My Trip to Johannesburg

On Monday I'm gonna be flying out of Tete to Johannesburg for our MCC regional retreat. Then I get to spend a week with some fellow SALT volunteers in Capetown. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing but I'm excited. It's gonna be great to see those guys again.

Your brother,
Stephen

My Picture of Cahora Bassa

I haven't been using my camera much recently because work is nuts right now. Here's an old picture of the Cahora Bassa dam. As an engineer, I was pumped to go visit it. I wish I had more time to talk about Cahorra Bassa or the new dam, called Mphanda Nkuwa, that the government is building 60km downstream with the help of the Chinese government. And that the existing Cahora Bassa only produces a seventh of the designed electricity capacity. Or that almost 90% of that production is sold to neighboring Zimbabwe or South Africa at literally the world's cheapest electricity prices. And about the fact that only 15% of Mozambicans have electricity in their homes.

No time for that.

Your brother,
Stephen

My First Rainy Season

Boy, I'm getting behind on these updates. Here's a picture of a storm cloud rolling into Tete. It's already rained three times! This place has transformed overnight and everything is coming alive now. Even the lonely baobab trees are full of new leaves. I wish you were here to see this.

Your brother,
Stephen

P.s. the lychees and pineapples are delicious!

My Work, Part Three

Here's a picture of some of my friends at the First Mennonite Church of San Francisco making a sand dam. Great job guys! You know, MCC is always recruiting...

Speaking of sand dams, I haven't written about work in a long time. Here's some info that my good friend Sara gave me. Sara is a genius. She is getting her phd at Stanford University, studying community involvement in water and sanitation in the developing world. She says:

In general, the four major principles contributing to sustainable development of water projects are as follows:

1) Communities should initiate the water project
2) Water users are given control over the type of project to be pursued
a. Wells, sand dams, public taps, private taps, etc.
3) Communities agree to invest something into construction
a. Labor
b. Money
4) After installation, administration of the system is supported by an external agency that regularly follows up on the project.

Ok, so here's what I've been wrestling with in my head for about three months now. We work here with MCC and CCM specifically on sand dams. We initiate the projects by rolling into a community with our Hilux and asking around (so strike number 1). Sand dams are kind of this fixed thing, and there is really only a few ways you can design them to be safe (strike number 2). So what we are left with, are points 3) and 4). And I don't even know for how long we will continue to do 4). It's just the nature of the project.

I can't help but wonder if we are doing something fundamentally wrong here. Don't get me wrong, the results in many of these dams we've built are amazing. People do grow gardens in the communities where we've worked where once was only desert. People do get water and food which last them well into the dry season. I just don't know.

Your brother,
Stephen

My New Friends the Penners

I met Nathan and Adrianne Penner this week in Beira. They told me their wedding story. They met two years ago at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, where they are both doing graduate work.

Last year around Thanksgiving, Adrianne had been diagnosed with a brain tumor which needed to be operated on within ten days. They decided to move their marriage up to five days before the operation. Nathan thought it was the only right thing to do, Adrianne thought Nathan was crazy. They told their church and school communities the situation and asked for help (they go to the Pasadena Mennonite Church). They said they were scared out of their minds and that they wanted to have a small wedding in their backyard if possible. Adrianne couldn't do much of the planning because she needed to avoid stress before the operation.

Immediately, everyone in their community jumped at the chance to bless them. The community planned the wedding and donated everything. The huge chapel, the flowers and decorations, the tables and chairs, the potluck reception, even the honeymoon in a beach house in Malibu were donated. Strangers gave up days of their time simply because they couldn't get the story out of their heads. The result was their wedding was bigger and more beautiful than they could have ever expected or afforded alone. People said that it wasn't so much a wedding as it was a chance to thank and praise God. Everyone present wept for joy.

Five days later, Adrianne underwent brain surgery. A year later, I met them in Mozambique.

I'm really not doing justice to this story. You can find their actual story here.

Your brother,
Stephen

My Thanksgiving and Random Picture

Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving! It didn't quite feel like Thanksgiving without my family but I'd say it was the next best thing. I ate two plates of turkey and stuffing and tried to explain what we were eating to our Mozambican coworkers who were afraid of stuffing and thought apple pie too sweet. I had much to be thankful for. This picture, of course, has nothing at all to do with Thanksgiving, but I thought I'd post it anyway for the color.

Your brother,
Stephen

My (Bicycling) Hero

Here's a pretty common image you see along the main highway that leads into Tete. I was pretty impressed by his bicycling strength so I snapped this pic.

I'm a little torn by this though, I'm a big fan of cycling but I'm also not a fan of deforestation. I don't want to begrudge a man trying to earn food for himself, but it seems like there is an end endless stream of these guys on bikes hauling wood or charcoal into the city, everyday. It's gotta add up eventually. I'm here as a development worker, but i gotta admit 'development' is still a dirty word for me. Boy, that just reeks of privilege, doesn't it? Cause what do I know? I probably killed more trees and burned more carbon in my life than this guy ever will. I guess I just don't want Mozambique to be another America. I want Mozambique to be Mozambique.

Your brother,
Stephen