Capulana Colour

I thought I would wait till later to announce this, but I figured sooner than later is best...

When we visited Pieter and the villagers of Mukhatini, he gave us a little something to take back to the states with us. Capulana Bags. Now I am sure this phrase conjures up a large question mark, but I will explain.

The ladies of the village are trying to save up enough funds to buy a truck for their village. Their main export is agriculture, and they live virtually in the middle of nowhere (80 or so kilometers outside of Chokwe), so transporting goods to and from market can be tough. So in order to raise funds, a church in Tennessee, Cedar Springs, partnered with the village and together they decided these Bags would be a great way to raise support in the States. The money made is going directly back to the village via Cedar Springs.

Capulana's are local African cloth, decorated with patterns and colorful designs. These village ladies had the ingenious ideas to make purses/bags out of these and Cedar Springs would sell them locally in Tennessee. I will attach a photo after I take one of an already made bag... but essentially, I have 100 bags that we brought back with us, and will sell them when we get back.

The bags look awesome, and the cloth is beautiful. There are many varieties, and each bag is $15. This would be a great way to be a part of the work we were doing there, and support these women in their efforts to support their families and their village! Photos are soon below, if you are interested please let me know, however we won't start selling them for a little while... We are waiting on some more materials/info before they'll go on sale.

It's quite an exciting opportunity to be a part of the project of these women, and to help raise support and awareness for their goal. Please see back to this post as I will update it with more information soon!

Party in the USA

True Story (for the most part):

I hopped off the plane at LAX....

My tummy's turnin' and I'm feelin kinda homesick

Too much pressure and I'm nervous

That's when the taxi man turned on the radio...

So I put my hands up, they're playin my song...

Yeah, it's a Party in the USA

Yeah, yeah it's a Party in the USA

Feel like hoppin' on a flight

Back to my hometown tonight

It's a Party in the USA

***

Thank you Miley Cyrus. It's good to be back in the States... Not home quite yet, still sitting at the United Terminal at JFK (so technically I haven't "hopped off the plane at LAX" yet), after a jam packed 15 hour flight from SA... now just one more 5 hour to LAX, then a 2 hour drive back to SANTA BARBARA. It's gonna be nice to be back home after virtually 24 hours of traveling (we left our hotel in Joburg yesterday at 3:30pm). I miss all of you and am excited to see many of you soon!

Like I said, the blog is far from over, still check back please maybe once a day for some important information I would like to get out...

Lesson 2

"It ain't over till it's over"

I could also say, "Rise and rise again, until Lambs become Lions" quoted straight from Robin Hood, meaning Never Give Up. This one sums up our journey from Sena to Quelimane to catch our flight... and it goes like this. 40 km outside of Sena - flat tire. Spend 2 hours trying to fix it, literally trying everything in the book and more - no luck. Phone for help. David is confident we will miss our flight. Prayer, Prayer, and a bit more Prayer (goes back to Lesson 1). David tells our African driver to scoot over, he takes the wheel. Two hours and 125km/hr later - we arrive at the airport. Go through security quickly - and then wait because the plane is late. We made it. It ain't over till it's over.

Photo: a street vendor (likely younger than 15) trying eagerly to sell his chili's for profit

Lessons Learned - Lesson 1

"When traveling the world, faithfulness is key."

I thought this one appropriate to start them off - because it plays into so many situations. There were a number of situations where mishaps would come up, and we just had to trust the Lord to provide. A lot of the future lessons will stem from this one.

Literally 10 minutes after Mom dropped us off at LAX, we had problems. For whatever reason, they couldn't print my boarding pass for the connecting flight from JFK to Joburg (but they could print my Dad's. Typical)... But our bags were checked through all the way to Joburg. If LAX couldn't print it, who says JFK would be able to? What if my bags ended up in South Africa without me? These were all questions running through my head. We left LAX in faith (with a rather large question mark looming ahead) that they would be able to provide us with my boarding pass to Joburg in New York... and they did. No problem. Why LAX couldn't do it beats me.

Photo: David, Laura, and I in the sketchiest of sketchy elevators in our hotel in Beira

The Beginning

10:43am

Hard to believe it's Friday already. We fly out of Joburg tonight at 7:30, and will be back home to Santa Barbara by around 5:00 pm on Saturday.

