Beens Blog

Seasons

2006-06-14T19:42:00.001+02:00

Before coming to Mozambique, full time, we used to tell people that there were only two seasons: the rainy, summer season and the dry, winter season. After having been here an entire year, we’ve found that’s no longer the case. In face we’ve come up with a couple different ways to discuss the seasons of the year and thought we’d share them with you.

SEASONS BY PRODUCE:

January – February: these are often known as the famine months. Produce from the previous season has run out and the new crops are not yet ready to harvest. Fresh food is scarce, what does exist is extremely expensive and many Mozambicans have a terrible time eating; one usually hears of at least a few who have starved to death.

March: Pumpkins

April: Sweet Potatoes

May: Tangerines and Peanuts

June: Papaya

July/Aug.: Mangos

September: Pineapple

October/November: Cashews

Actually, we could count seasons by produce in the States as well – at least to a degree. We have seasons where strawberries come ripe and then come blackberries and peaches and then blueberries and apples and finally pumpkins. Our seasons of produce, however, don’t carry us through an entire year, and while we may look forward to a particular season (my dad loves it when strawberries come around, Dan looks forward to picking peaches and I love trying to get to my grandmother’s house in N. Indiana whenever blueberries come around), we aren’t completely dependent on that season in order to get that particular food. Here however, there isn’t the mass importing of produce, so often when the season isn’t there you can’t find that food, at least not easily.

SEASONS BY INSECT:

February: mites – those that cause mange in dogs and scabies in people!

May/June: small ants and FLEAS!

July/August: flies

November: flying ants and ticks

December: mosquitoes

This year of bugs isn’t an exact science. I’m quite certain that at any given time of the year one could find most any of these insects, however they seem to have peak times where they’re constantly underfoot. We avoided the fleas last May, when we first arrived, however we’ve had close experience and infestations of ticks, mites, small ants and currently fleas!!

Best Made Plans

2006-06-14T19:42:00.000+02:00

Well, I’ve finally learned that the best made plans still don’t always work out! For several months we had been planning that I (Robin), Josiah, and Esperansa would fly down to Nelspruit, S. Africa in May. We had a couple doctors’ appointments to fulfill and were also going to meet up with my parent’s and Grandmother who were coming to visit. We’d spend a couple days in S. Africa so they could visit Kruger Park and then we’d all fly up to Nampula together.

Finally, Tuesday May 9th came. Dan took us all to the airport in order to catch our flight. Instead of using the commercial planes, we were taking the MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) shuttle which once per month makes a trip from Johannesburg, S. Africa to Nampula, Mozambique and then returns the next day. We had a departure time of 7 am and I’d been told they’d be able to drop us off in Nelspruit (fours hours by car from Johannesburg) around 2 pm. That was a perfect plan; my parents and grandmother were catching a flight from Johannesburg to Nelspruit and were also due in around 2pm. We could connect, collect the rental car (which was booked in my Dad’s name but I was to drive) and I should still have time to take them to the hotel to rest before needing to make our doctors appointments, set for 3:30 and 4:30 pm.

Well . . . . the headwinds that day were absolutely incredible! Thankfully the plane ride itself was smooth, however the plane was not traveling anywhere close to it’s normal speed. After making two planned stops to pick up other passengers, the pilots announced we were going to have to put down a third time to take on more fuel. Not only were the headwinds drastically slowing us down, however they were also causing us to eat up quite a bit of our reserve fuel. With this third stop it became apparent that not only would I be unable to meet my family at 2 pm but I was also going to miss one if not both of my doctor’s appointments. All of my carefully made notes with phone numbers and such on them were in my luggage which was inaccessible, but thankfully I managed to reach Dan and asked him to first call the hotel and tell them they’d need to pick up my family from the airport. They’d also need to arrange something with the car rental company and then he needed to try and reschedule my appointments. I would check in with him upon reaching Nelspruit to know what arrangements had been made. Back in the air, the headwinds continued but at least we had enough fuel now and there would be no more needed stops until I was to get off.

(As a side note, the exciting part about this entire adventure is that Josiah got to sit in the co-pilot seat and “fly” the plane and listen through headphones to various communication transmissions)! That made his day.

Finally we landed in Nelspruit at 5:30 pm; only 3.5 hrs late!!!!!

I telephoned Dan once again to learn that Dad had arranged things with the car rental company. I merely needed to go there, pick up the car and meet my family at the hotel. That was such good news! I reached the counter, gave them the copy of my driver’s license and clarified directions to the main road. I was all set to head off but then remember to ask if the car seat was already in the car. Car seat? What car seat? Ugh!!! I showed the clerk the copy of our reservation which showed we’d paid to reserve a car seat. No one has passed that information to her and she didn’t have one available for me. She promised to call Johannesburg, they had cars coming in the morning and she’d ask them to send a seat over. I did manage to tell her I appreciated that, however what was I supposed to do at that moment? She didn’t seem to understand until I explained that I couldn’t drive to the hotel while holding the baby and that the baby couldn’t sit alone in the car without a seat. She was closing up, none of the other companies had seats available either so I finally asked if she’d be willing to ride with me to the hotel. I could drop off Esperansa with my parents and then bring her back. Thankfully she agreed and I connected up with my parents and grandmother and got her back to the airport so she could go home for the night.

