Safari and the Journey Home

Picnic at Crocodile Bridge Camp

Huts at Lower Sabie Camp

Spectacular view from Olifants Camp

They drive on the left, but if the elephant wants to drive on the right you let him. He was bigger than our van.

Huts at Oliphants Camp

Elephant crossing. I shot only low resolution animal pics but Connie had the "big gun" and will share her photos with us.

We were up and ready to roll at 5 AM Friday however the driver had gotten back to his home in Swaziland later than expected the day before and decided to drive over to Maputo early in the morning. So he was able to get some sleep which was important however that resulted in him hitting the early morning traffic when he arrived in Maputo which made him late getting to the Seminary.  We got away a little after 8 AM and headed west to Swaziland on our way to Kruger National Park. The Restricks went with us on this excursion so they drove their truck and the Vegas road along with them. The other 8 of us boarder the 16 passenger van with our luggage in tow. Our driver Mongi is a young Swazi Nazarene gentlemen who has been driving for this touring company for about 5 years.

The traffic in the city was not too bad by that time of day and soon we were out in the countryside, making good time. We drove for several hours to get to the border. Since our drive was a Swazi we needed to enter into South Africa from Swaziland. So we drove crossing any national border can be a little intimidating but is mostly just a slow bureaucratic process. First you stop at a military check point to have your driver’s papers checked and to have your cabin and trailer checked for anything suspicious. The officer that opened the slider on the van to talk to us quickly latched on to the Nazarene connection. He was very familiar with the large Nazarene church in Manzini and had visited there a couple of years before. Someone asked him how he had been treated. He said something to the effect…”well, when God is present it is always good.” He gave us a smile wished us well and closed the door to send us on. On to the border that is to have all our passports checked. This involves everyone going into the building that looks much like a post office to have someone stamp our passport and make sure the drivers list matches the people coming through the checkpoint. All this takes place on the Mozambique side of the fence. Then it is back on the bus to cross through the border only to then stop again immediately on the other side to go into the Swazi border office to have our passports stamped into the county.

After all this passport stamping it was back on the bus to go up the road a few feet to have the driver’s papers checked, and the vehicle lightly inspected by the Swazi border patrol. Then it was on the road again. Swaziland is a beautiful mountainous country. The cooler temperatures were welcome, and so was the beautiful hilly countryside. We drove right past Southern Africa Nazarene College, where many on this team stayed when they were here a number of years ago building a church in memory of John Linson. In fact not long after passing the college we passed within eye shot of the church they built. The shiny metal roof over the red brick structure made it stand out in the green countryside.

About an hour later we made it to the northern border of Swaziland and went through the border crossing with the double passport check and inspection once again, only this time with the Swazi border station on one side and the South African border station on the other. Once in South Africa we drove straight north headed for the Crocodile Bridge Gate, the Southern entrance to Kruger. The park is the size of the state of Massachusetts.

Once we were through the Jurassic Park style gate and paid our park entrance fees we crossed the Crocodile Bridge and immediately started seeing big game, and as one might guess, a crocodile below the bridge was the first thing we spotted. Right after the entrance to the park we stopped at a campground and had a picnic lunch. It was 2 PM by the time we stopped to eat. The BLT sandwiches were a welcome meal since most of us had breakfast between 4 and 5 AM. After lunch and some light shopping in the souvenirs shop we were back out into the wild to look for animals and pace ourselves to make it to the Lower Sabie Camp by dark when the gates close for the night. All the camps in the park and all the entry/exit gates to the park open about 5:30 AM and close about 6:30PM. Basically that the gates are only open from  sun up to sun down. If someone is not where they need to be by then….tough. So it was very important to make it to the camp at Lower Sabie before the gates close for the night. It is only 40 kilometers from the Crocodile Bridge to Lower Sabie Camp, so we were in good shape and took our time stopping to take a lot of pictures of animals along the way. I believe that first afternoon we saw a variety of animals including: rhino, elephant, hippo, giraffe, water buffalo, baboon, monkey, warthog, kudu (a type of deer), zebra, impala, crocodile, vulture, and a variety of other deer like creatures (lion fast food), and a variety of beautiful birds including some beautiful metallic blue birds that were aggressive enough to try and steal sandwiches right off the table at picnic areas. Over the next couple of days we would add ostrich and lion to the list of creatures we saw. Unfortunately we never saw any cheetahs or leopards.

