Mlilwane

What a fun trip!  I love animals and this is definitely animals.  We saw so many and so close to us.  I was amazed.

This is a wild game park just outside of where we stay in Swaziland.  We have driven past it many times and decided on a day when all our appointments had canceled that we would go visit.  It cost about $2 a person.

This is a monument to ORiely.  He donated the land for this Wildlife Sanctuary some 70 years ago or so.  The king at that time agreed and took the land to create this park. 

I love the way the Swazi people make their fences.  They put sticks straight up in the ground close together and just run them for however long they want.
Fencing, by the way, in Swaziland is an interesting thing.  They have all kinds of fencing but I believe it is more likely used conscientiously  to keep animals out than in.  You never want to drive on the roads in Swaziland in the dark.  The cows, goats, etc. run wild on the roads and the hump/bumps put in for traffic speed are horrendous.

Now, about the fencing......You see fencing, modern fencing, all over but there are always holes in the fencing along the road.  I would think you might as well not have any fencing at all if you are going to let the fence get holes in it.

I was thinking of this thought when listening to the words of the sacrament song, "There is a Green Hill Far Away".  In that song, one of the verses says, "He, only, could unlock the gate of Heaven and let us in".  If the gate is open, then there is no need for the fence.  God has opened up Heaven.  He is not keeping it from us.  Do we know the gift heaven is?  Do we want heaven enough to use our probationary time to KNOW GOD, to take upon us His Name
 and in doing so, recognize the great gift of this open gate?  Or are we still seeing the fence around it not ready to receive the great gift that has already been given us.  The gate is open!!!!  Will we walk thru it?

Birds live in this hillside

We were so taken by this little beautiful bird that I did not get a picture of.  It is bluegreen feathered around its wings but red throated and it's head just glistens in the sun.  It is only about 5 inches long from head to tail but it pecks holes in the side of this hill for its nest.  We watched them fly in and out for quite a while. This was on the Hippo Trail!

Impala beauty, tail down

Warthogs in the distance with big tusks

baby warthogs not quite big tusks

baby Nyala let me get real close

Big Nyala daddy.  See the pocadots on his face!

Sis. Martins and me close to the warthog babies

baby zebras have fuzz on their furr

Pretty park

First guinea hens I have seen. Suppose to be country bird.

We hope to visit more of the wildlife parks to see what we can see.  This was an amazing adventure.  I told the grandkids we need to have an African rodeo.  How many of these animals could you ride?  On Swiss Family Robinson movie, they rode a few of them. 

Still hope to see a Hippo and a giraffe and an ostrich.  These are ones I hope to see on my list of animals to see.  I would love to see more monkeys.  We saw a monkey on a leash at the grocery store yesterday.  It was a spider monkey.  The spider monkey on a leash was the first wild animal I saw when we came to Africa and the only wild animal I saw for 5 months.  However, I have only seen these two monkeys in the wild.  I did see 4 monkeys on the road to the Swazi village when we visited Swaziland the last time though and are told that the missionary home, (called the green house) wakes up each morning to the laughing and swinging from the limbs of the monkeys.  Wow!  What an experience.

Ricatla

This week we were able to get another project approved and will be starting the work in a few days.  It is a smaller project, but one we hope will accomplish our goal of teaching welfare principles and

Escola Primaria 1 de Ricatla

getting the community more involved and willing to support what needs to be done.  This is a school in the Maracuene school disctrict that has about 1000 students that attend in 3 sessions.  (This is common here because of the high number of students for the facilities they have available).  They have one government built building that has an office and 3 classrooms.  They added a classroom made of local material (reeds).  But many of the classes are held outdoors under trees. (Also, very common.)  Maybe next week we will be ready to show you pictures of another one we are hoping to get approved in the same district. 

Local material classroom

We are securing the existing classrooms and adding some desks. We cannot put desks and materials in a classroom that cannot be secured.  Neither can we build new buildings.  They have started the construction of more classrooms, but got discouraged and the work has stopped.  Our hope is that by helping them improve the building they do have it will encourage them and give them hope.  They need to believe they can take care of the problems they have and that they have the resources to do it.  Often, what is needed is just a bit of a kickstart and holding them to the task.  When we find someone in the community that already believes, then our job is much easier.

