The trip to Mozambique

August 13 2007 in Africa, Blogroll, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, camp, life, religion

Myself, Timothy, and Dad left for Mozambique at 6AM on Thursday. We arrived at the border at about 11AM. It took us a while to get through; there was a tour from England ahead of us that we had to wait for. While I was waiting on the Mozambique I watched some guars playing checkers using bottle caps on a piece of cardboard.

After we got through the border we made our way to Salani on the dirt track. The road here is about as difficult as the one in Lesotho, but different. Lesotho is paved but treacherous, Mozambique is not very dangerous but it’s not suitable for anything less than four wheel drive.

We passed a village where another missions team was working and then made it to Salani. There is a missions team from Texas there right now building a house. Timothy, Dad and I helped to plaster a clinic that was built last year. Just like last year, it was steaming hot in the day and freezing cold at night. Every 12 hours the temperature changed by 60 degrees. We got it finished in the two days we were there and came back at 4PM yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. I didn’t get the chance to take any pictures.

The main thing I did was to mix cement to make bricks for an outhouse. Four wheelbarrows full of river sand plus one 100-lb. bag of concrete, mixed in with a few gallons of water will make 20 cinderblock bricks. It was hard work making everything by hand.

The most enjoyable time of the trip was when Timothy and I went with Roelof (who is working for Samaria Mission) down to the Limpopo to get water. We drive down in a Land Rover pickup with a 1,000-liter tank in the back and a small motor to pump the water. It’s about half a mile of true off roading to get from the village to the river. It’s fun to stand in the back and ride down, but when you come back with a full load of water you get bounced so hard that your teeth are in danger of falling out.