We stayed at a different park each night and ate in the park restaurant each night and for breakfast the next morning. Each camp was unique but the hut style was pretty common across the camps. The accommodations where nice. We stayed in round adobe/plaster style huts with thick grass roofs. Though that may sound rustic, they were very nice. Most of them had full baths in them with running hot and cold water. All of them had air conditioners and a big ceiling fan handing down from the peak of the cone shaped grass roof. Most cabins even had a front porch. Many porches were screened in and had a refrigerator, sink and kitchen cabinets, and a small table and a couple chairs. I can safely say these were the nicest grass huts I have ever stayed in.

Dinner at each camp was the local cuisine, which tended to include chicken and a type of sausage or roast meat that comes from the kudu. It is sort of like venison. It is very lean and tastes more like beef than deer to me. It was usually served with a tomato and onion relish that really made the flavor come to life. The meat was accompanied with white rice or another white substance that looks like mashed potatoes but has the texture of spray in foam insulation and had no taste. Fresh vegetables and fruit were always there to complete the menu.

After the Lower Sabie Camp, which overlooks the Sabie River, we spent Saturday driving and shooting (pictures only of course) our way north 153 K to my favorite camp, Olifants. Along the way there, at lunch time on Saturday we met up with the Bauza’s at the Satara Camp. They were staying at a different camp but it was good to see them one last time.

Olifants is a camp situated high up on a bluff overlooking the Olifants River. There is no way with pictures or words to do justice to the view from up there. Words or pictures cannot capture the raw beauty as we could see for incredible distances in all directions and see nothing but the wild untamed wilderness of Africa. From the observation area and the camp restaurant we could see the rushing water in the river below and hear its muted roar from high above. The occasional animal or vulture would pass in and out of view reminding us of the wild world that began just on the other side of the electric fence surrounding the camp. We were fortunate enough to see sunset and sunrise from this vantage and it is a view that I will never forget.

Each night after dinner, in the pitch dark of the Africa night, several of us would walk out away from the dim lights of the camp to gaze at the stars. The stars were so bright that even at dinner we could see the stars through the tree branches over head. I can honestly say I have never seen the stars so bright. The first night the Restricks encouraged us to come out and see the stars and once my eyes adjusted to the dark I was stunned by the view. I have never seen the Milky Way so clear and bright straight across the sky from North to South. I honestly did not know it was possible to see the Milky Way so bright and clear with the naked eye. Being this far south on the globe, the Southern Cross shines unmistakably in the southern sky as does Orion’s belt in the northern sky. The brightest stars truly twinkled in the sky. Every night I looked up at this amazingly beautiful spectacle and could only thing, “Wow! God you do good work!” Seeing the massive wilderness and the massive sea of stars over head every night was humbling yet inspiring. Humbling because it drives home just how small and helpless I really am, but it was inspiring because it also burned into my minds how big and majestic is my God. And to think he made us, cares for us and wants to call us His children.

Sunday we traveled from Olifants southwest the 156K to Skukuza Camp, stopping for lunch at Satara Camp. Most of us followed the Restricks’ lead and had kudu foot long sausage sandwiches for lunch. These were met with mixed reviews. Many of us liked them, especially once we put the tomato and onion relish on top. It was a sort of South African Coney dog. After more animal sightseeing we arrived at Skuzuza where we quickly unpacked the bags the Restricks had been hauling for us in their truck. Then we had to bid them farewell so they could make a dash for the nearest park gate and get back out to civilization before the park gates closed. They were both due back in Maputo to resume their normal Seminary life Monday morning. Now we were down to our original 10 team members. We had dinner under the stars by the river and did our final shopping, trying to get rid of Rands as best we could before our journey home.

