Before picture

This is the Mateque School we have been working with.  This is what it looked like when we first started.  What you see in the far right bottom corner is also the door frame all worn out.  This school has only 6 classrooms.  Those six classrooms are to hold 1700 students who will be arriving to school on February 4, 2016.  Izidro is the school principle and is working hard with his community to refurbish these six classrooms to be secure so we can provide them with 140 desks and 11 teacher's desks and chairs before the children arrive.  We just recieved these pictures while we were in Johannesburg of the refurbishing.  We went out to visit after we returned to see this great progress.

Above Room refurbished

Wow!  What a difference!  We provided them with the bricks, the mortar, the bars, the doors and the electrical to refurbish with.  This is what we saw when we visited this week.  That is fast work.

Students attend school in 3 sessions.  They start early and are at school for 4 hours.   

Here's the metal door for security

door frame and metal door

The second session comes for 4 hours and then the third.  6 classrooms with 50 students each with 3 sessions still leaves classrooms out under the trees but at least some of the classes will have desks and lights and texbooks.  The textbooks will be covered by community members and students.  Izidro says he will put the 1 and 2nd graders and the 6th graders in the classrooms with desks.  The other will attend under the trees.  Our internet is being stubborn, not letting me post anymore pictures here.  I wanted to show you how they chisel out the pathway for the electrical wire in the bricks they laid.  Then when they run the wire, they patch up the chiseled out path.

Chiseled path for electrical wires

 There, finally it posted.  Izidro and Stan are standing next to a chiseled wall inside one of the classrooms.This is the first they will have had electricity in the classrooms.

[Stan] We are working on a major initiative that was opened by Salt Lake.  It is in Beira and will be a training in Maternal and Newborn Care for healthcare providers.  Training specialists from Utah will be here for a week to train.  We are helping with getting the arrangements taken care of like meals, lodging, transportation, printing of training materials, coordinating with the Ministry of Health, following up on getting the equipment thru customs, etc.  This program has been done here in Mozambique at least 5 times in years past.  I do not know the results, but there is a follow up process that we will be involved in as well.  I am not sure how they monitor how many babies are actually being saved, but it is bound to help.  The infant mortality rate is very high here caused by many factors, including malaria, no access to healthcare, and little or no training in infant resuscitation.
We love the work.  We want you to know your donations to the church's humanitarian fund is watched over and we strive to utilize it properly.  Please continue to contribute. 

water lines run

This is a water meter.  They started out with one water faucet in the playground.  Now they have a "turn off" valve inside one classroom so they can turn the water on each recess and turn it off again when school is not in session.  We had been there when the students had left the water running.  Now the students can't do that.  There are also 3 water faucets with the new water lines run throughout the playground.

Happy Izidro with the school computer provided by community

One of the things the school had asked for was a computer.  We did not provide that for them but because we were able to provide the refurbishing and the textbooks and the electrical materials, and desks, the community bought this computer for the school.

Handsome group of elders

Sisters too

December 25, 2015.  This was the first Christmas we have spent without our families.  These are pictures of the swimming pool at the mission office that used to be the mission home last mission president.  The only ones who ever swam in this pool were the last president and his wife.  I totally expected a missionary to throw another missionary in for this bright warm Christmas day but there was no incident.  This is 56 missionaries that attended a

Our classroom above the dining room at the Courtyard Hotel

We spent the week in Johannesburg, South Africa.  We were invited to go to training.  This was the first time we had met our Area Welfare Manager, Phillip Moatlhodi.  We spent Tuesday thru Friday learning things we need to be successful in our mission. 

We had 9 couple of senior missionaries there.  Three of the couples will not be there the next year we meet for our annual training so they gave us their impressions of what they would have liked to know 18 months ago.  We learned lots of useful information.

We stayed at the Courtyard Hotel

We stayed at the Courtyard Hotel.  Our meetings were held there.  They fed us breakfast and lunch just below our classroom.  What wonderful people to study with.  What wonderful meals were served to us.  It was a wonderful stay for 5 days.

Resident tortoise and friends

I I found these wonderful creatures outside our hotel room.  The tortoise was visible every day we were there.  He must live there.  The birds I saw for two days.  I don't know what kind of birds they are but very interesting.  The tortoise was huge.  He was probably 24 inches long.  Very nice to see them there.

Airport elephant made of beads

This elephant was life size and made of beads.  This was seen at the airport when we flew in to Johannesburg.  Now that is talent!!!