Back at the hotel we ate a nice supper and once the kids were in bed began to categorize and repack all our luggage. Mom and Dad had brought over several requested items as well as some gifts for the kids and their personal effects. To get back to Nampula we were flying on a chartered mission plane and so our luggage allowance was bound. We needed to get all their personal effects and gifts into bags that would definitely go north with us and then make a separate pile of things that could stay in S. Africa to come up later, if necessary. Also we were separating out one night of belongings to carry with us into Kruger Park; the other luggage we’d drop off at Mercy Air’s compound to wait for us there.

Wednesday morning we awoke early and Dad and I headed out to the compound to drop our un-necessary luggage off. Upon our arrival we were greeted and told that unfortunately, they would not be able to make the flight with us on Friday! An initial plan to use the small plane had already been scraped because there was a lack of av-Gas (aviation fuel) in most all of Mozambique. They had solved that dilemma by deciding they’d use their larger plane and just carry enough fuel with us for them to make the return flight. Well, the night before they discovered that the larger plane had a propeller that was leaking and so they wouldn’t be able to use that plane after all. They were working on contacting the commercial airlines to see what options we’d have and would also work on refunding the money we’d already paid. In the meantime we dropped off our luggage anyway (we didn’t have room for all the luggage and all the people in the rental car) and left so that I could make our three doctor’s appointments (two from the previous day and the one scheduled for that morning). Oh yeah, during this entire time Esperansa had been most unhappy and yet I was driving the car so there was nothing I could do for her.

I dropped Dad off at the hotel, picked up Josiah and my mother and off we went. I must admit that all the appointments went very quickly (minus the hour wait at the dentist office). Sometime during the morning however, my cell phone stopped working – a network error or such. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge issue except I now couldn’t get a hold Dan nor could Mercy Air get a hold of me to let me know what they’d managed to work out!

After returning to the hotel to pick up my Dad, Grandmother, and the car seat which had been dropped off by the rental company, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed off for Kruger (an additional self-imposed stress was simply that I wanted my folks and grandmother to have as much time in Kruger as possible and so I was feeling frustrated that we were getting off so late in the day, especially since if we had to take a commercial plane to Nampula then we would have to make a four hour drive to Johannesburg on Thursday evening which would also cut into our time in the park).

As we reached the Kruger Park gate I quickly used the pay phone to contact Mercy Air to see what they’d arranged. Dan had communicated with them and we’d decided they could fly us to Maputo using the small plane (av-gas was available in Maputo plus it was such a short flight they could carry all the fuel needed if they opted for that route) and take a commercial flight from there. I just needed to later get the specific details from them.

We entered the park and the remainder of Wed. and Thursday flowed fairly smoothly. I only wished I could have clarified for certain what our flight details were going to be, but my cell phone still wasn’t working and I could never get anyone on the phone whenever I managed to find a pay phone to use.

We left Kruger Park on Thursday evening and went to Mercy Air’s compound where we were to stay the night. All was set; the plane had already been loaded with the luggage which we had dropped off on Wednesday. The game plan was that we would make the short flight to Maputo, the pilot would then pay for our commercial tickets since we’d already paid money to them and all should work out fine.

Again, best made plans don’t always work out. We took off just a touch late from Nelspruit, but that was okay as we still had plenty of time. Upon arriving in Maputo we went through immigration, waited for the visitor’s visas to be issued to my parents and grandmother, and got through customs without any problem. While Mark, the Mercy Air pilot was trying to pay for our tickets we were busy getting our luggage strapped (so that things couldn’t be broken into). With all this, my grandmother was getting rather tired of standing and desperately needed to sit down, however there weren’t really any chairs available, though we did later find one. Once our luggage was strapped I went over to where Mark was to see what was taking so long (at this point we were about 1 hour from our departure time). Apparently the credit card machine wasn’t accepting the card for whatever reason. Phone calls had been made and the bank was checking into things. For time’s sake I suggested that Dad simply use his card to pay for things – Mercy Air could just refund the money. He agreed with that, however the machine wouldn’t accept his card either. I then tried to convince the clerk that the issue wasn’t the cards but rather his machine so after messing with things for five more minutes he changed machines. The Mercy Air card still wouldn’t work, however Dad’s card did so we got our tickets and then went to stand in a very long line to check in. Times aren’t quite so important here, but for my family who is used to the “need to check in 1 hr before your flight” guidelines of America, the fact that we still hadn’t checked in and our flight was due to take off in 30 minutes was rather stressful for them.

In the end, all worked out – we got checked in, our airport taxes were paid and we made it to Nampula to be greeted by Dan, Karunia, and Asher (as well as teammates who’d come to help with luggage)!

