One More Wish

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Last week a friend that we had met in Mozambique (but who lives just a couple towns away here in Oregon) gave us a photo he had taken of Esmé last year while we were over there of this incident:

It brought back memories! I smile as I remember how these two little ones "practiced their sharing skills" with Esmé's $0.97 Wal-Mart doll, attracting the photographers' attention while the official church dedication was going on.

And I remember wishing I had packed a suitcase-load of those $0.97 dolls over there with me to hand out.

As I watch my little one tenderly rock her dolly to sleep, I have one wish to add to Amy Grant's "Grown Up Christmas List": that every little girl would have a doll...

Amy Grant's Grown Up Christmas List

No more lives torn apart,
That wars would never start,
And time would heal all hearts.
And everyone would have a friend,
And right would always win,
And love would never end.
This is my grown-up Christmas list.

Thursday 13 - Things We Miss

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Last Thursday we gave you a list of things we were enjoying in the US, and promised you a list of things we miss about Africa this week. So here we go...

1. Mangoes. And coconuts and all that other good tropical fruit there. I could do with a mango guava smoothie right now that doesn't come from a flavored syrup bottle...
2. Easy Philanthropy. There are always people who appreciate what we throw away. Or things we can give away easily without any sacrifice on our part. So we feel doubly good about passing things on rather than filling the landfill.
3. Brilliant Flowers. Bougainvilleas, hibiscus, yellow trumpet flowers, plumeria, and all those other tropical blooms are just stunning.
4. Obvious Blessings. When people around you are very visibly struggling just to get their next meal and survive, it is far easier to realize how incredibly blessed you are and how much you can offer to the world.
5. Game Parks. We have a wildlife safari close to Roseburg, but it's not quite the same as Kruger National Park... And how often do you see a giraffe or zebra hanging out by the side of the road as you're driving to your doctor's appointment? (Granted, it is a three hour drive.)
6. People. Wherever we went in Africa, there were people everywhere. Here, everyone is busy with his or her own thing. We might see people on the way to the next stop, but they are generally ensconced in vehicles or at least in a rush to get somewhere. Our first reaction on arriving back in the US is how the roads and sidewalks are so devoid of people.
7. Rubber Stamps. Yep, we miss that "chop chop" everywhere you go. No document is official in Africa unless it has a stamp. Well, I'm pleased to say we got lots of little rubber stamps for 99 cents at the thrift store, and I've been getting lots of practice with them, so I'm all set to make everything official when I get back!
8. Children at Play. You know how mothers used to let kids play in the neighborhood as long as we were back before dark? No paranoia, no constant monitoring? We long for that time though we would never grant it to OUR kids. But it still exists in Africa. Children run freely, and the sounds of play resound.
9. Culture. The culture, the art, the music, the food, the colorful clothing. Babies dozing on backs and stately necks balancing large burdens. We appreciate it all, and we realize that the way we live is not the only way to live. It makes us more open-minded.
10. Markets. It's actually kind of fun to see how low Papa can get a vendor to go with his price. Watching the street vendors with their many, varied, colorful wares - spreading them out to entice and then wrapping them all up again to move on to the next prospect - is fascinating.
11. Ingenuity. It's also fun to see how people repair things and get the job done when they don't have the "right" tools and materials. I mean, it's hard to even get duct tape there sometimes. Or how about what you do when you don't have internet or electricity at times? That takes some creativity, too.
12. Happiness. This is both a frustration and a blessing. The frustration is that people have low expectations of life. They don't push themselves to attain more, though it is well within their grasp. The blessing is that they don't expect more than they have, and so they are happy with what they have. In general...
13. Miracles. Oh, there are miracles here in the US, that's for sure. But the fact seems to be that God's power shines brightest - it's His finest hour - when we are at our most vulnerable - our weakest. Here in the US, we all wear facades. You don't see our weaknesses unless you get really close. It's not so easy to hide flaws in Africa.

T I A Part 2

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Esmé's Mommy here.

The first "This is Africa" post last Friday wasn't exactly a positive one. Just wanted to follow up and let you know that there are positive connotations to that phrase, too. The following photos are of Africa - highlighting the reason we are so glad our baby is growing up here.

