A few thoughts...

After doing a couple of weeks of home-based care in Mozambique I have found myself contemplating and recurrently thinking about a few things. Unfortunately they are things that I can’t find the answers to in a book. I can’t do a Google search and find the answers. Oh, how I wish it were that simple
I would venture to guess hundreds of missionaries have come to a place like this with many hopes. Hopes of making changes and make a lasting difference. I wonder how I’ll feel when I leave. I foresee that I will leave feeling more blessed than I was a blessing. Perhaps I will have a bit more knowledge and understanding of the depth of the issues and what actually needs to happen to bring about this “change.”
The word “change” was a bit of a joke when we were in training at Hands at Work. During the Africa conference we “Footprinters” were asked to do a skit to portray just what exactly the Footprints program is all about (or perhaps what it isn’t about). I had the honor of playing the part of being the overly energetic, “going to save the world” American who came to CHANGE Africa. I was told after the skit that I said this cheesy line (but I like to think that I wouldn’t even say this in a skit but apparently I did). In the skit I approach a very ill man and his caregiver with this approach. “Hi my name is Dara. I’m from America and I’m here to help!” Oh, if it were only that easy. Get off the plane and make a difference.
Well, to be honest that is probably why I came here. Those are my intentions but, what that looks like now is become more and more different than I ever imagined.
Today we saw a young lady that we’ve seen 3 times now. Laura and I are pretty confident that she has TB and likely HIV as well. As we left her home I was walking with the volunteers/translators asking him questions. I didn’t understand what was holding this girl back from getting help that is available to her. Here if you go to the government clinics/hospital you can receive free treatment for both HIV and TB. One of the problems is that these people don’t even have money to get a ride into the clinic/hospital. To me that seemed to be the problem with this young woman. But as I spoke with the volunteer who understands the people and culture far better than me, he told me that “she is too scared. She doesn’t want to know if she is sick. If she knows that, she thinks that she is just going to be sick and not live well.” It’s true. She also fears that if she goes to the hospital someone will see her and think she has HIV. They would rather not know.
HOPE: Today, there was a break through. The volunteer we were with was so happy. At one time he smiled boldly and said, “This is victory for us!” In talking with this young woman and encouraging her to go to get tested, yet again, she and her mother have now decided that yes, it is a good idea. This is a beautiful example of how we can’t come in as an outsider and make a change. But with persistence and love (by these local volunteers) with time, people can, choose for themselves, to make a change.
This story is very similar to many stories. This mindset seems to be quite common. Many people fear the truth. They don’t want to face up to consequences or deal with results so they live ignoring the elephant in their hut!
So as things apparently aren’t going to “change” as my Western eyes would like to see. Things are changing. People are changing. Lives are being changed. I definitely need to attempt a different approach to be a part of any change. The only change I can be a part of is through prayer. Prayer is going to make a difference on this dark continent. Prayer is the only thing that can make a lasting change.
So now, I think I will go do that. I am going to go pray for these people. Pray for a change. Pray for hope!
You too?

Oh, Portuguese...

I have been in Mozambique almost 2 weeks now and, as expected, I have had some fun stories trying to communicate in Portuguese.
#1. Introducing myself. I am pretty comfortable with the initial greetings- “Good morning, how are you? My name is Dara.” Well here’s the typical response…Confused look on face, not catching my name. So I repeat, “My name is Dara.” IF they catch A name that time (likely I have to repeat it a 3rd time) they inevitably say excitedly, “OH! Dara. In Portuguese it’s DORA!” I smile and take it while Laura laughs and encourages it by saying, “Yes, you can just call her DORA!” She knows I hate being called Dora because I feel it ages me about 40 years. Since when can you just change a name to your language???
#2: We were dropped off to go into the bakery. Carlos asked us to buy 25 bread rolls. As we crossed the street we practiced how to say 25 in Portuguese so we were feeling pretty confident as we entered the shop. We asked the man behind the counter for 25 rolls. We were going to start with that and then decide how many we wanted for ourselves. We thought we had communicated well and even heard the man repeat that we were going to get 25 bread rolls. Well, long story short, we ended up leaving the bakery with 2 bags of 30 bread rolls! I will never know how we went from saying vinte e cinco to the man hearing dois bags of trinta! It is good bread:)
#3: It was raining outside and we were finishing lunch with one of the volunteers. I was trying to say some words in Portuguese to enlarge my vocabulary. Santos speaks no English but we try desperately to communicate to each other. I was trying to say something about being grateful I have a raincoat. I looked up the word raincoat in my dictionary and repeatedly said, “gabardina, gabardine.” Santos looked confused not understanding my horrible American accent I figured. Finally we pulled Laura’s raincoat out of her bag and his eyes lit up and he smiled and said, “Oh, jacket!” Laura and I just looked at each other, rolled our eyes and responded, “Oh, that’s what we call it too!”
So these are just a few…I am still trying to push my pride aside and just try to speak the language- not caring if I look like a fool and make no sense. When you think of it you could pray for me to have a better recall of the Portuguese I have learned and an ability to not sound so Midwest American. God has granted me the inability to roll my tongue to make the “rrrrrrrr…” sound so I sound especially ridiculous as I attempt to speak one of these romance languages. Thankfully God is bigger than the language and I will surely get by!

