I watched a “Nooma” video lately titled “Rich” that talked about how Americans are some of the richest people in the world.  And some of the poorest live right down the street from me.  Do you wonder what their lives are really like?  What does it really mean to be poor?

We see handicapped people out on the streets every day.  People swinging along with crutches, hopping, dragging themselves on carts.  You don’t see this kind of thing in America.  Most likely many of these people have a deformity from birth that could have been corrected by surgery.  Some have injuries that could have been healed with proper care, others could benefit from a prosthetic.  Their poverty means that they spend their entire lives in this state, and most are unable to work since even the able-bodied struggle to find employment.  Many handicapped people beg in town.

Poverty means that when it is cold, you sleep close to each other since you have no blanket.  You sleep on a bamboo mat instead of a mattress.  You don’t have a mosquito net and the house has no screening.  Bugs and mice live in your straw roof.  At night, you light the house with a small oil lamp.  You walk to wherever you need to go, miles at a time.  If you need medicine that the hospital is unable to provide, you go without or sacrifice something else, or borrow or raise the money.

Children do not drink milk or take vitamins unless they are very ill and the hospital dispenses them.  They have no toys, usually, although sometimes one has something.  They are washed in a basin of cold water with the harsh homemade soap available in the market.   There are no children’s books in the home, no crayons, no playground nearby.

If your baby has a fever, you must carry him or her for a great distance, and then wait for hours for treatment.  If the nurse doesn’t know what the problem is, and death isn’t imminent, you’ll be sent home to see if it gets better on its own. If there is a serious problem, you may eventually see a doctor for several minutes after hours of waiting.  A prescription will be handed to you with no explanation of the condition or the treatment.

Your bathroom (if you have one) is a reed enclosure divided in two sections, one half has a stone in it and maybe a bucket-this is your shower area. You stand on the rock as to not get too muddy and dip cold water over yourself. The other half is a short-drop toilet.

Even if you need glasses, you will probably never receive them.  The fuzziness in your vision is just something to cope with.  If you are losing your hearing, there is nothing to be done.  A tooth that has a cavity will be pulled, most likely after weeks of pain.  The pinched nerves, arthritis, skin problems, back pain and other chronic problems that you have will continue until you can find a home remedy, visit a witch doctor for a cure, be healed in the church, or the symptoms go away on their own.  If you have a headache or muscle strain, you have no medication for this.  No bandaids for cuts, no antiseptic to clean wounds.

You carry water in buckets on top of your head daily, for cooking, bathing and washing the dishes.  You purchase food in small quantities, paying higher prices.  But there is never enough to buy in bulk.  If you did buy in bulk, your neighbors will expect you to share.  Meals are cooked over charcoal and it takes a long time to heat water and to cook anything.  It is smoky and hot.  You cook with oil rather than margarine, since it is cheaper.  Hunger is just a part of life.  You can’t afford to purchase “convenience foods” like bread.  Therefore, if you must be away from home for the day you do not eat unless you have some coins to purchase something someone else has cooked.  Food at home is mostly corn porridge cooked in a pot over the fire, with some tomatoes, garlic and onion made into a sauce.  Meat is rare.  A coke is for special occasions, a chocolate bar unheard of.

You might have a cell phone, but rarely have money to buy the prepaid credit to use it.  You pay a small amount of money to recharge it now and then at the market’s small shop with electricity.

You do not travel as that kind of money is never available to you.  Though you live only two hours drive from the ocean, you’ve never seen it and never will in your lifetime.  Your clothes are well-mended and faded.  Fit doesn’t matter.  You’ve never purchased a newspaper or a roll of toilet paper.  You sit on a dirt floor in your home as the one chair belonging to the family is used by someone more important than you.  Gifts are not purchased for birthdays or Christmas, though perhaps a cake might be baked one year or a special meal prepared.

Does it sound like I am being dramatic?  Unfortunately I am not. This is the situation for probably 50% of the population of our town.  Owning a camera, using a computer, or understanding how to use a library are things that will never happen to them.  Now, none of this is to say that people are unhappy.  It is only to say that when you are poor, much of life is more difficult.  Things are complicated and tiring.

