The High Cost of Livin'

Sorry about gaps in content. I'm busy, okay!? But really, I've been managing construction on the girls dorm the last two weeks and man is that thing finally going up fast! I've had a little bit of time to write but most of it has been drafting a ridiculously long post essay article tome about the socio-psychological underpinnings of culture in Mozambique. I'm so busy in fact that I'm outsourcing the writing to the kids. Look for their content to be popping up next week or so. But for now, on the meat of the post. Or should I say the bread, or the peanut butter (huh?).

I live in Mozambique. That's in Africa. The city I live in is called Nampula. It is hot, inland, and is seen by the rest of the country as a illiterate, backwoood, redneck truck stop for goods moving overland to Malawi that is home to about a half-million people. Life isn't great in Malawi either, but the fact that many goods are destined for there and not here tells you something. My city is poor. It has no port. The biggest “industry” we have is the coca-cola bottling plant. Cashews are a cash-crop that get sold and processed overseas. Fruit grows everywhere here and the growing seasons vary that if you just wait two months something else will come around.

On average, people here live on about $1.50 a day. That statistic is highly localalized to our city, but also about three years old. I'll be optimistic and say that nowadays people live on $2.00 a day. But, I'll also say that the amount of money that a wealthy person makes (shop-owner, car-driver, businessman, Indian) is highly disproportionate to what an “average” person makes. So much so that about 75% of the people here live on less than a dollar a day.

Most people hear that and have a set of reactions which are all very valid and very true---Wow, that sucks; Things must be really cheap then for $1 a day; People must have absolutely nothing for $1 a day; If people farm you just barter and don't use money; I'm reading this on a smartphone with a $100/month contract.

Some things are really cheap. Things made in Mozambique are really cheap. Things made in China are almost as cheap but always break after two days because, after China makes foolproof products for the U.S., Chinese engineers try to reverse engineer the factory and sell knock-off products to third-world markets at a fractions of the price. But I'm not here to bash China, even though it would be really easy and fun.

Things made in Mozambique are food. Actually, food is grown, not made, but you know what I mean. I wish I had some size comparison, but just remember when you buy stuff in the grocery back in the states, things that are 16 oz size is the same as a pound. Here a rundown of what grown is Nampula (or other parts of Mozambique) and a quick little comparison to a price you might pay. Granted, these are not a blue light special, bulk, everything-must-go-now sale prices. Just average ones.

Peanuts – 90¢ per pound. Unroasted. Cost in America: $3.99 (roasted)

Coca-cola  - $3.99 for a 12-pack. Cost in America: $6.99

Eggs – Here they are $2.75 for a dozen very tiny eggs. Price in America: $1.59 for large eggs.

Oranges – 4¢ each. There is no price comparison here because it would just make you cry.

Mangos – 4¢ each. There are so many of these that you can't give them away in season. Also, no comparison.

Bananas – Again, 4¢ each banana. Also, 4¢ is the minimum denomination we have here for money. If we had a coin that was 2¢, oranges and mangos and bananas would be 2¢.

Tangerines – 8¢ each. That would make then two coins apeice, not just one. A little rarer.

Vegetable Oil – Bottle of vegetable oil: $1.40. Price in America: $4.29.

Peanut Butter – I have a friend that makes his own at $9 for a 16oz jar. Imported it is $10. Price in America: $3.49.

Cashews – If you have a tree, they're free. Otherwise they're about about $1.70 a jar. Super cheap American price: $7.

Sugar (unrefined/brown) – 60¢ per pound. Price in America: $0.99

Sugar (refined/white) – 80¢ per pound. Price in America: $1.69.

Ground Beef: Okay, there are a few cows here, but they don't do milk. Cheapest stuff you can get from the butcher is $4.50 per pound. In America: $3.59.

Goat: Maybe about $50 for one that will feed close to 50 kids. And yes, everything is included. No kidding (pun intended).

