Wild, Wonderful Weekend

This has been a wonderful but exhausting weekend.  I arrived home on Thursday afternoon on the same plane as President and Sister Kretly.  What follows are pictures of our zone meeting, weddings, baptisms and the re-organization of the branch leadership in Quelimane.  On this Easter Sunday, we have had a lot of emotions as we prepare to leave in a week.  Here are some pictures that show the wonderful growth of the church here and our great missionaries.





This is zone conference on Friday.  Lots of good training about the growth of the mission, importance of rules in the mission and teaching skills.



Darling girls all dressed up for their parents wedding on Saturday.



No she isn't a child bride, Nadia is actually 21, but it was a little hard to believe
that in this dress.  Marta, in blue, speaks some English and had glitter make-up on
and was so excited about getting married.



President Kretly married these two couples and an hour later, we held their baptisms.
Thanks to a missionary mom for rings and new ties for the grooms!



This is our new and improved baptismal font.  It is a swimming pool and this model has been sent
to all the branches in the area.  The stairs are much more stable, but we sort of miss
the old tank with which we had an emotional attachment.



This is the biggest group baptism in Quelimane history. A family with three kids,
a young couple, and the nephew of a new member.  It was fabulous!

Our new branch presidency.  Center, Abel, branch president.  On the left, Rui is
the first counselor, Elder Guanuna on the right is the second
counselor and Rocha remains the secretary.  We also had an entire
presidency for the Elder's Quorum sustained as well, with Amizade as President.




The branch Primary has really grown and in order to facilitate actual
learning, we called two nursery leaders a couple of weeks ago.
Tinoca and Pascoa are wonderful with the kids and Primary runs more
smoothly without their noise.  We moved kids 5 years and younger
into this new class.

Sand getting low in the hourglass

The above video is the Catholic Palm Sunday precession down the main street of Marromeu--directly in front of our church there.  Very colorful and I enjoyed the singing.  It is not a hard thing in Mozambique to come up with palm fronds for this celebration, but I do wonder how my Catholic friend Kelly does this in the icy streets of Fairbanks in March. 
 We (obviously) travelled to Marromeu this past weekend.  Our farewell visit.  I guess it wasn't "we", as Debbie is still stateside.  We have been going there for the last eighteen months and have grown fond of that very out of the way place and its people.  I gave training to members on Saturday (temple preparation), spoke in church on Sunday (repentance) and then spoke to the women of Marromeu in Relief Society (giving the the key to happiness and success--you can buy my book on the subject in a few months).  They are pictured below. It is an interesting group in that all of them speak the local dialect of Sena, and some speak no Portuguese--so I asked someone to translate for me and I simplified my remarks and got the group involved.  I could have sworn that the entire group was breastfeeding babies during my lesson, but counting the babies in the picture, perhaps I am exaggerating the number of breasts I was trying to ignore.

These are the principal non-african women of my life. Left to right, they are: youngest daughter Andrea, eldest Eliana, bride Sister Osborn, and middle daughter Liz.  Debbie has been having a good time with them.  Debbie was more than pleased to get her hair done by someone more competent than I .

Making a visit to a member this evening, I spied these two young children very high up in a palm tree--doing what, I have no idea.

We are putting in a second bathroom for the members right outside the chapel.  The line gets a bit long on Sundays sometimes.  We hired our investigator JoJo to paint (he actually did a very good and careful job). in order to earn money for marriage.  JoJo is an interesting case.  he and his wife are somewhat motivated to get their marriage legalized as they swore off intimate relations when we taught them concerning chastity and marriage--not surprisingly, I notice him working the issue harder than she. 

These are the fine young missionaries of Quelimane, Elders Seoane, Kelly, Bradford, and Guanuna.  I almost hit Elder Guanuna last night when he asked me: "so what's your deal, were you called like REAL missionaries?"  I tried to explain to him that yes, we sort of felt like we were real missionaries. These days there have been a lot of malaria cases, some quite serious, among the missionaries in Maputo down south, but here, which is the malaria capital, we have been free for some time.

