’t truly about finding a hippo in the wild, I would hate to disappoint anyone who has been following along with great hopes that hippos would be abundant on my journey through Africa. For those viewers, I have good news.

After my trip to South Africa these last few days, I have seen a plethora of hippos frolicking in the sunlight. Okay, so hippos do not have the ability to do any sort of frolicking, but God was good on my journey through Kruger National Park and blessed my visit with so many hippos that I was unable to keep count. Here are a few pictures of my hippo sightings.

I was also able to see many other animals while driving through the park. The trip to the national park was a blast and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to visit. Here are a few pictures from my journey:

Returning to the baby house was good. Marcelino ran up to me when I walked into the gate and demanded that I pick him up. He was in my arms or at my side for most of the evening. When it was time for his bath and bed, he threw a temper tantrum that he was unable to stay with me. I had a realization through this that he had connected with me as much as I had with him, and he liked me as much as I cared about him. I think that this is going to make it harder for me to leave Mozambique as my departure date nears.

My evening at the baby house also included new friends. Pieter and Rika have good friends from Cape Town that are visiting, and we have a new addition to the team at the house. Brittany, a girl from our church back home, made it to Maputo from Kansas City. There is another girl named Amy from Washington that is flying in tonight at around 9:00. It is really nice to have new faces and help around the house, and I am sure that we will all become great friends.

Sorry for the Delay in Posting

2007-06-30T11:52:00.000-05:00

As I sit here with a window open, I can hear the choir from a church across the street, practicing for their Sunday morning service (imagine the sounds of stereotypical African Church Choir and you have what I am enjoying). I decided that I needed to post a quick explanation of the delay in my posting. At the end of every month Pieter, Rika, and their three children take a trip to South Africa for supplies, and a bit of a getaway. When Pieter leaves, he takes his computer with him, and without his computer we have no Internet at the house. I have been continuing to write while he was gone about everything that has happened in the last couple of days and I posted it today. Make sure to read back a couple of posts to make sure you haven't missed any of the story. I am also trying to upload some more pictures to my flickr account so check that out also.

Molly and I are leaving for South Africa tomorrow morning via the bus. It is sure to be an adventure and probably will have a story to follow. We have to leave Mozambique because you can't be in the country for more than 30 days at a time on our passport without renewing our visas.

This gives us a good excuse to take a short trip. We will be in Nelspruit, South Africa from July 1st - 4th. We have rented a VW Cabrio and will be hanging out, checking out Krueger National Park, and a place called God's Window. I'm sure that we will find other things that we want to do also. It should be a good break from all the work at the baby house. I will take lots of pictures to share. We are both excited for the short break in the action. I don't know if I will have internet access while I am gone, but check back regularly for new updates. I miss everyone at home and hope all is going well.

Disappointment

2007-06-29T17:55:00.000-05:00

After the crazy trip to Aninha’s village with the social worker from the Social Welfare Office, I had high hopes entering their office the following day. I sat down in front of the desk that I had was becoming very familiar with because of our many visits to this same office at Social Welfare. We sat and waited patiently for Adolpho to come in and continue to help us with the process that we had started of getting a little girl’s passport. As we waited the other employees in the office told us about a little girl that had been abandon and needed a place. They wanted me to say that we would take her in, but I knew that this was ultimately Pieter and Rika’s decision, on whether or not we had the room for another child.

After much time had passed, he finally sauntered into the office and takes a seat in front of us. I’m sure that he could tell that we were anxious to receive whatever it was that he had to give us in order to be on our way to getting the girl’s passport.

After all, he had made this promise that we needed a birth certificate. When we got the birth certificate he said it was not enough, that we now needed documented sources stating Aninha’s condition when she was taken from the streets. He also said we needed permission from her father who had already claimed to abandon her (making her property of the social welfare office who ultimately had to give permission). It all just didn’t make a lot of since, but we were relentless in our pursuit and travel to her village to meet with the officials and other people who had taken care of her. The social worker heard first hand from these people of how Aninha was before she had come to the baby house. He also heard first hand from the father that he gave his permission for any medical treatment that his little girl, who he no longer had any ties to, needed to receive in Mozambique of South Africa. We had jumped through every hoop and now were ready to receive the document saying that she had the Social Welfare Office’s permission to receive a passport and the ability to travel to an Ear Specialist in South Africa.

Sitting across the desk fro Adolpho, it was obvious that he was not yet done with his attempt to work bribe money out of us. He told us we had to take her to a doctor in Mozambique to look at her ears. If the doctor gave permission to travel to South Africa, then she would be able to go. I pulled her many medical records from her file, which I had in my bag, and showed him the repeated visits to the doctor with no results of her ears improving. I asked him if he needed anymore proof that the doctor was unable to fix her ears. He told me that I had to have an official letter signed from her doctor.

I was very frustrated with this man, who claimed to do his job in order to help children. It would be very easy for him to sit and write this short paragraph of a letter, sign his name to it, and send us on our way to get Aninha’s passport. He however sat across the desk from me with a smug look on his face, waiting for my response.

I looked at Luis and then at Adolpho and said, “We sit here in your office and the others here in this office say that there is an emergency case and a little girl needs a place to live. You want us to continue to help, by taking in more and more children. We love to help in this way, but we have a little girl who already lives in our house, and she has an emergency of her own, and it is that she is going to be deaf if we don’t get her to the doctor in South Africa. When are you going to start helping us take care of the children that we already have in our house?”

Adolpho sat across the desk from me and hung his head. It was obvious that Luis’ translation of my message had been a heavy blow to this man. He sat speechless and realized that he had no response to my question. He finally raised his head and called his supervisor over to the desk. I believe that he explained what our situation was, and that he didn’t know what to do next.

I asked his supervisor if I could have a list of everything that needed to be done in order to get a passport for this little girl.

Without understanding a word that she said, it was obvious in her tone that she was upset with me and insulted. It was also clear that there was no list of what had to be done.

I asked her if she could write me a list of what needs to be done in order to accomplish this task, because it seems to me that there is no procedure of how to go about accomplishing this task.
Her reply was short and to the point, “no.”

I told her, that I was told all I needed was a birth certificate and returned with it in my hand, but it wasn’t enough. I told her we had traveled with Adolpho to meet the people in Aninha’s village because it was said that we only need her story and permission from her father, we had done that, but now that wasn’t enough. I told her I didn’t think that there was an end to all of the things that Adolpho was going to make us complete in order to get the Social Welfare Office’s permission. I told her I wanted to know if Adolpho knew what he was doing and if there was a rhyme and reason to everything that he was having us do, or was he just wasting our time.

Her reply was long and drawn out. I didn’t understand any of it and didn’t even ask Luis to translate. It was apparent that she was upset with me and Luis told me that she said that we were finish today and that she had asked us to leave. I stood to leave the office with nothing to show for our last three days of work. The only thing I carried with me was feelings of anger and disappointment.

Love @ the Market

2007-06-28T14:30:00.000-05:00

Today was very eventful. We woke up early and made sure that Aninha was bathed, had eaten breakfast, and was dressed in some of her best clothes. Luis, Aninha, and I had a meeting with the social worker that tried to bribe me the day before. We met him in the city because we were traveling together to meet the chief of the area where Aninha was born.

After much winding and meandering back through narrow walkways, filled with trash, we had finally arrived at our destination. The chief immediately recognized Aninha, but Aninha also recognized him and seemed to be very afraid of him. She started to cry when he attempted to take her from my safe arms. I think she was afraid that we had come to drop her off. After sitting with the chief and having him explain Aninha’s story to the social worker, he had us follow him to his home.

When we entered his home, a lady that also immediately recognized Aninha greeted us. She told the social worker everything she knew about Aninha’s story. She explained how she had helped take care of her when her father had abandoned her.

Soon many more people had come into the chief’s house, all wanting to see the little girl that had returned to her village. Everyone was so happy to see how healthy and well taken care of she was now. All of the stories shared with the social worker, told of how they had found her with nothing but a pair of her father’s underwear on her body and wandering the streets. They had done their best to help her, but now they had a hard time believing that this could be the same little girl that was so malnourished just over a year ago.

It was neat for me to see these people and their reactions to the work that the baby house is doing in each of the little ones lives. These people knew the little girl at her worst and were now blown away at how good she was now doing. I’m glad that I was a part of maybe bring these few people a little bit of hope.

After we left the chief at his house with the many visitors, we went to the house where Aninha’s father was now living. He wasn’t home, but we talked to someone that also lived at the house who told us he was at work. We realized that the number her father had given to Luis and me, when we had tracked him down at his job, was not the correct number. We were now able to get the correct number from the lady that had told us he was at work.

The social worker also took the number and was going to try and meet the father later that day. The social worker told us to stop by the Social Welfare Office tomorrow and I think we will get what we need to apply for the Aninha’s passport. This makes me excited! Our day was however not over.

With Aninha in my arms, we walked a long distance to where we could catch a chappa to the market to pick up food for the two families that receive groceries from the baby house every week. I have started to build somewhat of a friendship with the 26-year-old lady that we buy all of the vegetables and other food from every week. Luis and I actually ran into her last week at a bus/chappa stop and she went out of her way to say hello and try to have a conversation with me. Keep in mind she speaks very little English, so our friendship is based on the soul fact that I spend a lot of money at her market store every Thursday.

As she started to gather all of the food for the two families, Luis is talking to her in Shangon(sp) [Shangon is the language of the locals here in South Mozambique]. I am waiting patiently and minding my own business, when in the middle of their conversation, she stops and smiles at me and says, “You – Love – Me?”

