Maputo

      During the Harvest School, base directors from other Mozambique Iris bases came to speak. They talked about the needs of their base and recommended you visit their base on your way home if you were interested in working with them. Maputo's greatest need was dorm missionaries, who's job it is to supervise the kids, do activities with them, and take care of their emotional and spiritual needs. A Mozambican Tia will take care of their physical needs, get them up, showered, to meals, school etc. She is working for pay and doesn't necessarily care that much about the kids, it's just her job. A missionary would try to get to know the kids; talk with them individually and be a friend and mentor.

Even on the Pemba base where there are 170 fully adopted kids there is no one there who knows all their names. Heidi might know them all, I don't know, but people who have worked there 5 years don't know even half of them.

There is a school on the Pemba base and a hospital being built and they have vocational school. They have a lot of needs there as well. In Mozambique the teachers have to be Mozambican but the teachers need helpers. The Pemba base is getting full so you may have to live in the town and then have transportation and money for housing.

Maputo use to be really crowded (more than one child to a bed) but the new director has sent more kids home and taken in less, so it's not as bad. A lot of their kids aren't orphans, they've just come from bad situations, they might not have a house or something. Parents are allowed to visit and they are allowed to go home for visits. There are some orphans, some AIDS kids and some handicapped kids that will live there forever.

I decided to go to Maputo for 2 weeks before I went home to see if I would like to go back as a dorm missionary. They are looking for people to stay for years, not just months. They would like it if you stayed for life, but they would take people for a couple years at a time. Some people come to learn Portuguese and learn how to start their own base. You would have to learn Portuguese. It is in a big city on a base and I didn't like it nearly as much as being in the village. This is the story of my time in Maputo. I did not have a camera, but have a few photos from others who have been there and hope to find more to add soon.

 I arrived in Maputo on a very rainy Wednesday evening. Zimpeto (the base) is the name of the first base that Rolland and Heidi started when they first got to Mozambique, and it is in the capital city Maputo. They have around 300 kids staying there, some are orphans and will stay until they are 18. Lots of kids are there because their parents can not take care of them and sometimes things change and they can go home. Parents are allowed to visit and kids can go home over Holidays. While I was there almost half the kids where home for the holiday's.

I stayed in the visitors center which was really nice. They have enough room for more then 50 visitors. I had a nice room with two other women one of which had also done the Harvest school. They also have a very nice large community kitchen so we could cook our own food but we were welcome to eat with the kids for free. I had missed dinner that first night but was blessed by the other visitors who said I was welcome to join them for dinner. I was awakened the next morning by the 7am siren so I was ready for breakfast by the time the 8 am breakfast siren went off. The siren went off every morning as a wake up call and then for all three meals and at shower time.

I had a pretty quiet first day. I had orientation in the morning and they have church every Thursday night. In orientation I learned a lot more about the base and about the type of stuff I would have a chance to help with. They leave a lot up to each visitor. We have the choice to do a lot or a little; we can be as involved in things as we choose. They have sign up sheets in the visitor kitchen with regular activities and then we are free to help out with what ever we want around the base. I really wanted to get to know the girls so I spent a lot of free time with them. We could sign up to go the Hospital; twice a week groups would go to pray for people. We could also sign up to go out on street ministry twice a week. One day they would go to the prison and the other day they would hold church services in parks or abandoned houses. We could also sign up to go to the garbage dump where they hold a church service and evangelize. They also had fun things like going shopping or out for a meal. They also do weekend outreaches much like the Pemba base.

My first encounter with the kids happened at meal time which is very different from Pemba. Instead of getting in a long line, getting a plate of food and then sitting wherever they want they have the kids come in and sit down. They sit at tables by age and gender. All the girls sit at the first table then young boys at the next and then older boys. Each table can sit about 50 kids. Every one sits down and waits. When everyone is there and seated one of the male dorm leaders gets everyone to be quiet by yelling Amen!- Silence! Then all the kids say a prayer while he walks around and listens. If he decides they didn't say it loud enough or if he thinks some kids didn't say it he makes them all say it again. If they where good they serve the food. All the older guys and some of the visitors bring the plates of food to each table, usually starting with the girls. No one gets anything to drink and each plate has a spoon on it so it only takes them about 10 minute to feed everyone. The kids eat quickly and as they are done, if they have any food left over, they give it to the others who are not done yet. This usually causes a lot of noise and arguing. The whole meal is very loud and messy with plates being passed back and forth and kids sharing and taking things off each others plates.

