Mozambique

República de Moçambique

(Diego would advise you to look for the island of Madagascar,

 and then hop over to the mainland of Africa to easily find Mozambique!)

It is hard to grasp the size of Africa, but if you look at the Mozambique coastline, it is about the length of the US west coast.  Nampula, currently MAF’s only base, is around where Portland would be and the capital, Maputo, is approximately San Diego.  Roughly twice the size of California, Mozambique only has 3900 miles of paved roads.  It has 25 rivers which cross the country from east to west and can seriously impede travel.  Due to rivers, other terrain and lack of infrastructure, a day’s drive by 4x4 can easily be within a one hour flight by air.  There are also huge rock formations, mountainous areas and sandy, white beaches. 

Mozambique has had strong influences, especially along their beautiful coastline, from Arabic traders.  It was “discovered” by Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama in 1498 and remained a Portuguese colony until 1975.  The country's official language is Portuguese.  According to Operation World, there are 53 languages spoken in Mozambique and 62 people groups.  Because we fly to many different tribes in northern Mozambique, we will be learning Portuguese and then the tribal greetings and common phrases for the villages we fly to. 

There was a war for independence from Portugal which ended in 1975 with Mozambique as a communist country.  It remained communist until shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, and is now a democracy with executive, legislative and judicial branches.  The country is still recovering from a long civil war that finally ended in 1992.  When the war ended, Mozambique was the poorest country on Earth.  While great improvements have been made, there is still a long road ahead and the nation currently has the third lowest human development index in the world. 

There is a mix of religions in Mozambique.  According to Joshua Project, the country is 47% Christian (9% Evangelical), 32% Ethnic religions and 18% Islamic.  Often individuals practice a combination of multiple religions.  The Islamic influences are concentrated more in the north where we will be.

Currently, MAF operates from one base in northern Mozambique, Nampula.  The base is roughly 400,000 people but we’re told feels more like many small villages grown together than a city.  There are five MAF families here, the first arrived in 1998.  We are all praying to be able to open up a second base of operation in the future.  There are a Cessna 206 and a Cessna Caravan in use.  MAF flights are primarily in the north where the infrastructure is sparsest, but during flooding we sometimes operate in the south and also do air ambulance trips down to South Africa. 

There is a vibrant and rich culture in Mozambique which we are eager to grow in knowledge of.  Holly is eager to sew with some of their colorful capulana fabrics and Grady is ready for fresh seafood should we get any trips in to the coast!  Food can be spicier (due to Arabic & Portuguese influences) such as their PiriPiri sauce made from chilis. It is a beautiful, colorful country and a joyful people which we are working to make our home in and among.