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!