Welcome to Travel Grace Mozambique and South Africa!
The need in Mozambique - ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDRENBehind the smiles and the songs of our beautiful homeowners in Mahubo Mozambique there is trauma and sadness. Some faces wear it more than others, they all have something in common; they've lost someone and because of that the children are vulnerable. Husbands and fathers die of AIDS or don't come back from working in another country. HIV/AIDS, abondonement and other reasons cause many children to live with a extended family or someone in the village. Mud houses fall apart in the rain and floors flood. This creates a need that Habitat has answered by offering houses with no loan. Sweat equity is still an important part of the homeowner's contribution.
Read more about the Orphans and Vulnerable Children OVC on http://www.habitat.org/ame/stories/Mozambique_grant.aspxhttp://www.habitat.org/hw/june_2009/feature3.html
HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD, A DIFFERENT HEMISPHERE a DIFFERENT CULTURE
Re-entry trauma, a capsule hurtling at full speed through 17 hours, slamming back into atmosphere. OK, it isn't that dramatic, but going back to "normal life" and work mere hours after being with a great team and incredible villagers in Mozambique is an abrupt juxtaposition from somewhere and doing something important that ended much too soon. My third build and the first time I set foot on the continent of Africa was over. Over except for the memories for our group of 16 and the completed houses that won't last as long as our memories and provide as much warmth and happiness for the homeowners. This African build was more, it was different and it was better than I imagined it would be. Writing is my way of processing , preserving and clinging to the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, feelings and precious faces, I’m compelled to try and relive the moments that have become surreal and share the stories of the characters that made this trip to Mozambique so incredible. I'm not a writer, this isn't about me and I welcome any comments. It is about people and circumstances in another place as experienced through my trip. Here goes, Enjoy Travel Grace!
Before departing for Mozambique I had a brief time for a buzz around REI during a sale and found some hiking shoes (on sale) that are (not very attractive) an odd reddish, brownish, salmon color and I thought “this is perfect” as from what I’d seen in a couple of photos of off road Moz villages and from Google earth, these shoes could get dirty and it wouldn’t show very much! Little did I know how much dirt……as our commute was mostly on a dirt road to the village. Before departing there was so much work to be done there wasn’t a moment to slow down until the flight, two very long opportunities to anticipate meeting the team and the homeowners, to be excited for the opportunity to smell, taste, touch, see and feel another culture.
First an introduction, after flying in from the US, Canada, Taiwan and China our group met in Maputo Mozambique, the largest city in the country. After a night there we continued inland northwest to Massaca village on paved roads. Mozambique is narrow and long on the eastern coastline and as we travelled inland we weren’t all that far from Swaziland and the Kruger Park area of South Africa.
Our host coordinator, Magaia lives in Maputo and travelled with us to Massaca where we stayed and Mahubo, the village where the building for OVC would occur. Magaia is amazing, hard working, capable, funny and smart. He was also the only interpreter which in itself is a big job. He knows several languages and is currently in university to study law. Magaia is amazing, good looking with a deep voice and warm smile. He is important in the village and is very important to our group. the more we watched him and learned about him the more it became obvious that Magaia is one of those special people, one who will do something great and the world is a better place because he's here.
GETTING TO KNOW MOZAMBIQUE
From the GV website: "Housing need
Why Habitat is needed in Mozambique; http://www.habitat.org/intl/ame/138.aspx?print=true
Mozambique has suffered a series of setbacks in its struggle to develop during 32 years of independence. Following a 10-year liberation struggle, a 13-year guerilla war took the lives of 1 million people and left 5 million displaced. Only with the rise of the African National Congress and the end of apartheid in South Africa, was Mozambique able to broker peace and disarm the guerillas in 1992.
During its 15 years of peace, Mozambique has had one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, yet the country has a steep hill to climb. Since the war, HIV/AIDS has been sweeping through the country, with an estimated 17 percent of the population infected in the country and as much as 30 percent or more in certain cities along transport lines.
As a result of these deaths, children are left orphaned, often without adequate shelter and sometimes homeless. To make matters worse, in 2000, the country was devastated by the largest flood ever recorded in Africa, which left half a million people homeless.
