I'll be home one week from today!

Well I made it back to South Africa. Dara and I had quite a pleasant 15 hour bus ride to Maputo (capital of Mozambique) on which we had comfy seats, A/C, tea and sandwiches. It was nice to be able to see more of the landscape, and process leaving Mozambique. The land is very green now after the rains, hilly, and has lots of banana and mango trees. We spent a couple of nights in Maputo, explored the city a bit, bought last minute souvenirs, and made it to South Africa on the 15th.

We left Mozambique with mixed emotions. We were sad to leave Carlos and his family, the volunteers, and the friends that we had made, but we were glad to see everyone back in South Africa, and are excited to see our families and friends back home soon. It was quite a strange feeling to leave our Mozambican family and the volunteers behind. Most of the people there have no hope of ever leaving Mozambique, as just surviving day to day is a challenge. While we get to go back to North America with every opportunity before us, they will continue to live off their gardens, strive to be a light in their communities, and struggle to rise above AIDS and poverty.

Last week Dara and I went to Cape Town for four days as we heard that it was very beautiful, and a must-see. We enjoyed our time, and got to go to Table Mountain, Robben's Island (where Nelson Mandela stayed as a prisoner for so many years), and did all of the touristy things. It felt really weird being a tourist after all the time we spent with suffering people in the community.

I think it would be easy to go back home and slowly forget about our time here. To forget that there are 7500 new children becoming orphaned every day, and to forget about Carlos and the volunteers who work so hard to care for these kids. I pray that I won't forget, and that I will be faithful with what I've been shown.

coming home soon....

It’s hard to believe that in just a few days my time in Mozambique will be finished! It has been an amazing time, and I have seen and learned so much. On Monday, Dara and I will head to the coast, and will take a looooonnngggg bus ride down to the capital of Mozambique, Maputo. We will spend a couple nights there, and then head back to South Africa. We will have three weeks in South Africa before we head home in early February. We’re hoping to see Cape Town for about a week, and spend a couple weeks at the Hands at Work headquarters.

Mozambique was such a crazy experience- here are a few things that I experienced which I probably won’t experience back in Canada…

1. Chasing a goat. The other morning I was outside talking to Nana (my 78 year old neighbor who I like to swap books with) and we saw a little girl standing close to a goat. The goat had gotten out, and the little girl was having a hard time catching it. I offered my goat catching skills, and tried to help her. Nana and I teamed up and had the goat cornered when it broke out to freedom again. I started chasing the goat- out of the yard, past the wood mill, and up to the church. At the church I saw a man walking and yelled “Desculpa- Ajuda” (sorry, help). The man didn’t think twice, he just started chasing with the help of one of his friends. So now, the little girl, two men and I are chasing this goat- past the baby sick bay, up to the orphanage, past the main house, and down to another missionary’s house. At this point a pastor from England joined in- chasing the goat around the house, and finally successfully capturing the goat with a football tackle. As he got up the two Mozambican men rewarded him with huge smiles and thumbs up.

2. Scary Bugs- One day Dara and I were driving with our Mozambican friend, Paula. Paula looked over at a bug on Dara and screamed. To hear a Mozambican scream about a bug is a bit alarming. Dara brushed the bug off her neck, and it turned out to be a scorpion. On her neck.


3. Spiders the size of mice- we have a new volunteer living with us now named Hannah. Hannah does not like insects at all, and doesn’t even like to use the fly swatter. The other night, Dara and I were in my room, and we heard Hannah yell- “I just saw a mouse! I just saw another one”. So Dara and I ran into the room equipped with shoes, and prepared to kill whatever came out from under the desk. I was not prepared for the spider the size of a mouse that came running out- with a body the size of a baby kosher dill pickle and legs the size of hairy carrot sticks (only slight exaggeration here). At the time we had no electricity, so we were doing this by candlelight and headlamps. After panicking at the first sighting of the spider and letting it get away, we gained enough composure to look for it again. When he reappeared I somehow managed to kill him with a two fly-swatter, mid air attack (I being in midair). After a sufficient amount of screaming, and tearing the room apart, we convinced ourselves that Hannah had only seen one monster spider- mouse, which manifested itself as two separate spiders.

So, I am looking forward to not having to worry about those kind of things upon my arrival to Canada. I am confident that Canadian spiders and insects will no longer strike fear into me.

