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.