Tropical storm Izilda in Mozambique Channel

Ever wondered who gives tropical storms and cyclones there names? It must be someone with a stormy marriage ...... they seem to choose interesting lady names. And oddly enough it is these lady storms that really causes havoc. No I am not a marriage councillor but there must be a message in there somewhere! Anyway this tropical storm as I understand is heading our way with winds of about 130 km's.

Maputo - Tropical storm Izilda had been upgraded to category two after its wind speed increased from 74 to 130km/h, Mozambican national weather services said on Thursday.

The tropical storm was currently in the Mozambican channel, between Madagascar and Mozambique. The weather services said it had placed areas on the Mozambican coast on alert. "We appeal to all maritime authorities to undertake their activities with caution."According to US space agency Nasa's website, Izilda could move westward to mainland Africa or south into the open waters of the Indian Ocean. - Sapa

We are changing Mozambique ...... slowly but surely!

Hopefully we all like change for the good? In Africa though change do take a long time. I though of blogging a bit different this time sharing some of the interesting parts of the country with you.

The first two pictures were taken of Beira, Mozambique in 1975 and the other two in 2007.

The 30 year old war devastated Mozambique and cities were not spared. Here is one of the most famous hotels in Beira before the war. It was well known and the destination of many Europeans and holiday seekers.

This is how it looks today - 2007.

Not much has been done to renovate this hotel and many people seek refuge in this hotel even today.

Not much to look at these days!

Even the swimming pool is still empty and desolated.

Keep on praying for Mozambique as the country is slowly but surely standing up from the ashes more than 30 years after the war.

Thanks to Johan van Loggerenberg for the photos he passed on to me.

Orphan happiness!

I would probably say this another thousand times ........... there is nothing like seeing a child smile in Mozambique and off course the truth is ...... it is the same everywhere in the world. But if they are an orphan living in extreme poverty with only one meal a day it makes it so much more special.

Many days I sit on our veranda after a days work. I listen to Africa and her sounds. Our African neighbours is just across the river where we stay so we hear local life pretty much everyday. Except for the chickens (must be the most annoying chickens ever - did try to shoot them once without success), the cows (attitude problem) the most wonderful sounds are when the kids play or sing on their own. Full of joy despite the extreme poverty. It is as if they can lock out all the pain, hunger and misery ..... and just sing and laugh. I love that.

Photo 1: Rick's mission miracle vehicle packed untill it can take no more gifts.

Anyway .... we were privileged as people donated money so gifts and food could be distributed yet again to a town nearby. Honde (a small town about 50 km away) has more than 30 orphans and our team surprised them with a special visit. Rick, Heather, Nat and Selena did a special Sunday visit to surprise the kids.

Photo 2: Kids getting ready to recieve their first gift ever!

Photo 3: Everyone had the change of recieving their own huge bag.

Photo 4: The gift bag was so big they needed help to carry them back home!

Photo 5: "Now where is that pair of socks?" One of the orphans digging in this huge gift bag.

Special thanks to Heather Neufeld for her great pictures and having the camera ready!

30 Bicycles and a million lights!

Things are happening really fast in Mozambique ............. taking into consideration that this is Africa (TIA)! We do things slower because we have to talk about them around a campfire and only after eating together, visiting, laughing, telling some jokes ..... only then ...... we come up with a plan.

Sure ..... this will not work in western and first world societies. The clock is ticking, time is money and a commodity which is very scarce in the west. Strangely enough ..... it seems not even a big digital clock can intimidate an African. They would look at a clock ..... and then turn their eyes to the sun .... sigh ...... and continue visiting. I like!

Anyway lets not go into all of the great African customs right now. Two great miracles happened the last few days.

• We just received our first shipment of 30 bicycles from Wheels for God. These bicycles will travel another 700 km north where 30 pastors will receive them to do their church work. The area in Mutarara and alongside the Zambezi river is a very remote and lonely place and many of these areas can only be reached by a bicycle. We intend to reach out to these many forgotten people at the end of May 2009. Watch this space.


• One of the biggest miracles was when I connected with Rian van der Merwe (EBay, San Francisco) and he connected me with Anna Sidana from India. Anna runs a project called "Million Lights". The idea would be to "light" up our schools so our students would have the opportunity to study during the night. Mostly all of our schools have no electricity (and will not have any for the next 10 years). Our schools are overcrowded and night classes are essential. We just received our first shipment which arrived safely in Johannesburg (yes - this is a miracle). Watch this space as we introduce this exiting project in Mozambique.

Photos taken from Million Lights website - Anna Sidana

Please pray as there are so many things happening at once. Dwight and Lynn (our partners in blessings) is currently in Brazil, US and Canada but we have an exiting couple helping us on the base to make ends meet.

Re-married because of Africa

Nat Zook, a co-worker with us for nearly 3 years, met his wife in Mozambique on the base a year and a half ago. Must have been the fresh air or as one of our mission workers so wisely said: "There are so many girls in New York city ..... but Africa has a way of bringing people together. It's the African wind and rain that brings two people together."

Nat and Selena met on our base in Mozambique as Selena was doing a 6 months voluntary service. Selena is from Canada and helped us with several tasks including our literacy program. After both left Mozambique they got married in Canada and are currently staying in Pennsylvania. Nat and Selena visited Mozambique - exactly a year after they got married. The community insisted that they got re-married in Africa - they met here on African soil after all.

Well ..... the ceremony took place as we had a week of training the local community on the interesting facts of marriage. Many or our married Mozambicans shared on how they met their partners and what marriage meant to them.