An-yŏng-ha-se-yo

Readers of this blog have probably picked up on the tremendous economic problems that afflict Mozambicans.  Here in Quelimane, there is no industrial base which provides employment.  Government, NGOs, retail, and unskilled labor are the choices for employment--and even those jobs are very very hard to come by.  I don't know what the percentage of people unemployed is, but it is very very high here,  probably well above 30%.  In our little branch of the church, we are similarly afflicted.  Too many are unemployed or underemployed.  Some literally cannot put food on the table.  As leader of the flock here, the economics are of grave concern to me on many levels.  We do a lot of praying that people can simply find something to help them pay rent and buy food.
Last week, we had an interesting call.  A man, in halting English, called me from Korea.  His name was Lee (as is the name of 60% of the Koreans I have ever met).  He is LDS and was coming to Quelimane to head the multi-year project to build a new hospital here.  He wondered if I would be able to find workers for him--as he really wanted to employ as many LDS as possible.   Debbie and I had dinner with him this week, and  two days later, my friends Amizade and Rui were drawing salaries far beyond anything previous in their lives (that is $200 per month for Rui which is a modest but very respectable salary here).  Rui in particular was at the end of his financial rope, having lost his job a few months ago.  Brother Lee will take a while to get his project started, but my two counselors are his first employees and will help him get things moving.  He will employ hundreds on the project and we should be able to send our unemployed members to him in impressive numbers.
I have a hard time expressing what a huge blessing this for us here. I am really grateful beyond words.  Our people have been facing impossible circumstances--and suddenly there is some hope for both immediate relief from abject poverty and for some training that might improve their long term economic outlook.  And having spent some time in Quelimane hospitals during the last couple of weeks, we are grateful that a new one is underway.
The blog title, by the way, is a common Korean greeting--which is the only positive thing that I retain from an ill-fated business venture in Seoul many years ago.


I have posed many a young missionary in this spot in front of the Quelimane airport--it was quite sad to put Debbie on a plane.  It is my hope that she will not reevaluate her plan to return in eight days.  Perched upon her suitcase is Flat Stanley, who, as you might be aware, is an assignment of many an elementary school student.  Our assignment is to take many a picture with Flat Stanly, doing interesting things in Africa--and send them to our Granddaughter Amelia in Anchorage.

I was driving down this road today on the way back from a lesson and was flagged down by 10 deaf students from a local school--some of whom have attended church from us before.  I gave them a lift--driving slowly on the rutted roads to not throw them out on their heads. Each school has a different color of uniform, and theirs is this unfortunate red/maroon.

In Memorium

Debbie's father, Kenneth J. Hanni, passed away this week after an injury and precipitous decline.  He lived a good and full life of eighty five years but his passing still has taken Debbie by surprise.  While I had said my  goodbyes to my own mother before the start of our mission, anticipating her passing--Ken's death was not anticipated and has certainly saddened and shaken Debbie.   His obituary can be found at http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=kenneth-j-hanni&pid=163717116#fbLoggedOut She will return to the states tomorrow for a brief visit with family--returning to Mozambique to complete the last couple weeks of our mission together.  Our mission president has given her the option of not having to return to Mozambique for that brief period (the economics of this current plan are not particularly attractive) but Debbie will return to join me for our final bit of work.  After being together 24/7 for the last 17 months, it seems very strange to contemplate being alone for a week.

 

Kudus to all

We have had a wonderful few days in something of a break from our normal Quelimane life. On Monday last, we caught a plane in the evening down to Maputo--leaving the northern heat and humidity for a time. After spending the night in a borrowed senior missionary apartment, we borrowed President Kretly's little Kia and started driving for Johannesburg. There, we met up with our friends Abel and Adozinda, the first couple to join the church in Quelimane--and we accompanied them to the temple, me acting as translator for many of the proceedings there.

Do we looked changed from eighteen months ago?  A bit more worn and weary perhaps.

There is something about cute black children in white that is very very appealing.

We saw a glimpse of western civilization in South Africa. The stores were full of products to which we used to be accustomed and there were no potholes nor chasms in any of the roads. It was a very nice break. We had dinner one night with Elder Renlund and his wife Ruth, who prepared the most outstanding fresh salmon dinner. I'm afraid that I have forgotten what good food tastes like. Wonderful food and nice to visit with them for the evening.

On our return drive the next day, we got a call from the airline telling us that our flight home to Quelimane had been significantly delayed--we took the extra time and stayed overnight at Kruger National Park (where I had to shoo Kudus (not to be mistaken for the candy bar nor congratulations) away from the door of our little chalet before I could enter). We were able to spend five or six hours hours on a self-driven safari the next day before heading back to Mocambique.

We found that the English spoken in South Africa was quite difficult to understand.  It was almost comical that Debbie and I were constantly addressing people and responding to them in Portuguese--only after getting alot of blank looks would we recognize our mistake.

I think the kudu is a beautiful animal--among the larger of the plains game--beautiful horns and coloration and quite plentiful in South Africa.  A bit smaller than an Alaskan moose or an Eland--but not by much.

The break was a nice one and the temple experience with friends a wonderful one--but in the end, we found that we missed Quelimane and our work here--and were happy to make it back home.

bitter and sweet

We started our day as a hearse driver.