As I sit in our hotel room in Sandton typing, a multitude of thoughts run through my head. It feels as this trip has come to quite an abrupt halt... on one level I'm excited to return to friends, family, and particularly the ocean, but on the next I am sad to say farewell to such a captivating continent. Three weeks is a long time, and looking back on photos and journal entries, Beira feels like ages ago. But the past 21 days have been quite a journey, and one that I will never forget. Through our adventures (for lack of a better word) I have learned much. That is why the next 10 blog entries or so will be 'Lessons Learned' (at the wise suggestion of my father). I will be recapping comedic moments, interesting experiences, culture clashes, humbling thoughts, and more... so just because I'm back in the states doesn't mean that the blog is over. I will still be "Painting the Story"... so stay tuned

Photos are: Water pools in the mountains/valleys of Entabeni. Rhinos (the highlight of my game park experience) sparring, various birds spotted (white breasted kingfisher, and a european bee eater) I will be including various photos in "Lessons Learned" that more often than not won't have anything to do with the text. But everyone likes photos

Entabeni

This is our second full day in the game park now, and there are far too many stories to tell, plus the internet connection is slow... So this will mainly just be a fraction of the photos accumulated from the past couple drives...

Tuesday morning (yesterday) we encountered this Lion finishing off the last of a kill (turned out to be the head of a water buck. In the photo you can see the horns of the dead animal

A Kudu we spotted on our first evening drive

The gorgeous scenery we are so fortunate to see every single day

A couple of previously fighting Impala, now at peace in the evening

Elephants

The ever elusive female cheetah - we saw her this morning completely on accident. Even our driver (who's been here for 8 months) has never seen her

SA Reflection

Now that we are back in 'civilization', if you will, it's a bit of "reverse" culture shock...

We flew out of Maputo and said goodbye to Pieter this morning, and landed here in Johannesburg, South Africa at 10am. Shortly after checking in to our hotel (essentially there is no difference between this hotel and a Mariott or Double Tree back home) Dad and I took a walk around the city in search of food.

One of the things Ryan said when we went on a run during an evening in Sena was, "When I go back home after spending months out here, it's overwhelming. It's just sensory overload." And in a way, Joburg is no different than the big cities in America... which is tough. To go from doing humanitarian aid work out in the bush for two weeks, to now back to basically first world standards has been difficult emotionally...

One of the questions David, my dad and I have been wrestling with over the past couple days is, "What now?" or "What next?" How can we take what we've seen and experienced back to the states in an effective way... the last thing I want is to have taken this trip, come to Africa, seen the 'sights', met the people, been involved in villagers lives, take some photos, then leave and hide the memories away in a scrapbook. What we've experienced has had a big enough impact on my life, as well as my traveling companions that we are trying to figure out how to best be involved for the long term with the 3 programs/people we've been impacted by...

The 3 boys in the photos are from a village in Sena where we went to visit a patient who was very ill from HIV/AIDS. What a humbling visit...

Maputo

Just about caught up to real time here... *I am typing in the airport of Maputo, I wrote the body of this last night*

We are now in Maputo, and tomorrow morning we wake up early to catch a flight out of

here at 9am into Joburg for the last leg of our trip; the Game Reserve

This morning we woke up, ate and headed out of the village of Mukhatine. Our time with Pieter, just like the other 2 ladies we've been with (Perpetua and Sybil), has been remarkable. I could go on telling his stories for pages, but it's late in our fancy shnance hotel. *By the way, they messed up on our rooms so the 4 of us all have separate rooms. I have never been alone in a hotel room in my life*

Pieter was born and raised in South Africa, went to Med school to become a doctor, and did that for a good chunk of his life. He has devoted his entire life to serving the people of Chokwe through doctorate work, and now this village on Mukhatine. Recently his work with agriculture has stoked a new fire in him, and so, with a leap of faith he decided to leave medical work to pursue a new agricultural passion of his. It has really been a privilege to be in his company and spend time with him. The four of us have laughed harder in the past 2 days than I have in quite awhile...

Photos are: a fallen birds nest from the tree above our hut, (They are amazingly intricate-designed to keep snakes out). A great big fig tree at the mouth of the river in the village (according to Pieter crocodiles and hippos frequent it's banks, bummed we didn't see one). A dead butterfly. Dad pointing to the flood line on Pieter's house (Chokwe had a massive flood in 2000). The slums in Maputo. Scenery. And one of the many ridiculously overloaded trucks that you see traveling or most often broken down on the side of the road...

Constant Motion

We have been going pretty hard for 2 weeks straight. Working hard all day is draining enough, then coupled with monotonous travel, the hot weather, and a lack of sleep, had taken a toll on me. And a couple days ago I felt I had come to the end of my rope... I was tired and cranky, and it was beginning to be evident. I was completely aware of it to, and didn't want to come off rude to Sybil or undermine any of the unique experiences I have been so fortunate to have, so I just prayed. That plus a little more rest and skipping breakfast the next morning (I got to sleep in till 8:45 the last day at Sybil's) was just what I needed. I am glad that I was able to get through a rough day and regain the energy I needed to continue... When you step back and really put things in perspective it really gives you a wider view of the big picture. I immediately think of Morticai, and the suffering he goes through on a daily basis, and it embarrasses me that I would complain about being a little stretched thin, or worn out, or exhausted... Putting things in perspective from time to time is essential to staying focused on the task at hand.