Chicken: For a big chicken, its about $2 per pound. Oh, and that includes bones, heart, neck, liver. No such thing as buying boneless chicken breast here. Our chickens have bones. For a nice, boneless chicken breast in the states, no legs, thighs wings, just meat, is $2.39 a pound


But for stuff that doesn't come from here, it is a little bit of a different story. Fortunately, because if people were faced with paying the real price nobody would be able to afford it, the government subsidizes off the top certain staples items. That means they help with the cost so the buyer can afford it. Subsidized items appear in italic. Most all of these imported items come from South Africa.

Milk (powdered): $4.90 per gallon. Yes, powdered milk.

Milk (real): $9-13.50 depending on how good you want your milk to be. All milk is long-life and imported. There are no cows here. Price in America: $3.39.

Butter: $5.80 per pound. Again, cows. Price in America: $3.69.

Diesel: $5.90 per gallon. Really subsidized. At levels bankrupting the country. In Seattle, USA: $4.09.

Gasoline: $7.50 per gallon. Also really subsidized, but not as highly used as diesel is. Price in Seattle, USA: $3.59.

Loaf of bread: 50¢. Also subsidized at levels bankrupting the country. Bread should costs 4x what we actually pay for it.

Flour: If you are a baker you can buy the super subsidized flour for your bread and sell loaves for 50¢. If you are just buying not-so-extremely-yet-still-subsidized flour for yourself it is $4.00 for a five-pound sack. In America: $4.19.

These are just the edibles. I don't have time to go into things like toothpaste, batteries, lightbulbs. Although I will say that a 110lb bag of portland cement is $12. Very comparable to American prices. It is imported, from Pakistan, at super cheap prices because the legitimate cement import is a front an expansive drug running operating that uses Mozambican ports as a midpoint for moving the drugs on to Europe and Asia.

A Day In The Life

Like the sands of the hourglass, so are the days of my life. The much requested, much anticipated, and much expected post chronicling all the details of a day at the Evangafrica Orphanage. This was all recorded during one absolutely normal, nothing special, always out-of-the-ordinary day in Mozambique.

And as an added bonus, keep reading to spot the best picture in the history of the orphanage!

5:30 - My day begins when the megaphone goes off. Its literally the siren on a megaphone and its sounds like the Huskies scored a touchdown (if anyone can even remember what that sounds like). I usually shake the bugs off my net, out of my shoes, and off my clothes. After that, I sweep through the rest of my bungalow and talk with the animals, just like in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.This guy has been hiding out in the kitchen sink. Its a great place for him to hide, because my sink has neither running water or a connected drain line.

5:35am - I usually get my wits about me and head over to the watering hole. Here I get to wait in line with all the kids and collect all the water I'm gonna use for the day. My main uses are only for drinking and showering.
6:00am - After picking up breakfast, I bring it back to my house. Breakfast is rice porridge. Recently we started getting sugar in it. For the first month I was here I swear somebody confused the sugar with the salt because it was almost unbearable salty at times.
Breakfast is usually a good time for me to get my necessities out of the way. I usually sit and eat it while I'm boiling my water. It need about a gallon a day here with all the work and heat/humidity. Its also a good time for me to get some reading in and spend some good quality time with Jesus while relaxing in my easy chair.
This is my easy chair. It was just sitting around here, and nobody ever used it or wanted it. And I'm such a sucker for anything free (ask me about the other 4 pieces of free furniture I've acquired over the years).

7:00am - After finishing my water/Jesus time, I clean up a little bit, get a shave in (I'm now an expert in shaving without a mirror, by the way) and get ready to face the day.

I inspect the roof of my bungalow before heading out. It can get pretty windy here, so I just like to assess it from time to time, because it needs to hold up if it ever rains. We're in the middle of the dry season now, which only recently has been giving us trouble (stay tuned for a post about the well).
7:05am - This morning I decided to go and chat with the neighbors a little bit. I was being friendly, but I had a secret hidden agenda.