Koi fish pond at the Mission Office

I just enjoyed the Koi Fish pond outside the Mission Office.  It was created following down a stream from off the hill the Office was built below.  I spent a lot of time here watching and thinking.  Beautiful!

This day, we went to the temple.  What an experience.  Although we did not get a picture of the temple, the session was so welcomed.  It has been a long time since we have gone to the temple.

Mall at Mandella Square

This was one of the views at the Madella Square Mall.  There were actually 4 malls that were built side by side that you can walk from one to the other without going outside.  Fancy!  We ate at Mug and Bean in this mall.  Great experience!

Spitada's restaurant

This was steak and prawns at a fancy restaurant our Area Welfare specialist, the Petersons, took us to.  We had so much food, the whole time we were there that we were never hungry.  MMMMM!

Giraffe at the airport

This giraffe is life size.  It is amazing just how big a giraffe really is.  We haven't seen any in real life but this just whets our appetites for some safaris.

It was a wonderful week.  We look forward to training next year at this time.

New Year  2016

 

Stan is arguing with me about the caption because this was New Year's Eve, not New Years day just so you know.  We played Battleship with the sisters across the hall.  They had to be in their apartments by 5:00 so we had dinner and played games.  We welcomed in the New Year alone though because they had to be in bed by 10:30.  They had no electricity so we let them stay in our two extra rooms that had air-conditioning.  They showered in our hot shower too.  (no electricity means cold showers)  Fireworks were going off all over the city.  It seems Roman Candles are the big hit but these Roman Candles hold 20 instead of 10.  Partying carried on and on in the neighborhood all around us until sunrise.  (and for days and days before and after.  This is their summer break.)

Triage

Observation room

[Stan] We decided to return to the Moamba Hospital that we were introduced to us by COASA, an small organization that helps HIV patients in this community.  We felt the hospital was a better place to seek a partnership. Our visit was most interesting.  We took about 60 pictures.  We are posting just a few here.  The employees were very sincere and showed great concern for the people they were serving.  This is the triage room.  This hospital serves a population of 68,000.  There are 3 doctors that cover 10 clinics along with this facility.  Amazing to me.  Their needs are many.  We are hoping to be of help with a few of them.  Here is a partial list of their needs.  If they show initiative to work with us on a plan that includes the community, then I think we can be of service.  Transportation (ambulance), roof repaired, bathrooms fixed, incinerator, mattresses, electronic medical records, lab equipment, sterilizer, new cooling system for morgue.  We saw several things we could see needed help with, but they did not even mention.  We will keep you updated as we work thru this.  It is still in the investigating stage and could take months to move along.

Medical records all by hand

There are no computers being used.  All paperwork is handwritten and kept in files and ledgers. The kitchen is in another building where the dietitian and cook work in a very hot room to feed everyone; so much of the food prep is outside under the shade of a tree. Their outpatient activity is very busy with well baby checks (immunizations)and treating malaria, dysentery, HIV, etc. Twins had just been born when we arrived, one other baby just hours before that, and 1 woman in labor.  They do the best they can with what they have.  All life threatening conditions are transported to Matola or Maputo.  The road is so bad leading to and from the town that a good part of it we just drive on the shoulder.  The ruts are so deep and rough it will ruin your truck or you have to

Delivery Room

drive so slow it is ridiculous.  One glaring omission from their list was laundry facilities.  There is a small building separated about 50 yards from the rest of the facility that constitutes the laundry.  It is a one man facility with 2 concrete sinks where he washes by hand.  Not sure at this point how a machine would help.  Machines require energy and maintenance which both require cash which there is little of. 

As I mentioned before, I was touched by their sincerity and dedication to work for the betterment of their community helping the best they can.  The administrator is a younger woman and is sharp and well educated.  I believe she will be a good partner.  I was especially

Outside laundry facility

impressed with the head nurse; a young man that is our main contact there.  He seemed to have an unusually good rapport with the staff, very intelligent, and loves his work.  I have discussed this before, but the issue is not needs.  There are plenty of those everywhere we go and look.  The issue becomes the who and the how; can we develop a partnership that will truly lift the people and community; make them stronger.  Or will it just be a well-meaning give away.  This is much tougher than I thought it would be at first.  But I am learning some great principles and beginning to catch a glimpse of what true welfare really is.  I love this work; the Lord's hand is in it.  I still struggle with the language, but it does improve pouco a pouco.  Our interpreters have been really great to work with. 
We attended a baptism today for a couple that has been attending our ward.  They are a cute family; two children under the age for baptism.  They asked me to confirm them tomorrow in sacrament meeting.  I am honored to do it.