Weekend Activities

This past Saturday Joao brought us to his favorite beach. The beach area was quaint and simple the way an old beach resort in Mozambique should be. When I say resort, I mean a bunch of small rooms with thatched roofs that surround a restaurant area. The beach is then about 30 yards away from this area. It was so nice to just relax there and take an occasional swim in the waves.

Before lunch we walked about 10 minutes down the beach to a to a tiny fisherman village and I have attached pictures of that below.

We had a nice lunch and then Joao went over what he wants us to accomplish while we are here. It is A LOT of work and that is OKAY with us because he has organized it so well and has told us exactly what needs to be done and why it is important to Care For Life and to the people of Mozambique. As he was explaining what he wants us to do, I had a very distinct impression that the work that he is asking us to do is very important. It will have a direct impact on the lives of many people here in Mozambique. Anita and I were talking about it a little later and we both feel an overwhelming desire to do the best that we possibly can while here. We have a unique opportunity to focus on this task together and we want to do a great job. I will explain our responsibilities in the next post. For now, enjoy the pictures.

After parking the truck, we used this boat to get across the tidal basin and to the actual beach. Later in the afternoon, we had to wait in the little “terminal” on the upper right when we wanted to get back to the car. A boat goes back and forth every hour.

Here is the walk to the beach

Here is the beach with little pavilions (which I thought were a very good idea). I loved how chill it was there. This couple next to us was doing a little bbq.

We took a 10 minute walk down the beach and saw this cool little fisherman village.

They let us take pictures of their catch.

They carved the boats from one piece of wood. It probably took about 40 man hours…

This is a typical sign in the “resort”.

We stopped at a market on the way back to get some veggies.

Inhamatanda community

So we seem to not be able to put pictures and text underneath...for now. So until we have figured this out, here are some comments to the pictures:

Picture #1: The children love pictures. We take pictures and then show them and they squeal and laugh out loud.

Picture #2: A special woman that was thankful for Anita

Picture #3: Before the community meeting in the "machesa"

Picture #4: This is one of the new latrines that they just built. It is very well done and helps them significantly in terms of hygiene.

Picture #5: These guys wanted to see what was going on in the meeting house.

Picture #6: What's up?

What a day! We were speaking Portuguese all day and it has been a long time since we have used a full vocabulary in Portuguese and I must admit that I was a little lost at some points because it has been 10 years since I have spoken the language and the accent is different here. Also, the small villages speak another dialect called Zena, so there had to be some translation today.

There was a community meeting today at Inhamantanda that we attended today with Joao. It started with some beautiful singing which was so good that I looked over at Anita and she was a little cloudy in the eyes. This community has great voices. Anita and I were introduced and we said a few words. Right after we talked we asked if any of them had any questions. After a little pause, a woman got up and thanked us for being there but especially for Anita because she and the rest of the women had never seen a woman from Care For Life. The rest of the meeting was all about letting the women speak first on the community success and issues. It was great to see how having Anita here has already made an impact. I like this lady that said that about Anita so much that I asked her for a picture after the meeting. The picture above is of that lady with Anita.

Just a few impressions... smart people, good at building things, good sense of humor, happy, cute little kids, hazy streets filled with people, loads of people walking anywhere and everywhere, killer potholes in the road, many women carrying heavy items on their heads (up to 140 pounds), etc.

Care for Life is really doing a huge amount of good. Joao, the director, is a good man and has incredible leadership skills. He truly is in this for the right reasons as is Soloman, the country director, who is also the district president for the Church of this area. We had a long drive with both of them today and really enjoyed learning from them.

We are soaking in methods of Care For Life and feel like we are educating ourselves enough to give you a overview soon on what they are doing here in Mozambique and what they have asked us to do.

T and A

Manga, Mozambique

So...we just got to Mozambique and are excited like on the first day of school. We are looking forward to visit the first community tomorrow morning and working with Care For Life on their Family Preservation Program.

But before we get there we wanted to show you our new home...and which will be our home for the next two months and where all emails, skype convos and blog updates will happen (in case you love to see where that all takes place). It's very simple, but we already love it.

This is Tal... It feels like I am back on the mission! (The best part of that thought is that my companion is Anita!) As many of you know, I was a missionary in Brazil from 1998-2000 and being back in a Portuguese speaking area like this is bringing it all back! The tile floors, the mold on the walls, the delicious beans and rice that we had for dinner, etc. They even have a shower here that is just like the ones I used in Brazil. It gets heated electronically as the water enters the shower head. The problem is that most of these showers are too low for me and if my head touches the shower head near the wires I get an occasional jolt of electricity! It's nothing to worry about but it certainly wakes me up in the morning.