Best made plans may not always work out as we plan, but I praise the Lord that He always is in control and always will work things out! Time with my family was wonderful and I’m glad we had this opportunity, no matter how much stress was involved in it's start!

An article from Robin's Grandmother

2006-06-09T14:30:00.000+02:00

My grandmother wrote the following article after coming to visit us in May 2006. I thought you might enjoy reading some of her thoughts regarding her trip!

South Africa and Mozambique—2006

A year ago I said I would visit my missionary granddaughter and her family in Portugal where they were spending about nine months in language training, but that I would not go to Africa. However, 2006 found me making plans to accompany daughter Carol and her husband Randy on their trip to that continent. Randy and I would be home in less than two weeks, but Carol would be staying four.

We flew out of Evansville, IN May 8, 2006 for our connection with South African Airways in Atlanta. What a LONG overseas flight! The first leg of seven hours was to Sal Island off the west coast of Africa where we stopped to refuel and change crews. The next leg was nine hours to Johannesburg, So. Africa. We went through customs there, and then caught another flight on to Nelspruit, which is near Kruger National Park. Robin, Esperansa and Josiah were to meet us there, since Robin had a dental appointment and Josiah had two appointments. However, Robin was not there yet. We finally learned what had happened. The small mission plane she was coming down on had run into unusually strong head winds and she was to be three hours late! She was able to reach Dan and have him call the resort spot, Bundo’s where we were to stay, and someone picked us up. It was long past dark when Robin finally arrived in the rental car from the airport, and we were relieved to see her.

The following morning Carol went with Robin and the children for their three doctor’s appointments, while Randy and I stayed at the resort. This was an interesting place, but unfortunately there were lots and lots of steps and I was not feeling well, so I couldn’t walk around the way I would have preferred. Randy looked around a little and saw two zebras. I was able to bird from the balcony of our cottage unit, which worked out well since I was at tree top level. We finally got on our way shortly after noon and headed for Kruger National Park.

Kruger Park is enormous with nine or ten gates where one can enter, all many kilometers apart. I wasn’t able to find out how many square miles would be involved. There are 10-12 “camps” where one can stay, make purchases, or visit a restaurant. Ours was at Berg-en-Dahl where I had rented a two bedroom cottage with living room/kitchen which also had two bench beds. Robin and Josiah slept there with Esperansa on the floor. (She was a good traveler!) I had rented this several months ago for 1080 rand which is about $172. One must also pay a conservation fee upon entering which was 540 rand (about $72) for four adults and one child. The fee for international travelers is four times that So. African citizens are charged. One must be within your camp by 5:30 p.m. at this time of year and you cannot get out of your car when driving around. Actually, it was nearly dark at 5:30, for it is winter there at this time, and is about 25 degrees south latitude. It is quite cool at night but pleasant during the day. In the summer it is miserably hot. Robin had met someone who was driving around near the end of the day when they had a flat tire and stopped under a tree. They looked up and saw the carcass of an impala high in the branches! That was the quickest tire change in history. Actually, there are not many big cats. We talked to one guide who had been there for many years and had only seen them a few times.

We only had a couple of hours to drive around that first day, but it was great. We were just ready to enter the gate when a whole herd of elephants crossed the road ahead of us. There must have been 10-12, including some babies. Josiah had just fallen asleep, and try as she could, Robin wasn’t able to wake him. Later he was thrilled when we pointed out piles of elephant poop in the road! We didn’t see any more the next day when we drove around all day, although the evidence was everywhere. The birding was great and we stopped over and over again to study them. We also saw many impala, water buck, water buffalo, wildebeest, warthogs, and a giraffe right by the road, pygmy mongoose, and a tree squirrel. One should really be there at least three or four days and take advantage of some of the activities that are offered—night drives and such. But we were so glad we went there.

That evening we stayed at an apartment owned by Mercy Air. That was a delightful spot too and in the morning a troop of 14-15 monkeys was in the trees outside. Mercy Air is one of the companies which ferries a lot of the missionaries around. There are a lot of missionaries in Africa, many from other sponsoring groups, not just the Good News for Africa Mission, of which Robin and Dan are a part. We were supposed to have a charter flight from Nelspruit to Nampula in northern Mozambique, but we had learned the day before that it was cancelled. It seems that they could no longer get av-gas, the type of fuel the little planes use, in the northern part of the country. So they planned to send us in a larger plane could carry extra av-gas. Then they discovered a propeller was cracked that they had to send it in for repair! Anyway, they kept working on it, and we ended up taking the little plane (which one entered crawling over the wing) to Maputo in southern Mozambique and taking a commercial 737 from there. I was certainly glad to have Robin along at the Maputo airport with the confusion of getting the visas and going through immigration, etc. all of which took about two hours. I was more than ready to sit down. We finally arrived in Nampula and met up with the rest of the family in the afternoon.