7:10am - I encounter the first neighbor. We hang out for a bit, talk about the economy, his 401k, Michael Jackson, the Mambas (nat'l soccer team). But I didn't find what I was looking for.
7:30am - I run into the second neighbor. They're an older couple. The invite me in for some coffee, he talks about the weather and what life was like back before the war while she shows me pictures of her grandkids. We have good little chat, but I still haven't found what I"m looking for. whoa-oh-oh-oh.
7:40am - I found it! If you recall an earlier story about a morning ritual in the jungle here, you'll recognize what I'm talking about. The morning practice of burning leaves and pollen to create fumes with the hint of something oh-so-slightly narcotic. I meet the neighbors to confront them with the issue at hand. We discuss the potential environmental merits of perhaps creating a compost bin, but I am quickly dismissed as outlanding and told to pack up my Western ways and go home.Here is a picture of a smaller version of the epic toke-fests that take place most mornings behind my bungalow.

8:30am - I sit in during one of Professor Tomas' lessons. Tomas is a friend of Victor who comes in usually about 4 days a week and helps the kids in primary school who are behind in reading and writing (which is just about everybody).I'm just about as far behind in the reading and writing as they are and most days, especially if we're talking about verbs or tenses, it's really helpful. Other days its not, like if we're talking about whether the snake ate it's food or if the snake ate its' food.

The lessons take place inside the dining hall. And for all my HHS alumni reading this, the Portuguese word for dining hall sounds like "cafetorium".

9:30am - After the lesson there is usually lots of work to be done. Below is an example of when the bathroom was being tiled. Victor and Christina are hard at work to get the brand/grand new boys dorm up and running. Yes, I know. Contrary to popular belief, Victor and Christina are not those do-nothing, stay at home orphange parents you all think they are.This day, however, there was not actually any work to be done. Construction stops when there is not money coming in, which is about 4 days out of 5.

So in my spare time, I will just hang around with the kids and chat, give help on homework, teach English, play games all of the above.
I made my way over to the boys "dorms" for a little while. I call it tent city, because while the boys dorm is being finished, this is where they're living. Don't be shocked, they've actually done quite well for themselves with the walls, roofs, porches, etc.

After that, I make my way over to the girls dorm. I'm enjoy checking out the "African re-bar" aka bamboo.

11:00am - The first of the days many mini-emergencies take place. On other days its driving people to the hospital, having gov't officials show up without notice (not that we're hiding anything, they just generally suck), breaking up fights between neighbor kids, the list goes on. Today, it was mechanical (hooray)! A local NGO was bringing in donations when the car bottomed out on the gate coming into the orphanage and knocked the tailpipe clean off the car. TJ to the rescue! Sorry, no pictures. I was actually working during this one and couldn't take any.

After a quick change into my work clothes I started inspecting the car. I discovered that the tailpipe didn't break when the car entered the gate, this was just the final nudge it needed to drop completely out from under the car. The tailpipe was completely rusted-out and the muffler was tied to the car with an old bicycle tire.

1:00pm - After using some scrap-iron and a dozen or machine screws I attached the muffler and tailpipe back to the car. As I was prepping the broken section of tailpipe to weld a collar I made onto it (we have welding equipment here, but just stick welding, nothing fancy) another car pulls up. This is the director of the NGO along with his favorite mechanic. The mechanic is probably the same one responsible for "fixing" the tailpipe the other two times it had rusted out. He literally drags me out from under the car and proceeds to augment (read: destroy) my mounting brackets. He throws the tailpipe in the back of the car and drives off to his shop.

The boss of the NGO talked with his associates for a few minutes, and I could hear him reprimanding them for letting an estrangiero (foreigner) work on the company car. And then as they drive away he has the nerve to ask me (in Portuguese) if the mechanic could borrow our welding machine to repair the car. I was tempted to reply to him that the welding machine is a estrangiero too so he probably wouldn't like it, but Jesus restrained me and instead I told him I didn't understand what he was saying and packed up my tools.

1:45pm - After getting my clothes changed and discovering that my lunch had been given away (shima and beans), I put on my teacher hat and start with homework. I don't think the kids here (or most people in America) fully understand the capabilities of a mechanical engineer, they just see me working on cars, a coincidence. But they do know and understand that I love math and science. I won't talk a lot about teaching, because it and the education system here are going to get their own post later. But this is most of my time until dinner.
Everybody is hard at work doing the examples on the board.