It is amazing to us what good humor people here have!  We frequently see people laughing and smiling on the street.  They are used to this kind of life, though we would like to see things easier for them and healthier for them and their children.  However, ease of life does not equal happiness.  How many Americans do you know who are really happy?  I bet I know just as many Mozambicans who are.  But people here do suffer, and we would like to see that change as time goes by.  More distressing, however, is the poverty of thinking.  They feel that God is distant, they do not understand who He is or how precious they are to him, they do not understand their faith or feel that there is hope for change in their lives.  That is true poverty. – C

Of a rather different sort.  We hear stories all the time of students who are asked for money by their teachers.  The neighbor told me that the teacher sent home a note, telling her to send a bag of flour to the teacher or her child could not continue at the school.  A young friend told me of how she missed an exam, and brought a doctor’s note only to be told that she could not make up the exam and would not pass the class unless she gave the teacher a sum of money (that she cannot afford).  We hear of a Christian young man who repeated the same year of university three times because he refused to pay the bribe asked by the teacher.  Talk about integrity!  We also hear of girls who are asked for sexual favors from the teacher (a common enough practice) in order to pass their classes.  My young friend went to the director of the school and complained about the sum of money she had been asked for, and the director shrugged and said “I don’t interfere in the affairs of the teachers”.

This is all just horrifying to us.  I have contemplated whether I should interfere but after speaking to several people concluded that the student would be persecuted even more.  Most people just pay the requested bribe and carry on.

Why are all these teachers so corrupt?  Recently I learned that just to get into teachers’ college, you have to pay a very large sum of money (more than one month’s salary) to the director of the school.  While in school, you have to pay the professors. Then there is another sum of money due in order to receive your graduation papers.  Then, these new teachers are required to go out to remote villages to teach for two years before they have a chance of getting transferred back to the cities, where they want to live.  After all of this, they are ready to get theirs.  They feel that they are owed something.  And it is quite likely that they still owe money or favors to whomever helped them get through teachers’ college.  And the people that they owe, owe someone else.  It just trickles down from the top, poisoning everyone.

How do we stop this?  We can’t wipe it out from where we sit.  And lest we congratulate ourselves on being so much more “modern” that people here, let’s remember that only 40 years ago the New York City Police Department was so corrupt that criminals were getting away with murder.  There has been just as much corruption in Western society over the years as there is now here in Mozambique.  Why did it slow down in West (or go underground)?  People had power to stop it.  When people do not have power, others take advantage of them.  When they have no money, when they have no jobs, when they have no leverage, they will be victimized by those who wield power.  Either individuals acquire the ability to protect themselves, or they rise up as one to protest.  I don’t know which will happen here on a large scale first.  – C

Today Toby learned how to ride a bike!  He is already past due on this, due to the fact that the only place to learn is across town and we just never have time to take him.  This morning, however, we went to see friends and took some time to finish the job.  The grin on his face was enormous and his whole body said “Yesssss!”.  Here’s a photo of him later on his bike, still happy and proud.  You may wonder about the shiner.  He fell on Monday night (five days ago) out of his 2-storey bamboo playhouse while trying to leap into a nearby tree.  His experiment with gravity succeeded and ground met face, resulting in a broken blood vessel and resultant very impressive black eye.  Although it was very sore at first, now it just makes him a celebrity.

Ben has been busy with his own little projects, of a somewhat different nature.  Yesterday morning I came out of the back door to find him walking across the yard, pants pulled down enough to pee in the can he was holding in front of himself.  Why he thought he needed to pee in a can while walking across the yard, I’ve no idea.  He tripped and spilled pee down his leg, and then threw the can and started dancing around like he was on fire, shrieking with dismay!  I was so helpless with laughter that I couldn’t do anything to help him.  A bath followed.  Toby tells me that Ben had done this the day before, and he likes to fill up cans and dump them in the bushes.  No, I don’t know why.  Sigh.  I’m trying to teach him to pee in the bathroom, hoping this is just a phase.  And no, I’m not going to post a photo! – Cami

Last week was the Fiel Conference.  Fiel is an organization from Brazil that is involved in providing Christian literature in Portuguese.  Their local coordinator, an American missionary, puts on this conference every year out at the SIL center and invites local pastors and leaders.  This year, there were over 300 people!  They bring in speakers who teach QUALITY stuff – this year, the topic was Christian Family, and there were teachings on what a marriage should be, how to order your home, forgiveness and peacemaking, and other things.

Kevin and I attended with three couples we sponsored – the men are all Kevin’s students.  What a privilege to spend time with these wonderful folks, who enjoyed the conference a great deal.  What especially stood out to us was the quality of the teaching – we NEVER hear preaching like that.  I don’t mean good preaching as far as the style, I mean the content.  What was taught was solid, biblical stuff.  Not complicated, not mis-interpreted (as almost everything is here), but straightforward simple direction from the Bible, backed up with solid doctrine.  It was so refreshing to us, and our students were astonished at the wisdom of the teachers.