This picture is when we were out doing home-based care last week. The patients and orphans came to meet us outside their homes. This baby on the back of his mother is very sick. His lymph nodes are enlarged like nothing any of us have seen before (even a couple nurses who have worked in Africa for a number of years). We spent some time educating the mother on how to properly administer the HIV meds to the baby and encouraged her to take him to the hospital for more intense care. We will follow up on him and see how he is doing in the upcoming weeks. I look forward to getting to know these areas and the people in them.
The people here are so resilient. They are hurting and lost but they have strength unimaginable to me. From many of them hopelessness seems to spill out of their eyes. The sparkle is gone. Yet each of them matters. They all deserve a fair chance at life- this child longs to grow up and run and play. It doesn't seem quite fair that he doesn't have the opportunity to be given every chance at life. It isn't fair. It's sad, it's hard. In the midst of it all, God knows...David tells us in Psalm 9:18 "For the needy will not be forgotten forever; the hopes of the poor will not always be crushed." This is my prayer- may they not be forgotten!

Here I am sitting on the step to our house watching the sheep come home. Today Laura and I made our little house our home. It is very comfortable and cute. We feel VERY blessed to have such a great little place to live. I still need to perfect my bathing routine. I am not quite satisfied with my feeling clean with no hot running water and a shower with just a trickle. Last night we had a bit of a cockroach infestation as well so hopefully we combated that and won't face that for at least a little while.
I had a few other pictures I was going to try to post but now it isn't working any longer so I guess I will study some Portuguese and call it a night! Enjoy your day!

Life in Mozambique!

This is a picture from last week when we were going to the communities to do home-based care. As we rode in the back of a pickup truck the children came out yelling and chasing after us. Before we knew it they were jumping on the back and getting a ride with us!
I have to go- I was just testing if I could get pictures uploaded. It usually doesn't work so I am grateful this one did. I will try more later. Miss you!

I have arrived!

Where do I start? I feel as if I have gone from one foreign world to another! Laura and I had a wonderful final weekend in South Africa. In order to maximize our time with our new friends at Hands at Work we slept very little and laughed a lot! Sunday we traveled to Johannesburg by car, to Beira, Moz by plane and then the final stretch by car to Maforga Mission near Gondola, Moz. We had arrived- to the place many missionaries before us have called the “promised land.” We continued our journey by making the bouncy ride, avoiding pot holes, to our final destination. Along the way Laura and I shared many glances both thinking- “Where have we come?” The road we took connects Beira (port city) to Zimbabwe. We drove and drove. As we got closer Jean Aimee (H@W nurse who came to help us settle in) started pointing out landmarks. We finally slowed down and she announced, “here we are!” and we turned onto a dirt path. My mind was racing- where are we going and what are we in for? Now almost a week later here we are, happier than ever!
Laura and I will share a small (but cute and perfect) house on a place called Maforga mission. There are a number of missionaries that live and work here. It’s a difficult place for me to justly explain. It functions very diversely as an orphanage/sawmill/farm/school/Christian community/baby clinic/primary health clinic/squatter village. This evening Laura and I were in the screen porch and Laura said, “Oh, Dara, I was going to go outside on the step and clip my finger nails but the cows are coming home.” We laughed for awhile and watch as the cows walked right by our house back to their home. A few minutes later we look outside and laugh as we watched the sheep coming home! It’s beautiful. This is what I will gladly call home for the next 9 months.
I will save, for another entry, how incredible the people are here- truly amazing!
As for what I am going to be doing here. Once we are recognized as nurses by the Mozambiquan Health Department Laura and I will go out with volunteers from Rubatano Home-based care. We have gone to a few of the communities this week. Wow! My heart has broken over and over but yet, I love it! The people glow when we arrive. The children chase our car as we drive down the dirt paths. They wave eagerly and they carry out benches or straw mats for us to sit on during the visit. They are poorer than poor and sicker than sick. They are in desperate states and are longing to find hope in something! I have asked myself many tough questions as we walk away from different circumstances. Many of these things I will wrestle with over the next 9 months and likely, forever. I have no answers yet but I am excited, overjoyed even to be here and to see what exactly the Lord has in store for us over the next number of months! Oh, it feels good. It is so right. It is a wonderful place to be and I wake eagerly each day to meet with the Lord and be used by Him.
“I wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.” Psalm 62: 5-7
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Please pray for good health (against malaria and everything else)and for the processing of our nursing license to go quickly. Until next time...