A Christmas like no other…

This Christmas was wildly different from any other than I’ve ever had. Different, but good. It was my first Christmas in Africa, and my first away from Canada. I have made some great relationships with friends and families here so don’t feel sorry for me that I was away from home :) I thought maybe I’d give you all a little play-by-play, just so you get an idea of what Christmas in Mozambique is like…

December 24…

The day started off like most others do here- hot and extremely humid. All of our Christmas decorations (lights, little tree, nativity scene, advent calendar, etc) tried their best to convince us that it was indeed Christmas. By late afternoon a huge thunderstorm rolled in- just in time for the Christmas concert. It went from feeling like the 4th of July to Halloween in a few hours. The Christmas concert took place in the Church – the church has an A-frame roof, but is not fully enclosed- this led to an interesting evening…

The night started off with a group of the girls from the mission singing a few songs for everyone. As they were finishing up, the rain stopped. This resulted in a huge swarm of “flying ants”. During this season of famine, many of the Mozambicans live off of flying ants and mangos. The ants are quite large- the body is pretty fat and almost an inch long, with a two-inch wingspan. The ants come out after rains and are attracted to light -we’ve gotten used to sitting in the dark reading with flashlights :) So anyway, the ants were attracted to the fluorescent light by the thousands. When the girls finished, the next group of entertainment, the boys of the mission wanting to do a dance, went up the front (the dance floor was under the light). Although the boys didn’t seem to mind too much, I was terribly distracted by the dozens of crawling ants climbing up the boy’s shirt and swarming their heads. At one point in the night, the generator went off (and with it the light), and all of the ants swarmed the candles on the tables. At this point I temporarily lost composure and ran to the back of the church.

After the program, we had a delicious meal of potatoes, rice and beef stew. It was really good, and at this point it could have resembled a church potluck back home- with a few little differences. For example, the salt shaker at our table was a guy named Antonio who had a hand full of salt to which we helped ourselves. At the end of the night a couple ladies swept up all of the ants (lunch for the next day), and we headed home.

We came home to discover that the bunny that we are bunny-sitting , BunBun, was in a terrible state of convulsions on the floor (possibly bit by a scorpion?) . We kept a close eye on him for the evening, and asked the Lord to take him quickly. We were surprised to find a completely recovered BunBun the next day. A Christmas Miracle! Anyway, while we watched BunBun that night, we also opened a few presents, ate chocolate brownies, and sang “O Holy Night”.

December 25…

On Christmas morning we went over to one of our favorite families here- a family from Ireland who have been here for 16 years, and who run an elementary school for the local children. While at their house we had lovely pastries, hot chocolate, and got to open another present. We love to be at their house which is equipped with good food, a comfortable couch, and a nice mom and dad.

At about noon we headed off to the local prison. People from the mission go to visit the prisoners once a week, although this was the first time that I had gone. The prison was just one large room filled with about 60 young men. Carlos, my boss, brought his accordion along, and everyone enjoyed singing a few local songs- even the guard, who played his AK-47 like a guitar- this was slightly alarming. After the singing, one of the men gave a Christmas message, and food was handed out to all the prisoners. It was very sad to see the despair in these young men’s eyes, as well as sobering to think of how their Christmas was compared to ours.

When we got back from the Prison we had a nice lunch with Carlos and the family. Later that afternoon we had lovely cake and coffee at a Dutch family’s house- about 6 different kinds of cake, and a good opportunity to spend time with everyone who lives on the mission.

So, it was an interesting Christmas! I hope everyone back home had a great Christmas! I miss everyone and look forward to seeing you all when I get back in February! Merry Christmas (Feliz Natal)!

Zimbabwe

Last weekend I got a chance to go to Zimbabwe with three friends. What an experience! The Zimbabwe border is only an hour and a half west of us, but it is a totally different world. It is currently a country in crisis. Their economy is plummeting downwards, and the people are suffering. One US dollar is now worth ten million Zimbabwean dollars- this is since they cut ten zeros off the end of their currency a few months ago. Driving through town, we saw crowds of people standing beside banks- trying to take out money- money that is worth more in the morning than in the evening. People there are literally getting poorer by the minute.

Zimbabwe is a beautiful country- once the “breadbasket of Africa”, but now on the verge of collapse. Carlos is now helping to start home based care in Zimbabwe- striving to reach the thousands of children orphaned by this thing we call AIDS. It is hard to imagine that such a beautiful country is having such troubles.

We met a lovely couple who worked at the hotel that we stayed in. They had retired a few years ago but recently had to start working again. Because of the crazy inflation, and cutting ten zeros off the currency, their life savings is now worth about seventy cents. Less than a dollar. The schools are in danger of closing- teachers are no longer showing up to work because they aren’t being paid. The hospitals have no medication in them. We were told about a child who died because the hospital didn’t have Tylenol to give to get a fever down. Just staying alive is a huge challenge- thousands of people have to cross into Mozambique just to get food.

