Table Mountain

On Saturday I had the opportunity to travel with the children of Nampula Baptist Church to Table Mountain. It reminded me of Stone Mountain, Georgia. The view at the top was really pretty. We had a Bible study program, sang songs, had lunch and played games.



Table Mountain is in Nampula. It is actually in “African” walking distance. I have found that an African mile and an American mile are quite different. Africans are used to walking a lot more than Americans are. For this trip I took a truck full and then some of the children walked. At the end of the day I dropped one group off at the church and then went back to pick up the ones who were walking. They were very glad to see me and have me pick them up and take them the rest of the way to the church.



We played the game of “Gossip or Message”, the one where you start a message with one person and then whisper it to the others and you see what message comes out at the end. Well, the teacher had me to do one in English. I said “God bless you”. By the end of the line after it had gone through 25 children’s ears it came out as an African message in another language!



Playing Simon Says with the phrase Jesus disse was neat.



Also playing Duck, Duck, Goose on the side of the mountain was interesting. I was just hoping someone wouldn’t slide down the mountain.



Lunch was whatever the children brought from home. It was a lot different from the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and potato chips which American kids would probably have (myself included on that one). Instead the kids had rice, bread, French fries, and Xima. Xima is a main staple here, it’s consistency is kind of like mashed potatoes or grits. If you have been to South Africa then you have had the equivalent of it except it is called Pop.



It was a good day.

WMU ladies

These are ladies from the Nampula Baptist Church. The lady on the left is the President of the Ladies Mission Group at the church. They are dressed in traditional Mocambican clothing. The skirt is actually what we would call a piece of cloth and then they wrap it around them and are able to do it in such a way that it doesn't fall off. Notice the bare feet of the lady on the left, not wearing shoes is very common here.

A favorite game

A favorite game of the kids is rolling tires with sticks. It's actually harder than it looks like it is to do. They are definitely creative in the games which they play with the items they have here on the streets.

Kids having FUN

This is a picture of some of the group after our trip to Table Mountain. They are just having fun posing for the camera.

The girls

"Striking a pose" while on the mountain.

Having a snack

Children having a snack of bread while on the mountain. They love having their picture taken.

Portable Piano

There's nothing like carrying your own piano keyboard to the top of Table Mountain. Just as a sidenote, this is the pastor of the church playing the keyboard.

View of Nampula

This is looking down in the direction of Nampula. You can see a few tall buildings. Nampula is the third largest city in Mozambique. But definitely smaller than Maputo where I lived for language school.

View from the top

The dirt road leads to the coast of Mozambique. This is a view looking down from Table Mountain.

Carol in Malawi

This was taken of me outside the hotel room. It was nice to see and walk in green grass. It’s amazing the difference when you cross the border into Malawi from Mozambique. In Malawi there are lots of green trees and pretty flowers.

One of the best things about the meeting which I attended was having corporate worship in English with other missionaries. It was refreshing to hear music and messages in English. One of the key points of the message was about discouragement. When your expectations don’t meet the reality then you face discouragement. What are you going to do? This is something which I had to put into practice when I returned home from the meeting. I was faced with the reality that my sister wouldn’t be coming as scheduled because of an airline strike. My discouragement and disappointment level was very high. (and still is high at this time of writing). But I asked myself the question am I going to trust God to know that He knows best? Am I able to say that He is God over all? Phillipians 4 talks about rejoicing in all things, don’t be anxious about anything. In everything make your requests known to God. The words anything and everything have really jumped out at me today. Because I know that when things are good I can easily rejoice. But how am I going to deal with the disappointment of this situation?

At the time of this writing I am still disappointed. But because of your prayers I have been able to claim the victory which God promises. I am claiming His victory for this revised schedule and travel plans.

Sunset on Lake Malawi

Sunsets don’t get much prettier than this one.

Monkeys at hotel

The monkeys were very friendly at the hotel. They were always looking for food. I threw some popcorn outside my hotel door and before I knew what was going on the monkeys were there eating it. We ate our meals outside on a patio area. The last morning we were there the monkeys were jumping down out of the tree and picking up crumbs off the ground to eat. Some of us thought that was cuter than others did.

Bicycles for sale

I had never thought about how many people you could ride on a bike at one time until I came to Africa. I thought a bike was only for one person at a time but I was mistaken. The other day I saw a man on his way to church with his three children on the bicycle with him. I haven’t seen it yet but some people have seen goats on the bicycle with their hoofs on the handlebars.

The trip to AMT meeting

Some of you have commented that Africa didn’t look like you thought it would based on the pictures which I have sent to you. Well, the Africa I saw on the trip to Malawi is the one which you probably have pictured in your mind. The roads went from dirt to paved to dirt to paved, potholes on both types of road. Actually the dirt roads were usually better than the paved roads. For one part of the trip our average speed was 35 kilometers per hour. I saw lots of wide open space and African plain.

"Aunt" Carol

One of the hardship things which I have to do is to be aunt to the missionary kids. This one in the picture is Silas, he is 3 years old.

Island of Mozambique

The island of Mozambique is 3 km long and 300 to 500 m wide. This island was the capital of Mozambique until 1898 when Maputo became the capital. I had the opportunity to take a trip to this island. It is about an hour and half from Nampula where I am living. I just realized that I can say I have been to both capitals of Mozambique since I lived in Maputo for several months and now I have been to this island.

It is a beautiful area. However a difficult cultural thing for me was to see the beach being used as a public bathroom. But if I had always done that then I guess I wouldn't see anything wrong with it. Just one of the cultural differences.

There is a fort on the island which I was able to tour. The fort reminded me of Alcrataz Prison Island in San Francisco.

Also the former Presidential palace is on the island and I was able to tour it. I couldn't imagine living in a big house like the palace was. You could be in one part of the house and not have any idea if anyone else was anywhere around. The carving and detail on the wood furniture was incredible.

It was a good day trip. If you want to come see it let me know and you can come visit!

I don't have any friends...

The other night we-some of the ladies from the volunteer team and I were talking to a Mozambican guy about the average age that Mozambicans get married. He said around 19 or so. His age is 23 so I asked him, are most of your friends married? He said I don’t have any friends. I looked at him and quickly thought is he joking? Then I remembered that my language instructor had told me that she didn’t have many friends. That discussion had come up when she asked how many friends I have in the states. I said I have a lot. She said no how many friends do you have? I said a lot. She is in her early 40’s and she only has about 6 people who are her friends. So I learned that there is a difference between friends and acquaintances. How do you cross the threshold to go from acquaintance to friend? I don’t know…Hopefully someday I’ll figure it out and let you. By the way, the young Mozambican guy finally said that he has one friend…

Also this same day I had learned that if you are handing something to someone then you should hand it with your right hand and receive with your right hand. Otherwise it might be considered rude. Giving and receiving with your right hand is the polite and proper way.

Literacy Workshop

July 2005

I graduated today from the Literacy Workshop. We celebrated with a graduation service and for the graduation meal we had goat stew, rice and then my favorite, chocolate cake to top it off! Today was the last day of the two week workshop. What did we do at the workshop? Two Mocambicans translated Bible stories from Portuguese to their African language of Makhuwa. The Bible stories were already written and published in Portuguese form. Once the men translated them into their language of Makhuwa, another lady, Dora, and I typed them into Microsoft Word and then transferred them into Microsoft Publisher. After several revisions and double check we then printed out the finished product.

While we were translating these stories into Makhuwa, there were also people translating into 3 other African languages. There were approximately 15 or so people participating in this workshop.

It was a busy two weeks but it was very good, too, to see a finished product and know that the Africans who speak these different languages will have now have access to Bible stories in their heart languages.