I immediately glare at Luis. He just starts laughing hysterically and says, “That is what you told me!”

I retorted with, “You asked me if I thought she was beautiful after we had seen her at the bus stop! I said yes, her face is pretty. That doesn’t mean that I love her or even that I like her!”

He just stood there laughing, while the girl continued to stand there with longing in her eyes as she put the carrots that I was purchasing into a bag. I demanded that he tell her what I really said, but he just shook his head and continued to laugh.

After all the groceries were bought, she followed us out of the market and helped us carry our many bags of food all the way to the bus/chappa stop. She stood there and waited with us, and she told Luis that she wanted to come with us to see the families that we buy the food for every week, and then she wanted to come and see all the babies at the baby house. This is obviously all happening because she thinks that I am interested in her and Luis is just laughing thinking that this whole situation is great. I told him that I didn’t mind if she came along with us. Luis just continued to laugh at me, and told her that we were in a hurry and had many more things to do today.

Using the little bit of English that she knows, she told me that she would see me tomorrow. I corrected her and said that I would see her next week. She smiled and waved down a chappa, we climb on, and were on our way to deliver the food to the families.

While at the Grandparent’s house, I measured the distance of pipe that we need so that we can get the water installed at their house. Hopefully, I can get that all worked out and hooked up in the next few weeks. It is just 2:00 in the afternoon here, but with a busy day like this, I am ready for a short nap while the babies take their afternoon nap at the house.

Why So Difficult?

2007-06-27T17:30:00.000-05:00

After successfully getting a copy of the little girl’s birth certificate, we took it to be officially stamped/notarized at the identification office. I had a high hope that taking the birth certificate back to the Department of Social Services was going to have us on our way to attaining a passport for the little girl. After all, they had told us on our last visit, that getting this document would be what we needed to get the passport, which would get her to South Africa to see an ear specialist.

How silly was I to think that it would be that easy? T.I.A. Nothing is easy! This is my number one frustration with how things operate in Mozambique. There seems to be no consistency in how things are done. You’re told the way to do something one day and the next day the procedure seems to have changed. Add a language barrier into the mix and the outcome is pure frustration.

This morning, I sat across the desk from a man who “naturally” expected me to pay him a bribe in order for him to assist us, by doing his job, in which he is paid by the government to do. It is so frustrating to me, that there is no accountability for these government offices. No one is making sure that the work is being done lawfully. After much argument and me getting a tad bit hotheaded with the man, I now have an appointment set with him for tomorrow morning at 9:00. He is going to travel with Luis and me to visit the Chief of Child Welfare in the district of the city that Aninha (the little girl) lived in before coming to the baby house. He says that talking to this chief will get all matters of custody cleared up. He needs proof that the father of the little girl has abandoned her. The father’s written statement doesn’t seem to be enough proof, a birth certificate without a father’s name listed doesn’t seems to be enough proof, and a phone call to the Chief would just be too easy. So we are stopping at his office to pick him up, and then traveling to meet with this Chief in person tomorrow.

We are planning on taking Aninha with us on this trip, so that the chief and people that knew her before she came to the baby house can see how well she is doing. I’m hoping that this will assist in getting her a passport. Child Trafficking. I think that this may be the cause of some of the government’s resistance to assisting us in acquiring a passport. I continue to be more aware of the fact that there are many people in Mozambique that are in the business of selling children. Aninha’s health speaks loudly to the fact that we are looking out for her best interest, and not trafficking children across the border. I have a hard time believing that this trip to visit the chief will make any difference in our progress in this endeavor, but I will continue to jump through the hoops in hopes that I will eventually reach the end of the obstacle course with her passport in hand.

In other news, we took a quick trip into the city this afternoon to eat lunch. After lunch we walked to the Central Hospital in the Maputo. The campus is large, and seems to have had many improvements in the last few years. My understanding is Bill Clinton had a hand in paying for the upgrades to the hospital. Much of it was still very run down, but it seemed to me that there was lots of construction that was still going on around the hospital campus.

In other presidential news, Laura Bush was in Maputo, Mozambique today. We saw her motorcade pass by on our way back to the baby house. Sirens were blaring, and 6-7 secret service vehicles surrounded her car. The entire procession was followed by a S.W.A.T. vehicle, which I’m sure, was filled with a whole team of military personnel. With access to very little United States news I’m unaware of why she came to visit, but I’m interested in finding out. If anyone is aware of the first lady’s reasons for visiting please send me an em

Starting a New Habit

2007-06-25T20:45:00.000-05:00

In order for this story to have it’s full potential of hilarity, I need to first share a bit about one of the boys in the house. Marcelino has been at the house the longest of all the babies, and he is now three years old. He and Luis seem to battle for the alpha male leadership position of the babies. Marcelino is very small for his age, but makes up for it in his spunkiness.

As I was putting pajamas on him tonight, he was lying on his back and watching Luis try to sneak out of his playpen and run into the kitchen. Marcelino was yelling from on his back at Luis to stay in bed, while pointing and shaking his finger to get Luis in trouble. After Luis had successfully landed on his pajama footed feet and scampered out the door, Marcelino clapped wildly for Luis, as if to say “way to go” on the escape.

He is quite the character and is always doing something to make people laugh. Another thing that he does that is entertaining, happens when new toys arrive at the house. He is a playpen hoarder. By that I mean he takes all the new toys that he really likes and throws them in his playpen, so that no one else is able to play with them. Sometimes he is so extreme in his hoarding that he has a hard time finding a place to lay down to sleep at night.

A few days ago, the girls of the house received little sets of glamour dress up accessories. They were little darlings with their beaded necklaces, sunglasses, high heals, and lip gloss. Their nails were done, and they carried purses that contained little stuffed puppies sticking their heads out of the top. The girls were all dolled up and strutting around the house as if the world was their runway. It was very cute and everyone around the house shared in the admiration of the little diva wannabes.

Meanwhile, the boys played with their new Superman toys and trucks. Marcelino was not satisfied with his newly acquired toy and was throwing a temper tantrum. It was soon apparent that he was suffering from a bit of jealousy. He quickly fixed his situation by grabbing one of the girl’s new pink sunglasses. He put them on and it was obvious that his mood changed because of his pretty pink shades.

Later that day, I walked in from a quick trip to the market and was greeted by Marcelino with his sunglasses and also a pretty pair of glittery pink plastic high heals. He evidently had been practicing his walk while I was gone or was a natural in them, because he had no trouble running around the backyard effortlessly in his new shoes.

That night, I noticed that the pink sunglasses were next to his pillow as I tucked him in bed and told him I loved him. He quickly grabbed the sunglasses and put them on his face upside down smiled and waited for my to reaction. I just stood there and smiled in admiration.

Tonight, after I had put him to bed, I heard a playpen being scooted across the floor by one of the little boys. A few minutes later I heard Rika walk into the boy’s room. She then escorted Marcelino in where I was sitting and this is what I saw:

He had scooted his playpen across the room to where all the baby’s clothes are stored in an organizer. He had found the bin that had all of the girl’s shoes in it, and emptied all of its contents into his bed. He had stripped down to just his diaper, found and put on one of the girl’s socks, and was trying on all the girl’s shoes. It appeared that he has taken a liking to lady’s clothing. It may be a new habit that Papa Pieter will have to deal with in the future.

When the pink boot was taken off of his little foot, and he was forced to put on his pajamas, he was very upset. He lay there in his bed grasping his pink sunglasses while crying himself to sleep.

The kids are adorable and little stories like this fill our days and make us all laugh often. I am definitely going to miss all of the kids when I leave to return to the States. It is hard work and very tiring, but it is so rewarding to see the impact that your love can make in each of their lives. The smile and squeeze that they each give, as you put them in bed at night is more than enough to make it seem like the obvious choice to do it all over again the next day.

Hippo Sighting Update

2007-06-22T21:50:00.000-05:00

I have not forgotten about my quest for a hippo, but there is need for an update. I was informed that most of the wildlife in Mozambique was killed off in the civil war. People killed most animals for food because there was such a shortage while the fighting was going on. I was told; that there was a long time that you seldom even saw birds here. No dogs, no cats, but some chickens and a few goats.

My passport's visa for Mozambique has to be renewed every 30 days. This means that we have to leave the country and return to gain a new visa. Molly and I have arranged a trip to Nelspruit, South Africa next week. Nelspruit is the location of Kruger National Park. The park has been ranked as one of the top places to safari in the entire World. It should be a good break, which gives us a chance to relax and recuperate.

Grandparent’s Kitchen

2007-06-22T20:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we were able to finish one of the major projects of the summer! The family has been cooking in the dirt with nowhere to keep their dishes, so that they wouldn’t get dirty. It was neat to be able to show up yesterday with the tin for the roof, a coal stove, and their groceries for the week. The look on Jacobi’s face was priceless! He was very happy, with a smile on his face and clapping hands, he hobbled over to grasp my hand and say, “Obrigato, Obrigato, Obrigato.” His thankfulness showed how much this project that we had completed was going to change the families life.
Jacobi and Mary (the grandparents) are such a neat couple, and are doing so much for the five children that they are taking care of in their home. My hope is that it will make life a little easier for this 70-year-old couple. The next project that I hope to get done before I leave is digging, and laying pipe, and setting up running water to their home.

click picture to see larger size

How to Get a Passport?

