Travel to South Africa and Mozambique: Missionary base in Maputo
The entire route of the trip to South Africa and Mozambique, as well as useful tips, costs and conclusions, you can read HERE.
To the previous travelogue –> Johannesburg - Faith and Urban Contrasts
Flight Johannesburg (South Africa) - Maputo (Mozambique)
The next day I had a flight from 8:50 from Johannesburg to Maputo, Mozambique with arrival at 10:00. The flight had to be with LAM (Mozambian Airlines). The plane was smaller than the ones we are used to in Europe - with 2 columns, each with 2 seats. Lower, smaller and much narrower plane. We got on board, arranged the luggage, settled in and the plane supposedly left. But just before hitting the runway, the pilot made an announcement that the plane had a technical problem and the flight had to be delayed. We waited an hour (!) sitting inside until it was finally understood that the problem was in the systems and could not be fixed in an instant, so we were going to replace the plane with a similar one. Throughout this 3-hour delay, we were first given water while we were waiting to get out of the plane, and then we were taken back to the airport terminal where we were directed to the airline lounge (lounge) and where we were provided Free consumption of everything available, of course!
Some airlines, supposedly European and supposedly with regulations and laws, try to pass a meter in case of delays by handing out croissants to passengers, and others - supposedly Africans - provide you with a meal! With the exception of the first hour, while we were waiting on the plane to take off and my concern that at the airport in Maputo they might have to wait for me from the organization in question, the rest of the unforeseen time at the airport in Johannesburg was pleasant.
In the end, the flight took place and was my shortest flight to date – 45 minutes from departure to landing. I had never seen a faster distribution of food on board, drinks and garbage collection.
Surprises at the airport
The view over the maputo from the plane was shocking - only sheet metal roofs and shacks everywhere. No luxury mansions, no town planning, everyone built wherever and however they like. At the airport was the place where the picture of where I ended up was clear - the seats on the bus were just talking eloquently - they were so torn that you realize that if they welcome the tourists at the airport, it is hardly inside the country Much different.
A relatively slow process of obtaining a visa on Arrival followed, reviewing the documents several times, the same questions in several places. The required documents for a tourist visa on Arrival were: hotel reservation for the stay, return flight and passport. In this case, my hotel reservation was fictitious enough to show it at the border and then I canceled it as I was going to sleep at the organization's base. The Internet said everywhere that the visa costs $50, but they actually asked me for $150!!! There is no going back, so they are clearly making the most of it. One of the missionary girls I met later was from Canada and her long-term visa (for up to 1 year stay) cost $900! I didn't have much choice.
–> Browse and book a budget hotel in Maputo at a discount. See here!
Interesting facts about Mozambique
- The territory of the country was opened by Vascu da Gama in 1498. and became a Portuguese colony in 1505. That is why the Portuguese language is an official language in Mozambique. Almost no one speaks English, although it is studied in schools.
- the population is about 32 million people. A woman gives birth to an average of 5 children.
- Average annual income per person - about $540, which ranks the country at the top of the world's poorest countries ranking after the CAR, Malawi, Birundi and Southern Sudan.
- Only about 40% of the population is literate.
- as a former socialist state, May 1 is declared as Labor Day, as it is in Bulgaria. The day is non-working and non-schooling. Mozambique became a people's republic in 1975, when it regained its independence from Portugal and until 1990 the country maintained very close relationships with the Soviet Union and the countries of the Eastern Bloc, including Bulgaria. I was amazed when one of the men who took care of the boy's boarding house told me that years ago Mozambique imported a lot of fruits and vegetables from Bulgaria!
- Malaria is a big problem in Mozambique and there really were a lot of mosquitoes all day. I used everything - roll-on roll-on, spray with DEET against thoracic mosquitoes, bracelets, in the end I even broke away from the excessive use of such preparations, but in general I had no bites - at most 1-2.
- 12% of the population is sick with AIDS
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Purpose of the visit
My time in Mozambique was the highlight of the program, was the purpose of the whole trip. Everything else was accompanying. If I had to erase my memories of everything else I saw along the way and leave only my memories of Mozambique, it would be quite enough for me.