Images are: an oxpicker bird, a view of the village, two goats sleeping behind the catholic church, a view from the river Pieter took us to, and Sybil with the chickens she bought in the market. She later made fun of me cause I absolutely refused to carry them (I was still recovering from murdering the other chicken)

Stars

This section was one of the highlights of my trip. To be able to get away from it all and be completely isolated from the material dependancies of back home, and to just soak it all in for an hour was a blessing. David, my dad, Pieter and I just drifted around in the village that night, guided by the brilliance of the stars.

Now the photos that follow were taken on my tripod when it was completely dark... So if you want to view these properly, turn of all surrounding light and let your eyes adjust. I am hesitant to even post them because the light background of the blog will take away from the distinctness... unfortunately they are best seen in a slideshow on my laptop. But you should be able to see the milky way as well as the Southern Cross in some (a diamond shaped constellation only visible in the southern hemisphere) in all their unedited splendor... hope you enjoy them as much as I did

Barbecue in the Bush

At the end of our second day, we bid farewell to Sybil and began our time with Pieter (the two of them are close friends). I was very excited when David informed me that Pieter (since we really only had one night with him) was going to take us out to stay in a very remote village way out in the bush...

We had a great lunch in the afternoon consisting of chicken, rice, and salad. How good it tasted to have fresh vegetables! We hadn't been able to have them prior to Pieter's because they had

been washed with city water

and we would have gotten ill. After lunch we then began the drive to Mukhatine (moo-kuh-teen-ee), which was a very enjoyable ride through the bush...

it took about 2 hours to get to the village.

Upon arrival we checked into the guest house, a gorgeous accommodation (See the photos - somewhat church retreat-esque inside, 4 bunks, solar powered lights...) which was originally built for Cedar Springs church in Tennessee who supports this village. Pieter then took us out to the self sustainable agriculture project he helped

kickstart in the village. This just blew my mind. I will have a hard time explaining it through type, but the program is essentially this: there are 60 plots, each with 2 rows of tomatoes, 2 rows of papaya trees, and 1 row of mango trees. The crops were strategically picked by Pieter so that the tomatoes yield in 4 months or so, the papayas in 1 year and the mangos in 4. Mangos are very hard to come by in the south here, so it was set up so that the villagers could gain quick profit from the tomatoes, a steady profit from the papayas, and a large profit over time from the mangos. All 3 crops also fetch a very high price in the markets in Chokwe (where they ship the produce). So each farmer is given a plot and has to maintain it by his or her self. A pump was donated to the compound so that they can water their crops through drip irrigation, and that's where the logistics get a bit complicated and lengthy. I hope I was able to get the main points across effectively. Basically, each farmer chooses how well they want their crops to do by the amount of work they want to put into it... it's very similar to the way a community bank or micro credit is set up.

After a remarkable sunset, we headed back to the guest house...By this time it was now dark, so we sat outside underneath the stars waiting for dinner (which was a tasty steak bbq and open roasted grilled cheese w/ tomato sandwiches. Steak! Yum). After dinner, the 4 of us chatted and laughed and looked for faces in the coals of the fire, much like one would look for faces in the clouds. But my favorite part of all was our night walk underneath the stars. There is zero electricity in the village, so the night sky is absolutely stunning out in these remote areas, enough so that I managed to get some great photos... Which will follow in the next post.

Photos are: Sybil and her family, the sunset, Pieter, and one farmer's share of crops

A Mix

This post is kind of a mix of events, mainly outlining the transition between our time with Sybil, and then our time out in the bush with Pieter.

At the end of our second day in Chokwe, we drove across the street with Sybil to meet Pieter Ernst in his office at World Relief... but before that I went to the big market in town escorted by Sybil. Which was quite an experience. I bought a number of Capulana's, local cloth which is gorgeously screen printed. Sybil and I got a great chance to talk, and she was telling me how the crime rate in Chokwe has skyrocketed - with the main issue being theft. Carjacking is a big black market industry in Chokwe - essentially I could say, "Get me a Toyota Camry and I will pay you x amount of dollars," and they will typically head down to South Africa, shoot a driver of a Camry through the window, and steal the car... it's a terrible tragedy and what's even worse is the police are corrupt enough to just turn a blind eye to it. So unsuspecting to me, we ran into one of these thieves in the market, and Sybil struck up a conversation with him (She is pretty well known in town)... and later translated for me after he struck off down another alleyway in the market. Basically, this thief was looking at me (I honestly stuck out like a sore thumb - a straw hat, flip flops, a hawaiian shirt, and a camera is about as close to the epitome of a tourist figure as possible) with stealing in mind. He told Sybil that he would have stolen from me had she not been there... needless to say I was glad I was under Sybil's wing.