3:00pm - The afternoon today was filled with a particularly different brand of excitement. The girls apparently have an upcoming grudge match against some girls from their school and started soccer practice today.
After a few drill and exercises with a very serious Gabriel (in the yellow shirt), and not paying attention, which frustrated a very serious Gabriel (still in the yellow shirt) they started playing.

If I were them, I would opt for a medium than soccer, but none-the-less it was undoubtedly the highlight of the day as all the boys came out to watch the girls try their feet at the worlds game.


It was a source of endless amusement to myself and all the other boys, and a few of the workers even (the two guys far left) stuck around after their shift to watch the "excitement". When a goal was finally scored it resulted in all the 20+ boys watching the game to start jumping up and down and doing flips off the wall we were watching from.

The next day I didn't see a single girl who wasn't either limping or walking around as sore and as stiff as a geriatric. I made fun of a few of them by throwing their pencils on the floor and watching them pick it up (just kidding, I promise).

4:30pm - After the excitement of the girls soccer game most of them went to shower and ice down. I was held back because some of the little ones wanted me to be their choppa driver. Choppas are the little mini buses that regularly hold 20 people that dart all over the city. They wanted me to drive them to a restaurant for dinner. At the restaurant we had, you guessed it, beans and shima! I splurged and bought them for cake for desert. No big deal. After all, I had a little extra cash because it costs 5 bottle caps to ride the choppa.

When I got out of the choppa (a work bench) to get the cakes, I took what is quickly being known as the best picture in the history of the orphanage. If you click on it you can view it in full wallpaper size. And I know that all y'all are gonna eat this up and send it to all you friends and introduce them to (from left to right) Jose, Mena, Ofeita, Samito, and baby Dorcas.

5:30pm - When I first came here and didn't know the language I discovered that one of the easiest ways to serve people here was literally by serving - dinner, that is. Now they won't let me leave. Oftentimes I will be hunted down to make sure I am not running away and skirting my responsibilities just to serve dinner to everybody.

6:00pm - Dinner is served! The last few nights, thanks to a local donation, we've been getting chicken liver along with our rice instead of beans. So after I've divide up all the plates and then ring the dinner bell and get to dish them out to everybody. Usually there's about 60 plates for dinner needed to include everybody.

7:00pm - After dinner there's devotional. It consists of one-part singing and one-part of a little scripture lesson given by one of the older kids here.

7:30pm - Devotional gets finished up, which means its time to start homework. The younger kid that don't have much have gone to bed by this point, and there's anywhere from 5-15 kids that stick around that need help with English, math, chemistry, physics, history, and/or geography. The only thing I refuse to help with is biology, which I never liked and I quickly discovered is impossible to translate for.

10:00pm Usually this is when I will get time to myself to check email, listen to BBC news on the radio, brainstorm for the water supply and well, update the blog, or just crash and get some much needed sleep to get back up and try it all again tomorrow.

Learning To Go Without

It's sometimes the little things I've been taking for granted. Like getting access to snacks, or a fresh piece of fruit, or not having to spend the first 30 minutes of my morning boiling all the water I'll need for the day. But sometimes, its the larger things that I notices. Like EVERY night this week when we seem to lose electricity somewhere between 6pm and 8pm for the evening. Its ironic, only because I do notice the electricity because the lights flicker all the time and it's an unregulated 240V system (for the nerds out there). Its also ironic because we live next door to the electrical substation for the city. Mozambique I guess has a fairly developed electricity system because it exports a lot of it to neighboring countries. And with the electricity comes the internet, which we have at the orfonato, but never seems to work on the two days a week I try to use it.

Still, what I am not taking for granted are the ways that God seems to be providing seemingly out of nowhere. Like today, I was very upset over a TV station that came to interview the orphanage. The TV station is owned by the makers of KLIN (pronounced: clean) and they brought their klin truck and music jukebox and product placement banners and klin go-go dancers. It was pretty sleazy, because they came to entertain (for lack of a better word) the kids for a couple hours by dressing as hookers (its was really bad) and dancing for everybody for two hours.

In the midst of being disgusted at the obscene product placement and slutty go-go dancers, I learned that they brought a small donation of soap and $500. We went from having no money at the start of the week, to God making a way despite slutty product placement girls.

