I invite you to write down brief descriptions of the five most pleasurable moments you've ever experienced in your life. Let your imagine dwell lovingly on these memories for, say, 20 minutes. And keep them close to the surface of your awareness in the week ahead. If you ever catch yourself slipping into a negative train of thought, interrupt it immediately and compel yourself to fantasize about those big five ecstatic moments. This exercise will be an excellent way to prime yourself for a new age of unhurried bliss and gentle beauty, which I predict is just ahead for you. If you can keep the morose part of your mind quiet, there's a good chance you will stir up a new ecstatic experience that will belong near the top of your all-time list.
THE TEAM
Prior to travel team members send in bios, some email replies land in spam and we get a glimpse of the members of the upcoming adventure, but nothing written can measure up to being around these marvelous people and watching the layers peel away while teamwork at its best forges something that was not there before. In the case of Mahubo it was more than houses- and we buily several, it was the impressions and the touches on our hearts that we carried home with us and hopefully left with the villagers.
Sally came from Shanghai and had to work hard with the affiliate to even get a visa. Tim is a journalist, lives in Taiwan now via Australia. Chels the dancing Canadian and several of us from the US, including five from Oregon and Washington. What I came to know of these people is that they all wanted to do this, wanted to be there and are some of the most delightful and amazing people I’ve had the pleasure to know.
The second day in country we were driven in a van we would come to depend on daily, through Maputo on a highway, past markets, apartments, slums and bars until the scenery slowly unfolded to an occasional factory surrounded by corn fields, mango groves, a narrower road and glimpses of the infamous red dirt that research and photos had shown us would surrounding us for the duration.
Talking and exchanging more detail about each other since our introductory dinner in Maputo we learned we had two nurses, a journalist, a lawyer, a former COO, teachers, our wonderful team leads Bob and Leslie, as we started remembering names.
The first “big town” before our destination on this hour plus route is Boane, a town with a hospital and markets, most of which are set up in converted storage containers sitting on the red dirt. Women and children were busy in the river washing and playing as we moved closer to Massaca. A left turn off the paved road onto a red dirt road was the first indication we had arrived and our accommodations, a new convent barracks was in view. With 2 or 3 to a room we dropped our luggage quickly and took off on foot in smaller groups without cameras to explore the dirt road village. A proud bar owner took us into his place showing off the pool table, the only one in town and made a point to invite us back any night. (Of course we would return).
With unpacking came the filling of the solar showers, those “baby hippos” we leave out in the yard that tease us every morning as with the promise of a hot, or at least warm shower upon our return. For the first few days it was hard to believe we were in Africa weather wise…it was cloudy which was great for stamina but alas no hot showers tonight! It’s important to remember that while we had showers, we had electricity…our homeowners would have their houses for sleeping provides protected and dry in their new shelter; they would have a new latrine, but no showers for them, no electricity.
Dinner was just across the street each night and was quite good! We know we made it all the way here, we’re ready, we have beer! And tomorrow we get started.
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE
How does a team get to know one another? Two truths and a lie is one way, a fun way to discover our quirks. Our journalist recently met the Dalai Lama, our leader Bob has been to 56 countries and counting, our leader Leslie is beautiful and young and smart! We had a gymnast, a quilter and Chels who can sing and talk with her mouth closed, well. When one said : I am a scuba diver, I’ve sung karaoke in NYC, My favorite book is to Kill a Mockingbird the guess of who was me….scary because that would so be me except the karaoke (never in NYC)…but I didn’t write it! It was Carol from New York and mine was much less interesting.
Early wake-up, breakfast at the same restaurant and a half hour commute to Mahubo village via a red dirt washboard road with a stop to pick up our workers and cooks ended in our first glimpse of Mahubo. Our cook Maria and her helpers were dropped off to get started on lunch while we split into little groups of 3 or 4 to work mostly on foundations to start, walls later with the specialists in those areas. Our builders work hard and manage with the command of only 3 or 4 English words to communicate well.
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