2007-06-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

How do you go about getting a passport in Mozambique for a little girl who has been abandon? If anyone has the answer to this question, please let me know. I have been working on figuring this problem out for the last few weeks.

Today, this question took me to the Social Welfare Office of Matola, Mozambique. After a long walk, I was able to talk to the caseworker through my fearless interpreter Luis. The S.W. Office informed us that we first needed to have a birth certificate. We took the long walk home, grabbed Aninha’s paper work, and we were on our way to figure out how to get a birth certificate for an abandon child in Mozambique (Nothing is simple in Africa).

We rode the chappa to the Department of Identification and Certification in Matola. As I walked up to the building, I noticed that there was a really large group/line in front of the building. As we approached, I was estimating in my head that it was going to take approximately all day to stand in this line. As I walked up to take my spot in line, I caught the chief’s eye, and she waved me into her office along with Luis, and who was I to argue with a Government Official. Luis swears that I am his front of the line pass because of my complexion.

After sitting down across the desk from the chief of the office, I explained though Luis, that I was working on getting a passport for a little girl so that she could visit a doctor in South Africa. Automatically she asked Luis if I was trafficking children, which is big business in Africa. He responded by sharing that I was a missionary and helping run an orphanage and we showed her our government documents. I then showed the chief Aninha’s yellow card, which has all of her birth information from recorded by a doctor on it. She then asked to see other paperwork, which showed that she was abandon by her parents. This is where the problem started!

The two documents had conflicting information on them. The documents had two different fathers listed on each of them. After much discussion, I finally convinced her that it didn’t matter if there was a father’s name listed because neither of the men were involved in her life.

The next problem was that one of the documents listed Aninha’s birth year being 2000, which would make her seven years old. The other document listed her correct birth year of 2003, which would make her about 4. The chief made this very difficult; we talked and argued for a long time. I didn’t have the little girl with me to show that she was only three, so I told her that she was very small using my hand to show her approximate height. The chief’s response, which I found hysterical, “Maybe she is just really short!”

I sat there dumbfounded at why this was such a complicated process. I continued in the argument with this African Government Official, who should be respected and admired, by saying, “She still makes Ashe-she in her pants!” This translates into, “She still poops her pants.” I only knew the word “Ashe-she” from having to take some of the kids to the bathroom in the house, but it seemed to get my point across.
The chief gave me a big smile and then a hearty laugh. I instantly knew that I had won her over with my language skills and charm. She sent us over to another desk, where one of her employees quickly filled out all of the paperwork for Aninha’s birth certificate. As this all happened, the chief continued to sit and laugh to herself and shake her head at me, saying “Ashe-she.”

Soccer Games in 3rd World Countries

2007-06-19T23:32:00.000-05:00

The road was covered with big potholes full of muddy water that our chappa splashed and crashed through, as we took back roads to avoid the foot-traffic that dominated the roads to the soccer game. As we zigzagged our way through the villages, I finally saw the lightless light towers of the stadium (When they filmed the movie Ali at the stadium the production studio told the government that they needed to put in stadium lighting. The government installed the light towers, but pocketed the rest of the money and never installed the lights). The actual stadium is very old and sets out in the middle of a large field of tall grass, red sandy dirt, and piles of trash that would impress any garbage man in the United States.

The chappa driver pulled up and let us out as close as he could get which was a few blocks away from the entrance gate. As we climbed out, energy and excitement were in the air. I walked ahead and tried to take in the sight of people coming from all directions on foot as far as my eyes could see. People of all ages with Mozambique flags draped over their shoulders, blowing horn-like noisemakers, and some with their faces had been painted. We all climbed and weaved through the weeds and piles of trash to the entrance gates.

As we got closer to the entrance, the energy in the air grew more intense. Guards and police with machine guns stopped us, as they checked bags and tried to stop people from bringing in boxed wine and weapons. It was obvious that many were paying the guards, so that they could bring in cases of boxed wine. We continued through the actual entrance, it was then that I noticed the razor edged barbwire on the top of the stadium accompanied by armed soldiers posted all along the upper walls. Other men were also standing atop the wall, shouting at people below in attempts to purchase the boxes of wine (pictures a small cardboard milk carton, the type that was sold at lunch in grade school, but a little bit bigger and full of cheap wine. This potent beverage priced at just 25 cents a box). The armed guards with their vicious attack dogs would catch someone trying to make a transaction up over the wall, the dog would bark ferociously and the guard would come over stop the sale. More boxes of wine were being passed over the wall, than were being stopped. I already was sensing that this was going to be a chaotic experience, but also was definitely up for the adventure.

Over two hours early, our group of 17 people filed in through the gate, and was greeted by the sight of easily 40,000 Africans attempting to find seats. In attempts to help the reader better understand what this chaos looked like, imagine a stadium that only seats 30,000 with 40,000 fans present, no assigned seats causing everyone to push and shove for a place to sit, and everyone is staring at you because you are the only group of white people in the entire stadium.

We were quickly pushed in to a stairway that leads down towards the field. No more than five minutes had passed when I heard Ashley, just ahead of me; shout that someone had taken her phone and wallet from her pocket. I felt a man grab for my camera in my pocket, but quickly grab his hand and stopped him as I tried to push my way up through the crowd to get to Ashley to help her. By the time I was able to reach her, the pickpocket was long gone. I rounded up the 11 friends from Oklahoma and got them to a safe spot out of the way while Ashley tried to spot the man who had taken her things. We were unable to spot him, and the police were no help.

After trying to come up with plan of what to do about Ashley’s missing things, and what to do about seats, we finally decided to walk around to the far side of the stadium where it appeared that there might be open seats. As we snaked our way through the mob of people it was obvious that most of the crowd had partaken in a few too many boxes of this cheap wine. There were shouts of joy as people realized that we were at the game to cheer for their Mozambican soccer club. Everyone wanted high-fives from the Americans, and game score predictions, it was quite overwhelming and was obvious that many of the girls in our group already didn’t feel comfortable with our situation.

As we neared the other side of the stadium we decided that we needed to work our way down into the stands and find seats. All of the sections of the stadium looked full, but we needed to get into the stands or we weren’t going to be able to see any of the game. As we started walking into the stairway, people started cramming in behind us and pushing. There were no seats available anywhere, and the locals sitting around us told everyone to just sit on the steps where we were standing. This may sound like a wonderful idea when written down on paper, but when the people in front of me sat down, everyone behind me started to push forward, trying to get down into the stands for a place to sit. A couple of guys from the Oklahoma team and I stood there trying to hold back hundreds of crazy drunk African soccer fans. If we lost our footing all of the girls from our group, and the other fans sitting on the steps in front of us were going to be trampled and smashed. I remember thinking, “I have heard of people dying in this manner at sporting events and concerts.”

We finally got to sit down, after I hit a gigantic African man in the stomach, who had stood on my flip-flop covered foot, while trying to push me down the steps. When I hit him, he was so drunk that he just laughed at me. We were sitting on top of each other, and the whole situation continued to escalate around us. Fights continued to break out around us over boxes of alcohol and places to sit. One of the girls from Oklahoma, was just picked up and passed above the crowd against her will, while Ashley yelled at other men who couldn’t keep their hands off the girls that came with us to the game. It was possibly the most unorganized chaotic situation I have ever witnessed, and the soccer game hadn’t even started yet.

After the game started, the commotion settled down a bit. We sat squished together with a few of us sitting on the laps of others, and enjoyed the first half of the soccer game. Mozambique seemed to be on the attack for the majority of the half, but never seemed to have much of a strategy of how they were going to score. Senegal’s goalkeeper seemed to be much more talented and had many great saves and stops on the ball. The teams retired for the half, with the score tied at zero.

As soon as the game clock stopped for the half, people were up and trying to climb over the people around them in leaps and bounds to get to the top of the stands. No matter where you are from, if you get a foot in the face, stepped on by someone else, or a box of wine spilt on you, it is going to make you quite upset. This happened to many of the people sitting around us, and it quickly turned into a riot-like atmosphere. I could do nothing but laugh at the situation, and yell to Ashley, “T.I.A.” (This is Africa)! She just laughed at me and repeated, “T.I.A., Justin!”

As the pushing and shoving continued, I suddenly had a sleeping baby in my arms, that a mother handed to me in efforts to try and protect her child. I took the baby and rocked it as mass chaos ensued all around me. It was quickly evident that all of the girls from Oklahoma were ready to leave the game as many of them were crying. I sat there with a baby in my hands, not exactly sure where the mother had been pushed. After the crowd created a path for people to exit to the top of the stadium where many were purchasing more boxed wine, the mother luckily returned for her baby. I quickly exited with my group of friends and attempted to protect and shield the girls from men’s hand who were trying to grab the girls as we passed. As they cried and we pushed through the crowd, we finally found an exit gate. The second half hadn’t even started, but we had seen enough action for the day and decided to head back to the baby house.

After we left, I heard that the police and military closed all the gates and searched all the fans as the exited the stadium. Three officers were beaten up and their machineguns stolen. The guards were attempting to find the missing weapons. The crowd was the largest that national team had ever seen at it’s games. Mozambique and Senegal ended the game in a tie. It was a cultural experience, which I am glad to have had now that we are all home safe. We returned home safe, with only a few bruises, one missing shoe, and a little bit of innocence lost.

Adventure for Soccer Jerseys

2007-06-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Ashley and I went into the city to try and track down Mozambique soccer jerseys for some of the Oklahoma team. It was an adventure to say the least. After chasing down the chappa that we needed to ride into the city, we were crammed into the back with 25 of our “closest” Mozambican friends. We both were standing straddling the legs of the people sitting in the front row of the chappa. After about 5 miles distance, someone finally got out at a stop and gave Ashley a chance to sit down and me to find a positions to stand that was more conducive to comfort.