Still, be praying for some long-term answers to prayer, namely that God would:
1)Help us with the water. We've been drilling wells for almost two weeks and people are coming out on Monday to test the health of the water and what quantity we'd be able to get.
2) Find a new location for the septic tank. We've spent a week laboring over digging septic tank for the dorm, but we can't place it next to the well. It needs to be about 3meters deep, and at 2meters I hit quartz. Very hard to dig through.
3) Help us with the every increasing problem of money. The truck has not been bringing in as much work as in needed to help buy supplies and construction materials.

Breaking Radio Silence

I have made contact with the natives and they have accepted me as one of their own. No, seriously, its been amazing how well I've been fitting in here. I love hanging out with everybody, people love to talk to me, help me learn portuguese and macua, practice english, you name it. There's tons of stuff I want to give you updates on, so hopefully I'll remember most of it. Get ready for an epic post. Unfornunately, no pictures. I tried to upload pictures to a computer my first or second day and the computer wiped them clean, and I don't trust it here much. Maybe I'll find a better way.

Where am I sleeping: I helped finish a bungalow that was being built for me and Felipe, my awesome roommate. We have a "bathroom" and "kitchen". I say that because if we want water, we have to walk across the compound to haul it in. Although, we recently got an oven and stove top, which is great news because now the girls want to come over and cook with it.

What am I eating: This one is very easy to explain. Breakfast is rice porridge. Lunch is xima (pronounced shima) and beans. Xima is basically cornmeal, thats it. Zero nutritional value. Dinner is rice and beans. Sometimes we get extra ingredients in the beans, like carrots, onions, lettuce, potatoes. And you have to eat a huge amount of food just to get enough nutrition out of it to do anything at all. We have a fridge in our "kitchen" but it is being used to stock perishables for everybodies food. For example, I cam back the other day to find it filled top to bottom with heads of lettuce. And for water, I haul it in from across the camp (about 100yds) and boil it.

Are there giant bugs: Yes, but most of them aren't dangerous.

How's the weather: Thank you Al Gore, because everybody says it has been uneasonably cold here. And it's rained 3 times, and half of the people here have never seen a July with rain. It's so bad, because some of the kids (and myself) have been getting sick because it's so cold at night. It has maybe been getting into the mid-70's during the day, but it feels as if I need a sweatshirt or long sleeves sometimes. I'm up with the sun at 5am everyday, and the sun sets around 5:30pm, and I'm usually asleep by 9.

What's it like in Nampula: If Mozambique was America, Nampula would be like Dodge City. There are dirt raods everywhere, there's a run on the bank everyday, and if you want the police, you have to drive to the station, pick them up, and bring them back to where you are. The orphanage is right on the edge of the African bush. There road in front of the orphanage will take you all the way to South Africa, but it becomes impassible after about 200 yds. The new road to South Africa is built just a little ways over and isn't much better in spots. Supplies are available if they're available, and there's no telling when you'll get any in more. For intance, we ran out of propane the other day, and it took 5 days before we found a place with propane. The main roads in the city are paved and only a normal to slightly pothole-y in places. As soon as you get of the 5 or 6 main roads, then you're driving down streets filled with markets that are barely wide enough for 1 car to get through. And when you're driving you need to watch out for motorbikes (more to come on that). The people up here in Nampula all speak Portuguese and Macua. As soon as you get out into the bush, all people speak is only Macua.

How are the people: What can I say, they love me! There's about 50 kids here, and we get to do tons of fun stuff here. The older boys are the ones I hang around with most. They're the best at english and when there are supplies to do work with they are the ones working. I like a few of the older girls too because they don't know english, so I am getting good at speaking portuguese.

What is the culture like: Its not that weird, or maybe at least to me. There are a few quirks, like greetings, handshakes, paying, but I've gotten around those now. It was weird the first few days here at the orfonato, everywhere I went, people were following me around with a chair because apparently in macua culture people you respect always need a place to sit if they want one. And like the first few days they wouldn't let me do any work. AT ALL. And whenever we had to go somewhere, everybody piles on the back of a flatbed pickup, and everybody,even this old guy who must have been at least 50 (which is ancient in these parts) insists that I sit in the cab. We went out to get firewood the other day, we drove into the country about 30 minutes. These old crazy ladies that only speak macua were berating everybody for letting me carry wood and then yelling at the driver for not letting me drive away. Its very confusing to other people to see a "macuna", or white person, eating with the kids or shoveling cement or digging ditches. But by now, everybody here has finally put me on the same level as themselves.

