First Impressions

We arrived in Mozambique yesterday afternoon after a relatively uneventful flight (South African Airways is the most service-minded airline we have ever used, almost to a fault: they served us 5 meals in the 19 hours we were with them!). Quite simply, we made it. And so did our baggage.

So what are our first impressions so far? We are having a great time, and have appreciated the warm welcome that we have received. Despite having been here before, some things are still surprising:

• Our hosts warned us that the water pressure in the shower was low. I had the first shower and, upon finishing, warned Laura to cut her already-low expectations in half. She was still surprised at the trickle that came out.

• Another interesting water fact: the city treats the water to some potable level at the plant, but because the pipes are so old and leaky, we can’t drink it from the tap. Apparently, some pipes in the city are still made of hollowed logs. To stop leakage, the city only supplies water in the mornings (so some people keep a reservoir on top of their house).

• We learned that there is no garbage collection. Instead, there are dumpsters out on the streets, which get emptied on occasion, but are often overflowing with trash (the garbage dumpster featured in the photo will be ours to use). Despite garbage being everywhere, our hosts know someone who was recently sent to jail for putting garbage in the dumpster outside of the appointed hours. We’ll have to be sure to find out what those hours are.

• There’s no mail delivery, either (there is a post office box – but we have been warned that anything of value should be shipped to an address in South Africa for us to pick up).

• In Canada, we had an alarm system on our house. In Mozambique, labour is so inexpensive that people have guards that stand out front instead. (Similarly, hiring a maid to clean your house would cost around $4 per day.)

• The exchange rate is very low. Until recently, we could exchange one Canadian dollar for 25,000 meticais. They just removed three decimals from their currency, so it is now 25 meticais to the dollar, but they are still using all of the old currency for now, so our wallets are full of 100,000 Mts bills. (Earlier this evening, I gave 1,500 Mts as offering to a local church… and only later realized that I had given about 6 cents.)

We’ll be staying with a family of four in their home for the next week or two (a lovely, comfortable home – but more about that later), then moving in with another couple before getting our own apartment on September 1. We’re glad to have such gracious hosts helping us navigate this new culture. Tomorrow morning’s adventure will be going to the government offices to apply for a resident visa so that we can stay longer than 30 days – and, perhaps more importantly, so that we can leave without risk of not being let back in the country. It’s all made more challenging since we can’t speak the language.

The "M" Word

Laura and I debated using the word “missionary” in our blog (as we did in the last entry). It’s the word that OMS International uses to describe the work that we’re doing, Laura reasoned. True, but it’s also a loaded word that has been misused in the past and is politically charged in the present – particularly in the United States, where we’ve been staying these past few weeks.

It’s difficult to be a Christian in a world that is too often dominated by conflict framed as “holy wars” between Christian and Muslim: the principle actors in these conflicts give both Christianity and Islam a bad name.

We’ve been at OMS headquarters for new recruit training where most people, unlike ourselves, are preparing to be “career missionaries.” So who are these people? What exactly is a Christian missionary? Glad you asked.

There are about 18 people here, including:

• A grandfather, who is going to Japan to serve as a maintenance worker for the missionaries in Japan. His wife is going to serve as the treasurer for the office.

• A single girl with a communications degree, who is going to write promotional material for a Christian radio station in Haiti.

• A young man with a gift for photography, who will travel the world to document the field work that OMS is doing.

• Laura will be teaching math and science to classes of high school kids in Mozambique.

• I’m going to be creating a micro-enterprise development program to help the poor feed themselves.

The word “missionary” is used to describe all of this work because these people are motivated by their Christian faith to help others around the world. Christian scriptures quote Jesus as saying, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

The attrition rate for new full-time missionaries is very high: we’ve been told that up to 40% don’t finish their first term. Some quit because of an emergency back home, an emerging health issue, or because of a lack of funding. The most frequent reason for which missionaries quit is because they couldn’t get along with the other missionaries in the field. Missionaries’ stress levels tend to be high as a result of working in a culture that is not their own, often in a language they don’t know well, all without the close support of family and friends.

Even though we’re not full-time missionaries, OMS asked us to attend a series of training workshops that they have created to better equip us for working in the missionary team where we’ll be going – that’s what we’re doing in Greenwood, Indiana. The first week was spent on a workshop called “Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills,” which focused on refining confrontation, conflict management, stress management, and communication skills. The second week focused on issues pertinent to cross-cultural integration: health requirements, language training, and an exploration of the characteristics of different cultures.

We have gotten to know each of the other 16 participants. Most are American, with the exception of a fellow from Northern Ireland and his Brazilian wife (going to Brazil), a Belgian (going to Spain), and us Canadians. Roughly half the group is in their 20s, and the rest range in age from 30s to late 50s (two couples are proud grandparents with photos in tow). We’ve become good friends with another young couple in particular who will be teaching English and American culture at a university in Asia for the coming year.

* * * * *

The week that we travel to Mozambique has finally arrived. Our journey begins Friday morning (July 28), with the plane’s wheels lifting ground at 6:00am. We will reach our final destination – Maputo, Mozambique – at 7:55am (Ontario time) on the following day. After 26 hours in transit, we’ll most likely need a nap.

It's Cool to Collect These!

When I was ten, all the kids around me spent their paper route money on hockey cards. It was cool to have them, and cool to trade them. The rookie cards were especially valuable.

It turns out that the cool things to collect among the missionary crowd are “prayer cards.”  These are 4” x 6” postcards with a portrait, name and where they’re going, in order that the folks back home remember them while they’re gone.  The coolest one we’ve seen was even made into a large magnet to ensure prominent placement on the kitchen fridge.  

People have been handing these cards out like candy around here – everyone, that is, except us.  We had no idea that this was a requirement for entry into the “in” crowd.  

We solved that problem over the weekend with a little bit of Photoshop magic.  We’re pleased to announce that we now have our own cards.  We’ll present them to fellow missionaries this morning and, with a little luck, they’ll accept us into the fold.

(It bears noting that when we brought our cards into the photo lab at Wal-Mart to get them printed, the clerk mistook them as being professionally created, and questioned our right to make copies.  Sounds like a vote of confidence in our budding graphic design skills to me!)