It was very well-organized and we were provided with lots of good food at each meal, which our students also enjoyed immensely.  The whole thing is subsidized so for less than $10 each were were able to attend 3 days of teaching and eat all meals there.  Kevin challenged each of his students to take some of the things they learned back to their churches and share this wisdom with others.  We are looking forward to attending next year as well. – Cami

It was my turn to do carpool this morning, and after dropping my six children off at school on the other side of town, I did a bit of shopping.

First stop, the animal supply store.  We feel really fortunate to have this place, which is the only one of its kind in the entire north as far as we know.  This morning, I purchased canine distemper vaccines for our two puppies (one 9 months, one two months old) and some vitamins.  After I got home, Kevin and I broke out our supply of needles that we got from some departing missionary and mixed up the vaccines and injected the dogs.  We felt pretty pleased with ourselves for managing that.

Second stop, Shoprite.  Shoprite is a haven of westernism in the middle of this third world country.  In most shops, you stand in a crowd of people (no one believes in lines) and gesture at a shop assistant until he deigns to see you.  Usually this involves waving your money.  You don’t get to actually hold the item unless he brings it from the shelf and you have about 5 seconds to decide if you want it or not.  Sometimes the shop is not so busy, so then you can reflect for a few more minutes.

But in Shoprite, all the items are just there on the shelves and you can touch EVERYTHING.  It is lovely.

As I pulled into my parking space in front of the store, a crowd of boys ran toward me, waving as though to say hello.  I always feel like waving back at them, but really what they are doing is volunteering to guard my car.  Thankfully, Kevin has glued or screwed down every item on the car (including all the blinkers, mirrors, trim, etc.) so after I put the steering wheel lock on, check every door and turn on the alarm, I feel reasonably sure that nothing will be stolen while I’m inside.  I have to wade through about five boys, usually, who are desperate to guard.  Then there are the vegetable vendors who want to sell me potatoes, oranges, tomatoes and the like.  Then there are the cell phone credit guys, then the beggars.  Finally when I reach the store, I am free!

Inside Shoprite, I first look for some feta cheese, but they still don’t have any.  That’s been out for about a week, so I look at the margarine, which has suddenly jumped in price by fifty cents a block.  I browse over the vegetables, and find celery!  That is a real find, but it is $4 for a small bunch so I skip that.  The kiwis are always tempting, but are just as expensive as in the USA so we don’t usually buy those.  I guess shipping from New Zealand really drives the price up.  🙂  A look at the hamburger shows that the price on that also suddenly jumped fifty cents a pound.  Perhaps it will go down next week, and anyway I’m not much interested in it these days.  Seems I always get some gristle in my serving, and I don’t have much appetite for it.

I pick up a frozen chicken, which is sold by the business friends of our run here, and go by the fresh bread.  We always eat fresh bread here, and it is so wonderful!  The deli case has greasy chicken pies and dried-out pastries, not very appetizing.  I go to the shampoo display, where the men stocking the display are having a great time and make no move to make room for me.  After awhile, peering around them, I find what I want and reach in to grab it.  Looking for flour, I see that there still isn’t any – they’ve been out for two weeks but luckily I can get it in another store.  That means another wrangle with wanna-be car guards.  Still no cornflakes either – perhaps at yet another store.  I wander up the dishware aisle, amazed at the lovely teacups that are available, and all the kinds of kitchen utensils and caddies.  Really, we do pretty well here.

I go to buy toilet paper and am happy to see some 2-ply available, but unfortunately it is almost $4 for four rolls.  No way!  A buck a roll?  I look for cat food, but can’t find any dry food, only small bags of dry dog food, $10 for 5 pounds.  You have got to be kidding.  You’d be amused at the items that are available here – lots of mosquito nets, repellants, citronella candles.  Then there are the camping type items, and other things that “safari travelers” need for their trips.  Otherwise, there are pretty typical items at this little grocery store (which has about 8 aisles, pretty good, and is the largest grocery store in the north).  At the checkout, a manager has to be called to run my credit card through their only machine, and a guard checks over my receipt at the door before I head back out to wade through the things on offer:  beggars, cell phone credit, vegetables, street children proclaiming that they guarded my car.  It is always a relief to get everything in the car safely and pull out.  – Cami

Yes, we got yet ANOTHER puppy this week.  We got Bella about 7 months ago, and she is in need of a friend to help her guard at night.  Our old chow chow, Nibbles, is very sweet but at 12 years old is pretty much just sleeping at night these days.

So, Tintin arrived on Monday, and he is such a sweet little guy.  We picked him out because he is the quietest of the litter (of 9!) and hope he will be a calm, gentle dog.  Since he is a German Shepherd, we have no doubt that he will also be a good guard and bark when there are strangers around at night.  For Bella, it was love at first sight and she seems to really like him.  He seems content, and enjoys watching all the activity around here.  Even the cat doesn’t mind him.