When the food brought to the table the girls would immediately start to eat and trade food. We would have things like rice with a sauce that had both potatoes and pasta in it and the girls would either like one or the other but rarely both. So they would try and get rid of some food and get the other. On cabbage nights they didn't like the cabbage so they would all try and scrape their cabbage off onto other peoples plates. One or two girls liked the cabbage and they would have 5 other girls trying to scrape off their cabbage at once. Then as soon as some girls got done they would give away the food that was left and all the other girls would want it and yell me! me! even though they still had lots of food. I quickly learned the Portuguese words for enough, no, me, her, please, thank you and finished. The girls would always try to give me the extra food, so being able to say I had enough and was finished was important, and they would usually listen and give it to someone else.

    My second encounter with the kids happened at church that night. Church and the kitchen are the same building. It is a long open building with tables in one half and benches facing a stage in the other half. Church was also quite different but a little easier to adjust too. Again they sat the kids by age and gender. I think they sat them down by dorm with their dorm parent there to watch them. I went and sat with the girls and pretty soon worship started. It started a lot like a western service with us all standing in rows singing and they even had a projector so we could sing along. But after just a couple of songs they said we could all come forward and they did the more traditional worship with lots of dancing. Because they didn't have anybody up front leading the dancing, little groups just started doing their own thing, so it was harder to join in and hard to focus on singing but it was a lot of fun. Then they had groups of kids come up and do songs or dances. Then a short message was given; it was not translated and only lasted about 10 minutes. Then worship started again and people started leaving. I stayed for a little bit but left when the majority of the people left. We could hear the worship band playing for at least another hour. I asked if this was normal and was told the band liked to play so they would keep going for a long time even if everyone had left. 
 
            The next day was Friday the day they go to the garbage dump.

    I had heard about the dump, and it was one of the reasons I wanted to visit Maputo, so I was excited to be going. We left around 9 am and it took 20 minutes to drive there. We brought bread and clothes with us to hand out after church so we had a lot to carry into church with us. There is no road to the church so we had a ten minute walk. As we walked along more and more kids joined our group. The church was a nice building at the foot of all the garbage. We put everything in the church and a one of the guys started playing a guitar while the church filled with people mostly kids. Each of us visitors had a group of kids holding our hands and wanting to be held. We sat down with the kids and joined in the worship, then we broke into three groups. One group stayed and did a kids program, one group went to the top of the garbage to evangelize, and the last group went out into the community to pray for people.

I went with the group that went out into the community. There were 8 of us in this group. A church mama, a young girl from the base, two translators, another visitor, and myself. We went to a house but the person wasn't home and then at the next house they talked for a bit. At the third house we went in to pray for an older women. She had some health problems and couldn't use one of her hands at all. We prayed for her and then the young girl talked to her for several minutes. They did not translate what she said but I knew enough Portuguese to figure out she was telling part of her testimony and encouraging the women. At the next and last house we prayed for the couple. The husband had something wrong with his leg but they both wanted prayer so we prayed for them. Then the other visitor I was with encouraged them to keep trusting in God and talked about Gods love for them and having hope in all circumstances. Then we headed back to the church for the main service.

After the service we handed out bread and clothes to the kids. We had a big box full of clothes and as the kids filed past us we tried to dig out something they could wear. It was a sad job and the hardest part for me. So many kids would come by with dirty torn clothes and no shoes and we would have to try and find something they could wear. Most of the clothes looked like stuff second hand stores had tossed out and not at all the type of clothes I would l want to be handing out to these kids.