Desks being used now.  Damaged/broken ones will be repaired by the community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classes under the trees.  Rain?  No classes

Students

 

 

 

Community meeting where we proposed the project and received feedback

Foundation for new classrooms.  Not our project, but we are watching closely to see if they will finish.

Man in center is the director, Celestino Coure

I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting next week.  It will be my first official talk in church; although I have shared my testimony a number of times, prayed and spoken in classes and try to speak Portuguese more and more as we meet with people to develop projects.  It should turn out OK, because I can write it. But I do remember several years ago as a counselor to Pres. Brusman that after one of my talks that I had prepared and had all written out and read, he told me not to do that again.  He said my talks were better when I just got up and spoke with a few notes to keep me on track.  So I never wrote a talk again.  We will see what happens!!

Pump stolen

Last week celebrate water at long last

Fencing needing to be repaired for security

Vandalism, holes to climb in the broken window of classroom

Door designed to keep bolt cutter out

Lock forced thru 

Hello to everyone!  Teril posted some pics of our last trip to Swaziland.  We visited another nature reserve along with checking on projects.  This week, we decided to post pics and tell about a school we are trying to help here in the Maputo area.  It is called EPC de Machava KM 15.  There are 7500 students that attend in 3 shifts for about 4 hours per shift.  The history is long and would likely bore you; but I will try to give you the short version.  I think it will help explain the principles we strive to use and the challenges of the work.  About 5-6 years ago the church drilled a well and supplied water to this school and community along with some latrines for the students.  Not long after someone stole the pump; we suspect an inside job.  The community purchased another pump and shortly thereafter it stopped working.  The city made a few attempts at helping, but did not follow through.  When we first arrived on our mission we were shown this school, as other missionaries had tried to help.  I will skip a lot here, but we finally succeeded in getting a meeting with FIPAG (water authority) and explained the situation. They promised to evaluate the well and determine if it should continue to be used or if the school could be connected to the main water supply (which is not very reliable). 

well house and tower

In the meantime, a new school director was assigned and she spent her own money (about $250) to get a private contractor to get the pump working and at least have water for the kids to get a drink.  3 weeks later the pump is again stolen.  The policy of the church is that if we come back to a project that we originally completed and have to refurbish or redo, it is a 50/50 deal.  The community has a real problem they will have to agree to fix and demonstrate they are doing just that before we can help them.  They want to build/repair the wall around the school and the latrines need to be fixed which will be the major part of the project.

drinking station

The drinking station has long been vandalized and abandoned.  The classrooms in the background is one of about 5 buildings that has 4 classrooms each, but many classes are still held outdoors because of the number of students.  Throwing money at the school will not help them.  We are trying to develop a long term plan with them so they can take care of these facilities and repair and maintain them once we leave.  This, of course, assumes that we will be doing something here, which is a big assumption at this point. There are some pit latrines that we installed years ago that have sunk into the ground and are no longer fit for use.  The children just use the ground around the pit latrines to relieve themselves.  We finally arranged for a couple of contractors to come and give us bids.  We have not received them yet, but as mentioned above, the community will have to come up with at least 50% if they want the project to move forward and they will have to provide a written and workable plan they can agree to that will maintain and sustain the facilities. 

Pit latrine needing to be removed

We have yet to hear from FIPAG for their evaluation and approval.  We are hopeful that they will work with us to make this happen as well as the community's willingness to step up.  We are convinced the guards know who has stolen the pump and possibly are in on the deal.  We feel the community/school needs to fire them and deduct the cost of the pump from their pay.  Also, there will need to be some training for students and staff on how to use and take care of the latrines that use a hand bucket flush/wash system.  Metal locking doors will need to be installed and the school will have to maintain and clean the facility.  If this project goes through it will be such a success story; however, I must admit, I am skeptical. 

Pump stolen

Pump in well and working last week!

Thorns on a huge trunk of a tree!!  THis tree protects itself from things climbing it!!! Sharp like roses.

We spent a few days in Swaziland following up on projects there.  We were given some projects already started by the area office because they lost some people and cannot keep up.  So now we have these to work on.  Teril took this picture of a tree trunk.  I do not know the name of it, but you would not want to try and climb it!  These thorns are as big as your finger and very sharp.