Mozambique greeted us with a single runway airport and 90 degree weather. Luckily, a slight zephyr kept us cool as we walked to the very small airport. We are both a little nervous about how hot it is supposed to get over the next few months.

We were picked up from the airport and went straight to the Care For Life Office/House. It is on located a main road and we drove through the town of Manga before we arrived. The poverty is so much worse than in South Africa and much of the town of Manga reminded me of some of the very poor areas of Brazil.

When we walked into the Care For Life house we were greeted by some of the staff. They all seemed very nice and were excited to have us here. The Care For Life building has offices in the front and living quarters towards the back (which is where our room is located). We had a "orientation" briefing from Joao, the director, which was very good and it got us excited about what we are going to be doing here. We also got answers to some of our questions. We are excited to continue our orientation over the next few days and visit a very successful community tomorrow called Inhamatanda.

T and A

Kruger National Park, South Africa

Quick update - we are in Kruger National Park in South Africa.

We got up this morning at 5 am and headed out of our Tent/Camp at 5:30 am in search for the "Big Five" (Elephant, Leopard, Lion, Water Buffalo, and Rhino). Within 10 minutes of leaving camp we spotted a small herd of Elephants right off the road. It was absolutely beautiful and it could not have been more amazing. Then not too much after that we saw Zebras, again just right off the road. (Just so you know in Kruger the best way to view the animals is to drive in your own car and explore. FYI - we are still in our mini car, that is so small it looks like one of those kiddie cars where the kids push with their feet in order to move.)
And so our day developed with sightings of the Big 5 as well as giraffes, hippos, warthogs, beautifully colourful birds, a very poisonous green snake etc. We are having the best time!!!

A and T

Mossel Bay, South Africa

Brief update from beautiful Mossel Bay, South Africa.

You may wonder where that is, so here a little geography for you. We are on the southern coast of S.A. on the "Garden Route", an area stretching between Mossel Bay and Plettenberg on the south western cost of S.A. and one of the most beautiful places on the earth. It's about 4 hours east of Capetown where we have spent the past few days, visiting Table Mountain (which is on the list to become one of the next Wonders of the World), Robben Island (where we learned more about Nelson Mandela and the struggle of Apartheid here in South Africa), the most astonishing Kirstenbosch Botantical Garden (you think you have seen flowers, but wait until you get here - there are more species here than anywhere else in the world - it's remarkable), and last but not least the Cape of Good Hope, which brought me (Anita) back to 5th grade where I learned about Vasco da Gama and the sailors of that time discovering the world.
What we love most about S.A. though is how kind everyone is and ready to make sure we have a great experience.
We don't have any pictures right now to share, but when we get to Mozambique next week we should be able to update this more with visual aids. But to draw a little visual image, picture this - we are driving from the wine lands towards the Garden Route and as we are passing field after field we see some cows and then sheep grazing... a little later we approach a field in the not too far distance that has another sort of animal on it ...grazing? We get closer and the field is full of Baboons!!!!!
On that note, we leave you here as we are off to discover Mossel Bay that has the second nicest climate in the world after Hawaii.

This is Tal.... we also saw whales yesterday in a place called Hermanus which was pretty cool and then just five minutes ago a very inquisitive little old lady stopped me in front of our Bed and Breakfast and asked, "how long are you?"

Keep up the comments... We love them!

T and A

Married!

Pictures tell the whole story...

For more pictures of the day, feel free to copy and paste the following blogs to your web browser:

NYC:
http://71toes.blogspot.com/2009/09/nyc-part-3the-wedding.html
http://sees-the-day.blogspot.com/2009/09/nyc-wedding-tal-and-anita.html
Utah Open House:
http://eyrealm.blogspot.com/2009/09/sunny-open-house.html

Voluntarily unemployed!

Anita's last day as Director of Global Media at Donna Karan was on August 21st and Tal's last day as the Northeast Regional Representative for Maxis Tools was on August 31st. We both let our companies know that we would be "moving on" about six weeks ago so that they had enough time to hire new people and have a smooth transition. All went well and we both left on good terms.
We haven't had much time to think about the fact that we are unemployed because we are so busy getting ready for the wedding and for our trip. Many thanks to so many of you that have donated to our travel fund via pay pal or through a check or cash. It is so nice to know that you are supporting us as we get married and make this big transition to a new life together. We both feel strongly that this is the right time to travel and get involved with humanitarian/volunteer work and we are really excited about it! Only six days until we are married, Yeah!