Livingstone, I presume...

Last year on our way home from Tanzania, I read a fabulous book called "Into Africa" by Martin Dugard.  It was fun to read the names of so many places we had been and seen, especially Victoria Falls.  Imagine my surprise, when the first time we drove through the jungle to the town of Marromeu, I saw a sign pointing to the grave of Livingstone's wife.  I suddenly remembered that she had malaria and stayed behind on the expedition to the falls and died there, but I had not remembered in was in the little village of Chupanga, Mozambique.  Today we finally had a few extra minutes to take the turn-off and drive about 2 kilometers to the banks of the great Zambezi river.  We found this beautiful church built in the Portuguese era; the only people who really ever built anything beautiful or lasting here.  We asked a man where the tomb was and he took us down a little path to this cemetery.  Many of the tombstones were in English, although the guide didn't know why.  Livingstone's wife's tombstone has a plaque on the front that reads it is a gift from the Livingstone family of Africa.


Livingstone's wife is buried here.



A beautiful Catholic church.



I had to ask a few questions about this.  The blue basin is for infant baptisms.
The decorated box has a space on top for the statue of Maria or Mary that is carried
through the town on May 3, her special day.  They went and got the statue out for
me to take a picture.



Elder Osborn in the front of the interior of the church.  The walls are
brightly painted, it is very clean and fascinating to find in the
middle of the jungle

Really this is all I want to bring home form my mission--DRUMS!  They
are called "batukes" here and are used in most rural religious gatherings.
This one has really nice carvings on it.  I really wanted it!

Yes, it is winter here and time for poinsettia's to be in bloom.



I love seeing people walk in from the fields with their "stuff" on their heads.  Perhaps
that is why this scene was poignant to me as I thought about David Livingstone and his legacy here.

Above are some pictures from a very lovely little town in Mozambique.  I can picture the explorers and their slaves getting ready to go down to the river here and begin another leg of their journey into the interior of Africa.