Big Mozambiquean company reaches out ..........

It's not a very common site to find a busy company who would want to get involved in training local communities - especially if they are not getting anything out of it. We were privileged yesterday to have had 20 of our co-workers on the base picked up by Vanduzi Company, who specializes in the export of veggies to European markets.

Vanduzi Company shared some of their compos secrets to the 20 willing ears. The reasoning behind the training was to:1. make sure that communities can produce their own compos for their agri produce;
2. not to destroy their fields by burning all the grass and trees in the area but rather use the green materials to their benefit;
3. create an opportunity to earn a monetary value for themselves by selling compos and to help communities to provide a better yield on their own agri produce.

Many thanks to Koos van der Merwe (not joking!) who played a huge role in helping communities in our area.

Are aid packages to Africa really working?

If you have time listen to the live chat and feel free to leave a comment if you wish. The topic of aid to Africa and why it is not really working is a very relevant one. As Africa keeps on pounding the G8 (including Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe with his illegitimate government) for more financial aid the question is really ........ how can the world touch Africa to bring sustainable development and help? Over centuries the world have been looking for an answer ..... and it is still looking. For far too long African leaders pocketed millions of foreign aid and the rest of the Africa innocent is still sliding back into poverty ...........

Morning Edition, March 17, 2009 ·

Steve Inskeep talks with Zambian-born economist Dambisa Moyo about her book Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa. Moyo has been a consultant for the World Bank and an economic sub-Saharan Africa specialist for Goldman Sachs. She says American and European good intentions discourage innovation and breed corruption.

To listen to the chat follow this link:
www.npr.org/templates/storystory.php?storyId=101986498

When women get together .........

You can rest assure ........ if women get together in Mozambique something is about to happen. As you know we are currently experiencing extreme hunger in our area. One of the solutions was to give some seed to the women in our area to combat the extreme hunger due to bad crops the last two years.

Great was our amazement when we followed up on how the seed was doing. The ladies of the Macadeira area (about 25 km from us) planted their seed and their harvest was amazing. They wisely planted their butternut between their maize (also seed we gave) and the harvest was so great that even companies specializing in vegetables had to come and have a look. In fact the amount of butternut (type of pumpkin) was astonishing. In other areas where we also handed out seed exactly the same thing happened. Needless to say many people and families lived on butternut during the hungry time.

Thank you to Pietersburg for sponsoring the seed - it helped many families in very desperate times.

Meeting angels on planet Earth

I have been very quiet the last few days due to many travels across many borders. Through Zim to the RSA and back to Mozambique with some interesting stories on the way. Anyway we were privileged to meet people who left a great legacy in Mozambique.

Ever so often one is lucky to meet angels - ok without wings and woolly hear locks and all the other things you would associate with them.

We met Alan and Barbara about 9 years ago in Zimbabwe. Yes believe it .... good things can still come from Zimbabwe. They were on holiday in the Vumba Mountains all the way from the UK. I will spare you all the details but that day on the Vumba Mountains started a great friendship with two wonderful adventurous human beings.

After visiting Mozambique Barbara Rainford decided to get involved in Mozambique. She started a school which now house about 280 children. She said: "I wanted to do something that would leave a legacy and would be able to keep on giving even if I am not there anymore." Alan and Barbara (I would not dare mention there age) have both travelled the world extensively and we have been honoured by their generosity.

They helped us to build our humble cottage in Mozambique which is now called the Rainford cottage and which you will find on Buckingham Avenue.

We met them as they were leaving for England. They sold all they had in South Africa after being robbed and left, hopefully not for good. The African continent is surely a better place after having them here.

How to be harassed in Zimbabwe!

The police and the army have mounted round the clock roadblocks across the country on major roads, ostensibly to thwart acts of so-called "banditry".

The police and military intelligence officers were targeting haulage trucks and other heavy vehicles where they check for weapons of war.

"We have been told to search for weapons and other suspicious material that can be used as weapons," said a source. "It is not very clear when the operation will end, but we were told that we have to be thorough at these roadblocks and to arrest any suspicions characters believed to be bandits."

With all of that said I travelled through Zim yesterday. We had more than 25 stops over 600 km (that adds up to one stop every 24 km's). Well I don't mind the stops but when things get out of hand it becomes a problem. I always have a strategy as I near a roadblock. Be extremely friendly ......! A typical conversation would go like this:

Me: "Hello officer hope you are doing well!"

Police: "How are you?"

Me: "Half orange half lemon."

Police: Laughing .... "What are you carrying? Guns or roses."

Me: "No guns .... and only one rose." Referring to my wife offcourse.

Police: "Mmmmm .... continue your journey and don't buy diamonds on the way."

Well yesterday was proved not to be that easy. The young police man was rude when he tried a greeting. "I need US$20 now!" When I tried to explain that I had none and only carry local currency he went billistic. I had to get out of the car and was harassed by another 4 policemen in uniform. After confiscating my car papers they left me standing in the middle of the road for half an hour. "You are in deep trouble and will now go to court and our commisioner." Now .... I am an extremely friendly guy but I wasn't going to settle for that. Wrong thinking! When I said I have no fear I only fear God (why on earth would I say that??) they gave me a piece of their mind.

Anyway long story short ..... after being harassed, my local money thrown back at me and chased back to my car I could drive away ...... just to stop another 25 km to get the same treatment. And when I say this ..... it is absolutely nothing in comparison with what Zimbabweans are going through daily.

Please keep on praying for Zimbabweans as they are still struggling and fighting hunger and disease to stay alive.