As we drove through Nampula we noticed a type of market along the sides of the road, but it seemed to be mostly clothing that was pinned on racks. I’m not even sure if it was new clothing or used. The streets were always full of pedestrians and bicycles and they paid little attention to traffic. At the edge of town we turned into a dirt street. Not only was it dirt, but it was full of holes, most of which were about two feet in diameter and up to many inches deep. By the time we got to Dan’s and Robin’s house, the street was narrow, but at least the holes had disappeared. Everywhere were closely spaced huts with thinly thatched roofs. Some of these huts had electricity, but not nearly all. None had indoor plumbing. We stopped at a closed gate which was opened by one of their guards. There are also two big dogs which are there simply for their ability to bark. Their house is made of concrete with a tin roof and another house is built right up against it. There is a spare bedroom there, plus another room which Robin uses for the school room. After Randy and I left, Carol moved into this bedroom. The surrounding grounds are possibly 1 ½ acres. They have a yard worker in the daytime and two guards at night. They have house help most days. There are several fruit trees on the grounds, but the yard is mostly dirt with little grass. One does not see gravel anywhere: it is dirt. There is a big elevated water tank which is essential since the water periodically goes off for days at a time. All water used in cooking or for drinking must be filtered. Asher got dysentery once because he drank from the outside faucet. They recently got a new filter which not only removes the big particulate matter, but makes it safe to drink, though I never could get used to the taste of it.

While Randy, Carol and I were there, we stayed a short distance away at the compound of another missionary family who had a rondovel within their grounds near their house. It was a round concrete building with a living/sleeping area and private bath. There were curtains separating the beds so there was some privacy and it was really quite comfortable. We shared it with an occasional little lizard, but those are welcomed since they keep down the insects, such as cockroaches. We each paid $50 total to stay there five nights! We slept beneath mosquito netting, though I hardly saw a mosquito the whole time we were there. That was one advantage of being there in the autumn. But it was warmer there (south latitude 20 degrees) than it had been in So. Africa.

I wore slacks every day I was there except Sunday, though I didn’t see another woman in slacks anywhere. The women wear a long skirt called a capalana, which is really just piece of colorful material they wrap around themselves. Most of these were really lovely. At no time did I see anything grotesque as you sometimes see in pictures of African nationals. They carried everything on their heads from bundles of firewood or charcoal to large sacks of something and all sorts of containers. I noticed that the women seemed more skilled at this than the men. They would walk along as though they hardly knew it was there. Most of the men who carried something on the head usually had a steadying hand on it.

Dan’s work consists of teaching the nationals how to teach the Bible. One of the pastors who had been in his classes wanted him to visit his church, so Sunday we planned to do this, then go on to Nacala to a resort on the shore of the Indian Ocean for one night. Dan didn’t know where this church was located, but they were waiting along the highway and directed us back along a path into the bush for probably a half mile. Although there was a building there, we met outside under a tree. Robin and Dan took along a camp chair for me; Carol had a stool; everyone else sat on the ground or on some tree limbs. They sang and clapped a welcoming for some time, and then Dan preached in Portuguese while the other minister translated that into the Makua dialect. There were probably 25 people there but as yet only a few are believers. Many wore cords around their wrists which in witchcraft are supposed to protect them from various evils. Since Dan was in charge of the service, it didn’t last too long, fortunately. They wanted to do something for us, so they presented us with a bowl of corn meal, peanuts, both shelled and in shell, some squash and a live chicken. Inasmuch as these people are so poor, this was a touching gesture. They tied the chicken on top of the car among our trunks. Many miles down the road we stopped at a roadside vendor and traded it for a melon, which unfortunately turned out not to be ripe. One was rarely beyond sight of people walking along the highway, but there were few cars. Vendors held out containers of cashews they had picked and roasted. We continued on to the resort where everyone enjoyed the ocean, although I never made it out of the beach chair. We stayed overnight here and went home the next afternoon.

Most people of Mozambique are unbelievably poor, even more so than Haiti. Life expectancy is 37. The few people who learned my age were amazed. One has very mixed feelings. I am very glad I made this trip, but Randy and I were glad to come home. Carol is staying another two weeks, but to enjoy her family, not Mozambique.. Since we left, the electricity has been off 12 hours and the water for five days straight. They have also caught two rats. I know it is difficult for Carol and Randy to have them so far away, especially being away from the children. They will probably not have a furlough for another two years. But Robin and Dan really feel that this is where God wants them to be, and they have faith in Him, so should we.

Written by Billie Rakestraw, a few days after returning from So. Africa and Mozambique where she visited her granddaughter and her husband, Dan and Robin Been, and their four children. The Beens are part of the Good News for Africa Mission.

A very UN-relaxing weekend

2006-04-09T19:31:00.000+02:00

For about three weeks Dan has been feeling like he needed to take a long weekend to get away and relax a bit, however one thing after another kept coming up so our trip was delayed and then delayed some more.

