Installment 3 of THE JOURNEY: Our Trip to Northern Mozambique – 23 June to 16 July, 2009

June 27 – We were up at 4am this morning as we were told to expect poor road conditions and that it would take a long time to reach Fingoe. The total trip, there and back to Tete again, would be about 550 kilometers, and about half of it would be on rocky dirt roads. We departed Tete around 5am and it was still an hour and a half before the sun would come up. We crossed the Zambezi River again and followed the road toward the west and the Zambian border.

It wasn’t long before the three ladies in the back seat had gone to sleep, and Rhoda as nodding a bit as well. I must confess, I had to really concentrate to keep my eyes opened and the cool air helped on that account. After about an hour, the ladies woke up and Agnes Banda, our guide, was not sure where we were along the highway. She was afraid we had gone past the turn-off to Fingoe. I assured her that we had not passed any roads leading off to the south, but she was still concerned. As we continued on, there was a man walking along the highway and as we passed him, Agnes said, “Let’s stop and ask him exactly where we are!” So I braked and stopped and then proceeded to back up down the highway. As we came next to the man, Agnes opened her window to greet him and ask where we were, but before she could say anything, the poor guy screamed and took off running as fast his legs would carry him! I’m sure he must have thought that we were kidnappers ready to snatch him up and make witchdoctor medicine out of him. As silly as that may sound, Agnes assured us that it is an all-too-frequent occurrence.

We continued on down the highway and soon came to a small village along the road. Agnes recognized the place and we continued on for another 30 minutes or so until we came to our turn off, the ladies laughing periodically about the poor guy who ran screaming off into the early morning darkness. By this time the sun was coming up and we were on the dirt road. It was terribly rocky and bone-jarring and we were only able to travel at about 40 kilometers per hour (25mph). The road was not nearly as bad as the road to Macanga, but it was just terribly rough. About 25km from Fingoe we came upon a pick-up truck broken down along the road and the driver frantically waved for us to stop, which we did. He asked if we had any oil, and when I said I only had a couple of tins, he asked if we could give him a ride into Fingoe to see if he could find some there, so he climbed into the back of our truck, crowded as it was with all our stuff and a pastor, and we continued on to Fingoe. As we came into town he spied a place that sold oil and we dropped him off, and then there just across the street was our district superintendent, Rev. Tiago Missu. Evidently, there had been a mix-up in communication as he was surprised to see us! We had thought that word went out several weeks before regarding our visit and we were hoping to see a number of our former students, but as it turned out, we were only able to visit with Rev. and Mrs. Missu, and our pastor and his family, the Ciricas. What was nice for Mama Uate was that she had taught Mrs. Cirica and they had name their little girl born while at the seminary after Mama Uate. We spent several hours with them and were able to share a simple meal at lunch time (some poor chicken was sacrificed for us) before it was time to start the long trek back to Tete. Before we left, the Missus wanted us to see their home across the little valley, and when I went to start the truck, it was as dead as a door nail! Oh no! What’s wrong – way out here in the middle of nowhere? Well, I opened the hood and low and behold, the battery cable had become disconnected. I stuck it back on and tightened it up, and the engine turned over just like normal. So, off across town we went. We had a nice visit and a word of prayer with the Tiago and Cremina and then headed back to pick up the rest and to farewell the Cirica family.

While we were there, the guy with the oil problem spotted our truck and asked for a ride back. I also noticed that my fuel gauge was down below the halfway point, so I thought I’d better look for some more fuel. Evidently, the pump attendant hadn’t topped off the tank the night before, and I knew we’d not make it back to Tete unless we found some more. Rev. Missu know a guy who sold safe fuel, i.e. not mixed with water, from a barrel at his house, so we went there and got a couple of gallons, just enough to get us back to Tete. We loaded up with all our passengers and the one extra, and set off down the road again – with a couple of pumpkins, a live chicken and some other gifts that had been arranged to thank us for our visit.

Along the way we dropped our extra passenger off with his gallon of oil. His passengers’ faces lit up when they saw us arrive and stop to drop him off. They’d been sitting there all day, and they still had about 150 kilometers to go to their destination! We continued on with our rattling and jolting. As we did, the truck started acting funny. The anti-lock brake light started coming on when I shifted down to low gear. Then the windscreen wipers would suddenly make a swipe across the windscreen. Then my window suddenly started to go down all by itself. We got to the tar road and the antics of the car continued as it got darker and darker. I turned on the headlights and the engine seemed to lose power, so I turned them off again and sped up a bit to race the sun to Tete. We finally made it to the turn south to Tete City and I turned on the lights and everything stayed normal, so I kept them on as we headed to the bridge. Traffic was backed up waiting to get across but we finally made it to the toll booth, paid our fee and crept across the bridge with the rest of the traffic. First stop into town was a petrol station to fill up. We put in 58.7 litres; it’s a good thing I was able to find some back in Fingoe or we’d have been sitting along the road out in the middle of nowhere with an empty tank! I went to start the engine to go on the Banda’s house and no power. Once again the battery cable had come loose and putting it back in place solved the problem. What a relief it was to get back to Banda’s, have a nice dinner, get cleaned up and stretch out for a good nights sleep.

28 June – Today we didn’t have to get up so early as it was only a kilometer to Tete Central Church were we were to attend the service this morning. We had some breakfast and then headed to the church about 9am. We got there in the middle of the Sunday School session and were greeted by the district superintendent, Rev. Bonga Laiton. Between Sunday School and church, we put up our display of pictures of the Seminary and then prepared for the service to begin with a time of prayer with the pastor and some of our former students. The church was packed for the service and people had come in from some of the surrounding churches. There were about 15 of our former students there as well, most of them serving as pastors in local churches, the farthest about 25 kilometers from Tete city. The total attendance for the service was 625! Quite a crowd! There was a lot of special music from various groups, and even a children’s choir did a special number.

After the service we had a nice lunch with all of our former students, plus the pastor and his wife of the local church, the district superintendent and the former district superintendent – Rev. Matias Beta. Altogether there were about 25 of us that had lunch together, and then after the meal, we just sat and visited and got caught up on what everyone was doing. It was a wonderful time of sharing, and we didn’t finish up until nearly 4pm. After we got back to the Banda’s, they had a mechanic come by to look at our truck and found that the main problem was the loose battery cable; it just wouldn’t tighten down enough on the battery post to stay connected with all the rattling and shaking we had been subjected to. He removed a little spacer in the connector and put a couple of small lead strips between the connector and the battery post and it snugged down really tight. The rest of the evening we just sat in the yard around the cooking fires and visited until supper time, then we got things packed up and ready for leaving in the morning before going to bed.