This is a water storage tank that is part of a spring collection source.  We asked to see wells or water systems that work and some that do not.  This one is working, but needs some repair.  The man next to me, Menzi, was one our guides. Next to him (the tall one) is Tualani who drove so fast it even scared me.  We were following in our truck and it was all I could do to stay up with him.  The other 2 men are community leaders responsible for the water system.  This system was built in 2010.  The little girl is a daughter of one the men on the left.  Her name is Nkosephayo Dlamini.  This is a very common last name in Swaziland.  It is the name of the kings for a number of generations and with multiple wives the name is one of the most common in the country. (I have to wear a hat; the sun is very intense.)

Here is a view of the whole system

This particular area of Swaziland is quite arid and they are also in a severe drought.  Everyone is worried and they are trying to figure out how they are going to manage it with the resources they have.  We have an open project now that will help them restore 10 wells that needed repair/refurbishing.  We are investigating the possibility of proposing a major initiative (managed by a specialist from the US with us as the in-country-coordinators).

Here is a hand pump at the community of Mkhiweni.  It is a very good well that has a good capacity and they would like to put in an electric pump and build a reservoir to hold the water so they can service a greater area.  But they do not have the funds now for this.  Not sure if this will be a part of our project, but whatever we do it will ease the burden and allow them to do more with what they have.

This pump is in the Kutsimuleni community.  The well dried up and now they have to return to the stream to get water which is not clean water.  The government tried to fix it at first, but determined it would not produce.  So now they need to drill in another location.  Parts were removed from the pump so they would not be stolen or vandalized.  For the most part, the communities do a pretty good job of taking care of the wells.  There is a fence around them and a locked gate.  People who have had clean water for a while are more vulnerable because they are not accustomed to using the unclean water.  Children also are at a higher risk.  So the government wants to repair/refurbish existing wells that are not presently producing as a priority.

Here is a water system that was a good producer; an electric pump that filled a reservoir.  It was built in 1997.  Three years ago the pump went out.  The community has the responsibility to pay for the repairs, but were not contributing as they should because of quarreling.  As a result the pump was not repaired and has since fallen to thieves and vandals.  The community has said they will support the repair, but they have to have some funds up front before anything will happen.

This is dinner at the Summerfield hotel restaurant where we stay when we go to Swaziland.  It is a very nice place and the church gets a good rate, so our supervisors recommended it to us.  The rooms are duplex type cottages set amidst a beautiful garden with walkways weaving in around the greenery.
KFC is the only fast food place we noticed.  We ate there twice; once because I offered to buy our guides for the site tour (Tualani and Menzi) lunch and that is where they wanted to go.  We have found food to be less expensive in Swaziland than in Maputo, Mozambique.

Nice pool; but too cold for my blood

Here is a zebra skin on the floor of the restaurant.  It would be cool to bring one of these home, but I don't know how I would do that!  Wouldn't fit in my suit case.

We are hopeful we can be of more help to the country in the area of water.  We are also trying to put together a Helping Babies Breath project.  It was a project started a couple of years ago, but did not materialize.  So we have been tasked to see if we can salvage it with another try.  The Ministry of Health does not seem very interested; so I am not sure it will fly.  You cannot have a successful project when you have to push it down someone's throat.  We will see where it goes.

Here is an unusual "flower" we say at the hotel gardens.  I do not know the name of it and have never seen anything quite like it.  Very beautiful and unique.
We are very busy trying to cover projects both in Swaziland and here in Maputo.  There are 2 projects here we want to start and follow through with.  One is with 2 schools to provide materials to fix up the school and some desks; the other is with a school that needs water to a latrine.  Will keep you posted.
The mission president would like to see 3 new stakes formed here in the next year.  The plan is an aggressive one, but is doable.  We are helping by attending ward councils on occasion to encourage the mission plan and get commitments.  In spite of the differences that are in each place in the world, what I see are more things where we are alike.  People are people and subject to the same weaknesses and challenges; the same strengths and desires.  The simple gospel of Jesus Christ truly is the answer to all the problems in the world.  Keep living it and be the example to others.  It really does make a differnce.
Love to all,
Elder and Sister Petersen, Stan and Teril, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma

Intersting week

Weekly review

Interesting development this week.  Last week we had decided we would drop a couple of projects we saw no progress on.

