Our First Few Weeks in Mozambique

Almost three weeks ago we said goodbye to Luis and Helena, our landlords who had become adopted grandparents, and drove a couple of hours to Lisbon, where we boarded our almost eleven hour overnight flight across Africa. 

It was actually a little bit more exciting than that, because even though we got to the airport more than two and a half hours before departure, the airline decided to charge us for the car seats, which we had to pay for in the separate and lengthy customer service line, so after that (plus regular check in, irregular baggage, security, and passport control), we sped through the airport in an attempt to catch our flight.  “Sped through" is a little relative as we had so much stuff even Diego was pushing a cart, but he was doing it fast for not being able to see over it.  Anyhow, we were among the last of the 270ish passengers to board the plane, and we walked through the boarding door about ten minutes before departure.

I am generally the guy who would say we wasted ten minutes by arriving so early, but this time, with two boys, tons of stuff, and only a few more days we could legally stay in Portugal, even I was starting to get nervous.

The flight went surprising well.  Lucas went to sleep right after dinner, and we woke him up when it was time to get off in Mozambique.  Diego did not sleep quite that long, but between sleep and the movies he did fine as well, so that was a blessing.

My back did better than I thought it would, (sitting is the least comfortable position for me), but I could not get comfortable enough to sleep, so by the time we got to Mozambique I was exhausted.  Staying awake did give me an appreciation for how big Africa is – it took several hours just to cross the Sahara, in a Jumbo jet.  Diego was really impressed with the size of the Sahara too, but he fell asleep before our aerial camel reached the other side.

Several hours later we cleared customs in Maputo (the capital) without a problem, and had five hours before our two hour flight to Nampula (the city we live in now and the MAF base in Mozambique).

The MAF team was there to meet us and helped us collect the portion of our bags that had arrived.  While I went with one of my new coworkers to ask about the bags that had not, Holly and the boys went over to the MAF hangar and got a tour.

Our last four bags arrived on the flight that evening, and our team here took care of meals for the first several days, which was really nice as we recovered (actually a few of us got sick, but then we recovered).

Most of our shipment was already here, so it has been like Christmas unpacking things we packed more than a year ago, as well as getting to know our two new German Shepherds.  Except for Lucas’ lack of appreciation for dog kisses in the face, we all love Sarge and Lady.  Lucas even helps feed them every evening, and only drops the dish with all the food about 30% of the time.

We have been busy moving in, unpacking, rebuilding furniture, and fixing up a few things.  I have also been trying to child proof the place a little as Lucas is getting in to everything (he now moves chairs around to climb onto higher things.  He seems mainly attracted to knives and 220 electrical, but anything high up or dangerous will do).  It is still not child proof, but we have achieved some level of child resistance.

This process has taken longer than you would expect, as we are also adjusting to filtering our drinking water (after hooking up the filter a little unorthodoxicly), disinfecting our fruits and vegetables, shopping in several spread out places after we convince someone to give us a ride, etc.

We have also been more tired as Lucas has been waking up at or just after the first Islamic call to prayer in the morning – about 4:30 a.m. (It certainly is not the loudest noise in the night, so I’m not sure that is what is waking him up, but Lucas sleeping until 5:30 is a good day right now).

So far Nampula has felt a lot like a similar sized city in Latin America, albeit more like Nicaragua than Costa Rica.  The women carry babies wrapped in vibrant blankets on their backs, and even many of the hijabs (Islamic head coverings) are colorful.  Everyone carries impressive loads on their heads.  We live across the street from the Coca-Cola distributor, and it is not uncommon to see someone carrying three crates of glass bottles on their head (if they are riding on the back of a motorcycle they scale it down to two on their head though).

On the busy streets vendors are selling live chickens, rope, cell phone credit, fruit, miscellaneous hardware, etc. all from little stands – as one of my coworkers put it “you can buy just about anything you can think of, except whatever you need at the moment.”

Everyone has been friendly, and will greet you if you are walking.  To each other most people speak Makua, the local tribal language, but no one seems to mind switching to Portuguese to talk to us.  It is very common for someone to come up and ask for work -  women ask for a job cooking or cleaning,  boys insist on bagging your groceries and pushing your cart out of the store for a few cents, men guard cars and help you park, etc.  So far though, other than people obviously disabled - like missing limbs, everyone is asking for a job and not money.

