Spider bite

Two days before we left Cape Town I had a spider bite. I didn't know it was a spider bite a the time and thought that it was just another mosquito bite. It was on my back and came up in a red lump similar to a mozzy bite. However, it continued to grow and the redness spread to an area the size of a mobile phone. It became very itchy and started to sting so when we travelled I was quite uncomfortable having to sit for two long-haul flights to Miami.

When we arrrived in Miami, Andy started to search on the web to try to find out what it might be. We think it was a yellow-sac spider, which are common in South Africa. They are very small, so it would be very easy to be bitten by one and not notice.

I have treated it with antibiotic cream and now almost three weeks later it no longer hurts and the redness is starting to go. Some websites said that it can take as long as six weeks to go and will probably leave a small scar. I'm just glad it wasn't on my nose!

I thought it was ironic that I had travelled to Zambia and Mozambique, using mosquito nets, taking anti-malarial tablets, applying insect repellent and using anti-bacterial handwashes, only to be bitten back in Cape Town.

On balance I think I would rather lhave arge spiders, like the one I posted a photo of, at the start of this blog (Feb 5th). At least you can see them!

D-Day Debrief

"No presenters were murdered in the installation of this playout system!" - although some came fairly close...

This is the new playout system, which all the fuss is about - NexGen. Over the past two weeks Doug from NexGen has been training up the presenters as well as providing support for the many technical issues which have arisen.

The installation has also required all the music, jingles, and permanent features for each presenter's programme to be entered into the new system. Some of them have worked until midnight many days just to complete the huge job. More than half of the eight studios were ready by yesterday, which was when the switch over took place. From today their old system, Dalet, cannot be used.

The day proceeded without too many dramas, until during the night at 3.30am, when we were woken up by the phone ringing. One of the engineers had been called out by the transmission site in Chile saying there had been several silences. Andy knew immediately that the problem was not enough music being loading into each hour for during the night when there are no presenters present, a problem he has had to deal with many times with other stations.

Today has been mopping up lots of little issues and preparing the remaining studios for handing over.

I apologise that this report is not very technical and take no responsibility for inaccuracies in the detail - I am not an engineer!

D-Day for Miami Studios

Today is the day when all the hard work of the previous two weeks will be tested. The new playout system will be operational and all presenters will need to turn their training into reality.

As you can imagine, tension has been mounting as D-Day approached. Some presenters have been diligently practising their skills, whilst others have used the 'head in the sand' approach to the changes. I will let you know how things went tomorrow!

Another spectacular sunrise

At risk of being repetitive, this was sunrise on Sunday morning. I particularly enjoyed watching the rays from the sun shining behind the clouds. It is a fantastic way to start the day!

Observations whilst walking

The weather in Miami is warm, but not too hot, so walking is quite pleasant. Over the last week I have really enjoyed walking around the area of Miami Lakes. Having lived in gated communities in Brazil and Cape Town, it is lovely to be able to walk along the road and actually see the houses. Here, it is very open and there is obviously a high level of trust in the community, as people leave all sorts of things out in their front gardens, leave their garages open and many front porches have chairs with soft cushions left on them. All of these would be targets for thieves in other places.

The trees here are beautiful and very interesting. There are many flowering bushes, which overflow onto the sidewalk (pavement), fruit trees with ripe Papaya, unripe mangoes and bananas, and best of all, the cypress trees with their root system on the outside of the tree. They look so eerie and mysterious.

I mentioned the many ducks earlier, which wander along the paths close to the lakes. There are also other birds which have right of way. These I think are ibis, and we have many of these in Cape Town also, but not on the roads!

Plastic bags and self scanning at Winn Dixie

Winn Dixie it the name of the local supermarket, here in Miami Lakes. Supermarkets stay open during the evening, so last night we went to restock our grocery supplies. When we got to the checkout, there was no one at the four self-scan stations, so we decided to have a go. I have actually used the self-scan at our local ASDA store in Walsall, but it was a new experience for Andy. All went well until he tried to remove the first bag of scanned goods. An assistant hovering nearby quickly told him not to remove the bag until the machine told him to, so we waited and placed more items into the bag. This continued until the bag was overflowing and the machine had still not 'released it'. The assistant then proceeded to place some of the goods from the top of the over-flowing bag into the trolley, which still had goods waiting to be scanned inside it. Some confusion ensued, until we finally managed to pay and escape, convinced that our transactions must surely be wrong.