Little Santinho, the young twin of whom we recently wrote died a couple of nights ago.  This was tough for us.  We have known him since birth  and have bounced him on our laps for countless hours during lessons.  Tough on us, but devastating for his parents.  They are penniless of course and we bought the coffin and paid  to get the body from the hospital (yes, apparently it requires payment). It was an interesting day.  These people are not members of the church and didn't want a funeral--but consider themselves closer to us than anyone else so he asked for our participation.  We arrived at the family home at 8 am and took a dozen people to the lumber yard to pick up the coffin, then, with the group mostly on their feet in the back of my pickup, we went to the hospital to wash and take possession of the body.

We brought the body back to the home where more family and friends were gathered and then began the hour of ritualistic wailing and keening.  I then delivered a simplified discourse on the purpose of life (and death) and the Plan--then they asked me to pray over them (and I can always do that). And then the crowed of about 60, following, the casket, walked to the cemetery in a procession.
 

It was a beautiful, but very hot, cloudless day today.  This picture from the middle of the crowd shows a bit of the color and culture of the group.  This scene is so typical of rural Quelimane.  We walk through streets like this every day.  It is a long long way from winter in Fairbanks, Alaska.

I dedicated the grave which is the first time that I have done that in Mozambique--every other burial that we have attended has been Catholic or traditional.

 From the grave site, we raced home with Julio and Paula, who are aunt and uncle of the deceased--and baptized them in our little water tank behind the church (which is incidentally, being retired from service hereafter).  We love Paula and Julio--having taught them now for about four or five months (and having finally succeeded in marrying them last week).  Paula reads, but Julio really doesn't.  They study the Gospel together however and it seems to work.  They have memories that do not extend beyond ten minutes ago however, so it was very difficult getting them to retain concepts and principles that we taught.  We finally turned to "flashcards" and games of "Concentration" which we created for them to help the learn.  Unmitigated success I would not call it, but they made progress.  In the end, they were prepared (prepared has never meant remembering every concept and doctrine). and we had a beautiful baptismal service--begun in traditional Mozambican fashion--an hour and a half late.

Water had leaked from the tank so the level was quite low, changing the physics of immersion--and in performing the baptism, I slipped and nearly required rescue.

Paula and Julio invited their friends Jojo and Sonia (and five children) to the service today.  We have been teaching them for a few weeks now and they are the closest thing to a perfectly prepared family we have yet found.  As always, getting the 40 dollars necessary for marriage is the biggest impediment to progress.  

Debra and Debra spent a lot of quality bonding time together today as we drove around on our funeral tasks.

This picture is completely unrelated to the rest of the post but we thought it cute.  This young Mozambican father is probably on his way to a bicycle safety class.

We will take a few days break from Quelimane starting tomorrow after church services--heading to South Africa for a few days to accompany a couple to the temple in Johannesburg.  We trust it will be a great experience for them and for us (and we admit to being a bit excited about seeing civilization for a bit and Debbie is excited to see a chiropractor and buy some hair dye.

Yin to her Yang

Debbie's post on the well-baby clinic was sweet, but we have also seen a different side to the Mozambican hospitals in the last couple of days. No pictures for this post--trust me that you do not want to see them.
We went to the hospital, accompanying our young HIV infected friend for her first appointment--providing just a bit of moral support in a challenging time. The crushing press of the amassed humanity there was something to behold. People arrive at 5 in the morning in hopes of seeing a health care worker that day. Our friend arrived at 5 a.m. And we joined her in line at about 10:00 and got into the doctor about 11. The HIV wing of the hospital was a little less upbeat than the new baby section. Our friend was sent off for a blood analysis which consumed the entire next day (not the testing but the waiting to do so) and she will do another 6 hour stint at the hospital tomorrow to bring the test results back to the original doctor.
There is a supply and demand curve at work here. Health care is essentially free (except for the non-financial costs of the endless waiting). As a result, people go to the hospital for every ache and pain, every cold and flu symptom. There is no vehicle for people to obtain over the counter medicines for common ailments. One must go to the hospital for evaluation and medication. It is crazy (in my peculiar way of thinking). When the most constrained or precious resource is medical personnel, it is a literal killer for them to be used inefficiently.
Yesterday afternoon we spent a bit of time in another hospital. The pediatric wing of the central provincial hospital here. Such a tragic place. We visited our tiny friend Santinho who you may have seen on our Christmas card. He was not recognizable, having wasted to just skin over the tiniest of bones. His mother has been there for days with him, but there doesn't appear to be real treatment. Mother and son share an adult bed and family brings food to supplement hospital fare. We brought him more formula as there is no food for him at the hospital. Debbie and I wept to see the sight of the room that he shared with several other mothers and sick children. It is my hope that he died in the night and is free from his suffering.