This week, we got a call from a man we had not ever met and a woman he was representing.  We found out these two people were now the directors of the Machava KM 15 Primary School.  They were asking for us to keep our promise to get them water.  They had done their part and gotten a bid for the water to be started.

We were surprised and set a meeting with the school director, Raul.  This is when we discovered the change in leadership there.  Now, the director is Graca Cossa.  We set a time to meet with her.

This is the new director of Machava school, Graca Pedro Cossa.  When we got there, she showed us what she had done.  Without a penny in the school account, she took her own money and got the water running.

This is the man she hired to guard the pump (that we were told was stolen) She had hired a man that  got the water running all for very little money.  She paid for it herself and wanted us to reimburse her (which we will not do)which shows what a champion she is.  We were able to visit with her about a partnership and what is really needed to get what she wants in this refurbish project.

She was willing to listen.  We were able to teach Welfare Principles and Supporting Outcomes.  She could see the value in further testing of the well to find out what its capacity is.  How many people will it serve?  What is the quality of the water being drawn out of the well? Is the pump quality able to serve that many people and the latrine?

She was willing to learn the history of what the church had provided the school not too long ago.  We had left them a great well that served the community and the school, run pipe to a fountain for drinking water.  We had left them with a beautiful building for an 8 stall latrine that was waiting for the pipe run from the well.  Because we had left them with these perfectly working things, we would require the community to pay for half the project.

She was willing to open her mind to the possibility of including the community in the maintenance of this project and in the development of it.

These are previous picture showing the conditions of these parts of this school before Graca Cossa replaced the previous director.  These are very telling pictures.

Now, there is a tank on this tower.

We have now been invited to attend the viewing of the walk thru for the bid for the total project tomorrow morning at 7 am.  We will attend.

These are qualities of a real champion.  Here is a lady that wants to make a difference and put her own time and effort and money into helping the children at her school. 

1.       Desire for the good of her people

2.      Willing to put in the work for the people

3.      Going to do it whether we will help or not

4.      Has a plan of action to accomplish her goals (She mentioned her plan to us and we asked for a written copy of her 2 year plan for the school)

It looks like we are going to work on a Project Development Worksheet for this project and present it for approval from the Johannesburg office.  What a change from last week.

When you wait for a champion to appear, sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. If they don’t, that is a “NO” for this possible project.  If they do, that is a “yes” for a possible project. This is a great way to keep from having to tell a group “No”.  The answer is obvious.

Elder and Sister Petersen Mozambique Mission

Matriarch of the pride

[Stan] This last week we were assigned 3 projects to followup on in Swaziland.  So we drove there from Maputo; about a 4 hour drive not including stops.  The border experience made me nervous, but all went fine.  Our first stop was at the Hlane Royal National Park.  We took a game drive for about 2 1/2 hours.  Seeing wildlife in its natural habitat is so different than observing them in a zoo.  Here is lioness in the shade of a small tree.  There were 2 other adult females and 2 cubs about 8 months old.  There were several impalas and a few waterbucks as well.  Later in the drive we saw zebras and wildabeests, but the giraffes were elusive and we missed them. We also saw 3-4 elephants; spent about 15 minutes very close to a bull elephant in a sloppy watering hole.  He moved about quite a bit and gave us a good show.  He has only one tusk; the other being lost in a fight.  After returning to the camp we saw several rhinos at a watering hole near the restaurant where we ate our steak dinner.  A swarm of bees decided our soft drinks were their next meal and we almost could not finish eating for the number in the swarm.

Bull Elephant

Then we drove to our hotel at the Summerfield Resort.  Pretty nice place; they give the church a great rate.  Otherwise, we would not have stayed there.  We met up with Elder and Sister Martins, a new senior couple from Brazil.  They have been assigned Swaziland.  We had a great visit and they joined us in a trip to the Cultural Village where we were given a tour of a traditional local village and demonstration of several dances.  Very fascinating!! 
We had 2 appointments on Friday.  One was with the Ministry of Health working toward a Helping Babies Breath program.  Lots of work needs to be done there to get things worked out so they feel comfortable with us and what the church is offering to do.  Then we went to our second visit with GoneRural.  They are an NGO that we have found to be very good at getting the people to commit to doing their part.  We have supplied them 3 wells with them doing much of the manual labor.  This was not offered, however, until 95% of the homes in the area had built VIPs; ventilated, improved, pit latrines.  The church did provide some materials for the community to use.  Now we are in the final phase which is 3 more wells.  Part of the project was to provide "hippo rollers".  A family can now reduce 5 trips to the well into one.  This rollable tank is 90 Ls and to carry that much in the standard bucket would take 5 trips. 