When we arrived at the city’s center market the local children bombarded us, so ready and willing to offer their assistance. Our white skin screams easy target for a quick metical in their pocket. A sixteen year old boy, named Alex, helped us weave through the booths offering live chickens, fresh fruits and vegetables, jewelry, tribal drums, clothes, hair extensions, and just about everything else that can be expected of a city market in Africa. After winding our way through the narrow paths of broken concrete that were littered with trash, we finally were able to get Alex to understand that we were looking for a sporting goods store that someone had told us was located near the market.

As we crossed the street of busy chaotic traffic, we saw the sporting goods store. It was surrounded by people pounding on the glass of the front of the store. People were literally trying to break down the front door to get into the store to buy their gear for the soccer game. The situation was ridiculous! Ashley handed Alex a few U.S. dollars for his assistance in helping us find the store, and we both looked at each other as if to see if the other was up for the challenge of fighting through the crowd. Without word, we both smiled at each other and proceeded to push our way to the front of the crowd. As we got near the door we realized that the store had an armed guard on the other side of the door, only letting a few people in at a time. When the door would open to let people out of the store, the crowd would smash forward trying to get through the little crack that the door was opened. We were at the front window getting pressed against the glass every time a few lucky people squeezed through the door. The owner noticed the two of us mixed in with the rest of the locals, and eventually told the guard to let the two white people into his store.

After entering we purchased three authentic Mozambican soccer jerseys for a few of the boys on the work team from Oklahoma. As we prepared to exit through the crowd, the thought went through my head of it would be very easy for the people outside of the door to steal the newly purchased jerseys from our hands. As we pushed through the crowd to get to the street, our helpful “friend” Alex again greeted us. He followed us down the street for many blocks, hoping that he could offer us more assistance in return for our money.

I am finding that one of my favorite things to do while here is to wander the streets and experience the culture of Africa. The street vendors, with their dvds, paintings, wood carvings, belts, phone cards, and even self-made coat racks, are relentless in their pursuit. Looking into the faces of the street children and witnessing them return a smile. I have had a wonderful experience in Mozambique thus far into my trip. I am thankful that I am able to have the opportunity to be here and witness what life is like outside America.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, POPS!!!
I LOVE YOU!

Mozambican Headhunter

2007-06-14T16:45:00.000-05:00

I have also been working on trying to figure out how to get a passport for an orphan. One of the little girls at the house is having serious problems with her ears. She needs to go to an ear specialist in South Africa. The problem is she must have a passport in order to cross the border into South Africa. Her father is still living, but isn’t willing to help us in the process to get her passport.
Yesterday, I left the house with Luis and searched the city for her father. When we finally found him, he was at work. He works for a government warehouse that handles all imported rice, grains, and things of that nature. As we approached the gates to this warehouse, we were greeted by a government police officer with a machine gun, that I saw as a little bit of an overkill. We talked and asked 4-5 people at the warehouse and finally found someone who took us to meet the girl’s dad.
Her father didn’t seem to want to help us with the process. I finally convinced him to give us the information that we needed, by telling him that his little girl is going to end up deaf, if we don’t get her to a doctor in South Africa. He gave us the information that we needed, but he still needs to get a new government identification card. This card can take almost a year to receive from the government office. The process can be hurried along if bribed are paid to the government. Aninha needs to see a doctor soon, please pray that we can figure out a way to get her passport quickly, so that she can get medical assistance for her ears.

Newborn Baby

2007-06-14T16:10:00.000-05:00

Imagine that you are walking down a dusty red-sand road. The smell of campfire smoke is in the air from homes that are cooking, the sun is high in the sky, and you are the minority of in the population. People are standing in front of their grass huts, holding their children. Some people are working in their gardens, watering vegetables. They hope to sell these vegetables at the market to support their families. All around seem to temporarily stop and watch as you walk down the road in front of their homes. The low chatter of a whispered foreign language murmurs in your ear. It seems that they may be talking about you, as they point and talk to the others around them.
As you walk, children smile and wave as you pass by where they are playing with old tires and kites made from potato sacks. A parade starts to form behind you including the neighborhood children of all ages as you continue on toward your destination.
This was my day yesterday. I was on my way to check in with the Mary and Jacobi (The grandparents that we are trying to help). I was on my way to see if they were able to get some of the paperwork completed, that is need to get water to their property.

As I neared their house a boy that was maybe seven or eight years old saw me from half a block away. I smiled and waved at him, and he instantly sprinted toward me. As he neared I could see that his skin was very dry and scaly. It was apparent that he hadn’t bathed for a really long time. He stopped in front of me and wanted me to hold him, but he was way to big for me to pick up and hold. I took his hand and he seemed to be content with walking along side of me as I continued to the grandparent’s house. He stayed with me and continued to stare at me the entire time that I was talking through my translator to Mary and Jocobi about their water situation.
After I was finished talking to Mary and Jacobi, I asked Mary if she knew where the boy lived. Mary said that he lived just down the street, and added that his mother was really sick. The boy led a few of my teammates and myself to his mother. Their house was back and off the road, and through field of tall grasses. As we weaved through the grasses, I wasn’t really sure that the boy understood that he was supposed to take us to see his mother. We all just blindly followed him, and finally arrived at a fence that was made out of tall reeds, sticks, and rusty pieces of metal. We slowly walked to the rusty metal door that was hanging by only half of it’s hinges. He shouted that he was home in the family’s language, and his father came out of their cinder block house to greet us.
We were quickly invited into sit with the family, and I realized that the mother was more than sick, she had just given birth to a new baby boy. Luckily, the three people that were with me from Oklahoma were all nurses. What a Godsend! After taking her pulse, other vitals, and assessing the situation, we decided that she was severely dehydrated and had lost a bunch of blood during the birth.
The baby had been born on Sunday, and two days later still hadn’t been able to drink any milk. His mother was not producing milk because of the lack of food and her severe dehydration. After talking with the family we decided that we would return with a re-hydrate water mixture, baby formula, and bread for the family.
After talking with Pieter and Rika at the baby house, we also were able to offer to help the family by taking care of the baby for the 2-3 weeks. We hope to be able assist them with baby formula and teaching the baby how to eat. It would give the baby’s mom a chance to recuperate and get her health back, and give the baby a chance to learn to eat and become stronger.
The father took all of the families food money, and spent it on baby formula, so they didn’t have food for the rest of the 8-9 people that were living in the house.
Today, the father came by the baby house, as we were headed out to deliver food to families and stop by to give more re-hydrate to the mother. He had a nice visit with Rika, and needed to go home to discuss their options with his family. I hope that we can help them with the baby. It is beautiful and needs to start eating soon or else it will pass away. The father said that he would let us know their decision later today.

Adorable

2007-06-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Shopping for Food

2007-06-11T15:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the team from Oklahoma arrived at the Maputo Airport. We arranged a chappa to come and help pick them and their luggage up and take them to the house. We had the driver arrange the night before, but when we called him on Sunday morning to confirm the ride, he answered and said that we had the wrong number. We had to scramble to find another vehicle to come and pick up the 11 people on the Oklahoma team. It all worked out in the end, but I am quickly learning that nothing is an easy task here in Africa.

A man at the airport came up to me as I was standing outside watching these government officials, with big guns, load things onto a plane that I was told belongs to Nelson Mandela (He lives in Maputo with his wife, who is from Mozambique). The guy wanted me to take him to America and when I told him no, he was very unhappy with me. Luis was with me, and the guy thought that I owned Luis. He couldn’t understand why I would be a friend to a black man. He told me that I could buy him and his services for $5.00. I laughed at his offer and told him that I wasn’t interested. The man left very discouraged, and I was sure that he was going to be out in the parking lot waiting to beat me up when we left the airport. Luis’ joke has been that I am his Molongoo, and that I own him. Luis has many jokes; most of them have to do with him being black and me being white. Most of them are relatively funny, but they seem to get him in trouble.

We took a few members of the Oklahoma team to the grocery store this morning to pick up food and supplies for their first week here. Walking into the store, you soon realize that many things that we take for granted in the states, are not easy to find here in Mozambique. Reading labels and trying to figure out what is in certain can and packages is entertaining to me. I found the hotdogs in a can especially funny.

Today is Molly’s birthday, and I surprised her with a few cards from friends back home, and an Oreo cheesecake. It is quiet the delicacy here, and can’t be found in any of the local stores. Pieter, Rika, the kids, Ashley, Molly and I are going to go into the city tonight, to take Molly out for a birthday dinner.

Larium Dreams -- Part II

2007-06-08T05:26:00.000-05:00

It is a blessing that the larium dreams were not as crazy this week, but I will say that I am a little disappointed because they are entertaining to everyone. This post is somewhat delayed because of set backs with Internet connections and time changes and adjusting to my new home for the next two months. By the way, I am working on getting pictures loaded, and it is taking much longer because of slow connection speeds.

Without any more delay, here is the Larium induced dream that I had on Sunday night in Nelspruit, South Africa. I will keep it short and simple. For all of you that don't know I don't really care much for Oprah. She drives me crazy, and I don't enjoy watching her. I had a dream that I made a major sacrifice and married Oprah, so that I could have access to her money. Our relationship was all for the babies at the babyhouse in Mozambique. She sponsored the house and paid for all the diapers, food, and other supplies for the house. It was nice, but I had to put up with her philanthropic, publicity-seeking ways.