   That evening we went shopping for food and traffic was so bad it took an hour and a half to drive to a store 20 minutes away. The next day was new years eve so us visitors were busy all day. The base had planned a huge new years party for the kids that was to start after dinner around 6pm and go until midnight. We spent all morning preparing crafts for the kids; it was a lot of fun. We prepared crowns, masks, and puppets for the kids to make. We blew up balloons and made paper chains for decorations. After lunch we decorated. The kids happily helped us and had a great time climbing into the rafters to hang balloons and the paper chains. We were worried at first but the kids where great climbers and the staff seem unworried by them climbing 20 feet in the air.

We ate dinner with the kids and then went to the party with them. First they did the crafts, then there was an open mike time which the kids loved. They are all natural performers and love to sing. Then we fed them all hot dogs and soda and the kids watched a movie until 11:30pm when it was time to head to the soccer field for a firework show. 
                                  This is the soccer field.

   The fireworks were very cool but made me very nervous. Not all the fireworks went up as planned and we sat pretty close. Lots of the kids and most of the girls ran and watched from much farther back. There was a moment when we looked out across the city and as far as we could see fire works lined the horizon in a great beautiful display. The show ended in a great finale at midnight and we all wished each other happy new year in Portuguese before heading to bed.

The next morning we slept in until church at 10am. I really enjoyed church which was a strange mix of western and African. The message was translated but because I was sitting with the girls and had brought my bag with me, we were way too distracted to pay attention. The only way to get anything out of a sermon in Africa is to avoid the kids, which I never do. I didn't end up doing much the rest of Sunday. 

                                This is one of the girls, her name is Anita.

   
    On Monday I decided to spend some real quality time with the girls since not much else was going on. I went and spent the morning with them hanging out in their own private area which they rarely leave. The base has lots of room including multiple play grounds, a soccer field, and basket ball courts, yet the girls rarely leave the area with their houses. Lots of visitors come to Zimpeto about 800 every year but very few get to know the girls. 
     The boys are very out going and will spend hours in the play ground outside the visitors center and the baby house is often a favorite place for visitors but the girls get left out.

                          Here are some photos of the boys on the playground.

                                              They are all great gymnasts.

    It was an interesting experience going to spend the morning with them. I was treated as a life sized doll that should do as I was told. The little English they knew seemed to be commands like come! Sit! Stand! and so on. They dressed me up, did my hair, taught me a dance, took me on a walk, and then sat down to color and then finally played a game where we took turns being blind folded and chased each other. I was exhausted by lunch and still trying to figure out Portuguese from Makua in my head. I knew more Makua than Portuguese when I got there but quickly learned more Portuguese.

After lunch I just relaxed and enjoyed the good books and company in the visitors area. Tuesday morning was one of the rare opportunity's to go shopping, so I spent the morning in town. We only go to one store but with the traffic it took hours. After lunch I again visited with the girls. They can be a rough bunch so I ended up doing ninja fighting with a bunch of them. I could take three or four of them at a time and they loved it.

On Wednesday the morning was free but in the evening I went out on street ministry. Our group was holding the church services. The first place we stopped was a field by some very run down apartments. From what I could figure out this is where the prostitutes lived. We waited under a tree for awhile and a young man came up talking in Portuguese. They did not translate but I could figure out some of what was going on. The man said the women were not happy and not coming, he said a lot more but I couldn't understand. The Mozambicans who were with us said it didn't matter that we would have the service any way. So we had a service for three guys. Then we went to the next location. This time it was an old abandoned house and people literally crawled out of holes in the walls. This was truly some of the poorest of the poor. About 20 adults showed up to sing worship songs and hear the message. We gave each person a loaf of bread at the end of the service.

Thursday morning was free for us to hang out or help out in any of the dorms and with projects and the afternoon was the visit to the Hospital. We left around 3pm and got to the hospital in about 30 minutes. They pray for a few different wards and on this day we went to the baby ward. We had two translators so we broke into two groups each taking a side of the hall. We entered rooms which had between 1 and 4 babies and their moms. The translator would greet the moms and tell them that we were there as a part of Iris ministry. We asked about them coming to church or needing a Bible and shared some encouragement. We asked what was wrong with the baby and if we could pray. We prayed for all the babies and the moms seemed really open to prayer and listened to anything we had to say. It took us over an hour to pray for all the rooms on the one hall way so we didn't have have time to start another hall. We probably prayed for about 50 babies all with different kinds of problems. There was church as usual on Thursday so we had to be back on time for dinner. The service was good and I really enjoyed the worship I love African worship.