Hippo Roller

This all was happening conference weekend.  We hoped to view it, but the schedule and internet access were limiting to us.  We spent more time with the Martins and had fun getting to know them.  Sunday we attended church at the Ezwelwini branch and found the members to be strong.  There should be a stake soon in Swaziland. 
We were anxiously waiting to hear if Jarom and Randi were having their baby; but because of limited access to internet as I already mentioned we were not able to connect with them until Tuesday.  We are so excited about another granddaughter!!  Adeline Rose!!  (Had to throw that in!)
Sunday afternoon the Blakes (our supervisors from Johannesburg) and the Mellors (water specialist from Lehi, Utah) arrived at the hotel and we visited that evening.  Great people!!  What a priviledge to know them!  Monday we had a seconde meeting with the Ministry of Health.  Then we ate lunch and went to our next visit with the Ministry of Water and Natural Resources.  She happens to be the sister of the district president and a member of the church.  I won't bore you with the discussion of the meeting, but things are progressing for us to start another project.  (Maybe we should move to Swaziland!).  It is a beautiful country.  There is a range of mountains we like to call the little Wasatch.  The climate is cooler and they receive more rain. 
Tuesday morning we checked out and visited the Cultural Village again with the Blakes and Mellors this time.  We enjoyed it as much as the first time.  Then we drove back to Maputo after getting turned around and lost.  It put us behind about an hour.  Finally we made it to the border and had the unpleasant experience of the Mozambican border entrance.  We escorted the Blakes and Mellors to their hotel just in time for us to make our next meeting with the mission president, Pres. Koch and Pres. Castinheira, stake president.  We discussed what we will do to help support the effort to grow the present 2 stakes into 5.  We arrived home and crashed.  Today was catch up going thru emails and trying to organize our notes.  We are managing 6 projects and it is getting a bit challenging to say the least.  We know the Lord is in our work.  We do not often have opportunity to discuss the gospel with others, but once in a while we do and it always feels good.  Teaching and working with welfare principles has taught us so much and I am grateful the the experience.  This church is led by inspiration from the Lord Himself through chosen apostles and prophets.  And we can and do received that same inspiration in our callings and assignments.  Love to all of you.  Stan, DAD, Grandpa

Summerfield Botanical Gardens Hotel

(Teril) Here is something Stan forgot to tell you. When we arrived at this beautiful hotel where our supervisor had booked us a room (really a bungalo) Stan realized his passport was missing.  In the pouch was the church credit card, his temple recommend, 100 dollars Rand and several other odds and ends that were important.  We looked everywhere for it.  We searched the car, our luggage, our pockets, everywhere.  We knelt down and prayed and looked again everywhere.  We finally gave up and called our supervisors.  We also went to the concierge at the office of Summerfield.  We were franitic thinking we would have to stay in Swaziland until we could replace it.  Oh!  What a mess!!  After we had resigned to our fate, Stan went and looked in the car once again.  There it was!!  I know The Lord is with us!!!  That was a true miracle!  We are still missing the Church debit card but that can't be used unless someone has the pin number so we canceled it and are waiting for it to be replaced.
With this miracle on the front of our visits, we were able to approach this new area of mystery, Water Wells, with confidence that the Lord knows what needs to be done.  We are much more confident on how we can help move His work along now.

Summerfield restaurant

I was so taken by the beauty of this amazing Hotel.  I got up each morning and investigated every nook and cranny of this amazing Botanical Gardens.  I never tired of the creativity.  We will stay here each time we come.  The restaurant served amazing food too.

Playing the murimba at the cultural village

I enjoyed the music and dance at the cultural village.  This would be a great place to take you all when you come see us here!!!