You do see some people missing legs though, and I am told most of that is from the landmines left over from the war (they have finally been cleared now, which MAF was very involved with).

Nampula is not particularly dangerous, but MAF already had a night guard working at our house when we got here.  Violent crime is rare, but petty crime is high. Unemployment here is also very common, and labor is cheap, so having the money to hire someone is seen as an obligation to provide a job, and therefore night guards are normal (and if you are the only person without one then you are a good target for the petty crime).  Mozambique also requires a ratio of Mozambican to foreign workers for our business license, which we need to fly, and having night guards for all of our families helped MAF hit that ratio.

Anyway, Diego and I have been getting to know our guards (one works five days a week and the other covers the extra two).  Both of them have lost their parents and a few siblings, and they are only 34 and 24.  I should have expected that based of Mozambique’s statistics, but it is different hearing the stories of real people.

Armando, the first guard we met, dropped out of school when his parents died and he was forced to move, but he is going back now since he got the job with MAF.  A lot of adults here who did not complete their education during the war are going back now, and the high school runs three shifts (morning, afternoon and evening) to keep up.  Armando has been learning English with the other American MAF employees, and speaks a fair amount, plus Portuguese and Makua (the local tribal language).   I have not met too many people with less than a high school education who are tri-lingual, but apparently here it happens all the time (the wife of our other guard is tri-lingual as well).

Our guards are our best window into the culture right now, and Diego enjoys going out and kicking the soccer ball around with them even on the nights I cannot be outside, and a couple nights ago we taught one of them how to throw a Frisbee.

We do not have a car yet (the MAF Land Cruiser we will be using just passed the Suez Canal on its way here), but I drove the program Land Rover for the first time yesterday, and driving on the left side takes some getting used to (and getting into the passenger side on the left is weird too).

Our road is dirt, with a huge puddle/pond just a few hundred feet from our house, but still the roads so far have been better than I expected.   When I said that to a coworker, he laughed and said “just wait for rainy season.”

There is a lot more bike, pedestrian, and crazy motorcycle traffic than even in Latin America, so that keeps driving interesting.  At night most of the motorcycles do not have lights, so that adds points for degree of difficulty.  Walking is interesting too, as pedestrians NEVER have the right of way (unless they are hit, and then I hear sometimes the driver goes to jail for a few days).

We went out to Diego’s school the first week for a placement test for first grade.  The school is about 30 minutes away, out of town, and it is beautiful.  It is surrounded by huge granite rock formations and is very green.  Diego got to meet his new teacher and he likes her.  He also passed the first grade entrance exam (whatever that is . . .).

This week has been our first going out to the airport and working.  I am still waiting to get a medical certificate to fly, due of the whole broken back thing, but Monday I helped with a 50 hr inspection on our Cessna 206, and learned my way around the shop a little.  Holly has been starting her Mozambique pilot training.  Yesterday our team met to discuss the ministry plan for next year, and today Holly is riding along on a couple of 206 flights for Bible translators.

Monday one of the other pilot’s wives watched the boys, but Tuesday (and today) I am being a stay at home dad.  I am thinking of starting a daddy blog to share all my pro professional dad techniques.

For example today we ran out of bananas and oranges.  We are without a car, and while I can carry Lucas for a while, with my continuing broken spine recovery, carrying him all the way to the closest fruit stand is still inadvisable.  Luckily last week I connected Diego’s bike to the kid trailer, so I got Diego to do all the work pulling Lucas there for the second time (not quite all the work – this bike/trailer setup is one wheel drive on roads they recommend a 4x4, so I had to push them out a few times).

Bikes around here tend to be more tools than toys, so kid bikes are not common, and I do not think anyone had ever seen a trailer.  A white guy running next to a six year old blonde kid, pulling a blond one year old in a trailer turned some heads and generated a fair amount of laughter.

People definitely remembered us from the first time, although I’m not sure if we are making friends or just spectators.  Anyhow, that is all the time I have for now.  I will try and talk Holly into writing a post about her flights in a couple of days.  Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

Grady