Tuesday at the Well Baby Clinic

     We were at the local hospital for a morning on Tuesday and as I was wandering around I was drawn to all the mothers and babies.  Lo and behold, it was time for immunizations and weigh-ins.  It was fun to watch all the babies being stripped down to be weighed on the outside scales.  Everything with the nurses was done outside, with endless lines snaking around the building.  Then there was a triage sign for a consult with the doctor after the shots.  One of the nurses was kind and spoke to me and showed me what they were doing when I told it was my first time to see the clinic   I thought it fun to see that well baby appointments are pretty much the same the world over, but maybe not quite so hygienic as I am used to.  But if any of you have seen that movie "Babies" you will note that even infants learn to live within their environment.  I have so much dirt and grime being ingested by kids here, I often cringe at kids swimming in totally muddy water, never washing their hands, etc.  But moms try to instruct in the ways that fit their culture best and are open to learning new ideas.

I looked through the yellow baby books and told the nurse that I had the same
type of book in the US for my six kids.  There was a growth chart and a place
to record shots and doctors notes.



I asked her about the weight on this scale and she laughed and told e you had to
add 12 k to each one to make it accurate.



This little guy is getting his first vaccination.  There are alcohol wipes and boxes for
used needles, but it is all done in the open air.  I admire the work of these nurses,
they were very sweet with the babies and mothers.



I am not trying to be insensitive, but this is Africa every day.  Public nursing is all that is
done, nobody, even during church (or missionary lessons) would think of covering up with a blanket.  The line in the back is for the consultation with the doctor.

We learned that the ambulance will not go to the areas where many of the mud huts are.
If you have an emergency you must walk or get a bike taxi.



Right behind the back wall of the clinic was a school.  I took this picture because it
is so unusual to see a child actually opening their book instead of just carrying it to and from school everyday.  We heard on the news that there is a 43% illiteracy rate in Mozambique.  I think that it is probably higher.  Very little learning goes on at the Primary school level.

Last week on the other side of the world..

     Last week was a busy one, since it was transfer week, we had to travel on the weekend and we had a wedding as well.  True to form, the wedding, which was supposed to begin at 10am started an hour later, since the bride and groom didn't even get there until 10:30.  Nobody but the Osborns seemed to give it a second thought.  We took an idea from another senior missionary blog for our weekly youth activity.  The two Elder's in charge led a  great group discussion on the scripture in Ephesians about putting on the whole armor of God.  Last Saturday we had our monthly Women's meeting, where we had about 10 sisters.  It was a nice hour together.  We put on good training in Nampula as well this weekend.  The drive was spectacular, the mountains silhouetted  against a perfectly blue sky and everything was brilliant green from all the rain.  It is one our our favorite drives.  Thanks to a big Chinese backed road project, we drove on actual paved roads most of the way.  And then of course, the wonderful hotel showers with real water pressure.....ahh, heavenly.
     Here are some fun pictures to pique your interest about coming to visit us before we leave in 5 weeks!


Toby has done a really nice job with his wedding sermons here in Quelimane.



It is amazing to me that these hot-pads look just like the patterns my friends sent.
Some people have such natural artistic talent.

My dear friends, Mary and Dianna, sent me Sharpie paint pens and hot pads for the
women to decorate at our women's meeting.  In Port. the hot pads are called "pegas".
I think most women will hang them on their walls and continue to use old capulanas to get
hot pans off the charcoal.  They really enjoy creating!

As always, everyone claps after Toby invites the couple for their first kiss as
husband and wife.



This is the whole family.  On the right is Julio's mother, on the left, an aunt.
His two brothers are next to Julio, then Debra in Jamie's arms, Issa in front
with Nofre and Paula.



The youth are great the world over.  Tinoca enjoyed being "dressed" in the
armor of God created by the other youth.  They had so much fun cutting pieces out of
a big box we saved from a bulletin board.

You can see this was serious business!



This is Elder Gray and Joaquina.  She is a hoot!  Her family lives very close to the
church and attends regularly but has the usual problem of not being married and
having little money.  I gave her a lot of my old clothes the other day and often
see her in my shirts that were too big.  Need I say more!!!



This is the Relief Society president in Nampula.  I trained the leaders on ways to vary their teaching styles.
This is my favorite activity; I gave them each two pictures and had them write a two minute lesson
using the pictures.  It really opens their minds to new teaching ideas.



It almost looks like Maui, don't you think?



French cuisine anyone?