flood plain by Xai Xai
The southern regions of Mozambique, as well as areas along the Zambezi river in the northern central region have been hard hit by flooding in the past few weeks. Xai Xai district in the south was especially hard hit last week, and some estimates say over 100,000 people were displaced. Mercy Air (who we partner with) was involved in rescuing stranded villagers as well as helping direct other rescuers to those in dire need as well. We passed thru one of the flooded areas just days after the water receded leaving holes in major highways and destroying homes and crops. Here are just a few pictures of the flood plain and highway.
Line up to cross the damaged causeway
On the way home, I snapped a few not so good pics of these signs:
They are LANDMINE warning signs, and indicate that an area has not yet been completely cleared of these horrible deadly leftovers from a war that ended nearly 20 years ago. Most of Mozambique has been cleared, but sadly there are areas where they still remain, and even some that were missed in initial clearings. Where these signs were, there was tape marking safe walkways thru out the village and large de-mining trucks and equipment. The signs lined both sides of the highway for at least a kilometre or two.
Since arriving back at the farm we have been busy- Rick installed some lights in the house, more walls were sanded down in preparation for painting, one of the last floors was finally poured (just one small bathroom left to go!), several doors were installed and we are gearing up for another big week. Here are a few photos of the house progress.
doors going into our house
Maganesu sanding the walls.
When we were down in South Africa we took a day to hang out with some friends of ours. One of them, Flat Stanley, you have already met, but Flat Zach was waiting for us in the mail when we got down there, so we showed them around a bit. Stanley is from Isreal, Zach is from Manitoba, Canada. They had a blast and learnt a lot of things about African Animals and dancing, drumming etc. We were glad to have the time with them, but sadly they will be leaving us soon to go back to their homes!
at kruger park Stanley and Zach saw lots of animals- elephants, cape buffallo (which are pictured here, but we also saw giraffe, baboons, kudu, impala, zebra)
Mopani worms, a good source of nutrition, but neither of them wanted any. I dont blame them. Im not very fond of them either.
we visited a cultural village and a dinner show where we got to see some traditional dancing and drumming and eat traditional food, on the weekend when we were in SA. these pics are from there.
Tendai ate one.. or rather, tried one til daddy told her it was a worm and she spit it out.
the cheif of the cultural village with Tendai and friends
One of the cheifs daughters washing Tendai's hands in preperation for dinner.
two of the performers, (drummers and dancers) pose with Stanley and Zach. We had a lot of fun and got some very strange looks taking all these photos! Thats all ive got for now!
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us as we travelled over the past weeks. We dropped Ricks passport off in Maputo to be renewed, so please pray it will come back quickly- we kinda need those sorts of things! Please also join with us in praying that we will be able to focus on the house for the next few months, and have the funding we need in place to purchase some pretty important items.
Some of the items we still have to purchase or build are:
toilets (very important!)
sinks
a bathtub
glass panes for all the windows, as well as screen material
stove and fridge
the kitchen cabinets (though this has been funded! PTL! Rick will be building all the boxes himself and we will be purchasing the doors seperately. The countertop will be made by a mission an hour from us, who train young Mozambicans in carpentry, metalworking and mechanics- so glad our purchase can go to help another mission out!!)
some of the paints for inside, and all the paint for outside!
shelving
and so much more!
Again, thanks for the prayers and support, we truly appreciate it and we cant wait to be in this house and able to focus wholeheartedly on our ministry. Rick has several seminars planned for up north in May and June, and our goal is to be in the house, settled and ready for a busy time of ministry up there! Some of the communities are requesting we come back for the second and third time to train more people how to reach out to and minister to children. We love doing these seminars and hope to do several more this year than we did last. We are also looking forward to more involvement in the orphan programs, both the ones the pastors are running in their own communities, as well as the Amigo Orphans I am involved with here in Mucombedze.
God Bless, Rick, Heather & Tendai Neufeld
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