Our weekend has begun, and Pieter, Rika, and their three boys left for their monthly getaway to South Africa. They left early Thursday morning, and left Ashley, Molly, Gloria, Luis, and I her to take care of 10 children. The house has calmed down since the Texas team left yesterday, and the children are getting back into their routine. We had a group from Brazil stop by the house today, and they wanted see the babyhouse. It has been neat to meet people from all over the world while here in Mozambique.

Molongoo (Mo-Loon-Goo)

2007-06-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

I just got back from my major project of the day, taking food to the two families that Pieter and Rika are helping. The food will last them for a week and their grocery list included the following:

1 kg potatoes
1 kg onions
1 kg tomatoes
½ kg carrots
2 kg beans
3 kg rice
2 packages of pasta
3 kg Top Score (flour)
4 packets of Benni (seasoning)
1 small bottle of cooking oil
1 kg sugar
1 kg peanuts
2 heads of garlic

The grandparent family has the two grandparents, and five children that will eat that food for the week. The other family is a woman and her two older children, and her husband has died of AIDS.

Luis and I rode the chappa to the market where we bought the groceries for the families. The chappas are an experience. Imagine 27 people in the back of a minivan, and that may give you an idea of what it is like. It was a blast! You get to know the people in an all-new way.

After picking up the above list X2, we split it up in to two bags, and climbed back on the chappa and rode to the village that these two families live. Carrying the heavy bags of groceries through the streets of the village, I heard a word repeated over and over. Molongoo. The little kids and some adults would stare and watch Luis and me as we passed by their houses and mud shacks. Luis finally told me that Molongoo meant white person, and that many of the people had never seen a white person in their village. It was so neat to see the village and meet the families. I love walking through the villages seeing the people, the homes, their shops and market areas. I walked past a school that was in session today, and many of the children were playing soccer outside, with a ball that looked like it was made from plastic wrap and tape.

The Texas team is leaving today. They are headed to another house in the area that works with teenage boys. It sounds like they are going to be helping teach life skills and work skills courses, and coordinate a Vacation Bible School. I have had a lot of fun getting to know the group, and I think that we will miss them once they are gone. They have been so much help.

A Brief Update

2007-06-06T22:45:00.000-05:00

There is so much to share, but I’m not even sure where to begin with what I have been doing in the last few days. We arrived at the baby house and were all very tired from the traveling. A team from Houston, Texas was here when we arrived and they already had the babies routine somewhat figured out. They have been fun to have around and offer so much help.

Our days consist of bathing the eight babies in the morning, getting them dressed, feeding them breakfast, entertaining and playing for the morning, lunch, and then their nap time offers some relief. After the babies wake up, there is more playing, the babies eat dinner, the baby's nightly bath, and they are dressed for bed. Intermingled within all of this routine, are diaper changes for eight babies, and finding time to go to the market down the street for supplies and food. That doesn’t include fixing dinner for the eight of us that don’t eat with the babies. It has been difficult to find time to sit down and write a new blog post.

While I sit here typing, the boys work on school work with their mother, we are all enjoying some Jon Shirley tunes, and I am loving life. I am going to try and post many pictures on my flickr photo account. These pictures will hopefully give you a better idea of what I am experiencing here in Africa. I am having a hard time putting my thoughts into words, but I think that my pictures will show you what I have been able to enjoy and experience.

Pieter has put me in charge of the large work groups that are coming into help at the baby house. The next two work teams are from Okalahoma and South Africa. I have been working on trying to get some of their visit organized, assigning jobs on a rotating schedule, and setting up visits to the jails, hospitals, and maybe even a soccer game to see Mozambique vs. Senegal. The tickets to the game are pretty steep in price at $1.00. ☺

Many things are happening around the house, they have begun to establish a partnership with a grandma and grandpa that are raising five children. We take food over to them for the week, so we will be running to the market to pick up what they need tomorrow and riding by chappa (van-like taxi that crams 15-20 people inside) to deliver the food to them. We have a long list of things that we are going to try and accomplish at their house. A few of the project include getting running water to the house, starting a vegetable garden, and installing an outdoor kitchen. Pieter and Rika are also working on renting another property to start a 2nd baby house. The property is within walking distance of the current house, and we are probably going to start painting, and doing some work on the house next week with the team from Oklahoma.

We are also working on getting a passport for one of the baby girls, so that she can get in to South Africa to see a doctor for problems that she is having with her ears. Hopefully it will be an easy and quick process. I am finding out quickly that the government is slow in their work and many simple projects take much longer than it seems that it should take.

Check out the pictures on flickr.

I Made it to Mozambique

2007-06-04T08:15:00.001-05:00

I don't have much time to write about my trip, but I will hopefully
get to sit down and write later tonight. I arrived without any
problems, and we are all very tired, but happy to be here. Many of
the staff at the house went on Holiday starting today, and we are
being dropped right into all of the action. More to come later.

Why Am I Up? It's 2:45am.

2007-06-01T02:45:00.001-05:00

Yes, I realize that I leave for the airport in five hours, and I am still not packed, and I need some sleep. I'm exhausted. Wish me luck as I continue to try and pack the rest of my gear, so that it is ready for me to drag out the door in the morning.

I need to post this quick thank you. I have had a great week that has included getting many things needed to be done in order to leave the country for two months, but my week has also included many quality hours spent with friends. I feel so loved and supported by those that are in my life. It is great to know that I have such a great support system. Thank you!

I will post an update as soon as I have an internet connection and have something worth sharing. Take care.

jb

What Am I Doing???

2007-05-31T08:07:00.000-05:00

It's the day before I leave and I have just rolled out of bed. I'm wondering what in the world have I got myself into! I have hodge-podge of feelings going on inside of me.
A few of them are:
Anxiousness because I have been waiting so long for the day that I finally leave for Mozambique.
Disbelief because I don't think that I will really believe that I am going until I am on the plane.
Worried because I am realizing that two months is a long time to be gone.
Scared because I honestly don't know what to expect
Excited because I am leaving for Africa!
Inadequate because honestly, who doesn't struggle with feelings of inadequacy.

I was laying in bed, letting my mind mix and stir, with it's figurative spoon, these feelings into a recipe of self-doubt. I realized that I needed to get up because I have too many things to do. I know that I am supposed to spend my summer in Mozambique, with Pieter, Rika, and they 13 wonderful children. I know that I am going to have the experience of a lifetime, and I know that I am going to love every minute of it, not wanting to come home when it is over.
It is just that we as humans, always question major decision. Whether it is when we make major purchases and have buyer’s remorse, decide that we should get married, or choose a new career path. It is natural to second-guess ourselves, wondering if we have made the right choice, and experience these feelings that accompany major life altering decisions.
I just didn't see them coming. These feelings where very sneaky and tiptoed in while I was sleeping. It was almost as if they were trying to throw a surprise party for me when I woke up this morning. We had our fun and I catered to their needs while they were here to visit, but know that I have written this down, they have been escorted to the front door and asked to leave (or maybe it is because I am now awake and coherent).
Anyway, words cannot express how excited I am to be leaving tomorrow. In 24 hours I will be on my way to the airport via my friend Amy G.'s airport transferring services (She seems to really enjoy taking friends to the airport. Especially when they are leaving for Africa).
I am not sure that I will be able to post in the next couple of days. It depends if I can get cheap/free wi-fi in the airports. Check back often and tell your friends about my blog. I really enjoy knowing that people are reading my thoughts, experiencing life through my eyes, and participating in my adventure to Africa on a "Quest for a Hippo."

I Come Bearing Gifts

2007-05-30T17:00:00.000-05:00

These last few days, have had no shortage of things to do. I have been keeping really busy with getting things in order, spending time with friends, doing laundry, packing, and buying fun things to take over for Pieter, Rika, and the gang.

I have packed an entire large rolling suitcase full of items just for everyone that is already in Maputo. Hopefully it will be a pleasant surprise for my new friends in Mozambique. The bag contains cake mixes, kool-aid, peanut and plain M&Ms, new games to play, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Uno cards that aren't worn out, soccer balls, lots of items to help make Mexican food, and many other things that will hopefully make everyone's day.

However, I had the most fun buying toys for Pieter and Rika’s three little boys. Squirt guns, a bug zoo, and the most awesome toy known to man. I heard through a reliable source that the boys are really into Spiderman, and I found this:

When I saw him sitting there on that Target shelf, he seemed to be shouting and begging for me to pick it up and put in my cart. Little did Mr. Potatohead know, but he is preparing to travel to Africa to make three little boys day!

Unexploded Weapons in Mozambique

2007-05-29T00:20:00.000-05:00

The following article is from the New York Times. I think that it is good for us to be aware of what is going on around the world, and this happening close to the Maputo, where I will be living for the next two months.
For those of you that are not aware, Mozambique had a civil war being fought for close to 20 years, and the two sides finally signed a peace treaty in 1994. The government is still working to clean the country of the after effects of having a war fought on their homeland over 10 years after the war has ended.

Fears Linger in Mozambique Over Unexploded Weapons

MAPUTO, Mozambique — One recent steamy morning, in a field on the outskirts of this capital, seven soldiers under the watchful eye of a military engineer took turns digging a hole deep enough to stand in. A suspicious depression in the sand suggested that a rocket or artillery shell might be buried there.
The team’s only tools were spades and shovels. They had no protective clothing, no special training, no metal or weapon detectors. One soldier worked in blue flip-flops; another puffed on an occasional cigarette.
They uncovered a 330-pound, five-foot-long, unexploded artillery shell, hauled it out of the ground with a chain and loaded it into the back of a four-by-four, cushioning it on a bed of sand. Then, feet propped on the shell’s exterior, they headed back along a bumpy dirt road to a military base. To read more ...