Finally, this was the weekend! We were to leave Saturday afternoon to return on Tuesday afternoon. We’d heard of a nice group of inexpensive cottages on the beach about 2.5 hours from our house – almost a glorified camping situation. There are houses with electricity, from sundown to sunup, and someone who can cook for you, though you do need to bring all your own food, charcoal, and such. We were so excited. Several days before leaving we began having trouble with our car and thought we weren’t going to get to go, however a teammate offered us his truck if we couldn’t get ours going. After doing a few things that others suggested Dan felt the truck was running well and so we were going in ours after all.

Finally Saturday arrived. While Dan went to work that morning I was busy finalizing the packing and all the kids were busy playing. Just about the time Dan arrived home and began loading things onto the roof rack I asked Josiah to do something (that he didn’t want to do) to which he responded that his neck hurt. I immediately took his temperature but it was normal so we assumed that the subsequent whiny-ness was due to the fact it was nap time (especially since he gained quick self-control for the things he wanted). As we thought, he immediately fell asleep in the car and took a wonderful nap!

We left later than Dan had desired (he did not want to arrive in the dark), but found ourselves pulling into the general area about 5:15 pm. No worries I thought, that would allow enough time to finish getting to the cottages before it got dark. Following the directions which friends had given us, we found ourselves snaking along a sand road that really was more suitable to a 4-wheeler than our SUV type truck. We weren’t too worried – they’d told us the road was sand and there were tire tracks from where others had gone through. Unfortunately after a bit longer the road came to an end. While Dan was turning around I telephoned the owner to tell him we were lost. “No problem” he’d meet up with us and take us the rest of the way. As we snaked back to the point in our directions where we knew we were correct it finished getting dark and also began to rain (2 big uh-oh’s; 3 if you count that we were not completely sure our belongings inside the trunks on the roof rack were not getting wet). While continuing to try and connect up with the owner, which to this point hadn’t shown up, the cell coverage stopped due to the rain. Now we had no way of connecting with him and it was dark and rainy and there wasn’t really anywhere we could go. Finally after about 45 minutes of waiting (combined with traveling short distances around the area to see if we saw him close by but not exactly where we were) Dan decided we needed to just turn around and head back home to Nampula. (Sigh)

Things really began to get interesting as we turned towards home. First of all, our truck started acting up and Dan made comment that I needed to be praying – he wasn’t sure we were going to make it home. Second, Josiah became a bit whinier and when I felt his head he was burning up with fever! Third, because of the rain, the road was a slick muddy mess. Remember, we were in the bush where there are no street lights.
On we crept, with the car lurching the entire way and on several occasions dying completely. Karunia, who was already nervous over the car situation, got further upset when we made her move to the back so that Josiah could sit up closer to where we were. Esperansa’s car seat was unbuckled and thrown to the back so Josiah had space to lie down and I began to hold her; it was however well past her bedtime and she was crying. Even nursing her only seemed to pacify her for a bit. We finally managed to gain cellular coverage sufficient enough to contact teammates in Nampula. We were able to ask them to pray, tell them where we were, and secure a phone number of another missionary who lives between where we were and Nampula. Three telephone tries later (and several episodes of the car dying) we finally connected with Paul Fosse. He agreed to come meet us – saying it’d take about an hour for him to reach us. When we finally did connect up, he fiddled around with the car some (felt the problem was the fuel filter, but he couldn’t locate it) and then said we should proceed on as best as possible towards where he lives and where we could stay the night at his colleague’s house. On we crawled, usually not able to exceed more than 20 km/hr, and finally we arrived! At this point it was 9:50 pm and we’d turned around to head towards home about 6:20.

As for Josiah, once he was lying down in the car he was more comfortable and managed to fall back asleep despite his high fever. Upon arrival at the house, we managed to quickly give each of the kids a bowl of cereal and glass of milk to supplement their “supper” of banana bread and corn bread which they’d eaten in the car. Mr. Fosse and his wife were able to dig up some medicine so we could start treating Josiah for malaria. Karunia crawled into one bed, Asher and Esperansa were placed in the cribs we’d brought for them, and Josiah was placed in the bed to sleep with Dan and I.

After a fitful night’s sleep we awoke this morning. Josiah was of course still feeling rather miserable but managed to crawl out of bed to go sit on a chair in the living room. Mr. Fosse came over and was able to find the fuel filter, clean it out a bit and reconnect things so we could at least make it home.

We left his house around 10:30 am to head home. The car still wasn’t running correctly, but at least it was no longer lurching like the night before and we were back on paved roads. This time we managed to travel around 60 km per hr, again with Josiah lying down on the seat, Karunia in the very back and Esperansa on my lap. Teammates in Nampula went to the pharmacy on our behalf to buy the antibiotic, needed to supplement the malaria medicine we used. We arrived home around 12:45pm.

Well, this weekend wasn’t the relaxing family time that we’d desired, however we do praise the Lord that we at least found lodging last night and were able to get Josiah started on the malaria medicine. Scripture tells us to “give thanks for all things” so we’re trying to do that.

We are also very thankful for the help of our teammates and other missionaries who are so willing to help at a moments notice.

As for a restful break – that will have to come some other time!

How Was Your Day?