All of us went to bed by aout 8 PM Sunday night because 4AM was the wakeup bell since we aimed to leave Skukuza shortly after 5AM. Amazingly we were loaded in the van and at the camp gate shortly after 5AM. As soon as the gate opened at 5:30, we were out into the wild and racing for the Paul Kruger Park exit to head toward the Johannesburg, South Africa airport. Thus began the 42 hour marathon journey home. The trek across this northern part of South Africa was beautiful. The hills and mountains and the colors of SA are unique. It is hard to describe it but there is something different and majestic about the shape of the hills and colors of this region. We moved quickly as we had a 5-6 hour drive to airport and we were supposed to check in about 11 AM for our 1:55PM flight. Our driver Mongi made good time ad got us there safe and sound. We were a little worried about the little trailer’s tires. The trailer we had pulled all the way from Maputo contained our large bags and tubs. We had a flat tire in the park a couple days before so we were already on the only spare Mongi had, and it was bald. However going as fast as we went the trailer tires rarely touched the ground. In fact at a gas stop, Don felt the tires and reported the tiny trailer tires were cooler than the van tires. They don’t get very hot if they don’t touch the ground.

We arrived at the airport about 11:15AM and began what ended up being about a 2 hour process to check in 10 people and 18 check bags. I have never figured out why it takes so long for groups to check in but that is the way it is. Then we all had to go through the security screening, and have someone inspect our passports before we could go to our gate. We had just enough time left to eat some overpriced airport food and head for our plane. The first leg of the flying was a 6 hour flight on an Ethiopian Air 757 destined for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Several of us were asleep before the plane door was even closed.  It had already been a long day and it was only 2 PM. We were a little concerned about our next stop. Addis Ababa airport had been a confusing mess in the daylight two weeks ago. We did not know what to expect when we had to negotiate this airport in the dark. Fortunately this tour through the airport was not nearly as confusing as before. We deplaned and bused to the terminal to go inside and go through security screening again before being bused to our 777 for the long haul back to DC via Rome.

Fortunately the video players in this 777 were working properly so we were all able to entertain ourselves on this massive flight back to the US. We would spend 18 hours on this plane. The flight time to Rome was about 6 and a half hours. We sat in the plane during an hour and a half refueling and cleaning in Rome, then we flew over 10 more hours to get to DC. We were all very glad to get off that plane Tuesday morning. By this point we had gotten back all the time zone hours we had forfeited a couple weeks before. So though it was about 7:30AM in DC (and Ohio), it felt much more like mid afternoon to us. And the light and limited sleep of the past 23 hours of flying was making us weary.

Of course the reward for surviving nearly 23 hours of flying was to get to go inside and stand in line in US Customs. After over an hour in this line, we had to recollect all our luggage, push it about 200 feet through the Customs checkpoint and dump it all again on the domestic flight side of the room. Then we stood in line to get our boarding passes to Columbus. Then we stood in line to get through security for the umpteenth but final time. Finally we were free to go to our last gate, relax over a meal, and make phone calls home while we waited for our short midday flight on to Columbus. After the long plane rides, this little 78 minute flight from DC to Columbus seemed like a breeze and we arrived home on time and happy to be greeted by the bright sunshine. We were dreading coming home to snow, ice and cold, so we were very happy to see sunshine in Ohio on Tuesday.

Thanks for your prayers and noted across the past few weeks. The project was a success, there is money and people in place to take the project the next step of the way. The whole team came home safe and sound. We were privileged to represent you all as we worked and worshiped side by side with our brothers and sisters in Africa!

Last Work Day in Maputo

Three wheel barrow lanes are open, no waiting.

Last dump truck of the day got stuck in the sand so they had to unload by hand

The stone is spread and compacted. Ready for the finish pour to start next week

The crew that helped us these two weeks. These guys will be the ones to pour the floor

The dinner bell rang and people came from every direction to the cafeteria.

The women of the team receiving wraps and scarves at the dinner.

Today was our last day at the Seminary. We wanted to get as much done as possible today. Carlos had originally planned for us to pour a portion of the floor today so we could have pictures of the finished product. We told him we were not concerned about pictures, just making sure the structure is built right. So in the interest of a better finished product we spent the day preparing the ground properly and spreading and compacting two dump truck loads of large stone. By the end of the day and with the help of numerous seminary students and a gas powered compactor, the entire floor is ready to receive rebar and concrete. We would like to have poured the whole floor this week, but it was not meant to be. Had the excavator shown up when Carlos requested to level and prepare the site before we arrived, we would have been pouring concrete these last couple of days. We can leave confident that Carlos’ crew and the students will be able to finish the floor and hopefully future crews will put the roof over the court and add the rooms they wish to add to the end of the building.