We couldn't decide whether the over-flowing bag incident was part of a policy for more economy with plastic bags, which would be applaudable, or that we had somehow upset the machine! Having shopped in several countries recently I notice that each one has different 'rules' for their plastic bags. In South Africa you have to pay for your bags, so most people remember to reuse them; in Zambia the plastic bags are free but really small, so you can only get a couple of items into them; in Mozambique, the bags were normal size and freely available; in England Tesco's home shopping, which Andy's mum uses, collects all the bags for recycling with the next delivery.

When we first went to Brazil, I noticed how extravagant they were with plastic bags, putting one inside another to make it stronger and only putting a few items into them. Now that there is an emphasis on recycling in the UK, it will be interesting to see if supermarkets are encouraging people to reuse them and have places for recycling the millions of bags which must be issued everyday.

Equinox Sunset in Miami

Following on from yesterday and the observations about Equinox, I was waiting with great anticipation for sunset. Unfortunately, it has been raining quite a lot in the last few days and the sky was still overcast just before sunset. Then, the clouds close to the horizon parted to reveal this gorgeous sight, seen from the front of the house this time. You can just see the pools of rainwater still on the ground.

In fact, I was alerted by another interesting sight seen through the lounge window. The house wall opposite suddenly became light with this reflection of the palm tree upon it. I was so pleased to be able to mark the occasion with these photos.

Equinox and dark mornings

I have just been reading a friend's blog talking about the equinox phenomenon, the two days in the year (March 21st and September 21st) when everyone, everywhere in the world has 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. I was interested to read that parts the US have moved their 'daylight saving' back by a couple of weeks this year. This helped to clear up something which had been puzzling me since we arrived in Miami, which is the four-hour time difference to the UK, instead of the normal five. This is because on the day we arrived Miami (along with the whole of the Eastern time and Central time states) had just put their clocks forward one hour, whereas the UK moves their clocks forward this coming weekend, creating a two-week window where there is only a four-hour difference.

I have particularly noticed the difference this has made to the mornings, especially as it took me a whole week to adjust to the six-hour time difference from our last location, which was Cape Town. Waking up between 3-6 am, it was still dark until after 7am, and sunrise was at 7.30am when I took the pictures below ('Miami Lakes' post). It really did feel like I had been awake half the night, for the first few days. So today sunset will be around 7.15pm, and I have appreciated the light evenings, reminding me of summers at home. After three months away from UK, I am really looking forward to being there over Easter, even though the weather is still very cold; they even had snow again last week.

(More) Brazilian friends

Leticia is from Rio, working as a presenter for CVC A Sua Voz, the Christian Vision Portuguese station in Miami. They broadcast on shortwave to the whole of Brazil. They are also on the internet (www.radiocvc.com). She is receiving lots of letters, emails and SMSs, as listeners respond to her popular shows. Leticia is the first person we met at Vineyard Rio church and we became good friends over the time we were in Rio. Spending time together over these three weeks is very special for me.

This is another Brazilian presenter, Elaine, with her son, Filipe, and Leticia. Elaine is from Goias State in the centre of Brazil, where the nation's capital, Brazilia is situated. It was her car's sixth anniversary on this day!

When we went to Bayside on Saturday, Leticia took me to a place where they make the best Pina Coladas in the whole world - or so she says! Actually it was pretty good and just the thing for a lazy afternoon in downtown Miami. The building on the far right is the Hard Rock Cafe, which used to have an enormous guitar on the top. However, Hurricane Katrina whisked it away, never to be seen again. Throughout the whole area of southern Florida, roof repairs are still taking place following the damage resulting from Katrina. They should be finished just in time for this summer's hurricane season!

Miami Lakes

This is the view from the back of the house, where we are staying. This is sunrise on our first morning here - Lake Martha was so still, creating a picture postcard reflection. The following day it was pinker, but the water was not still.