A New Friend in Kansas City

2007-05-28T11:05:00.000-05:00

I have previously posted about my friend Mark, who recently returned from Ethiopia. Mark is a college student, who has recently started to get to know more of the international students on his campus. He has a special interest for the students that he has met from Africa. Two weeks ago he met a young man, named Manuel, in the union on campus who was by himself, and Mark found out that he was new to the states, and still didn't feel like he had many people that were close friends. Mark told Manuel that he wasn't ok with him not having many friends, and invited him to The Gathering, who would love to meet him and become his friend. Mark gave him his number, the address of the church, and told him to give him a call if he needed a ride.
Manuel didn't call Mark, but he did show up at the church on Sunday night. After the service, we were hanging around talking, and Mark brought Manuel over to talk to me. We were talking and I found out that he was not only from Africa, but also from Mozambique. I also found out that he wasn't just from Mozambique, but from Maputo, the city that I will be living in for the summer. Our conversation was short, but I was really excited that I was able to meet him. I left the church, to go and eat with friends and while eating, my phone rang, and it was my friend Jordanne, she left a frantic voicemail that I needed to call her back because she had a story that was going to floor me.
After listening to her message on my way across town to my house, I called her back to hear the story. She had the chance to also talk to Manuel. Jordanne spent about two weeks around Christmas time, with her roommate Patty in Maputo at the baby house. As she was talking with Manuel and asking those questions that you ask when you first meet a person, she also found out as I did that Manuel was from Maputo, Mozambique.
As she was talking she asked if he had heard of Iris Ministries. He replied that he had and that he was actually a product of the ministry. He had grown up in their orphanage (Iris Ministries is a ministry that Pieter and Rika worked with before they started the baby house). In their conversation, Jordanne found out not only had he grown up in the orphanage, but also that he know Pieter and Rika, and was friends with Luis (one of the guys at the baby house) when he was living in Maputo. As Jordanne is telling me this over the phone, my mouth was probably hanging open in disbelief, and "It's a Small World After All" was definitely playing in my head.

Mark, Manuel, Jordanne, Me
It has blown us all away, that circumstances would make our path cross. It is impossible for me to believe that it is just mere coincidence, which Manuel ran into Mark, in the Union at JCCC. There is definitely a purpose and a plan that God has in all of this. I'm glad that we can have friendships like the ones that we will hopefully build with Manuel as he does life here in the states.

Larium Dreams -- Part I

2007-05-26T10:30:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that I had figured out my malaria preventative medication. The doctor decided that I should take Larium. At the time, I thought it sounded great because it is to be taken only once a week, and it is not an every day pill that you have to remember to take. When I got home from the pharmacy, I was looking through the 4-5-page book of information about the medicine.
Although it is a great medicine because of it's effectiveness, and dosage schedule, I realized that it had many serious possible side effects. A few of them are: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dizziness, vertigo, sleep disorders, ringing in the ears, headache, muscle cramps, abnormal dreams, emotional instability, insomnia, panic attacks, hallucinations, anxiety, depression, paranoid reactions, convulsions, visual impairment, numbness, rashes, itching, and possible suicide. After reading this list of possible problems, I decided that I should be a bit worried about taking the medicine.
The medicine also requires the user to start taking the pills one week before departure, and yesterday was the one-week mark before I leave for Africa. I put taking the pill off all day. I didn't feel like it would be a good idea to take the pill in the morning, and then have a hallucination in front of my 5th graders on their last day of school. To be honest, I was nervous about the whole ordeal.
I put the medicine off all day long, and forced myself to take it at about 12:30 am, just before I went to bed. My initial response after taking the pill and sitting on the couch, just waiting for it to make me "hulk" out, which it didn't, was a bit of a disappointment.
I felt a bit let down until I went to sleep ... I am here to announce that Quest for a Hippo, will hopefully be having a 14 part series, entitled Larium Dreams. I had a ridiculously "abnormal dream" last night, and I would like to believe that it was caused by my new habit (Larium). I hope to be able to post every Saturday morning with a new "drug induced" dream.

Part I of XIV

As most dreams are a bit foggy after waking up, I will share what I remember and hopefully it will be entertaining for everyone reading.

I found myself in some sort of abandon zoo or maybe it was an old feed lot, but it was quite hilly, and had many rocks and boulders in the area. I remember climbing to the top of one of these mountainous hills, and looking down below and noticed cages that were old and beat up. They had thick metal bars, which were rusted and dirty. The next thing I remember was seeing a big metal storage container sitting in front of one of the cages that was overgrown with vines.
A guy, that looked like he may be a worker from a circus, came out and opened the storage container right in front of the cage. The big doors of the storage container opened with a low rumbling squeak. I noticed that the tattooed worker, with his sun-aged skin had a long rod in his hand. He was using the rod to get something out of the dark shadows of the cage.
As I sat watching his unskilled ways of maneuvering about the outside of the cage, poking and prodding at whatever was lurking in the shadows, I remember thinking that either this old dilapidated zoo is finally closing, or that the circus is leaving town. I was disappointed that the circus was leaving, but relieved that the zoo was closing because I knew that this was not a suitable home for animals.
As the worker struggled from side to side of the semi-truck sized storage container, I caught a glimpse of what he was trying to herd into the large metal box. I also noticed that he had a large gap between the storage container and the door of the old cage. A gap that this animal could easily fit through. As he struggled to get the animal to move, I heard snarling, and saw pacing by the animal, with it's deep orange and black stripes. I don't ever remember thinking this is a "no good" situation, I was just enjoying watching this guy attempt to do his job.
As the guy stopped to catch his breath from the struggle and labor of his work, the large tiger realized that he could escape. The tiger started bounding up the rocky hill that I was perched at the top of, and I decided that I better start to run. The thought of being mauled by a large feline didn't seem all that attractive to me.
The rest of my eventful sleep included running for my life, from a larger than life tiger. I ran and climbed trees, dove through and slammed cage doors, all in an attempt to flee from this evil beast.
There is a point, during sleep, in which you realize that you are dreaming, and you have to decide whether or not you want to wake up (at least this is how it works for me). I know that I realized that this was a dream, far before I actually opened my eyes to escape from the tiger. For some reason I was entertained by the chase, and stayed in the moment a bit longer than necessary. It is interesting how the brain works, and I really wonder what part of my mind stored and created this sleep adventure.

Thanks to Larium for the eventful evening of sleep.
Stay tuned for more dream world adventures in part II of Larium Dreams.

Epic Battle @ Kruger National Park

2007-05-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

This video was filmed at Kruger National Park, which is very close to Mozambique. I would like to visit and try a safari while I am there. I can only hope to see something this amazing! Check out the video:

Travel Itinerary

2007-05-24T08:05:00.000-05:00

The Simple Things in Life

2007-05-20T13:22:00.000-05:00

As the time draws near for me to leave, I continue to prepare and take care of those last minute details. I have been finishing up final grades for my 5th graders for this last quarter, packing up my classroom, and trying to keep my sanity while working with 30 children, who are just as ready for the summer as their teacher.

In the midst of all of these things, I have been in contact with Pieter in Mozambique. I sent an email a couple of weeks ago, asking if there were any comfort foods/items from the U.S. that they would like me to bring to them. I thought that this would be something fun to do for them, and was really excited about being able to bring them over things to enjoy.

In the reply email I received from Pieter was a short list, some of the things that were included: WE LOVE MEXICAN FOOD!, peanut butter cups, and maybe a soccer ball if you can fit it in your bag.

This list was a reminder to me, that joy can be found in the simple things in life. A burrito is something to be enjoyed, and not taken for granted. The taste of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup can bring joy to a person's life, when they are not always available. This isn't about finding joy or happiness through eating, that is not my point at all. I am simply realizing that I take so many things for granted in my life, and this American mentality of more is better, has made it difficult to find joy in the simple things of life.

This lesson has given me some things to work on, and I am slowly finding joy and amusement in the simple things around me. This morning I woke up to the sound of bird chirping outside of my open bedroom window. I just sat there in bed and enjoyed the sound. The sound of nature is beautiful! I have been at a leadership retreat all weekend, and on Saturday morning, I woke really early and couldn't get back to sleep. Instead of being upset at my lack of sleep, i got up, showered, and went outside to sit with a good book and enjoy the sun coming up over the horizon. These are things that are available to us everyday, but are often overlooked as things to be joyful about. I could go on and on about simple things that are great (swedish fish candy), but I think that I have said enough and my point has been made.

My challenge for those that are reading this, and those that are in my life, is to find things that are small and often overlooked and enjoy them. Find joy in them, take note of them, and realize that we are so fortunate to be alive, and able to enjoy creation.

Also, I just found out that the baby house in Mozambique just received a new baby boy. They think that he is about one year old, he has no papers, they are not sure if either of his parents are living. They have named him Paulo.

Thank You!