Today is Bob McMillan’s birthday. He claims to be 39, but we all know he is really younger:-). The team presented him with a card and two small handcrafted bicycles to add to his miniature bicycle collection.

The Seminary prepared a farewell presentation and dinner for us this evening in the cafeteria. It was a very nice event. Director Margarita made a “Welcome” presentation. She says that in Mozambique culture they do not make a big deal when people arrive because they don’t want the visitors to think they want them to leave. So they say “Welcome” at the time of farewell. The Seminary presented the ladies of our group with traditional wraps and head scarves. They gave the men in the crew carved wooden maps of Mozambique to show people where we were. The dinner was very good: chicken, rice, french fries, and several other traditional local dishes. And the hospitality was great. It was nice to eat with the faculty staff and students and the families of the married students.

The team revealed prayer partners and coincidentally every person’s prayer partner was the other prayer partner’s partner. So we had some comical moments as we found that we had reciprocal prayer partners. After some pineapple Fanta everyone was off to pack so we are ready to leave very early in the morning.

We will leave about 6AM for the 3 and a half hour drive to the south gate of Kruger National Game Reserve. We will drive into Swaziland first since our drive is from Swaziland and needs to enter into South Africa from there. By midday tomorrow we should be "on Safari".

Ready to Pour the Floor!

Click here to see/hear a song from Seminary Chapel Wednesday morning

Chapel at the Seminary today. We presented Gideon Bibles to the students and staff

Ring beam is done and now we prepare for pouring the floor.

Moving dirt from the high places to low paces to prepare for the floor

The morning Juniors and Seniors at 7AM lined up to sing the national anthem before heading to class

Today the crew took the form boards off the concrete poured yesterday and reattached them atop the last sections of block yet to receive the ring beam concrete. By mid morning that process was done and we were ready for concrete. However the mixer had different plans. It ran for a about a minute before stopping for good. Fortunately the immediate problem was the familiar spark plug issue which indicates a much bigger issue of oil getting into places oil is not supposed to go. This time the plug could not be cleaned well enough to make the mixer run again, so over lunch Carlos got another spark plug to try after lunch.

In the mean time this morning Tim and I, accompanied also by Vivian and Connie attended the Wednesday morning Seminary service to distribute Gideon Bibles to the students, faculty and staff of the seminary. We met with all the students in the Junior Senior, college prep program last week. The seminary students number about 45, so it is a much smaller group but preparing pastors for the ministry is the original and still core purpose for the Seminary to exist. It is a wonderful thing to have the high school program on campus as well and the two programs complement each other well and bring the campus a vitality and energy that would not be here if they had not expanded the ministry to include educating the college prep students.

Right after lunch we quickly learned that the new spark plug was not the answer to fixing the mixer. After an hour of tinkering the decision was made to give up on the gasoline mixer and go see if the diesel mixer in the back of the storage garage still runs. It actually started pretty easily in the garage which was surprising. So we towed the diesel mixer down to the work site behind the truck. But after fueling it up and topping off the oil, the mixer would not start. Eventually we gave up on that mixer as well and Faruke, Lucas and some seminary students set out to mix several big batches of concrete on the ground. We then wheel barrowed the concrete to the final sections of ring beam to be poured. By mid afternoon the ring beam was poured. Then we spent the rest of the day moving and leveling dirt to prepare for pouring the concrete slab tomorrow.

Late in the day the mechanic who takes care of the equipment on campus came in from his work and fixed the diesel mixer. So it is now running and should be very helpful for pouring as much of the floor as we can before our time working here comes to an end tomorrow afternoon. It is my understanding that the Bauza’s, Faruke and Lucas will continue to work with the seminary students to finish the floor after we leave. Eventually the roof will be put over the court and rooms will probably be added on to the end of the building. There are a couple of similar structures at other schools in the neighborhood so we can see about what the finished project will look like even if we never get to see this building completed.

  

The manual labor and the heat are wearing us down but the food, fellowship and your prayers have kept us going. Just one more day to labor and we pray that it we will have the strength to make it a productive one.

Ring Beam is Poured

Vivian and Eva working on lunch

Don cleaning the mixer spark plug....again

Carlos, Sabrina and Gabby carrying rebar

Juan laying the last block

Traffic jam at the concrete mixer

Pouring the ring beam

Ring beam is poured

Break time under the coconut tree

Matthias and Mike (in blue shirts) from Mercy Air after supper.