Miami Lakes is a beautiful suburb in the north of Miami, away from all the towering blocks of downtown Miami, the crowded beaches and marinas. Here, you give way to ducks, which wander around the streets surrounding the lakes and there is a hefty fine for hitting one with your car.

This family of 14 ducklings had three light ones, amongst the other dark ones. They must only be a week or so old, but their parents had left them to scavenge on the bank.

Cows in Miami?

What's this? Cows in the middle of Miami Lakes? Yes, in fact they are just across the road from the studios. These cows help the land owner avoid paying taxes and provide a great talking point.

But what's this...

...or this? Bank of America have a cow as their mascot. This yellow and blue one is taken indoors every night - to prevent being milked!

Smiles to melt your heart!

To round off my postings about Mozambique, here are some more photos of the beautiful children we went to spend time with. I hope you will be as blessed as we were by them.

Shopping Centre

Julio drove us past this unfinished building, which will be Maputo's first shopping mall. It looks rather like a fairground with its bright colours and banners. I expect it is being built by a South African company. In Cape Town there are many shopping malls with fancy names and even fancier constructions. They are air conditioned, with shops on several levels, food halls and restaurants. In many ways they are just like any other shopping centre around the world and I expect the new one in Maputo will be just the same.

On the Maputo streets

Roadside stalls are simple affairs in many African countries. Mozambique was very similar to Zambia in this respect. A family makes a living by selling a few goods at the side of a main road. there is often an unwritten 'code of conduct' for these, with neighbours watching over each other's stalls when they are away.

This hardware stall, like so many others, sold some very curious items. They are hanging along the top row, and despite asking several people, we never discovered what they are used for. If anyone knows, please enlighten us!

Here you can see the women wearing their capulanas and carrying items on their heads. We noticed that it was often the women who were working, rather than the men, who tended to sit around watching the world go by.

King Jesus

The front of the church, which was actually half way down the long warehouse building, had a simple decoration - just the words "Jesus Reigns" in bold red paint, clearly demonstrating their mission statement. This photo was taken in the morning when we were both asked to bring a greeting together with anything particular we felt God saying to us to share with them. The young man next to Adam is translating into Portuguese. Again, this was a new experience for Adam, but he coped with it very well. Later, Adam was asked to preach in the evening at a new church, which has recently started. It is mostly young people and his message was a real encouragement to them. They are meeting in a building which is still being built. We know that building will be finished off with plaster on the walls and glass in the windows, but it is quite normal for buildings in Africa to be used well before they are properly finished.

This is a church in the community we visited with Iris. The walls are bare blocks. There are no window frames and most of the roof trusses were made of tree branches, tied together with string or wire. The pastor built this church on the land behind his house, and has now started another project to build a school next to it. As happens in other parts of Africa, someone has a idea and they just get going with it. They don't wait until they have saved enough money to complete; they do it in stages, often moving onto the next thing before the first one is complete!

Christian Vision in Mozambique

Julio and Sinamor are part of the Brazilian team working with Christian Vision in Mozambique. Julio has been there for 10 years and Sinamor for 8 years. They went to Mozambique as two singles and married a few years ago. They now oversee the whole team in Mozambique, from their base in Maputo. This involves them spending much of their time visiting churches in each province of Mozambique.

Their home is quite Brazilian is its arrangement and furniture. We stayed overnight with them and they made us very welcome.

When we visited, one of the churches near Zimpeto was celebrating their first anniversary. They are now a local group of about 80 people. This photo shows Adam and me with the first pastor, Fernando (Brazilian), together with two of the young men (Mozambicans) who are being trained up for leading a new church in another area of the city.

Here Sinamor and I are with the current Brazilian pastor, Maria (on the left) with some Mozambican women. I loved chatting with the women, practising my Portuguese and finding out about their families and life for ordinary Mozambicans.

Lunch was an amazing affair. Cooking a banquet for over 100 people, using very simple equipment, must have been difficult, but they made it look easy, as though they did it all the time. Mozambicans normally do not use cutlery and of course there weren't enough tables for everyone, but one long table had been prepared for 'distinguished guests'. At first I was horrified that we would be sitting down at a table to eat while most people appeared not to be eating. I really felt uncomfortable, but then Sinamor explained that there was plenty of food for everyone and soon everyone else found a chair or sat on the floor using their fingers to eat the delicious food, prepared with much love and care.

