Remembering a Little Girl

The Saturday night that we returned to our house after our trip to South Africa, we were greeted by our guard, Armando, and three neighborhood boys, Isaac, Torino, and Veloso, standing outside of our gate.  The boys regularly come over to our place to visit and practice Portuguese/English.  They asked if they could come over right then and we told them we needed time to unpack and settle back in, so we agreed that they would come over Monday evening.  Monday evening came and went and we never heard from them.  The next morning, after our Portuguese lesson, we saw several cars and a large group of people at Torino and Veloso’s house.    As our language tutor left, he said that someone must have died.  We noticed that despite the large group of people, it was very quiet and somber.

Later, while Dave was out, he saw Veloso, and he asked him if everything was okay.  Veloso informed him that Gustodia had died.  Gustodia, often called Toto by the other kids, was his 5 year old sister and probably the friendliest kid in the neighborhood.  Normally when we open our gate, all of the young children immediately start waving and yelling “How are you?” without really knowing what they are asking.  If you respond in English or Portuguese, they usually will just ask “How are you?” again!  But Gustodia, unlike the other children, would come running up to us to shake our hands with a big smile.  She often would come and knock on our gate for no reason at all except to say hi and sneak a peek at our dogs (the rest of the children wouldn’t get near Charlie and Lobo).  On one recent occasion, I was walking to our church down the road and she came running up to me and said something I didn’t understand.  I reached out to shake her hand and she looked up at me with her big friendly eyes, mouthed a kiss, and then kissed my hand and waved goodbye.  That was probably my last encounter with her. 

We don’t know why she died.  Dave asked Veloso if she was sick or hurt, but all he said was that she had pain in her head, which can mean a lot of things here in Mozambique.  As we mentioned this to our colleagues with MAF, they commented that unfortunately this happens far too often here and that this wouldn’t be the last time we encountered such a tragic death of young child.

But as for Gustodia, we will remember her for the sweet child of God she is, and we will probably always think of her when we hear a knock on the gate.

Container and Road Trip (You Can't Make This Stuff Up!)

It has been pretty exciting since we last posted.  

  

First, in mid-July, our container arrived.  Our clearing agent arranged to have the container trucked from Nacala, the port city, to Nampula where it would be opened and inspected by customs.  When customs arrived, the truck driver got the tools to break the lock and after banging on it for a while, the customs officials said that the lock wasn’t made in China or it would have broken already!  In the end, we had to cut the lock off.  After customs saw the shipment, they told us to unload it and that they would be back in a couple of hours to inspect it.  We unloaded our belongings, items that belonged to six or seven families, tools for the hangar, and about a gazillion boxes of Bibles.  Fortunately customs was very reasonable on the amount we would have to pay for the shipment.  Once unloaded, we sorted everyone’s stuff and began trips back and forth from the hanger to the house.  It has been since June 2011 that we packed up our house in Wichita Falls and since December 2011 that we said goodbye to our carefully selected items to ship to Mozambique, so we were like kids on Christmas morning opening our tubs to see what we had packed ourselves so many months ago. 

Top Five Items We Missed:

1.  Oven/Stove: It is wonderful to be able to use an oven to bake in after so many months cooking on a little single burner.
2. Dave’s tool box:  After all of the car problems that we have had, not having to borrow tools or MacGyver-rig something has been great. 
3. Martial arts gear: My taekwondo classes were super excited to have some equipment and I already have some kids sparring! 
4. Tie for fourth place – Printer/Blender 
5.  Our beloved couch: We were so excited to get our old, but well-loved and very comfortable couch, but sadly, the wooden frame broke in multiple places while in transit. L Perhaps, it will be a project for later (fortunately we still have a couch available to borrow for a while).

Shortly after our container arrived, we had the pleasure of having someone from MAF headquarters come and stay with us for a week while making a routine visit to our program here in Mozambique.

Towards the end of July each year, our program joins families from Lesotho and Kenya in South Africa for a family conference.  Because there were some things we wanted to have done to Grover, the Land Rover, which we could not have done in Mozambique, we decided to drive rather than fly.  What better way to see the rest of the country than to spend three days driving south.  Before leaving, Dave spent several days getting Grover ready and we met with some seasoned travelers who have made this trip many times to get advice because there are limited places to stay and get fuel.

Things we learned on the road trip in Mozambique:

1. You can make a plan, but good luck keeping it! 
2. Bring every spare car part you have.  Bring motor oil….lots and lots of motor oil. 
3.  BYO TP… if you can find a restroom, it will not be provided.  The side of the road will work, if you can find a spot where there aren’t people walking! 
4. See a doctor and get rid of it before you leave. 
5. Mozambique is a beautiful country with beautiful people and wildlife. 
6. The Lord will provide… the right people and places when you are in need.

