Note to the civilized world

Dear Civilized World,

Since we won’t have internet for a while I thought I would give some first impressions of Maputo and Mozambique as well as Toby’s travel log.  Maputo is different in many ways from our previous travels in Africa, but then we find ourselves often saying “that’s so African” and see the similarities.  We still see beautiful babies being carried in a sling on their mother’s backs, people selling any and everything on every available  street corner, tons of garbage and genuinely friendly people.  It has been a long time since either of us have worn a name tag every day and that gets almost everyone who passes a pause and a second look.  We have seen a few white people here and heard more English than we expected because it is the capital and many people are from South Africa, Zimbabwe and other places.  Today while waiting for four hours at the Immigration Office we talked to a woman with a lovely  accent who runs a sugar cane farm with her husband about 70 miles south of here.  During the upheaval in Zimbabwe they lost everything, 401k’s bank accounts, etc and left with all of their belongings in a truck.  They run this farm now and send their daughter back home to private school.

As Toby mentioned, the Elders here are very thin.  One Elder who is almost done said he has lost 40 lbs.  They cannot get their shirts white anymore even with bleach as the red sand is impossible to get out.  It is a difficult mission because the LDS church here is very young and although many people love to hear about the gospel, but their actual commitment to living it is absent.  We see bread stands (pao) on the corner selling breadsticks, but are told not to eat them.  I have been instructed on how to bleach and rinse all my fruits and vegetables and told that a Coke once a week, kills lots of stomach bugs.  We are learning a lot about the “wicked” traditions of the fathers here that make change difficult.  People are very content to just get by; they don’t see upward mobility or progress as very important things in life.  We saw the great markets along the beach today with beautiful table clothes, house dresses and t-shirts blowing in the ocean breeze.  Every few feet someone is selling oranges or sodas and whatever they have from their yard, so I don’t know how anyone can make a living.

We have to take malaria medicine, worm medicine and ibuprofen up north with us to distribute to the missionaries.  We have water filters for our kitchen, mosquito netting for our beds and large bottles or water for the long drive.  As well we have to take church supplies, all household items for the house, since no one has lived there before, packages sent to missionaries that have been waiting for someone to drive north, groceries, our five bags, and many more things.  So, it will seem like a hunting trip in Alaska as we will buy a tarp and rope tomorrow and pile things high in the back of our little Nissan truck.  We have some worries as we here they stop white people on the street often; it is always your fault and thievery is very rampant we are told.  We cannot be as distracted as we sometimes are, but need to really pay attention.  The challenge will be to live here, not vacation here and we are excited and nervous about that.  So many more insights to come…..