Week before last, there was a gathering of the Christian expatriate ladies of Nampula (those who speak English) that me and another lady had the privilege of organizing, initiated by a group from South Africa called the Mozambique Hub.  We had over 40 ladies who attended, and it was a neat time of fellowship and sharing.  Our speaker, Nicky van der Merwe, shared from her 16 years of experience living in the bush in Mozambique, and we were grateful for her exhortation of looking for joy even in our difficult situations.  Quite a few of the ladies here face daily struggles of all kinds, and it is easy to get worn down.  Recently, AIM sent out an article written by Ruth Ann Graybill titled the Emotional Needs of Women on the Mission Field, and this was distributed to the ladies, and is something I have been thinking about a lot.  Here is a list of some of the needs:
1.  Intimacy and Close Friendships
2.  Validation and Affirmation
3.  Healthy relationships among co-workers
4.  Spiritual nourishment and support (including mentoring, pastoral care, biblical teaching and quality worship)
5.  Time alone/privacy
6.  Maintaining close contact with separated family members

These are all needs that are common to women around the world, but those living in cross-cultural environments face some barriers to getting these needs met, like the high mobility of missionaries, language barriers, lack of safe environment, physical isolation, busyness, constant requests for help from nationals, sexual harassment in public, etc.  It seemed like a common theme among the ladies was loneliness, and indeed it can be very hard to make friends when you have few choices of who to make friends with, have trouble getting out of the house, live far from others who could be friends, there are few or no people who speak your mother tongue, and everyone is so busy with ministry (or sick all the time from malaria, flu, or other illnesses) that they don’t have time to be “girlfriends”.

One thing that was clear, however, was what an extraordinary group of people attended.  Those who leave their home countries and come to “make the world a better place” are a group that I’m privileged to know.

I just want to encourage those of you on the “home front” to reach out to those ladies who are living and working overseas, all over the world, to share bible study resources and biblical encouragement, to let them know you think of them and pray for them, and want to understand the things they face.

I did a previous post about things that drive me crazy, so I really must balance it out with a list of things I like about living here in Mozambique.  There are many more things than I list, but these are the first things that come to mind.

1.  I really am pleased at the life my children live here.  When I compare their lives to those of American children, I can see how much more physically active they are, enjoying a lot of fresh air and free play.  They don’t worry about what toys they have as compared to others, and they are not subject to all kinds of marketing which make them discontent.  Their requests are generally simple, like ice cream or watching a video.  It is a more old-fashioned existence, and children here are expected to be helpful around the house and to be respectful towards adults.  They also are learning a lot of valuable life lessons and meeting people from many different countries and walks of life.

2.  I like living in a warm climate (having spent my teenage years in South Florida) year-round.  Of course, during four months of that year it is rather TOO warm, but in general I prefer that to experiencing a bleak, freezing winter.  I like having one wardrobe all year, augmented only by a few things, and wearing flip-flops and lightweight clothing.  The palm trees waving in the breeze warm my heart!

3.  There are so many interesting people here.  In the expat/missionary community especially, I am always meeting fascinating people who have experienced all kinds of places and things.  I really could spend all my time hanging out with these folks, but have to limit my interaction.  Many of the Mozambican folks I meet also have interesting backgrounds, and the history of this country is astonishing.

4.  I love being able to walk into any pharmacy and buy prescription drugs for myself and for others.  If I know I have bronchitis, I don’t have to schedule a doctor’s visit to get confirmation, but can start taking antibiotics.  I know that this makes all the doctors out there shudder, but I appreciate the freedom to buy and use what I need.

5.  Even though it is often frustrating to speak another language, I do enjoy the challenge of speaking Portuguese.  I just wish I spoke it better, but I like learning new words and the sound of all those rolled r’s and nasal tones.  It is a beautiful language and everything sounds more exotic!

6.  We really do eat healthier here.  Although once a month we might get french fries to eat with some roasted chicken, most of the time we eat home-cooked meals made from fresh ingredients.  Of course, just like anybody else we long for those deep-fried fast foods, but they are really not as available here as in America so we are forced to eat better.

7.  As a person who enjoys thrift store shopping, it is constant distraction to me seeing so many used items for sale.  There are little stalls set up alongside the roads with clothes, sheets, towels, shoes and tablecloths of all colors and styles.  I enjoy going to the sunday market and looking through the piles of things that have come out from America in bundles.  I rarely buy things, but it is fun to look for those little “treasures” that can be had for just a couple of dollars.