Do you notice the floor tiles? The whole building is made up of a mosaic of odd floor tiles, rather like crazy paving, but using ceramic tiles. There are all colours, sizes and shapes, but the overall effect is rather attractive. I can imagine people bringing an offering of tiles each week, until they had enough to complete the whole area.

A trip to Inhaca

On our day off at Iris we visited a small island called Inhaca. This is a beautiful tropical island accessible only by plane or a three-hour boat trip from Maputo. It is surrounded by coral which this boat cannot cross through, so it was anchored about half a mile off shore.

We then had to clamber over the side of the boat, hanging onto the rail, and down into smaller boats as they bounced about at the side of the bigger boat. This was very precarious and would never be allowed in Europe, with our stringent health and safety regulations. Obviously we had no other choice, if we were to get across to the island and so after watching the Africans with their heavy bundles climbing down, we followed their lead into the crowded boat below.

Once safely on the beach we walked along the sand thinking how were going to spend the next four hours before the whole process was repeated in reverse. We saw a notice about snorkelling and other activities, but walked on initially. Then we returned and were approached by a local asking us if we wanted to join a small group about to start the snorkelling activity. Adam had never done this before and my only experience had been in Australia, where it was very controlled and relatively safe. Here, there were no life jackets and you were left pretty much on your own with a small motor boat nearby. It really did feel like you were floating in the middle of the Indian Ocean. We were told in which direction to swim to locate the coral, which was only a few feet below the surface. We saw quite a few small fish and different types of coral, but the waters were not as clear as in Australia, as there had been a typhoon within the previous week, which had stirred up the sand and other deposits on the ocean floor.

This is a boy, who called himself Steven, who showed us where the market was on the island. He spoke quite good English and wants to be a journalist, one day. We took him to lunch with us and spent a couple of hours chatting with him, learning about life on the island. I have since sent him a dictionary and some supplies for school and hope that they get to the address he gave us. It would be good to keep in touch with him and in some small way help him achieve his ambitions.

Brazilian friends

This is Celia from Brazil, who has been working with Iris for four years. She teaches at the Bible School and takes the 'chefes' (senior boy leaders) for discipleship classes. She also visits churches belonging to the Church of God denomination throughout Mozambique, who are her sponsors in Brazil. Most weekends she takes a small team on an outreach into the bush to show the Jesus film and then to pray with people. Although a little lady she has a huge heart of compassion for the people of Mozambique. Adam spent a day wiring up a simple portable lighting system for her to use on her next weekend outreach. She then took us out to show us round Maputo. Mozambique has a long coastline with many beautiful beaches. This one in Maputo, is where the fishing boats bring their catch of wonderful Mozambican fish, some of the best in the world.







On our final day Celia took us to the fishing market where we purchased several different types of fish and then took them to a nearby restaurant for cooking - so fresh and delicious! Of course, there was far too much for just us three to eat, so she took the left overs back for her 'boys'.



One evening Celia invited Adam to her meeting with the chefes. This was a party for two of them, who had birthdays during February. Of course many of the boys don't know when their birthdays are so the day they were found and brought to Zimpeto is chosen, until family are sometimes located. Celia and the other long term helpers try to give the children as many special events as they can.

An international team of helpers

Here of some of the short term helpers who were there at the same time as us. We were very international: Here are the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) team (three from S Africa, one from Zambia, one from USA and one from Australia), a family of five from Canada and a couple from Germany, besides Adam and me from England.

This is Peter also from England. He is an accountant and had been sent by his church following his recent redundancy, as he explores options for the future. Peter came with us when we visited the Christian Vision church and was really blessed by Adam's message.

Here is the sewing class: Sebina, from Germany, working on the sewing machine and Milika, from Zambia, hand sewing on the right. Once I got used to the machine, I was able to teach them both how to use it, so they could continue after I had left. Between us we made several little girl's dresses and nighties, and boys pyjamas. It was quite a sweat shop, not because of the pace, but because of the extreme temperature; the needle kept slipping in our fingers!