My Easter

My Easter was great. Here's a picture of my host father confirming Teresa into the church. The family threw a party later that lasted for hours and to which I was invited. I hope your Easter Sunday was just as fulfilling.

Your brother,
Stephen

My Picture from Chimoio

Here's a picture from Chimoio that I took a few weeks ago.

My friend Chris sent me an email a while ago talking about the year he and his wife spent in Cameroon. He mentioned the color of the earth in Africa. More and more since then I've begun to appreciate it. When I first arrived here I compared it to the iron oxide red dirt you find in Hawai'i, which is close but not quite, sort of like a lot of my experiences here. You should see the sunsets though, there is nothing like them.

Your brother,
Stephen

My Quick Update

I miss bicycling. I took this picture because it reminded me of my friends in California. Anyone want to go bicycle touring the Oregon and Washington coasts when I get back? Physical fitness is not a requirement.

Btw, I just came back from a long day in the field. It's gonna be another busy week, so not much time to blog. Work is going well. We have dams popping up all over Tete Province right now. Pictures to come in a few weeks.

Your brother,
Stephen

My Second Picture from Boroma Mission

Some cute kids at Boroma Mission.

Here's some other news: I think I'm realizing that I like to write, like I really enjoy it. I don't think I ever knew that before. This year is kind of special in that I spend a ridiculous amount of time reading here and I write a ton of emails and blogs. So thanks Mozambique! And thanks to you for reading!

Your brother,
Stephen

My Picture of Boroma Mission

Boroma Mission is beautiful. It was finished in 1885 by Jesuit missionaries and it's located 30 minutes away from Tete upstream along the Zambezi River. We visited there this weekend and its service was full of worshipers. Within the mission, there is a nunnery, an orphanage, and a bike mechanic. The Portuguese priest conducted the service completely in Nhungue. The surrounding community is more fluent in Portuguese than most any other Mozambican community I've been in. Many of the kids even spoke enough English to ask how I am doing and what my name is. I think this mission is gotta be doing something right.

These kids were hamming it up for our cameras, so it was a little difficult getting a shot of the church without them in it. But they are beautiful as well, so no loss I suppose.

Your brother,
Stephen

Thanks

Here's a message from Auntie Liz:

Carey is finally at rest. He passed peacefully this evening with his family around him. Thank you for all your prayers and cranes. I strung them up and hung them in his room.. they were beautiful.
God Bless

Liz

My Soapbox #1

I don’t talk about water very much on this thing. I make passing references to it, and cite literary quotes on it (mostly from Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Norman Maclean), but I really haven’t gotten into any relevant topics on the matter. Part of it is because some of you are my Kennedy/Jenks coworkers or engineering buddies from college, who are far more knowledgeable on the subject than I am. Also, I figured I get on my soapbox plenty enough without talking directly about the area of study and engineering to which I’ve so far devoted my adult life, including this year in Moz.

This is all to say, I’m gonna start writing about water and sanitation. I like learning stuff and I think writing about water will help force me to research more. I want to start broad, with the world and Mozambique first and eventually get down to more details. Hopefully, you can learn stuff along the way.

There are these things called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are eight objectives toward improving the world as agreed upon by the United Nations. The benefit of MDGs is that they provide clear objectives and a definite time line. They began in 2000 and will run until 2015, where their success will be evaluated. The goals are:

1. End Poverty and Hunger
2. Universal Education
3. Gender Equality
4. Child health
5. Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS
7. Environmental Sustainability
8. Global Partnership

MDGs are a big deal. The goals are ambitious and include sub-goals such as: Goal 1.A: By 2015, reduce by half the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day or Goal 7.C: Halve, by 2015 the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. I'll get back to Goal 7.C more, but the goals also tell us about the world today. They tell us what we think the biggest problems facing the world's poor are and how we can change them. The goals also are interrelated, because education for women increases child health while promoting gender equality.

As we are approaching 2015, the world is actually on pace for a few of these goals. Of course, not all countries or continents are created equal and their success rates are unequal, too, but I’m gonna leave it at that for now.

Your brother,
Stephen