The reason I visited Mozambique was by no means the beautiful beaches that the state is known for, nor the wild animals in the safari parks, but the strong desire to participate in some volunteer project and, above all, a missionary one. 3 years ago I first heard the name of Heidi Baker - an American, a missionary who has been living and serving in Mozambique for 30 years. The non-governmental organization they found - Iris Global has built many bases, orphanages, schools, clinics, hundreds of churches, various ministries throughout Mozambique, but also in other countries on all continents. Heidi lives in Pempa, in the northeastern part of the country, where there is currently military action and is dangerous for volunteers. That's why I decided that I would have a purely better logistics if I chose their base on the outskirts of the capital Maputo - Zimpeto. (See here) I applied, I was approved, I prepared 1 whole medium suitcase and a half with donations (toothbrushes and clothes) and here I am - struggling with the bureaucracy along the border...
Driver Alex has been waiting for me for a long time. The organization took over for free my ground transport, overnight stays and food (if I choose to eat what the children eat). If I decide I want to eat something else, I get it with my own funds.
Maputo - Impressions
On the way from the airport to the base - dirt, mess, a lot of mud, terrible traffic, broken cars. It was very exotic that absolutely everything was happening on the main street - doors were produced on the street itself, cars were repaired, hardware services, toilet blocks put for sale on the improvised sidewalk, children's bicycles and metal beds lined up on the dust outside, mattresses in Nylon too, curtains and bedding sets…everything.
Mass the shops were 4 beams stuck in the ground and some fabric/nylon on top. There were people who carried their entire store on them - they were so decorated. The road to somewhere was with asphalt, then dirt or in this case gyols and huge deep and wide potholes.
As a matter of fact, Maputo also has a civilized neighborhood with taller buildings, sidewalks and large tidy hypermarkets, but somehow the miserable neighborhoods, tin houses and canvas stalls are predominant.
To avoid traffic, the driver sank and went completely into the wild - where the unfinished houses are, the small fields that people water with watering cans (!) and lots and lots of dust.
Iris Global Ministry - Zimpeto
We finally reached Ministério Arco íris (the Portuguese name of the organization). I was very happy that I was greeted by a white young missionary - Curlson from the USA. He showed me around the base, showed me all what was where, then I forgot almost everything and finally settled into the room. I was alone in a room with a shared bathroom and the only visitor to the base at the time. There are more people like me during the summer months when people's vacations are. There were also long-term missionaries, still white, who spent the night in a separate place at the base - Sarah from Canada, Erica from South Africa, Emanuel from the Philippines, Charlotte from the USA and a few others. Overall, perhaps the only thing I didn't like was the split between just visitors (like me) and the missionaries. In general, I was left to fend for myself for everything.
The base in the Iris Ministerio Zimpeto was founded in 1995. by Heidi and Ronald Baker, missionaries from the United States. This is actually the first place they build when they move to live in Mozambique. Current base executives are Augosto Lopes, who grew up at the base and his wife Clara, who was originally a missionary. Until recently, Steve and Ross Lazar were the leaders.
The base has:
- a school where about 800 students are educated in the morning and the same in the afternoon - these are children from the boarding school and 0community
– boarding school for over 200 children from newborns up to 20+, divided into different buildings by gender and age. Separately, there is a building for children with SEN. All these children are cared for by local community members, some of whom live in the base, and others come and go. Most of them are believers.
- a church building - a huge hall, built soon, which, in addition to religious services, was also used when all the students from the lower (1st-6th grade) or upper course (grades 7-11) had to gather for some official occasions. At the moment, the church is led by pastor Jose, who, when he found out that I am from Bulgaria, immediately thought of Jorzhan Banov.
- Clinic for the treatment of minor injuries and diseases
– Bible school where believers from all over Mozambique come
– a chair (cafeteria), where the meals were held for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but it was also a place for rehearsals for various singing groups, as well as for the meetings with missionary themes
– Library
– Short-term residents’ boarding house (visitors) and long-term missionary boarding
In general, from the big boulevard, the large building of the church can be seen first, behind it are the one-story buildings of the school and behind them - everything else. The base is relatively clean (except for some other small lizard in the kitchen). A well-organized and safe place even in the dark. The pavement is mostly sand.
The weekday program at the base was:
5:30 - Wake up -> 6:30 - Breakfast -> 12:30 - Lunch -> 16:00 - Bathing time -> 5:30 pm - Dinner
All important moments were announced by siren. On weekends and holidays, wake-ups and breakfasts moved an hour later. Bathing is an extremely important part of the daily regimen, as at the very beginning, when Heidi came to Mozambique, she had taken some stray child into her own home almost every night for years, bathed him, dressed him, fed him And she let him sleep in her house on the evening. The next evening it was another child so that as many children as possible could touch love.
What I did in this base and in what activities I got involved, read in the next travelogue.
To the next travelogue - I and the children in Africa