What have I done so far: Well...
7/11 Arrived in Nampule, finally (see earlier post)
7/12 Went to church, and then drove with Victor in the truck to pick up a village. The orphanage has a big truck that it uses to raise money (the long-term goal to being self sustaining). We went and picked up a group of about 30 from a remote area and took them to another remote area. After that, I met with Victor and his accountability group. It was AMAZING. Nampula is fairly flatt, but everywhere, as far as the eye can see are these mountains unlike anything I've seen. So we climbed one and spent the whole evening praying. Daylight here (it's winter) is from about 5am to 5 pm. Very weird, especially coming from the longest days of the year in Seattle.

7/13 I was driving with Victor and he "hit" a guy on a motorbike. The guys brushed into us and was trying to hit a payday by taking Victor to court or whatever. So when we took him to the hospital to check him out, he insisted on filing a police report. At which point (this guy is too stupid to be true) the police find out he doesn't have a license (a VERY big deal here) and he gets in major trouble. Meanwhile, while Victor and the boy are in the hospital dealing with the police, the kid's dad comes and starts chewing out Visado (a guy that was with us). That lasted for about 15 seconds until I stepped out of the truck and the dad never said another word. Most people in east Africa are fairly short, which makes me about 6 inches taller than your average Mozambiquan. Combine that with being built like and an ox means that when I'm in the market, or walking down the street, people move for me.

7/13-7/17 I put the finishing touches on our bungalow, including tiling the kitchen, painting, and putting in a light.
7/20 I got to drive for the first time. Between not hitting any people, vendors, bikes, or goats, I did OK.
7/21 I drove about 10 kids in the truck to the hospital. They were getting checkups or malaria treatment or something. There's a private clinic that was literally 30 minutes on a one-lane dirt road through hardcore bush. It was awesome driving.

7/22 A few of the kids found out I like math. So ever since then I've been helping them with math, physics, and chemistry. There's a chalkboard in the dining hall I've been using and have been busy ever since.

7/25-7/26 Victor, and I went out to Maritane, a Congolese refugee camp for two days of some good ole fashioned big-tent revival! Literally, is was just what you'd think, except the music was awesome. The refugee camp deserves a whole post on its own, but in a nutshell, it's about 8 years old, is a UN refugee camp, it used to be about 8,000 people but is now closer to 4,000. The people all speak swahili, so we had a translator for most things. But the congolese music is awesome (the music in moz. is pretty sweet too, but not like this). The people are free to leave whenever they want, but the first obstacle they have to clear is that the camp is 40km (~25miles) from the nearest person. Its out on the edge of nowhere.

What will I be doing next: Ever since the kids found out I love math, I've been tutoring kids grades 9+ in math, chemistry, and physics. It's been going really great, and is actually how I'm learning the language the fastest. When I first arrived, all the kids just started a 2 week break from school, so it was really nice because they were around all the time. Now, school has started and because there aren't enough schools or teachers, kids either have class in the morning (6-11am), afternoon (11-4pm) or evening (4-10pm). I've spent about 4 hours a day tutoring, and have discovered that nobody has even a basic understanding of algebra (their teachers are horrible, classes are 60 people, and grades/tests are based on either bribes or if the student will sleep with the teacher). So later in the week for probably a couple of weeks we're gonna have algebra boot camp for everybody because of the close to 18 kids I've tutored, only 1 understands it.
Also, most of my attention has been on tutoring/teaching (which I've found I love) because we've run out of money for construction. Bank of America decided to stop doing international money transfers, so we are temporarily without construction money.

So, that is not even the tip of the iceberg. I'll try to get into town a little more often (maybe 1x or 2x a week) to update, but stuff is so cool here and I work too hard to give myself an afternoon or day off to do it.