bless the beasts and the children...

We whimsically decided yesterday to drive to Marromeu, perhaps the most inaccessible city in the mission--situated on the Zambezi River and reached via a 150 km dirt road.  It will, in a few months be among our areas of responsibility and we were a bit curious about the lay of the land there.  We took Elder Gee who was transferred there from Quelimane (we have enjoyed Elder Gee--a good man--of few words, but in Portuguese they are all spoken well).  The trip to Marromeu is shorter than most journeys we take from here--about 350 km in total and we made it in about 4.5 hours each way.  We spent a couple of hours visiting with the Elders (and Debbie doing a white glove inspection of the hovel in which they live), taking them to lunch, delivering an abused (not by his parents) young boy back to his parents, and also meeting with the Marromeu branch president and his wife.  We made it home just before dark.  The road to Marromeu has been known to give up some wildlife to visitors from time to time (Elder Brogan allegedly saw some impalas on his last trip (the four-legged rather than four-wheeled variety)--but we were blessed only with an abundance of babboons (or is it a bevy?) and a long green snake which slithered by.  Elder Gee appreciated the air conditioned luxury of our back seat (as there is no bus service to Marromeu, hitching a ride in the back of a truck is the normal method of delivery for a missionary.  The missionaries there spend half their days working on a construction project at the chapel site there--so it gives them an unusual schedule and workload.


Our farewell meal (chicken parmesan) for the departing elders Gee and Humphries.  Elder Humphries speaks the most beautiful and comprehensible Mozambican portuguese of any missionary I have heard.

This happens to be the only restaurant in Marromeu--within the locked compound of the sugar factory there.  One only has to wait an hour and a half to get served.

This is Presidente Bata and his wife of the Marromeu branch.  We were very very impressd with this man.  He is a bit overwhelmed by his responsibilities--he is s school teacher by day.

We are not quite sure about the meaning of this sign.  Any ideas?

We have small frogs here at the house which climb walls and most everything else.  I remember reading about a very very poisonous African tree frog at one time, so I have been somewhat hesitant to pick these up and move them--though death would not likely be instantaneous.

One morning this week, I heard a scream coming from the bathroom.  It did not come from the spider.

We saw probably about 40 baboons in the trees next to the road as we drove.  They like bananas we discovered.

Though warned by this sign to not run over any hyenas, we saw none.