2006-04-04T20:09:00.000+02:00

I (Dan) work Wednesday through Sunday so Monday and Tuesday are the days I usually take off each week and Monday is generally spent running errands and doing the grocery shopping (grocery shopping here usually require 4-5 different stores plus the central market and it’s therefore a bit to difficult to manage with the kids so I do that rather than Robin). This Monday morning I gave the guards the key to unlock our gate and I then got ready to go for a run. After they’d left, I headed out and noticed that one side of our gate had completely broken off its hinges. We have a big gate; it has two sides that swing open so we can drive into our yard. Okay, I know one hinge had detached and was waiting for a welder to come by to fix it. Now, it was urgent! One side of the gate weighs well over 100Lbs; it is hard to muscle around to open so it needed to be fixed and fast. I went out for a run, came home, fixed breakfast, and called someone to bring a welder by that day. After breakfast I tried to take the car to the mechanic, but he said to bring it back on Tuesday. I have been trying to get it looked at for three weeks; there are two “good” mechanics in our city and one is, well….let’s just say I will not take my car back to him. The good news was that I had a car to do grocery shopping. Robin and I made out a menu for the next 10 days and then I headed towards an ATM machine to get some personal money. This normally works however….yesterday all the ATM’s had long lines as the system was down. I spent an hour trying to find an ATM that was not jammed packed with people. I was very frustrated! I headed home about 10:30am and grabbed the little money that we had at home to at least get some of the shopping done. I was able to buy some meat that we needed for dinner and get home around 12:00 to put the meat in the crock pot. We crock pot most everything, however meat especially must cook at least 6 hours or it is like rubber. After dropping off the meat I headed back out for a third time assuming that during the lunch hour I might be able to find an ATM with a line that was manageable. Finally I got money! I could now shop at the one grocery store that is open during lunch hours and then about 2:30pm the other stores would start opening again. I started to go to search the stores for the items on our list. I was able to buy milk for under $4.00 a gallon, what a blessing! Then I got a call on my cell phone. Robin asked if the welder was for certain coming that day adding that the gate had just fallen on Karunia. I rushed home thinking the worst! Praise the Lord she had escaped with only a few bruises! God had indeed protected her. I helped Robin finish getting our guest room ready for guests that were arriving at 5:00 and then headed off to the airport to pick them up. The evening did end well as we spent time with our company – teammates who’d just returned from the States after having a baby.

Well that was my day – rather crazy and yet . . . . . .somewhat normal!

The Top 10+ Ways To Conserve Water

2006-03-12T21:50:00.000+02:00

At times, one of the frustrations of living in Nampula, Mozambique is that often our running water or electricity will turn off for a few hours or a day. Recently however, we have gone multiple days at a time without city water. Two times in particular the water was off for about a 6 ½ days! Now we do have a storage tank to help out in times such as these, but even so, because we never know when the water will come back on we always have to be careful as to how we use that reserve water.

Now we would like to share with you, our “tips” for conserving water – should you ever go through a similar thing.

1. Take bucket baths – ½ a pitcher should get you wet and then you may have 1 ½ pitchers to rinse off the soap. If long hair MUST be washed then mix the shampoo and conditioner together to avoid double rinsing – use only a touch of each and allow yourself no more than 4 pitchers.

2. Bathe while standing in a large tub so you can catch your bath water.

3. Use the recycled bath water to force flush the toilet! NOTE: added benefit is that the soap in the bath water helps clean the toilet.

4. All boys go outside to use the bathroom (your toilet then needs flushed less frequently)

5. Never flush the toilet until it’s been used at least 3-5 times. Though do keep the lid down between uses so that odor and/or flies do not permeate the house.

6. Pray for rain and catch rain water from your gutters in big buckets!

7. When it rains, run outside wearing your swimsuit and take a bath; be especially sure to wash your hair.

8. Spend $20.00 on disposable diapers that would only cost you $10.00 in the States (since you’re of course not doing any laundry at this point this creates less build-up). If you can find them, use paper plates to cut back on the dishes you have to wash.

9. For washing the dishes you must fill two pans – one with soapy water and the other with rinse water. When the wash water is filthy and the rinse water is so soapy it no longer rinses then dump your wash water and allow the rinse water to become your wash water – therefore you’re only re-filling one pan to continue washing.

10. Don’t mop the floor, which needs to be mopped everyday because of all the dust and dirt, but just look at it in a different light a positive light! You are saving wear and tear on the mop and bucket you normally use!

Finally, don’t move one muscle. Why? Because it is very hot and any movement causes one to sweat profusely. Since you cannot do laundry and need to wear clothes more than one day you don’t want to sweat! Just lie on the cold cement floor! HA. Also, don’t hold any babies that will spit up on you; oh yeah, we have a baby that spits up so, just forget about this. HA.

Hope this helps.
Dan

Things You'd Never Imagine Hearing Your 2 Year Old Say

2006-03-12T21:43:00.000+02:00

Things You Never Imagined You’d Hear You’re 2 year Old Say

Let us assure you, each of these statements has been uttered by Asher during the last several months.

