A week at the lake

Today is World Aids Day. I spent this morning at an event in Lichinga which was attended by anyone who has involvement with an HIV/AIDS program in the city. I was there with the Lichinga based Equipas deVida and we paraded through town with our bright orange tshirts which read on the front: Embaixador de Christo! or Ambassador of Christ! And on the back (in Portuguese): In Christ there is no difference between positive and negative. Equipa de Vida. Anglican church.

Peg is a British doctor who lives in Cobue, a village 4.5hours drive north of Lichinga on the lake shore. Rebecca and Peg spent the last week with people who had travelled from all over the lake shore to learn how to carry out tests for HIV and most importantly, how to council those they give results to. These are the first peple who have been allowed to carry out tests in this way: people usually have to travel to the nearest government centre which could be days away! We arrived in Cobue last Tuesday afternoon and I was pretty excited to be back somewhere I recognized, to be met by people that remembered me and to see the kids we’d played with 2 years ago, now a LOT bigger than they were!

Erin is an Australian who is working with some missionaries just out of Lichinga who run an organic self sustaining farm which they hope to use as an example of different farming methods which local people can copy. She fancied a trip to the lake and so worked and travelled with me all week. It was amazing to have somebody to think aloud to when we were working and also to chill out with in our time off. We spent the first two full days travelling in and around Cobue, with Carlos our driver determined that 2 ft wide paths were definitely fit for the car! We visited about 10 Afridev pumps which had been reported broken and with 2 Mozambicans who work for the Diocese and Carlos, would follow a similar pattern with each. We would first meet the chief of the area and if possible somebody who had been the “pump committee”. It turned out the pump committee usually consisted of one person. We would establish that no, they hadn’t had any training, and were not in possession of any spare parts (which we were told they would be) and would then work with them to assess the condition of the pump. We would then take the pump apart and replace any broken parts where we had them. We managed to completely fix 3 or 4 which was really satisfying, particularly as my team learnt very quickly and by the end I was confident that they could do 90% of the work without me. A couple of the pumps have been left broken for so long that I believe they had clogged up and would need the whole riser pipe removed which is a big job that we couldn’t do there and then. A couple had just never been dug deep enough to begin with (they were built into the rainy season when water levels were higher) and so there was no water in the wells in the driest months of the year. It was a successful couple of days overall in terms of training, scoping out what the situation is with the pumps, knowing a bit more about the most common problems and encouraging communities that we are beginning to look at this problem more. The next stage of this project may involve me in a boat travelling up the lake right up to the Tanzanian border, stopping for a day at a time along the way and training communities in basic maintenance and repair. I’m about to start writing a manual.

Eren and I spent the next 3 days travelling to and from, and working in, a village called Lumbaulo which is about half way between Cobue and the Tanzanian border. Getting there involved about 5 hours of cycling and a few hours of walking. The heat and sun intensity along the lake made the journey very difficult for me but the scenery was absolutely stunning and travelling through countless villages and seeing Mozambican countryside made it all worth it. Lumbaulo itself was amazing. We slept outside at the health post there as it was too hot to be indoors. We spent the second day at a river which we discovered in the rainy season reaches a width of 124 ft and a depth of 12ft! Currently people have to swim across and last year 6 people from the village were attacked by crocodiles, including one man who accompanied us who had lost an arm. The idea is to propose to the government that a bridge is necessary there. My job was to take lots of pictures and measurements and find out the situation from the community so that I can write a sort of proposal which can be given to the government. My initial thoughts are that it would have to be some sort of suspension bridge (particularly as we spied some pretty good rocks on the banks) but any suggestions appreciated.

The journey back was quicker as we left at 5am to get the walking done whilst it was as cool as possible but was still very hot. I have pretty burnt knuckles and wrists from cycling! Back in Cobue we made the most of Peg’s house being 10 metres from the lake and chilled out. It is mango season here at the moment and last week I was on about 6 a day! Every time we needed a break on our journey we’d just grab a few mangoes – ideal!

There are sad sides to all of this. Obviously the amazing work that Peg does is only needed because people get very sick. There were a couple of very malnourished babies in Cobue this week. Where pumps don’t work people are drinking lower quality water or walking miles to the nearest water source. I am continually learning more about the culture and life of people here as well as about myself. I am really loving the work that I’m doing and feel really comfortable here. I have been learning particularly this week about thanksgiving (coinciding nicely with thanksgiving on Thursday!) and giving thanks in all circumstances. It’s amazing even in the toughest times how much there is to be thankful for from health to suncream to mangoes to bikes and plenty more besides!

Wow, sorry for the length of this. Happy Advent to everyone and I hope you are all well. I look forward to hearing your news. I think of you all often.

Picture 1: Children in Cobue appreciate the mended pump (there is a pump in there somewhere!!)
Picture 2: A view near Lumbaulo.
Picture 3: Part of our journey from Lumbaulo to Cobue.