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

Paper Cranes

Today is April Fools’ Day, but this is actually a serious blog post.

Every night before I go to sleep I pray for a bunch of my friends and family, nothing really in particular or formalized, more of a shout out I guess. One of those people is Uncle Carey. Though he isn’t biologically so, I say uncle because that's what we call everyone in Hawaii. I guess it's because of the pretty high odds we are actually related.

Anyway, he’s recovering from a lung transplant, which he underwent about year ago to treat the Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis that he’d been diagnosed with. He’s had a few complications with it over the past year because of his reduced immune system. He’s been sedated this week and we are all concerned.

His family thought a great way to express their love for him would be to fold 1,001 origami cranes. They’ve asked family and friends to send them in, so that he can see how much everyone cares about him and sort of help his recovery. The significance of 1,000 cranes originally comes from Sadako Sasaki, a young girl from Hiroshima, who suffered from radiation sickness as a result of the atomic bomb. She and her family folded the cranes to help her recovery. She died from the radiation, but the tradition stuck. The extra one is a Hawaiian Japanese twist on the tradition, because we figure we could use the extra luck.

One of the things I’m learning is that it’s in human nature to give and to help. We just don’t always let our guards down enough to ask for it from others, even when it’s needed. So I guess I’m asking you for some now. I know you’re busy, so no worries if you don’t have time, but if you do have the time to fold a paper crane, please mail it to his wife:

Liz Kunimoto
GOL Transplant House 2
724 Second St SW #140
Rochester, MN 55902.

Thanks,
Stephen

My Flight in June

My brother Ryan gets married in June, and we are all very excited. The problem was that my SALT term ends in late July and it's kind of against SALT policy to permit international travel farther than to an adjacent country. I don't want to give Eva anymore headaches about this, but we managed to work it out with my MCC Country Rep that I could fly back for a week. As a team, MCC Moz voted on it, and since it's a special event I got to buy my tickets home!

I had my flights booked for a couple of months now, but they were rerouted yesterday to include a day layover in San Francisco! So, if you live on the peninsula and are free to hang out on June 22 (Wednesday), email me. I'm so pumped! I have no idea what I want to do. Usually, this would call for a bike ride through Paradise Loop or to Muir Woods, but I'm not sure about being sweaty on a plane to Munich. I am accepting suggestions.

Your brother,
Stephen

My Self Portrait

This is gonna be a busy week in the field. I took this picture outside the community of Salinhanga because there was a mud wall house and trace of a rainbow reflecting off my motorcycle helmet.

Your brother,
Stephen