Friday I again got to go to the garbage dump I didn't think I would be able to as a large team had arrived and they all wanted to go. The sign up sheets are limited to a certain number depending on vehicles that are free. I was able to go and we had a very full car. This time I chose to go with the group that went up on top of the garbage and it was a much different experience. At the bottom of the garbage there is very little smell and not that many flies but on top it is bad. There where so many flies and it was hot and smelly. The people walk around bare foot and in rags collecting what they can to be recycled or eaten. There are young kids working along side their parents and many women have a baby strapped to their back or sitting in the garbage nearby. They were not very friendly and said they were to busy to talk. Most did not want prayer and the kids would move away if we tried to approach them. Splitting into small groups with our translators we tried to talk to the women and finally did convince a few of them to let us pray for them and one lady agreed to come to church if we helped her carry the stuff she had collected down to the bottom of the garbage. We only had a short time before we had to head back to the church for the service but we did help the women with her stuff so she could join us. Church was good and two of the visitors shared messages. We again helped with the food and clothes but it didn't take as long because we did not have as many clothes.
After getting back and eating lunch I was hanging out in the visitors area when my roommate asked if I would like to go to the market with her to buy mangoes for the girls. I said yes and we went to find some kids to take with us. Visitors are not allowed to leave the base unless they bring along someone from the base to translate. We ended up taking four of the older girls between 11-14yrs with us. We had to walk about 30 minutes to get to the market and we had a good time singing songs and getting to know the girls. It took us a long time to find the mangoes but it was nice to be off base and get to know the girls.
Saturday was a chance for us to go into the city and enjoy a good meal and shop at a souvenir market. We left around 10 am and did not get back until dinner after 5pm. It took a long time for lunch, even longer than normal. I had gotten used to it taking a full hour after ordering to get food so was not too surprised but it took almost 2 hours before the last person in our group got food. We ate in a nice restaurant with a view of the ocean so it was a nice place to just relax and talk. After we ate we headed to the souvenir market which turned out to be big and fascinating. It was one of those places where you can spend all day. There was so much to see and we had to barter so it took a long time to buy anything. We all enjoyed the challenge of trying to find the right gifts for the best price.
Sunday was church day and for a lot of us the last service we would attend, so they had us come up to the front and we were each given a capulana and the kids came up and prayed for us. We did not know what they were saying but it was a special time.
Monday was my roommates last day so we hung out quite a bit and both of us spent a lot of time with the girls. Then on Tuesday she left and it was close to the end of my time as well. I spent most of Tuesday getting ready to leave and hanging out with the girls. Then in the evening we had a worship and prayer time for the special needs kids. There are a few kids with special needs that would have been killed if the base had not taken them in. We took three of them into the visitor kitchen and spent an hour holding them, praying for them, and just worshiping.

Wednesday was my last full day. I spent the morning hanging out with the other visitors. After lunch I spent time with the girls before going out on street ministry. We again held church services but this time we were a big enough group to split up. I went with a group to a park where we had a service for about 10 young men who seemed to be homeless and possibly living in the park. We had a long service with three young men sharing messages. Then we met up with the other group for the service at the abandoned house. That service was quite interesting. Even more people showed up than the week before and at first things were not going so good. A couple of the women were arguing and were not gathering to join us in worship. Things got so loud we could not hear the speaker. We all started to pray for peace and order and things really calmed down. In the end we had a good service and a young man came up to say that he had only come to collect some money one of the guys owed him but then decided to listen to us. He left without even trying to get the money.

Thursday morning I finished packing,cleaned, and then went to say goodbye to the girls. They made me friendship bracelets and it was a fun last morning.