• “Electricity’s Off”
• “Mom, Josiah caught a baby lizard”
• “Watch me blow this tick across the floor”
• “Dad, cockroach – there’s a cockroach”
• “Electricity’s on again”
• “Look mom, a lizard. Another lizard, and a lizard mom.”
• “Praise the Lord – we have water!”
• “I can’t sleep without the fan on”
• “My bug light’s not on”
• “That phase (electrical) is out.
• “I need powder (for heat rash)
• “Can I get up yet?” (spoken daily, sometime between 5 and 6 am)
• “Electricity’s off”
• “We have no water”
• “Can I have some?” (spray deodorant is what’s desired)
• “You forgot my bug lotion”
• “There’s sand in my bed”
• “I need another bath” (that would be the 3rd today – all actually needed)
• “Oooh, stinky feet.”
• “No juice – water please.”
• “I don’t want dessert.”
• “Yeah water!!!”
• “The guards are here”
• “Can I PLEASE drink the tap water?”
• “Can I have worm medicine?”
• “More please.” (worm medicine)

A Selfish Prayer for Rain

2006-02-14T14:58:00.000+02:00

We are currently in the rainy season here in Mozambique, or at least we should be. The rains have come some, as evidenced by washed out roads and the green weeds in our yard, however it hasn’t rained quite as much as it should. We therefore have been praying regularly for rain – the Mozambicans need it desperately so that their crops can grow. (Last year’s harvest wasn’t very plentiful due to the lack of rain and another year of poor harvest would cause great hardship). Anyway this past Sunday I found myself praying for rain yet again – this time perhaps with a bit of selfish motivation as well.

Before writing further however, let me back up and explain.

Last Tuesday afternoon the city water turned off. Now to a degree, this is a normal occurrence and not something to be concerned about; usually the water will turn back on in a matter of a few hours or at least the next day. (By my memory, the longest we’ve gone without city water was 36 hours and that was after a large storm destroyed one of the pumps.) When we first moved into our house we installed a water storage tank for times such as this - so that when the city water went out we would still have quite a bit in wait. It’s also at these times that we move into conserve mode – to make sure we aren’t wasting any water.

Unfortunately our yard-worker had just transplanted several bushes and clumps of grass and needed to water them a bit. Okay, we let him use some tank water and that night we took bucket baths in accordance with the situation.

On Wednesday I reminded Rabia, our house-help, not to mop the floors as the water still had not come back on and we wanted to remain in conserve mode. Despite our conservation, the reserve tank of water ran dry so Rabia grabbed a couple large buckets and went to draw water from a nearby well. (Actually we have a well also, but it ran dry last July and the rains haven’t been sufficient to fill it). That evening about 5 pm the water came on. Yeah – I quickly did 3 small loads of laundry (washers here are at least ½ the size of what is common in the States) before we took the kids over to a friend’s house so we could have a date night. For our date we came home to take nice showers before sitting down to eat and watch a video. I wasn’t too worried about doing more laundry – the water was back on and who wants to ruin a rare datenight by doing household chores?

Thursday morning I got up all prepared to do laundry only to discover the water was off again! Ugh. At least our tank had been able to fill some so we had water for bucket baths and doing the dishes. Rabia came into work and immediately went to draw a couple buckets of water as well.

We managed to make it through that day as well as Friday. By Friday evening the water still had not come back on so we switched to ultra-conserve mode, thinking that if it wasn’t on by that night we’d be out the entire weekend! Washrag baths replaced bucket baths, at least for a few of us!

On Saturday morning I did manage to run to a friend’s house and do a couple loads of laundry (they live in another area of town and their water wasn’t off). Late that afternoon we had a team meeting and hurried to get into the car as it had just begun to rain. As we pulled up at our teammates’ house we had to laugh, for there was Shawn running around the yard with buckets in hand and Jacob and Jaynie had lined an entire row of buckets and containers under the edge of their roof to catch the falling water. What a great idea! (I decided one could tell we haven’t been on field very long since the idea never occurred to us on our own). Dan quickly drove back home to put our own buckets out under the gutters. How excited we were to come back from our meeting that evening to discover that we’d amassed 2 huge buckets full (probably 20+ gallons each) and one smaller bucket. We now had water to bucket bathe again!!! Our guards were happy as we didn’t have to send them to the well the next morning.

Now fast forward to Sunday afternoon. We still had one large bucket full of water but that was all. The clouds were gathering however and the air had cooled. It was in this circumstance that I found myself praying for more rain. Yes, the rain was needed for the ground, but probably my greatest motivation was that I wanted to fill up the buckets again! How excited I was when it did start to rain (despite the selfishness in my prayer). I managed to get all the buckets set in place and then called Karunia outside. Why? To wash her hair of course!! She wasn’t so excited when she felt how cold the rain was, but we managed none to the less to wash each of our hair! I tried to get the boys outside as well, but they weren’t sure about things and then Esperansa woke up so I didn’t push the matter (washing their hair doesn’t take near as much water). By the rain’s end I’d filled the same 2 large buckets plus another very large tub, a 10 gallon bucket and a 5 gallon bucket! Yeah – plenty of water!

