Day Three - Traveling to Mozambique

Boy was I glad I showered before bed. The next morning we woke up late and had to rush to shove everything back in our suitcases, brush our teeth and cram everything and everyone back into the cars. At this point, Sue realized that she had left a bag behind in Johannesburg. Once we hit the road things went pretty smoothly. UNTIL...we reached the border.

The scenery was beautiful, there were incredible mountains, rivers, creeks, streams and many plantation style farms. Every where you looked there were sugar cane fields, banana trees, and pineapple fields. I even saw some monkeys climbing a fence and what I think were some hippos floating in a creek. It is winter in Africa and much of the vegetation along the road is brown. Many of the people will burn the grasses and scrub to try to control it. They also burn their fields to help add nutrients back to the soil. It was good to see more of the country in the daylight.

As I was saying we got caught up at the border. There was a line of traffic waiting to get through customs. We sat for about 2 1/2 hours waiting. Once we finally got through it was waaaay past lunch time and we hadn't had breakfast yet. We kept on driving and made it to Maputo around 2:00. We found the hotel easily and checked in. The elevator was a little scary, it didn't go all the way to the top floor - literally! Our rooms were on the top floor and the elevator got us close but stopped about 2 feet shy of floor level. The elevator was really old too and the doors were user operated rather than being automatic, so we could see the inside of the walls as the lift went up and down.

The difference between South Africa and Mozambique was like night and day. You could really tell just by looking around that SA had more money and better living conditions. This was really evident when we stopped for fuel. Some of us had to use the restroom and we were charged 2 metacais per person to use the very stinky and not so clean facilities. We soon found out that everything we did cost a few mets. Parking our cars on the street cost us a few mets - there was a person there to "watch" the car for us. We were the only white people in the city it seemed and when we went walking to get some cell phones and get some cash there were beggars that would come up to us. When we went for dinner we saw many people selling everything from carved wooden stools, to cashews, to jewelry and kaplanas. When we spied the kaplanas and went to bargain a sale, several other crowded around us and tried to horn in on the sale. It was similar to a feeding frenzy with sharks on Discovery channel.

Dinner was interesting, I ordered grilled prawns. They were pretty good but the weirdest part was seeing the eyes and legs and face of the prawn on the plate. It was good to get some nourishment and see some more of the city. The restaurant was situated on the bay along a boardwalk of sorts.

After dinner we went to a department store called Game and purchased some supplies that we would use for our training sessions at Bethel Center.

Day Two - Paris to Johannesburg

By the end of the day in Paris, my vision was blurring from lack of sleep and I was feeling dizzy. I found it near impossible to sleep on the plane across the Atlantic so it caught up with me on the green tour bus in Paris. I was so glad to see the airport! We had a little snafu getting our carry on luggage and making it through customs and security. Once we got everything sorted out we found a restaurant and had something to eat. We also had some time to freshen up, and do a little shopping in the terminal. Our flight ended up being delayed a while so we used the extra time for a small group bible study.

The flight to Jo-burg was about 10 1/2 hours. We were served dinner around 2am and I was able to get a little sleep - I think. Once we deplaned we stopped at the nearest restroom to brush our teeth and freshed up a little. Then we moved on to customs. There was a little bit of a line but we went through easily and then gathered our luggage. You should have seen the trolleys piled high with all of our many suitcases and duffle bags. The trolleys were made to travel down and up the escalators too, I thought that was really interesting.

We ended up spending several hours in the airport trying to find a rental car that could be driven into Mozambique. The van we had reserved was not allowed to leave South Africa. We finally settled on renting two smaller sedans and cramming all of our luggage into them. We fit everything in like a puzzle - including people. By this time I was still feeling extremely dizzy, I thought the fumes from the cars were adding to what I was already feeling.

Once the cars were loaded and our rentals were situated we went back into the airport for dinner. There was a big food court where we could choose from several different restaurants. Our pastor Jonathan told us we could not eat at Subway or Winky's. I voted for Nando's, a chicken place. Everything looked really good, unfortunately my stomach was roiling and I could only eat a few small bites before running off to the bathroom to be sick.