2007-05-09T22:00:00.000-05:00

The following is a short thank you list of people & places in my life:

- To the Embassy of the Republic of Mozambique.
* I finally have my passport in hand, and it has my visa stamped in it so that I can come into your fine country. Thank you for being prompt in processing my paper work.
- To the Kansas City Public Library (Plaza Branch)
* I am very thankful that you finally found the nine books of children's poetry (5th grade poetry unit) on your shelves that were said to be still checked out on my library account. I no longer have $154.00 fine for books that I returned many months ago.
- To the great community of friends that I have at The Gathering
* I love the fact that I have great friends that care about each other, and will pray for each other when it is needed.

- To everyone who has responded in any way to my upcoming trip to Mozambique, Africa
* I have been blown away by the generosity of people in my life that want to help me out and be a part of what is happening in Mozambique. I have been, and still am penny-pinching to make sure that I have the funds in order to make the trip work.
In the last month, after much encouraging and friends almost forcing me to send out letters to let others participate in Mozambique at the baby house/orphanage. Honestly, I was very hesitant to ask for help financially, but I was told that I need to allow people to be involved. Out of obedience, and pressure from friends, even though I was still not super comfortable with asking for financial help, I went ahead and sent out a few letters to family and friends.
Can I just tell you, it has been so neat to see people step out and volunteer to help. I really didn't know what to expect as a response, and honestly didn't have any expectations of people showing interest. It is so wonderful to know that people in my life are excited to help with a project that I feel so strongly lead to participate in.
I will never be able to describe how touched and moved I have been as I come home and find notes/cards in the mailbox sharing words of encouragement, promises of prayer while I am gone, and financial support. It is very comforting to know that I have a group of people in the States that is interested, concerned, caring, and is praying for me while I travel to work with wonderful people who I'm so excited to be able to support and serve alongside. Thank you for your continued prayer, and support.

In the picture are pictured Pieter, Rika, and some of their wonderful "little" family. These are the people that I have the privilege to work next to all summer.

Nerd Alert!

2007-05-05T23:00:00.000-05:00

School/Work is winding down for my 5th graders, and I still am getting the last few details in order for my trip. I was able to get my malaria medicine issues worked out, I am still waiting on my passport with visa to be returned from the Embassy of Mozambique, and I am realizing that I need to start thinking about packing.

I am trying to keep my gear that I am hauling to a minimum, but I am realizing that two months is a long time to be gone. I'm not worried about clothes that I will need, because let's be honest, I would be okay with a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, and a couple of t-shirts, but it is the other things that need to be packed. Cameras, a laptop (so that I can continue to post while I am gone), a mosquito net, soap and other bathroom things to last for two months, and many other necessary supplies.
How in the world do you pack a sleeping bag with everything else that you need in one suitcase for a trip to Africa? Look no further!!! Through advancements in packing technology there is an answer! (Yes. I took pictures, so that you could partake in the pure and exquisite joy of my upgrade in packing skills) [yes, I know it's nerdy].

That is my sleeping bag in a vacuum bag. I also bought other vacuum bags that will help me compress clothes. They all still weigh the same amount, but take up much less space. brilliant!

I have also started a new book titled A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldierby Ishmael Beah. The book is a firsthand telling from a young man that, as a child growing up in Sierra Leone, Africa, was caught in the country's conflict and forced to fight as a child soldier. Ishmael tells his story in a very personal way, allowing the reader to follow him as he flees his village and goes into hiding from the government's army. He was eventually captured and forced to fight at the age of thirteen. He is now 26 years old, and lives in the United States.
As I read this man's story I can't help but continue to remember that he is about my age. Remembering my biggest concerns at the age of thirteen were zits, and try my hardest to convince myself and others that I was worth hanging out with.
At this same exact time in history, Ishmael was fighting for his life and against his will, in a battle that demolished the majority of the villages in his country. It makes my concerns of whether or not I get invited to the popular kid's weekend middle school party seem quite petty.
The book is thought provoking, has helped me to be more aware of the world around me, and also how fortunate we are to be in a country that we can feel safe for the most part. I would highly suggest that you take the time to pick this book up and follow this man's story. It will change your life.

As I continue to learn more about the continent of Africa, I am more intrigued and long to be in the culture and learning first hand about life outside of the United States. 26 days until I am on my way to a place that is guaranteed to change my life.

I Need Your Help

2007-05-05T18:30:00.000-05:00

By the way, I have been trying my hardest to let others know about this blog. It makes it more fun to write when I know that I have people reading. I also want to use this website to increase awareness for Africa, and what is happening while I am there.

If you would just make a simple link from your blog or website to mine, that would be a huge help! I want as many people as possible to be able to participate in reading, while I am gone. If you have friends that might be interested in my trip please share about my website with them. I would be honored! Also, I love to know if you are reading, please post a comment, or send a note to justinberger5@gmail.com .

Thank you so much.

jb

Graduate School Almost Finished for the Semester

2007-04-27T00:18:00.000-05:00

Tonight I attended my last class for the semester (I still have one final paper to write this weekend). For those of you that don't know, I have been working on earning my Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL). This degree has been preparing me to work more effectively with students who are learning English and from a different culture. The program at UMKC hasn't been the most impressive, but it will give me the ability to graduate with a degree of expertise in the field.

This may also may be a little nugget of new information, but part of the reason for my upcoming trip, is because I want to check out Africa as a place that I may want to move for a more long term stay. I want to teach overseas and hopefully make a difference in social justice. It is all very much up in the air, but I definitely don't want to close any doors prematurely.

As my school year is coming to a close, and the trip continues to approach, I have been keeping busy with many things. Typing many papers for my six hours of graduate credit has been dominating my life, I got more shots yesterday at the health clinic, and I also visited the doctor for my Malaria medicine. I decided to take Larium, which has a very likely side affect of hallucinations, vivid dreams, and possible night terrors. Never a dull moment ... At least I won't get malaria, and it may give me really interesting things to write about. Stay tuned for Larium induced dream stories and possible hallucinations.

I have sent off for my visa into Mozambique, and am waiting patiently that it will show up in a timely manner. Say a little prayer, because without my passport, I'm not going anywhere.

South Africa Running Out of Burial Plots

2007-04-16T20:17:00.000-05:00

The following is an article from CNN.com that a friend sent to me:

AIDS-hit South Africa running out of burial plots

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- AIDS-hit South Africa is running short of cemetery space and residents of its main city, Johannesburg, need to consider "nontraditional" burials, including cremation, Mayor Amos Masondo said on Wednesday.
Masondo said 24 of the city's 35 cemeteries were already at full capacity and, although enough spaces remain for the foreseeable future, other options must now be considered.
"The city would like to make an appeal to residents to consider amongst other options, stack burials and cremations," the SAPA news agency quoted Masondo as saying at the opening of a new cemetery on the outskirts of the city.
South African officials have repeatedly warned in recent years of a looming shortage of burial plots, attributed in part to rapid urbanization and a cultural reluctance among African families to consider options such as cremation.
Masondo suggested that families could begin to double up with "stack burials" at existing, family-held gravesites.
Masondo did not explicitly mention South Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis, which infects about one in nine of the country's adults, but analysts say the epidemic is directly to blame for rising mortality rates in the country.
Masondo urged Johannesburg residents to respect existing graveyards and not to take them over for ramshackle temporary housing.
"Respecting those who are no more can add so much meaning to the land of the living," he said.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

I don't want to rant about politics, but "When is America going to wake up and realize that there is a problem that we need to assist in that doesn't include the Persian Gulf?" Africa needs help!
It baffles my mind to think that so many people are dying of AIDs, that an entire country is concerned about running out of graveyard plots to buried their dead.
I don't have a simple answer to this major problem, but I do know that I have the power to raise awareness. I need to share the issues that concern the people of Africa, with the people that I come in contact with in my daily life. Enough with the soap box. It has now been put back away in the closet. But consider yourself informed. Thanks.

jb

A Boss that Rocks!!

2007-04-14T12:00:00.000-05:00

Can I just state, that it has been a major blessing to work for a principal that is a rockstar! He has been nothing but 100% professional while we are at work. I know that I will always have his support in everything that I do. I have also come to the realization that not all administrators have these characteristics, and I am very fortunate to have a boss that is awesome.

You're probably wondering why I am posting this on a blog that is supposed to be about a trip to Africa. It all started on the day that I told him about my possible trip in December. When I told him, I wasn't sure how he would react, because traveling to Africa also meant that I would not be teaching summer school for him. In our conversation, he was so supportive, and was actually excited for me to have this opportunity. That was in December, now fast-forward to yesterday morning.

I am in the front office of our school, and he waves me into his office, we are working on some things school/work related, our conversation turns to my upcoming adventure to Mozambique. He asks me how I was doing with my preparations(shots, planning, ect.). I started to share a few details, the fact that I am so excited to be on my way to Maputo, that I have a hard time not thinking about the trip every other thought during the day. He leaned in toward me and asked, "What about when you come back?"

The question caught me off guard, and hit right at the heart of some of my most major concerns and worries. I just nodded my head and said, "I'm pretty worried about it," and I went into more details about the concerns that I have about the re-acclamation to American culture after returning from a third world country.

He sat across from me and nodded his head, with a slight grin on his face. He went on to share that he spent a year in Thailand early in his career teaching English. When he came back he was appalled by the culture of America. Our conversation didn't represent anything that was anti-America or that we weren't "proud to be an American," but we did share a moment that we acknowledged that, we as Americans, have our priorities skewed in certain areas of our culture.

He pointed out that when I get back, I will be thrown right back into our culture at the school. He also let me know that if I am struggling with the re-acclamation, that he will always have an ear available to listen, as a person who has went through similar things in his own life.

I am amazed that I am so fortunate to have a boss that is so good at his job, has a high concern for his staff, and truely cares about us outside of work.