8.  Ok, this one is totally frivolous, but I love driving the big truck.  We have a 1994 Toyota Landcruiser, which is a huge vehicle that you have to climb up into.  It is turbo diesel and has tons of power.  I like the fact that it is very safe to ride in (especially considering how the traffic is here) and that it has the power to pass those crazy taxis.  But mostly I just love being up so high and bouncing around all those potholes in comfort, with all that engine power available.  You should see that thing crawl through the mud or other difficult spots.

9.  We spend very little time watching tv or catching up on news.  When I think about our time in America, I remember the constant bombardment of advertising and news stories, and the allure of tv shows.  The tv shows are so good that you just get sucked in, and now, from a distance, it astonishes me how much time Americans spend talking about tv shows.  We do watch the movies that my cousin sends out, but are not tied to a tv schedule and are not pulled into programming, or have to listen to news that is not really newsworthy (like why Cate Blanchett cut her hair, etc.).

10.  The vivid colors around me really are a feast for the eyes.  The ladies especially are just beautiful to look at, with their colorful wraps and lovely skin. It amazes me how people who are living in such poverty keep themselves so neatly and beautifully dressed.  I love the brightly painted buildings, the tropical flowers (though they are few) and the palm trees silhoueted against the blue sky.  We do miss the deep lush green of the grass and trees at home, the rivers and forests, but the beauty that surrounds us is of another kind.
-Cami

Toby turned 7 years old on April 25th, and we had a wonderful party for him on the following saturday.  I don’t mean wonderful as in “oh aren’t we so great” but wonderful in that such great kids came and we had such a wonderful time!  We had 25 kids, which is a whole lot of kids, but luckily we have a big yard, it didn’t rain, and my parents were here to help out a whole lot.  We had “team meetings” before the party, to coordinate everything, and it went off without a hitch.  My mom commented that if you had that many children at a party in the USA, you’d have some problems with fighting, or children who misbehaved.  But all the little friends here are so pleasant and they were a joy to entertain.  Here is a photo of some of the friends who came.  Toby was in his element, as he loves to have friends around, and actually was very eager to change the date of his party once I told him he could have more friends at it if it was changed.  He is no wallflower and is always in the middle of any social interaction.

Here’s another photo of Toby.  We are so proud of him and his accomplishments this past year.  The biggest one is learning to READ!  He reads fluidly and joyfully, and we hope that the love of books continues his entire life.  He is also doing very well in math at school, which is encouraging to his math-challenged parents.  He loves going to school and it is a blessing to have him at a Christian school with children from many countries.

This year, Toby has done all kinds of interesting things, like learning how to snorkel (and doing so with enthusiasm and skill), going horseback riding, climbing a local mountain, going on a safari boat ride and game drive in Malawi, shooting down the (small-homemade) waterslide repeatedly at our annual conference, writing to his pen pal in America, and learning to care for our animals.  He’s learned lots of verses (thanks to his school) and expressed a desire to be baptized this year!  He is often very helpful with Ben and frequently he and I exchange looks of frustration or amusement over Ben’s head.  He tries to help his little brother in all sorts of ways, and we see him trying to be a good friend to others as well.  Toby is a joy to us and we are so thankful that God blessed us with him. – Cami

I haven’t written for quite awhile, and that is because I was busy enjoying the visit of my parents April 6 – May 12th.  Here is a photo of them with the boys, on our trip out to the coast. Ben and Toby hadn’t seen them for over 2 years, and last time they were with Ben he wasn’t even walking yet, and now he is 3!  That is a hard part of being here, having the kids away from their grandparents.  We feel so grateful that they were able to come, and they brought with them many gifts, and hearts ready to serve both us and our colleagues.  My mom did about a thousand loads of laundry and my dad fixed all kinds of things. But the best part was seeing them interact with the kids.

During their visit, we took a trip north to see some of the work our AIM colleagues are doing, and we also took a trip east to spend 3 nights at the coast.  We visited Ilha da Mozambique, which has an old Portuguese fort (and the oldest European-built structure in the Southern Hemisphere) and then went to Nacala where where enjoyed staying beside the bay and snorkeling.  We rented a 12-foot fishing boat, which took us (by sail power) across the bay to enjoy some turquoise waters and beautiful coral reefs.  Toby is snorkeling easily now, though he has not yet learned to dive down and then to clear his snorkel.  We plucked starfish off the bottom of the sea (there are thousands!) and the kids enjoyed looking at them in the boat.

My parents helped us in so many ways, and it was very sad when they flew off back to America.  We hope it won’t be another 2 years before we see them again. – Cami