We're OFF!!!

Tomorrow morning at 600am Laura and I and 2 others are off to Mozambique. We'll drive to Johannesburg, catch our flight to Beira, Moz. There we'll get picked up and drive about 3 hours to Maforga Mission. We're excited!!! It's a bit hectic right now so I need to run...Please pray for me to be safe and healthy as I travel. Next time you hear from me I will be in real AFRICA:) Love you!!!

Heroes

Sacrifices. Living sacrificially. Living selflessly. Do I even know what these words mean? What have I ever really had to sacrifice in my life? What have I ever gone without? I even wonder if I have ever gone part of a day without being selfish? I tend to have the attitude that I deserved things and I expect things to be a certain way. Hmm...
These are things I have been left wondering the last couple days.
Yesterday a few of us went to spend the day at a hospice/orphanage. The facility is run by 6 faithful "Sisters" who care for 29 children- 24/7/365. 27 of the children are HIV+. They have held 44 children in their arms as the took their last breaths before going to be with Jesus. Story after story they shared with me what real love is. They are living and loving selflessly!
This place was beautiful. A mediocre facility that they make a beautiful home for these children and few adults that they care for. I have never been in ANY type of environment where you could actually few the REAL joy. Not happiness. Not fleeting joy but true compassion and JOY that radiates from the Sisters faces and over flows to shine through sick children. Children that have been abandoned, rejected and forgotten- more than once. I feel these children may now know a deeper love than a lot of people ever do. These Sisters are making a heavenly difference to not only the hearts that they care for but to each person that sees there beautiful way of serving.
As we were wrapping up our day with one of the Sisters another one came and said that the children wanted to give us a blessing before we left. I thought, "Give us a blessing? Who needs the blessing here? Certainly not me!" As we sat in a dark room 5 beautiful kids whose young bodies have fought off more than I ever will, came walking in carrying a candle with an AIDS ribbon on it. With arms out stretched over us the children and Sisters asked God to bless us on our way. The tears streamed down my face. Who is blessing who here? What have I done to be blessed in this way? These small children that I hugged are stronger than I have ever been.
I walked away being the one to receive the blessing this day. I also walked away having seen real heroes. People who deserve to be in the headlines and to have movies made after them! These are lives worth modeling. More can be learned from these Sisters and children than I could ever learn in a "job". These woman are leaving a legacy. Questions plague my mind. What do people feel in my presence? What impact am I making? What kind of a legacy will I leave? What am I going to do with today????

I do do more than sight see!

It may seem all I do is sight see? Well, not really but we have taken advantage of seeing some beautiful places here in South Africa. Last weekend we went to the Blythe River Canyon. As you can see, it is gorgeous!
Just a few more days until I will be on my way to Mozambique! May 11 myself and 3 other women will drive to Johannesburg and then fly on to Beira, Moz. From there we'll be picked up and drive about 3 hours to the Maforga Mission where we'll be staying. I am getting very excited to be there and meet the wonderful people we'll be with. Please pray for safe travels and good health as we travel. Bless you!

She's Clever!

I was reminded of this story this week...I don't think I have shared it yet.

The last morning when I was staying with Nombelalo in the community we were waiting at the main road for my ride to pick me up. As we were standing there all the kids were walking to school in their school uniforms and many people stood on the roadside waiting to catch a taxi. I stood there holding 3 year old Samkelo in my arms (in the picture above). Suddenly as Numbelalo and I stood there chatting a taxi pulled up in front of us. Nombelalo motioned for me to put Samkelo in the taxi. I quickly said, “where is she going? By herself?” As Nombelalo gave the taxi driver money the others in the taxi adjusted to make a seat for the youngest passenger. As the door closed I said goodbye to Samkelo and waved. She smiled back at me, waving and gave me a thumbs up. I stood there stunned. I said to Nombelelo, “She goes to school by herself? How does she know when to get off?” Nombelelo nonchalantly looked at me and responded, “It’s okay. She’s clever!”

The other day when Laura and I were talking about how it will feel when we get on the bus to go to Mozambique we thought of this situation. We may look a bit like Samekelo. Like her, we'll be okay, “We’re clever!” :)