On Saturday we went to a church dedication in Zona Verde. Esmé and a new little friend stole the show for a few minutes as they played by the front door - the "dignitaries" were getting ready to start the key ceremony, but people were too busy taking photos of the babies to pay attention. At the center of baby conflict - a $0.97 doll I bought from WalMart. I'm so wishing I had brought over a suitcase of these.Here's a photo of the new church, with church members gathered around.
The old church building next door  is being put to good use as the children's classroom. In a country where the children are often ignored in church, it's wonderful to see the country's future in a building designated just for them.

Here are the Africanized pews in the old building - cardboard rolls (probably inners for plastic sheeting or something like that) tied together with string and placed on homemade concrete blocks). ("Africanized" means ingenuity here.)
While the dedication service was going on, Esmé was making friends outside. She played with this girl in a rock pile for hours.

I'm considering changing our profile photo to this one.
This boy had on a monkey shirt. Esmé excitedly called me over to see it, saying "mon."
The action brought over quite a few more boys. Esmé wasn't quite sure what to make of all the attention.
She returned to the rock pile. Notice that "monkey" boy followed.
Here he is watching as Esmé pours rocks inside a plastic bag with no bottom. Her girlfriend had had this wrapped around her foot, and when she took it off Esmé was quite fascinated with it. She tried putting the plastic bag on her foot, too.
And girlfriend found some ribbon from a cassette tape in the rocks and was "flossing her teeth" with it. Esmé had to try that, too!
Another little girl who found plenty of entertainment in a piece of tape!
There is JOY in Africa, friends! Found amidst the rocks, plastic bags, cassette ribbon, and tape.

And peace and love and all that other good stuff found in the pages of a worn Bible in the old church.


THIS is Africa!

T I A

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Esmé’s mommy here.
I laughed when I saw the title of Reluctant Memsahib’s recent post. “T I A.” “This is Africa.” This has been my mantra since moving here!
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You know that joke about the employee who takes time off because he would like to attend his mother-in-law's funeral, only to ask for time off again the next month for the same reason? (The punchline is that she isn’t dead yet.)

Well, in Mozambique I don't think people would get the joke.

For starters, people refer to extended relatives as brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. So when someone tells you his “sister” has died, it might be his cousin. And his “mother” might be his mother’s cousin. Seems sweet, but it’s a little disconcerting from an employer’s perspective when one tries to be sympathetic and keeps giving time off and funds for employee family funerals.

Remember our gardener, Antonio? The beanless guy? Yesterday he informed me that his wife just died, and he needs 2 weeks off and some travel money to fetch his son.

What? His wife died late last year – he took a month off then. Did he marry again already?

No, no. That wife was his second wife, his Maputo wife. His primary wife lived 3 days travel up north. And his son now has no one to care for him. The grandparents are dead, too.

How many more wives does he have????

Just these two. No more. Now he has no wives left.

My heart grieves for the motherless son. And once again I’m troubled by my lack of sympathy and compassion as an employer.

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We (our project) have been getting repeated phone calls from the bank requesting authorization to deduct $20,000 from our account for our cell phone payment.

Normally our monthly bill is about $1,500. So we’re not giving authorization without an explanation.

Now we don’t always get bills from the cell company. Some months we do without any problem, and other months we don’t even if we beg. And we haven’t received a bill since March.

So Eli, our logistics person, uses his Portuguese skills to get the last bill from the cell company. 12 new phone numbers on the bill of which I know nothing. $18,000 for ONE phone alone – with calls all over the world, but primarily to Pakistan.

Did an entrepreneur steal one of our phones (two have been stolen) and start a payphone business because the cell company neglected to cancel our stolen phone accounts?

Is it just the cell company tacking charges to our account and hoping we won’t notice, as I’ve been told they often do?

Is someone trying to frame us as a terrorist cell group?

Explanations please!!! And something other than “This is Africa!”

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And theft is a constant problem here. Some of our best and brightest employees are the culprits.

You could say there’s a cultural difference that makes it more acceptable here. Does that make it okay? Even when it’s hard-earned money from little old ladies in the US that is being stolen, ultimately?

Since it is a problem, we try to implement checks and balances. What that means is no one steals alone – there are always witnesses or accomplices.

An ethical question for you – do you fire just the person who stole, or also the people who watched and said nothing?

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To cheer things up, here is a photo of Esmé, my poor runny-nosed bebe who put her hat on all by herself – you can’t even tell it’s upside down, can you? Not pictured are the (fake) pink crocs on the wrong feet.