To end this tale – the water turned on Monday mid-morning with more pressure than we’ve had in a long time. Perhaps they’ve fixed whatever problem there was. We each managed to take real baths and I managed to run about 7 loads of laundry (had to stop at that point as there was no more room left on the lines outside or inside).

It’s now Tuesday. The water is thankfully still running, however the electricity just went out! :-)

Where and How We Live

2006-02-11T15:45:00.000+02:00

Nampula, the city we live in, in northern Mozambique, has a population of 600,000 - though that can't at all compare to a city in the States with 600,000 people.

Our house is fairly large – probably the biggest we’ve ever been in. Walls are made of brick and cement, we have a cement floor, and a tin roof. Inside we have a false ceiling in some rooms, but in other rooms we can look up to see the tin roof sheets. The main house is 3 bedrooms with a dining room area, kitchen, bathroom, small corridor which we've made into a sitting room, and an office area/living room. I couldn't tell you the square feet/meters however. Then we have an attached, separate house that has a small sitting room and 2 lg rooms and a bathroom. The one lg room we have set up to be a guest room for any visitors from the States (hint-hint) or other missionaries traveling through town or nationals that come in from the bush. The 2nd large room I've set up as the school room though if we had visitors that needed to stay in there as well they could.

We have many modern conveniences, though not all. We do have electricity in the house - though we're on phases and sometimes one 1/2 of the power will be working (certain lights and certain outlets throughout the house) and the other not. Also all the electricity goes out on a fairly regular basis - sometimes for long periods, though mostly for just a bit at a time.

We have running water, though we installed a storage tank soon after moving in b/c the city water is often out and we'd have nothing. The tank reserve is usually sufficient; if the city water goes off - we then draw from the tank, however if the city water is off for a long period of time then sometimes the tank goes dry as well. We do have a well to draw water from as well, in theory at least; the well went dry last July and it hasn’t rained enough yet to fill. When desperate we can usually take a bucket (or send a worker with a bucket) to draw water from other wells around which aren’t dry.

Now also with the water - it's not always very clean. Sometimes when I see the water in the washer with the clothes I can't believe how dirty our clothes were and then as I fill the tub without clothes I realize the water wasn't starting out clear to begin with, but was very yellow by itself! To drink water we first have to boil it and then filter it (though we're ordering some filters from the States which will kill/remove the bacteria and microns and such so we can stop boiling it once those arrive).

We do have a microwave and other kitchen appliances, a hot water heater and fans - though no air conditioning. We have a tv which we use strictly with a VCR or DVD player. There’s only one national channel which we can’t pick up very well and we don’t want to pay for satellite.

There were no land line phones available when we moved in as all the circuits for this area were already filled. The phone company informed us they weren’t adding any more circuits either, but they then began a program using fixed cellular phones so we have one of those. They work like a cell phone in most respects but are paid for like a land line (though all land lines here pay by the pulse that you’re using the phone). We could take our house phone around the city with us if we wanted, though unlike a normal cell phone we can’t take it out of the city.

Finally, we have a huge yard filled with various fruit trees (papaya, mango, banana, custard apple and guava), bamboo plants, a passion fruit vine and pineapple plants. We’ve also planted a garden so we’ll see how things grow. The kids love playing outside in the dirt and sand and on their swing set!

kid's questions

2005-02-06T22:28:00.000+02:00

Kid's are full of questions. Here are just a few of the most recent questions our kids have posed to us.

One evening at supper we were talking with the kids about Jesus living in our hearts when we accept him as Savior. Josiah was silent for just a moment and then asked, "Daddy, if Jesus is in my heart, does he just reach out and grab some of my food as it goes down to my tummy {so that he has something to eat}?"
One Saturday we were in the butcher shop to buy meat. While waiting in line the kids and Robin were observing the various meats in the display cabinets. Among them was a pig's head and next to it were pig legs. Karunia asked why the pig's eyes were closed so we had an entire discussion over the fact that the pig was no longer alive. After a while she then asked, "Mom, if we used some glue and put the pig's legs and body back on it's head and opened it's eyes would it be alive again?" Interesting question I thought. Conversation then continued so that we ended up discussing that yes people live again in heaven or hell depending on whether they accepted Jesus during their life, but animals do not live again.
Dad, how do we make people accept Jesus?
Can we take a train from Portugal to Africa?
Why can't we live in Little House on the Prairie?

There are hundreds more asked by our kids each day. Many of them make us laugh, many make us think and by the end of the day many make us tired, but I guess it's worth it. The other day I heard Karunia talking to someone and she was discussing the answer to Josiah's questions of Jesus living in our hearts, but not needing to eat.

Hmmmm do we question enough? Not accusing questions but simply innocent questions motivated by a simple desire to want to learn more.