"Mozambique Minutes" from the S.o.S. Team

TUESDAY, July 15: We left Jo'burg, S.A. on a large bus which was not quite greyhound, and made for tinier people than we, but was cheaper than flying and allowed us to see a lot of countryside - some beautiful, and some so unbelievably poor and meager, that they can barely be called a "shack" , yet are home to large families.

We soon found out our that 6 hour bus ride was actually closer to a 9 hr. ride. We've learned that not much is exact or precise here, and what's a few hours more on the road? We had a little excitement at the border crossing, when our bus driver dropped us off and said he had to go get gas, even though we had just stopped for a 15 minute break a few miles back which seemed odd even to our tour guide/escort, who had instructed us to leave all our belongings (cameras, etc) on the bus while we got approved to leave South Africa and enter Mozambique. We then waited for a while for the bus to return, and then our guide told us to walk on foot into Mozmabique and clear their border and the bus would pick us up there, rather than us waiting around any longer. This all seemed reasonable until an hour and a half later when the bus was still not back. Eventually Dave Wooster and Cesar Tejeda decide to walk back to S. Africa and look for our bus, which ended up meeting them just after passing the border. Turns out he had problems crossing the border with an empty bus and 38 people's luggage and they thought that was suspcious. Sure had us a little nervous for a while, and delayed our trip even more, but made for an adventurous day! We arrived at the Maranatha Volunteer camp tired and hungry but were thankful for a warm meal (it's chilly here at night!) and got a good night's rest so we were ready for our first day of work.

WEDNESDAY, July 16: Big day, our first day out as our 3 groups - Well, Medical & Building all started our first day on the job. The building crew finished an entire 1/2 of one side of the school building, so a lot of bricks were layed and we have some weary and worn campers here tonight. The well drillers finished 1/2 a well and should get water tomorrow, for the well at the Mahotas school the building crew was working on. The well drilling crew had about 75 onlookers and provided a lot of entertainment - TV, Mozmabique style!

VBS operated today inside one of the partially finished rooms in the school we're working on. It's amazing how quickly word travels, a few kids ran back and grabbed their friends, and all of a sudden they had about 100 kids there. They imagine it will double for tomorrow night - the last group that was here ended up with abotu 500 by the time the week was over! We're so grateful to have a few portuguese speaking people in our group, portuguese-translated materials and even music in portuguese - so much more meaningful if the children can actually understand what they're hearing! The leaders learned that Brazilian portuguese has some differences from Mozambican portuguese, but thankfully children are a pretty forgiving audience!

The medical mission consisted of 13 today with 2 being translators and 1 a local pastor, 2 doctors and 4 nurses. Our place was really remote, more than an hour down a dirt road off of a main road, what probably is classified as "the bush", a 2 hr. drive away from camp. On the drive there, we were just astounded at the extreme poverty and filth that is Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in all the world for reasons we saw today. It's something you can hardly explain in words, you just have to see it. (I will try to post some pics tomorrow night, as it's well after midnight now).

The pastor ran 2 km to get a key to open the church where we set up the clinic and before we opened around noon, we had probably 30 people lined up already, and in less than 4 hrs saw about 45 patients. We saw a lot of parasites, fungal infections, fevers, tummy aches, and a 24 day old baby with RSV that will most likely not make it. This mother and her 4 children walked 12 miles one way today to get care - just one amazing display of the desperation of a mother who loves her children and wants them to be well. We had to turn away people and close by 4:00 to get back to camp but will return to the same place tomorrow.

After dinner each night we have a little devotional and sharing time as we "de-brief" about the day's events and experiences. The comments that were expressed during our sharing time tonight included "complaining is stupid" and "I will never again be ungrateful for all that I have". It's been an eye-opener, for sure, a perspective reminder to not sweat "the small stuff".

I am blogging from the comfort of my tent (they do have wireless here!), and although it's a little chilly, some of our showers were cold tonight and there are several dogs barking like crazy that I'm sure are keeping most of the camp awake, we KNOW just how good and blessed our lives really are. Until next time....stay tuned!