The little African girl you see is Morticai's twin sister. Notice the difference in skin tone

And the town shot is right outside the gate to Sybil's house - notice the amount of trash just piled up - the roads in Chokwe are absolutely atrocious and the town is riddled with trash and refuse...

Chicken Killer

That's what I'm known as now... "Chicken Killer"

The sequence of Death...






This was a few days ago.

The same day

we went to visit Sybil's programs, she made some mention of having chicken for lunch... and having me kill it. Of course, I thought she was kidding, so I thought nothing of it. Later I find out, she was serious. Before we left for the preschool, she had me do the deed... and I was quite reluctant. But I figured how often will I get to kill a chicken in Africa... so what the heck. The images are a tad gruesome, so let this serve as a fair warning. (Pops took the photos, and of course they are grossly overexposed. Shame.) I am glad I got it right the first try, I wasn't looking forward to having blood all over my trousers... but it did do a little spurting. Beheading is brutal, and it took me awhile to fall asleep that night...

Holding the head...

Morticai

Yesterday was quite a busy day. Sybil showed us what she does here in Chokwe – and it's quite amazing. I'm beginning to be at a loss for adjectives to describe what we've seen and experienced during our time in Mozambique... and I find that I just keep using the same ones – (amazing, astounding, great, eye opening, humbling, the list goes on). Oh well. It is what it is.

First, a little bit of background on what Sybil does. She used to work for World Relief in the Child Evangelism sector, but felt it wasn't what God had called her to do. So two years ago, she resigned and went off to do her own independent Child Evangelism work... She is now reaching over 1,000 local kids (ages 3 to 15) through her daily Children's Clubs and the preschool she built up from the ground. But it has not been easy for her. She would be considered a very small NGO (Non-Governmental Agency) and funding is an issue. She is single and has no kids of her own, but has adopted three, one of which is now 3 years old and was very malnourished and abandoned by both parents. He is now the cutest and happiest little kid ever. Most of her money comes from a few churches back in the States, and from a few small government grants – all of which she has to split between her Clubs, the preschool and it's staff, and supporting her family. It's quite phenomenal the work she is doing. And she is all on her own.

Anyway, our first visit was to one of the Children's Clubs. We watched and participated as the kids played duck duck goose, or as they call it “Pato, Pato, Huku” (Duck, Duck, Chicken). They played games, sang songs, recited Bible verses... all the things you would want your child involved in back in the States – but the kids don't have many opportunities for things like that here, except for Sybil's programs – which are a huge blessing.

Next stop was the children's preschool – which was awesome. The kids were so cute dressed up in their little orange smocks, running around like you would expect any little tot to do. The facility they have there is quite amazing, and is really the only functioning preschool in Chokwe. Little preschool kids are seen here.

Finally, after a great siesta (the whole town shuts down from 12 to 2 pm everyday – which in my opinion is fabulous, and the 3 of us took advantage of that and decided to take a well deserved nap) and some food, we headed to visit Morticai, a very sickly albino child, and the last afternoon session of the Children's Club. Sybil had briefed us a little bit on the condition of Morticai, but there was no amount of explaining she could have done that would have fully prepared us for what we were about to see. As we sat on the mat outside the mud hut where Morticai and his aunt (His dad was killed in the war, and his mom abandoned him because she was ashamed of his disease) my heart just went out to this little guy. The lack of pigment in his skin, and the extreme conditions of Africa had left Morticai with burns and blisters and open sores all over his body. He constantly was itching and rubbing and swatting flies away from his open wounds and burns. He was peeling all over his arms and legs, and had festering scabs behind his ears from itching the burns. He kept his eyes closed most of the time, because they were so sensitive to light. As I sat there, it was difficult for me to imagine the pain he went through on a daily basis. Not to mention the social pain that went with it – in rural communities in Africa (such as Chokwe) witch doctory and superstition was alive and well. Albinos were told to bring horrible misfortune and bad luck to a family, so his mother abandoned him at a young age. Kids used to tease him and were afraid of him cause he looked so drastically different... thankfully they don't anymore because Sybil has educated them (now they include him and some even sit around him and shoo the flies off his skin). Even though he said nothing the entire time we were there, the look on his face said it all. To see him sitting there, almost helpless and just so so sad, was gut wrenching. I didn't want to sit there and wave a camera in his face just out of respect for him, but when it was just the two of us sitting in a hut, I began taking photos and he didn't seem to mind.