Formed in 2000, Habitat for Humanity Mozambique has worked with poor communities, local volunteers and international teams to build hundreds of houses in Maputo Province and in the provinces of Manica and Gaza.
Habitat for Humanity Mozambique's initiatives include providing housing in partnership with the country's most disadvantaged groups. Originally, Habitat Mozambique houses were made of cement blocks. In the last few years, Habitat has adopted local materials and methods which lower costs and increase efficiency and community involvement. Additionally, Habitat Mozambique can reach the very poorest families in each community as rapidly as possible"
• 200 million population
• 500 people a day die of AIDS and 500 people a day contract it.
• The village where we built has very few men; many villages have lost men and women due to AIDS.
• During civil war it was the poorest country on earth, now ranks 172nd of 176 on the poverty scale
• The average income is low, villagers will often barter and trade. Some can work in banana or citrus farming. There is little formal employment. Many workers cannot even afford the bus.
• Maputo does have a university and some like Magaia work in professional positions.
• The Gorongosa Park and the Carr Foundation are trying to repopulate the animals indigenous to the area that were practically wiped out by war, poaching and other hardships. The effects of the civil war are hinted of on occasion, even through they're independent now it is a communist country with elections happening. It's been so recent that even some of our builders were soldiers then, one guarded a bridge to prevent rebels from crossing.
• The government gets support from other countries. There is little tax income and resources are hard to get to without funding.
• The people in the village grow corn and some other vegetables and raise chickens and sometimes have pigs or goats.
- Shangaan and Portugese are spoken primarily though there are 14 languages.(There is another reference to Shangaan in the section on Soweto). Many names are based on Portugese. Ceasear is a local man who has an African name but is called Ceasar. H ased his grandfather why he and his father are both called Ceasar. The grandfather said "bring me a bottle of wine and I'll tell you." Two years he waiting then taking a bottle of wine to his grandfather he finally learned about the big man of Rome.
As a team we first saw a glimpse of Maputo including venturing out on foot for a couple of blocks, camera in hand to explore. The local market in a side alley consists of clothing hanging on fences and shoes set out in lines of singles all pointing in the same direction, in parallel, making a pattern of lines. Across the street from the church boarding house where we were staying is a local bar and three of us had fun trying to by coke and beer with the help of the locals. One message came through clearly, bring the bottle back! The people were friendly though seemed amused by the oddity of these blonds who wanted beer but couldn’t articulate the different between light and dark.
In a short distance and even shorter period of time before dinner we discovered the juxtapositions of Maputo on one main road…two buildings looked brand new, important and bespoke of government or wealth, or both. On the same street the church stood out in its AFrame glory as one of the largest buildings, close to high end auto dealerships with fencing and guard dogs. In one direction a small bakery and the lineup single shoes of the sidewalk show salesmen. Down the hill toward an open market of everything from hardware to spices line up along the road, hiding behind these stalls the stark reality of slum. Lean to shelters built of corrugated metal walls and roofs held down by rock. Many of us have bathrooms bigger than these houses.
Guidebooks cast aside; (they have little) we explored based on hints by some expats about where to walk. Others who’ve traveled to Africa mentioned that many people don’t appreciate having their picture taken, but we found the opposite in Mozambique with one exception. Taking a side road toward the harbor past a bank we walked toward three men, one armed and looking very much the role of bank guard. He smiled at us “tourists” and spoke in quite good English asking us where we are from and saying how good it is that people come to learn about Mozambique.
It started looking a little rough on the side street so a U-turn was in order. On the other side two young men were walking toward us, pointing to the camera. They smiled and leaned toward each other and the photo was taken, they were delighted and satisfied with simply looking at their image on the camera display, smiled and said a few words I didn’t understand and moved on. After dinner with our group we settled in and it was a good day. Travelling to Massaca (luggage in one van, people in another) was on the agenda for the next morning.
It's a good day. See the culture for the first time. We aren't even at our ultimate distination, the village for the build that would leave us better than we leave it.
No comments:
Post a Comment