After several repeat trips to the restroom my stomach finally calmed down. Some of my group mates went to a nearby pharmacy and got me an over the counter medication that help settle my stomach. SO then we were off! I was glad to be moving again, it seemed that my dizzy spells were gone as long as we were moving. The medication made me sleepy and I was able to get some rest in the car. We drove for a few hours and stopped in a town called Nelspruit for the night. Nelspruit is about an hour or so from the border to Mozambique. We were able to have dinner at the hotel before turning in for the night. I skipped bible study that night and took a shower and went to bed.

Day One - Pittsburgh to Paris

Either sunrise or sunset from the plane - not sure which...I loved looking at the clouds from the plane and the sun made such marvelous colors as it moved across the sky.

This is Sue - trying to sleep on the plane. It was very noisy and a little chilly, so she did her best to combat both! Who needs sleep anyway....

View from the plane. It was neat to see the fields from the air. The land looked very different compared to the U.S.

At the Paris airport. The big sign in the background had letters that flipped when a new flight arrived. It was really cool to watch it work. The big green pillar had 2 or 3 different advertisements inside and rotated.

I am in Paris!!!

My lunch in Paris - a lovely ham and cheese sandwich on a baguette grilled panini style - yummmm!

The famous Moulin Rouge - shows are still performed here today!

The Louvre Museum - the large glass pyramid is the entrance.

Our group in the gallery where the Mona Lisa hangs.

Me and Mona...The most famous painting in the world! Bonus points if you know the name of the painter! The Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre Museum and is seperated from the crowd by a plexiglass box and a wooden railing. This is about as close as a person can get to the painting. Of course Mona Lisa is not the only thing to see in the Louvre! Every place you look there is something amazing to see, including the building itself.

One of the last stops on the green bus tour was the Eiffel Tower. It was really amazing to stand at the bottom of one of the most famous landmarks in the world. For some reason I expected it to be green?!!

Home Again!

Hello friends and family! I have finally arrived home after a looooong travel. Sorry about the lack of posts while I was away, I was not able to get wifi and I was very busy while we were gone. I can say that my trip was amazing and I will be adding posts over the next few days to share my pictures and experiences with you. Thanks to all of you for the prayers - God really worked wonders for us and I can't wait to tell you all about everything!

Nitty Gritty

Well, we are getting down to the nitty gritty now. I will be departing in a little over 24 hours. I am still packing - in fact it looks like several mini tornados have swept through my bedroom over the last few days. I still have some things to prepare for the trip and my kids are driving me batty - I sure will miss them while I am gone though.

I am including a picture of the team that will be traveling to Mozambique. Please pray for us and that traveling is safe and easy and that we all stay healthy and strong on the trip.

Our first stop on our journey is Paris. We are hoping to do some sightseeing and spend some time at the Louvre. Then we will be off to Johannesburg, South Africa. I will try to add some new posts from the airport in France as we wait for the plane. Talk to you then!

Update 2

This week we are working more on curriculum and trying to plan out our days and how we will present material. We are still in need of interpreters and we are trying to remember to keep things simple. So far I have written a lesson on drawing because that requires the least amount of "stuff" to do. Now I wonder what to plan for next?

I have found out that all of the teachers do speak Portuguese so I will need to review that heavily before I leave. I think a brush up of French would also be good for the day we will be in Paris.

I have had a few more donations this week and now I only need to raise $785 for the trip. I was sweating it there for a while and didn't think I would ever get this close. But God is good and he will provide - just as he provides for all the birds in the air!

I will need to remember to take my Malaria medication on Wednesday. One of the side effects is having strange and bothersome dreams. I hope this is not the case as my dreams are pretty wacky as it is.

That is all for now!
Heather Lena

Donations Update

Thanks to all of you who have donated to my mission! I am happy to report that I am closer than ever to reaching my goal. I have only $860 left to go!

Right now I am working on the lessons that I will be presenting to the teachers and trying to work out which supplies I will need for the projects. We are planning a cooperative group cross-curricular workshop where each US teacher will be in charge of a station that the Moz. teachers will rotate through. Right now we are short on translators and this could change what we have planned. We are hopeful that God will put all the pieces in place and that we will be able to carry on with our plans.

We have also been working on a prayer tree that will have tags to hand out to parishioners to remind them to pray for us while we are gone. Our team will also be featured in a video during the services on July 4th and 5th. I am a little camera shy so I will skip that part....

Thanks again to all of you who are praying for me and sending donations. I am feeling very blessed to have so many interested and caring friends and family members!