Read on for the rest of the story:

Driving consisted of dodging pot holes, other vehicles dodging pot holes, and people walking

 Our first day went pretty smooth, except for the roads, which were anything but.  Late in the afternoon, shortly after refueling, when I shifted gears suddenly the engine revved, but we weren’t going anywhere.  We slowly coasted to a stop on the side of the road.  When we got out, we heard the hissing sound of a flat tire and decided to tackle that problem first.  After the tire was changed, a small group of Mozambicans came out of the bush to see what was going on.  An old man carrying a baby began to point to our rear driver’s side tire.  We discovered that the gear that transfers power to the wheels was stripped out.  We also realized that cell phone coverage was not good in this area.  Dave climbed up on top of Grover and texted a friend back in Nampula to see if they knew anyone in the area that could help us.  Meanwhile, the Mozambicans were trying to figure out a way to help us get the part, except we were about 7 km (4.5 mi) from the nearest town, the stores would already be closed and it was starting to get dark.  Then the old man mentioned the name James White.  We texted back our friend in Nampula to see if he could contact James White and found out that he contacted the lodge where we were planning to stay and they were going to send James White to tow us.  We were actually only 8 km (5 mi) from the lodge!  While we were waiting, we learned that the men talking to us were Christians.  I asked them if they needed Bibles and we were able to give out six Bibles to the group.   As the sun was going down, another vehicle stopped to see if we needed help.  They were staying at the same lodge we were and were willing to tow us.  We quickly bolted the piece back on and threw on the tow strap and off we went.  About half way there, James White found us and took over on the towing and we made it to the lodge.  The lodge operates a sawmill, where a bush mechanic is employed, so early the next morning we met with him.  He didn’t have the parts we needed, but was able to weld the shaft to the gear so that we could complete our trip and have it properly repaired in South Africa.  He even sent us with some tire weld since our spare could not be repaired.  And the total cost for his labor: $4.

Very interesting to see how the construction of huts changed as we drove south based on available materials

Dave working on one of the car problems...thank goodness I married a tinkerer!

 With our repairs, we got off to a later start than planned, meaning we would not make it to our next planned stop.  We quickly made some calls to find out another potential place to stay that was a 

reasonable driving distance.  As it got dark, driving became more difficult to miss potholes, and just kilometers from our hotel our headlights began to flicker.  Fortunately we made it there safe and sound. The next morning we drove to a gas station and Dave decided to check the oil again.  We were about 3 quarts low (that was after adding a quart the day before).  As he investigated, he saw that it was dripping from the vacuum pump and because that part was riveted shut, he couldn’t even open it up to investigate.  So, we spent about $40 a day on oil to limp it along to South Africa.  The next day, we needed to stop in the town of Xai Xai to drop off some tools that came in our container to a missionary down there.  We were planning to make it a long day and go all the way to Nelspruit in South Africa, however, we realized that our lights had all together quit working.  He told us the name of a good electrical mechanic in Nelspruit and we found a place nearby to stay before it got dark.  The next morning, Dave tinkered with the lights, but we didn’t have the part we needed to fix it, so we waited until daylight to leave.

During our hour long fuel stop waiting for the fuel trucks to finish we watched some goats wander by.

 

On our fourth day, we made it to the border. We realized this wasn’t simple like crossing the border into Canada.  We had to stop and get out on the Mozambique side to get our passports stamped and to get a vehicle permit.  Interestingly enough, Dave met a customs agent that is interested in flying in Northern Mozambique with MAF to show the Jesus Film.  Then we crossed into South Africa and started the process over again and after an hour, we were on our way, excited to be where we could get the car fixed and find a doctor.  Shortly after crossing the border, the weld on the gear broke.  Fortunately, the bush mechanic showed us how we could drive on the front wheels only, so we were not stranded this time. 

Why a doctor you ask?  Before we left, Dave had a spot on his leg that looked like a little swollen bug bite.  As we traveled, it became obvious that the spot had gotten infected and was very swollen and painful.  We already had an appointment for a routine checkup with the doctor the next week, after the conference was over, but we decided to drive straight to her office to see if we could get worked in.   She froze off the bad spot, cleaned out the sore and packed it, put him on heavy antibiotics and told him to come back the next morning to make sure it was getting better and not worse.  Then we found the electrical mechanic that the Xai Xai missionary told us about.  This man said he could fix our lights and said he knew trustworthy folks to handle all of our other problems.  He took care of ordering all of the parts and moving the vehicle between shops while we rented a car and went on to our conference just north of Pretoria. 

As we went south the roads got better and vegetation started to change

 

Bart, a paramedic from the States who was at our conference helped redress Dave's leg

After all of our troubles, we made it to our conference only one day late, but had a great and restful time there.  After the conference ended, we came back to Nelspruit to hit the doctor, dentist, and eye doctor since it will likely be a year or so before we get the opportunity again.  We shopped quite a bit for supplies that we (and other families) needed but couldn’t get in Mozambique and by Friday (a week later) our Rover was well again.  We now could take it to have the work done that we originally planned for, which has delayed us several days from our return trip to Nampula. 

These guys were our wake-up call at the place where we stayed in Nelspruit

 All in all, the trip has been a good experience.  We got to experience parts of Mozambique that we otherwise might never have gotten to see.  We learned we can survive police stops and border crossings.  We learned that the Lord puts people in our paths to help us when we can’t help ourselves and must rely on Him! Hopefully the return trip will be a little smoother!