We Want You to Come to Africa!

2007-04-11T19:33:00.000-05:00

Passport and Vaccinations

2007-04-07T21:24:00.000-05:00

It has been a whirlwind the last couple of weeks. I have been hard at work with graduate school, shaping young minds, and preparations for Africa. I have some of the latest happenings are that my passport finally showed up. I had sent it away at the beginning of the year understanding that it would be back no later than March 1st. It finally showed up this last week (almost a month late). I was starting to get a little worried because I still need to send away for my travel visas. I also have taken care of all of my shots and vaccinations. The week of my work's spring break I had slight cases of Hepatitis A&B, Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Typhoid. Sounds like a ton of fun, doesn't it? Yea, for shots!

I also purchased another plane ticket today. It was my first purchase in foreign currency. It cost R925 (Rand). We decided that a 55 minute plane ride on South African Airlines was better than a 10+ hour bus ride across South Africa. I'm a little disappointed because I will miss out on the adventure of the bus ride, but I think that I appreciate at the choice after I have been on a plane or in an airport for the last three days. Kansas City -- Chicago -- New York -- Madrid -- Johannesburg -- Nelspruit -- Maputo. 54 days until I leave.

jb

Why are 5th Graders Awesome???

2007-03-27T17:53:00.000-05:00

My trip has been a secret to the majority of the world until recently. Don't get me wrong, my parents and brother knew, and a couple of my close friends, but I tried really hard not to tell anyone about the trip. I did this for a couple of reasons, but the main reason is that I wanted to make sure that I was really going to be in Africa for the summer, before I started telling people that I was going to be taking the trip.
A couple of weeks ago, when I purchased my tickets, I decided to start telling people more about Mozambique. Some of those people that I am around all day, and are a big part of my life are 10 and 11 year olds. For those of you that don't know, I am a teacher, and have 30 children that I work with all week long. I may be a little partial, but I think that they are all pretty swell, and I think that I even like them a little bit more than most other 10 and 11 year olds. I digress, I was so excited to be able to finally share about the trip with them because I was now the proud owner of tickets to and from Johannesburg, South Africa.
I called them all to the carpet and as they sat in front of me on the floor, I showed where Mozambique was on our globe. I then told them about Pieter and Rika, the couple that runs the baby house, and how I am going to help them while in Maputo, Mozambique.
Of course after saying this, three questions came from their mouths:
"Are you coming back?"
"Can I go with you?"
and
"Mr. Berger, why would you want to do that?"
It was so awesome to be able to give them an answer to that final question. I simply explained that I think that it is the right thing to do. I also added that since I am still single and looking for my future wife, I don't really have anyone that I am responsible to take care of during the summer, so I can travel around the world without having anyone that will be depending on me to support them or teach them. I also explained that I want to set an example for others around me of how we can make a difference in our world.
A little girl in the middle of my students huddled on the floor raised her hand and said, "I want to help. My mom just went to Costco and she bought two big boxes full of canned food. If I brought those, would you put them in your suitcase so that the kids will have food." I sat there for a few seconds, which seemed like minutes in silence just thinking, "THEY GET IT!!! They understand how important it is to help others that aren't as fortunate."
As I sat there in silence and admiration of the beauty and innocence of a child's heart, I tried to figure out the best way to respond to the little girl's request to make my luggage ultra heavy. The silence was broken, by more kids chiming in saying they wanted to help out too. I then suggested that we brainstorm a way that our class can make a bigger difference in Africa. In the middle of our discussion, I shared about Food for the Hungry, and how sponsoring a child was the first step that I had taken in trying to make a difference in Africa. They all really liked that idea, and started figuring how much money each student would have to raise.

This conversation happened right before lunch, and by our afternoon recess I was presented with a student created petition signed by all 30 students, stating that they wanted to sponsor a child in Africa. I had two students create a letter to send home to all of their parents, which asked permission to participate. After we typed it up, the students passed it around and everyone signed it. The letter was sent home and slowly permission slips have returned along with support money.

Today after looking at three different packets of children from Zeway, Ethiopia, the 5th graders had to pick which child we were going to help out. Many simply wrote on their slip of paper, "They all need our help, and I can't choose." Most of the others were drawn to a boy named Negu Edeo Ogeto. Negu wasn't chosen by the class because he was a boy, or that he had a cool name, or any other typical reason that a 5th grader would come up with to choose one child over the other. Almost every child's secret ballot stated that they felt that we needed to help Negu because both of his Parents had died of AIDS, and he needed a friend or someone who would care about him.

As I flipped through each child's written ballot, most of the answers said those exact words, or something very similar. I sat at my desk as my students read their SSR books, noticed that my eyes were really watering, and decided that I needed to respond immediately. I went to the phone and called Food for the Hungry Office from my classroom, and told the child sponsor office that I needed to sponsor another child, and that I had his packet in my hand. I gave her the information from Negu's packet and that made it official that the students of room 6 @ Southwood Elementary in Raytown, Missouri are responsible for making a difference in a boy's life in Zeway, Ethiopia, Africa. That is one of the many reasons why 5th graders are awesome!!

jb

Why Africa???

2007-03-25T12:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I had the privledge of going to the airport to help pick up five of my nine friends (four of them are stuck in Washington D.C. until tonight) that have been in Ethiopia for the last 10 days. It was so neat to get a little bit of a glimpse, from the few stories that were shared, of what I have to look forward to on my upcoming trip.

Mark, one of the guys that just got back, let me borrow a book a few weeks ago, and I have been reading my way through it for the last couple of days. It has really given me some insight into why Africa struggles the way that it does, but it also paints a really neat picture of all the potential that Africa has to suceed as a continent.

Facts that I found interesting from Against All Hope: Hope for Africa:

Natural Resources
- Africa has the land space of the United States, Europe, New Zealand, India, Argentina, and China (22.3% of the world's total land value).
- It has been said that Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have the agricultural potential to feed the entire continent.
- If Africa could dam major rivers, there would be enough water to plant crops in the worst drought stricken areas.

Poverty Stats.
-14% of the world's population lives in Africa, but produces slightly less than 2% of the world's Gross National Product.
-17 of the 21 poorest countries in the world are in Africa.
-148 out of every 1,000 children will die before their 5th birthday.
-Average life expectancy is 51 years old.
-29 of the 42 countries with the lowest literacy rates in the world are found in Africa.
-Human Development Index (HDI) measures the "quality of life." based on life expectancy, literacy rates, educational attainment, and adjusted real income. 33 of the bottom 40 countries on the HDI scale are in Africa. (Mozambique is number 171 out of 177. The United States was listed in the top 8.)
-34 of the 50 "least developed countries" are in Africa. (Mozambique is also on that list)
-Mozambique is #7 on the list of "Least Livable Countries." (#1 is Sierra Leone)

HIV/AIDS
-71% of the world's AIDS cases are in Africa.
-6,000 people die in Africa with the disease each day.
-A conservative estimate of 28,500,000 Africans are infected with HIV/AIDS.
-About 12,000,000 children are orphaned throughout Africa as a result of both parents dying from HIV/AIDS.

Corruption Perception Index (CPI)
- CPI is a scale that ranks countries on a scale of Highly Clean(10) to Highly Corrupt (0). Sixteen of the African countries that were surveyed rated as highly corrupt. Mozambique ranks at 2.8 on the Corruption Perception Scale.
- Among the world's richest men are African heads of state.
- It is estimated that approximately $148,000,000,000 is in secret bank accounts of African rulers. This represents about half of the $300 billion that Africa as a whole owes its foreign creditors.

So the question of "Why Africa?" Africa is a place that needs people to care about it. I think that these statistics help to paint a picture of a continent that is without hope. They help to paint a picture of a continent that needs more people to be aware of what is going on. I have choosen to help make sure that the people that I come in contact with know about Africa. These statistics will hopefully help to explain the urgency of the message that Africa needs our help.

That is why I have choosen to take the opportunity to spend my summer in Maputo, Mozambique. If I happen to run into a hippo while I'm there, it will make the trip all that more memorable.

jb

Why a Hippo???

2007-03-25T01:18:00.000-05:00

So here we are at the beginning of our blogging relationship. I have never had much luck with blogs, I usually post three or four times and then lose interest and forget about the whole project. I hope that this blog-experience will be different. This time I have a purpose for creating this timeless treasure, which I hope that you, the reader, will continue to frequent as I take a journey to Mozambique, Africa in search of the species hippopotamus amphibius.

Why a Hippo???

Well, as I have been preparing for my trip, I have been trying to read as much about the continent of Africa, and the country of Mozambique as I can find. Today, I was reading With Both Hands Waving: A journey through Mozambique, by Justin Fox. It has been an interesting read. The author writes for a travel magazine in South Africa, and took a 10-day trip through Mozambique soon after they had ended their civil war in the mid-90s. I believe the magazine was hoping to boost tourism and help the economy by publishing a few articles about the country. As I have been reading, I really enjoy his writing style and how he shares the story of the adventure in such a conversational way.

This afternoon, I had this realization that left me a bit stunned as I read. I noticed his multiple mentions of many hippopotamus sightings. These were not hippos in zoos, these were not in books or stuffed toys, these were hippos in their natural habitat. And this is when it hit me, I'm going to a country that is like nothing that I have ever seen or experienced. I'm going to a country that has wild hippopotamus that roam free.

This chronicles my quest for a hippo! Trust me, there is more to this trip, and that will be shared all in due course.

jb