The country itself is beautiful- lovely rolling, green mountains, beautiful birds, exotic flowers and trees… we stayed up in the Vumba mountains in a lovely little lodge that had an amazing view and a fireplace (it was cool enough there to actually use it too). We drove to a very fancy hotel called “Leopard Rock” that used to entertain celebrities, and had a game park and a pro golf course on it. It was empty. There were staff, but no guests. The restaurants were the same. Beautiful with excellent food, but we were the only ones there. We had the opportunity to ride horses in a game park. We actually rode right up to giraffes and zebras. It was very surreal. Please pray for Zimbabwe.

Here is a picture of Me, Brooke, Sarah and Dara half way up the mountain.

This is Dara in front of the giraffe (she's on a horse).

Here is a picture of Dara and me at the restaurant- our bill was over 50 million Zim dollars

needs...

We were driving with Carlos and Pascua the other night when Carlos got a phone call- it was from the chief of one of the communities that Rubatano does Home Based Care in. Over the phone, Carlos learned about a child that just become an orphan. The child’s father had died years ago, and the mother had just died the previous day. The grandmother had taken the child and gone looking for help. She had no money, and no food. Carlos drove to Rubatano’s main center and got some maize, beans and salt for them- the last food parcel that the center had, and we drove to meet the grandmother. When we arrived it was already late- out of the darkness walked an old woman carrying a small child on her back. The grandmother had been traveling all day- trying to get help- desperate for help. She gratefully took the food which would last her for just a few weeks, and left with the child…

A couple of days ago a woman named Maria came to Carlos to ask for help for her neighbor… her neighbor is a girl who is about 13 years old. This girl is an orphan and lives with her two young uncles. Her uncles don’t want her. They are trying to sell her for money. Maria came to Carlos to see if he could help the girl somehow. Carlos and the volunteers are now trying to find a place for this girl to live. Maybe an old granny or a sick patient that she could help in exchange for a place to live. Rubatano will give her some food- an incentive for a family to take her in. Just imagine being this girl. Your parents are dead - the family you do have is trying to sell you…
These stories are not rare here. People come to Carlos and the volunteers almost every day with needs like these. AIDS is rampant here, and turning kids into orphans every day. Rubatano needs help caring for these children.

Currently, volunteers at Rubatano provide orphaned and vulnerable children like these with a monthly food parcel, assistance with education, and visit them at home twice a week. It is amazing to see the care and dedication of these volunteers. Most of the volunteers are very poor themselves- many with holes in their shoes and hungry kids of their own. As of January 2009, Rubatano no longer has money available to cover their operating costs. This is due to their two main government donors completing their commitments. It is now time for the church to step in- for us to help the church in Africa to take care of these little ones.

It is the goal of Rubatano and Hands at Work to provide each orphaned and vulnerable child (OVC) with basic health, education, and food security. This costs about 15USD per child/month. Currently Rubatano cares for almost 650 OVCs in the Gondola area (where I live), and over 400 in a new area called Nhamatonda. As Rubatano is expanding to four other new areas, hundreds more OVCs are being added to this these numbers.

I have been so impressed by what God is doing through Carlos and the volunteers at Rubatano, and I encourage you to be a part of it. If you want to donate to Rubatano, please let me know, and I’ll send you more info about tax deductable donations. My email address is lauraeliason@hotmail.com

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed." Psalm 82:3

another cake...

Here is one of the latest cakes that we’ve made… it’s a unicorn. We made it for our 15 year old friend Matthew- not sure why we picked a unicorn- just seemed like the thing to do…

fruit...

A few weeks ago, four of us girls went away to the beach for the weekend. Here is a picture of us- our friend Jess from the USA is here for a few months, then me, Dara, and Jenny from the Peace Corps (she’s leaving next week and we are very sad!).

Believe it or not, this is how cashew nuts grow! They looked like a joke fruit- like someone has hot-glue-gunned a plastic cashew on top of an apple, but they were real… The cashew nut is inside of a larger, harder shell, and grows on top of an apple-like fruit that has a pink, kind of sweet/kind of bitter flesh… who knew?? This is Jen and Jess with our new discovery.

One of the things we enjoy a lot here is all of the fruit… mangos are the fruit that we’ve been enjoying lately! When we went to the beach there were so many people selling mangos on the side of the road, that we got a bit carried away… here is Jess buying us mangos- she bought eighty (80) mangos for eighty (80) cents! They tasted so good! Jess later developed an allergic reaction from all of the mangos she ate- swollen eyes and sores on her lips- I think she learned a valuable lesson that weekend…