Another beautiful day in Maputo today. It was sunny, warm and the breeze picked up as the day got hotter. The focus for the morning was laying the final blocks on the north wall. In the afternoon we installed the rebar frames we built last week. These frames sit on top of the foundation blocks and tie into the columns. Once the wooden forms were in place the mixer was fired up and the new piles of gravel and sand and cement where feed into the beast to make concrete. By the end of the afternoon and with the help of the seminary students all the column bases and most of the ring beam was poured. Tomorrow morning should see the end of the ring beam pour.

We saw a helicopter fly low over the campus this morning and then again this afternoon. As it turns out that was a Mercy Air Helicopter making medicine deliveries to remote locations in Mozambique and they intentionally flew low over us to say hello twice . The pilot Matthias and the medic Mike, both from Switzerland landed at the airport and joined us for supper and to stay overnight in the campus apartments along with us tonight. They provide a very necessary mission aviation service. Today they made two medicine air drops in remote areas of Mozambique. They told us in the north of Mozambique there are still people so remote that they have rarely if ever seen white people. Matthias told us that there are still no roads in that area and it takes three days to reach by canoe. But this remote area is only 20 minutes away by helicopter.

People who come to Maputo for missions purposes know they can rent rooms from the seminary if they need a place to stay. With campus just a few miles from the airport it is very convenient for people traveling by plane or helicopter in this case.

Connie and Nancy went into the city with David in the afternoon to buy more groceries and to start to exchange money from Mozambique currency to South African currency for the final part of our journey that begins Friday morning at 5AM.

Building Rising Out of the Ground

Faruke mixing "mud"

Juan laying block on the south wall

Mike tending Lucas on the south wall

Nancy resting between buckets of "mud"

Pouring the footer for the north wall

Sylvia Bauza laying block on the south wall

Bob on the mixer throttle

Tim tending Lucas and Don on the east wall

Today we went back to work on the gymnasium project. The sky was clear and the temperature topped out about 88 degrees. Fortunately a steady breeze has blown in from the ocean all day to give us relief.

Over the weekend Carlos and his local workers and seminary students poured more of the footer and laid more block. So today we had a running start on getting the foundation block laid. By lunch time the foundation block had risen up out of the ground on 3 sides of the structure.

After lunch we fired up the big gasoline mixer to see if it would make our work a little easier. We still needed to pour the footer down the north long side of the building. Juan was able to start the mixer right away, but it quickly sputtered to a halt. After some tinkering I had the magic pull that started it up a second time. We went straight to loading it with sand and cement, only to have it die again. No matter what I tried it would not restart. We were thinking we might be mixing the concrete by hand for the rest of the week. But when Carlos got back from lunch with his tool box, Don pulled the spark plug and found that the brand new plug was fouled. Between the oil the mixer is burning and the varnish on the bottom of the gas tank when we took it out of moth balls, there was plenty of crud to foul the spark plug. Don put the cleaned plug back in and the mixer started right up and lasted for about one round of mixing before it died again. Don cleaned the plug again and the mixer fired back up. It looks like it may be reliable for the week if we can just keep the plug clean.

It soon became apparent the choke on the mixer will vibrate itself closed and just about kill the motor, so Bob McMillan was put on throttle duty to keep the engine running as the concrete was mixed. By the end of the day the final stretch of the footer was poured. Tomorrow the final blocks can be laid on the north side as the forms are built to hold the ring beam concrete on the other three walls. With the mixer working it will make the concrete work much less labor intensive.

Once again today the seminary students came to work after classes about 3:30PM. Carlos is talking with the administrators about the possibility of having students work with us all day a couple of days this week. If that is approved it would allow us to move this project a lot farther along before we wrap up our time on the project Thursday. The students seem very excited about having at least the basketball court completed soon and are concerned about when it will get finished if it isn't done this week before we leave.

Everyone is doing well. We are just tired from the honest hard work and the hot sun. As I type this most of the crew is enjoying the company of the Bauza family and the Restricks in the W&W house after yet another excellent dinner. Don and Mike are teaching the Bauza girls how to play Rook. From what I hear Sabrina and Gabby won the game last night so apparently they are quick learners or Don and Mike are good teachers or maybe it's a little but of both.