Sunday 26 April 2015

Home again

Home again - on the steps of St Mary's
We got home safely, although not completely without incident: at Johannesburg Airport, we had to collect our bags after arriving from Tete and check in again. Everything seemed to go smoothly and we all arrived at the gate in good time for our flight to London with our boarding passes, only to be told we were not checked on to the flight. How this is possible is anyone's guess - but we had to wait for 15 minutes whilst the staff tried to fit us in - and it was a very full flight. Eventually we were allocated seats but not the ones we thought we had - and Ann was upgraded to business class! But for the rest of us, it was a rather squashed 11 hours to Heathrow, but we got there on time. So here is a picture of us all on the steps of St Mary's this morning.

Our friends in Tete were so touched by Kathleen's blanket that we took out, that they sent her back a length of fabric - which seems to be a popular gift in Mozambique. She was very pleased with it: "It's very nice, although not quite my usual style". She is considering what to do with it.

Kathleen with her fabric from Tete

Friday 24 April 2015

On the way home


So here we are again in Johannesburg Airport. We thought we would have ages to wait here, but "the system is down", so we had to collect our bags, go out through passport control, and then check in and go through security again for our London flight - and with the public holiday weekend queues here, that took some time, so not much time left to browse the shops. Don't worry - we won't be late getting to the gate this time! We land at Heathrow at 6:30am tomorrow morning.

Last evening in Tete

On Thursday evening the mass at Epifania was lively and joyful, with many gifts exchanged. We were finally able to present the church with the chalice and pattern from St Mary's that (in all the excitement) had been mislaid on Sunday. It seems a traditional Mozambican gift is a length of the bright African cloth we have been admiring in town - it feels like we will be returning with most of the contents of the haberdashery shop. Many songs were sung and farewells said.
After Mass we were invited to a relaxed supper by Esther and her husband. They had moved their sofa and armchairs into their yard so we could eat comfortably in the cool evening air (unseasonably cool, according to our hosts, but very pleasant for us).

Departure


This morning (Friday) we were invited to a special breakfast at Colas and Katerina's flat overlooking the Zambezi bridge.
Then off to the airport, where many of the Epifania community had gathered to see us off. We will meet again in London when they come to visit - no firm dates yet, but we hope it's in the next few years.

Lunch with the church founders

On Wednesday we were invited to lunch with Alberto and Filomena, the founders of the Igreja Anglicana Epifania. After lunch they told us their story. They moved to Tete in 1991, and found there was no Anglican church there. They went to other churches but never felt completely at home. In the process they met other Anglicans who felt the same, and eventually they started to meet to pray together, under a tree in Alberto and Filomena's yard. They got in touch with the Bishop who encouraged them to continue to meet and to consider setting up a new congregation. Their first meeting as a church was on 6th January, Epiphany, and so the group named the church "Epifania". Eventually they acquired some land for the church. The Bishop advised them that they should first build a house for a priest, which they did - after this the Bishop sent Fr Rogerio to them. At that stage they met for worship in a tent attached to the side of the priest's house. Now the congregation has grown to the point where they could build their own church building, with support from St Mary's. However they are not stopping there, and have a vision for the future, aiming to establish other congregations in the area and even a school, amongst other projects. It was moving and inspiring to hear their story.

Thursday 23 April 2015

Beer



"This blog is supposed to be about the Christian faith" said the Rector sternly (or at least as sternly as she could manage). But I do feel we have a responsibility to provide some insight into the cultural context. So here are some notes on Mozambican beer.
There seem to be 3 types available: firstly, Castle Lite, a light lager-style beer. We recently visited a member of the congregation who clearly is fond of Castle Lite and had used a line of empty bottles as border for his flower bed - this sort of repurposing of waste is common here.
Then there is Manica, a stronger golden beer that is very refreshing on a warm Mozambican evening (your correspondent can confirm).
Lastly, at lunch with Alberto and Filomena yesterday, we were a little surprised to come across Laurentina, a dark beer not unlike Guinness - maybe a little sweeter - and also very pleasant.
Our hosts seem to have alcohol only on special occasions - but as everyone has regarded inviting us to lunch or dinner as a special occasion, there has often been wine or beer on the table.

Seeing something of the realities of Mozambican life

We came to Tete to strengthen our link with Igreja Anglicana Epifania and especially for the consecration of the church St Mary's has helped to build. We knew the congregation would be preparing for their special day and we were wondering whether they would also manage to organise us an interesting itinerary too. They have excelled themselves, providing us with a detailed programme of visits to enable us to see varied aspects of Mozambican life, hosting us for delicious meals as well as organising a wonderful church service.
On Wednesday, 2 days after we arrived, we were taken to visit an orphanage, Aldeia de Criancas Tete, on the outskirts of town, funded by SOS International and other donors. It had the most beautiful grounds we have seen with two enormous Baobab trees, where 105 children & young people from babies to the age of 23 lived. The home also runs an outreach programme providing schooling for children in the local neighbourhood. Materials in the nursery were very sparse; but the children's smiles said it all. Michael was in his element!
That afternoon we also visited an elderly people's home that seemed really impoverished. My mother is in a care home in England and I was shocked by the conditions these residents were living in. The manager told us they were under-funded and short staffed. They had no one to water their vegetable patch which looked in a sad state and no concrete surface between buildings within the compound, so the elderly residents had to negotiate rough stony ground. The grounds did include a traditional bread oven. Despite the lack of facilities their spirit was still strong. They seemed quite oblivious to the very loud music blasting out from the neighbouring pub.
Posted by Sarah

Wednesday 22 April 2015

Over the Zambezi (and back again)

Tete is on the Zambezi, and has had a bridge since the 1970's - the Portuguese built it to bring in the machinery and materials for the Cahora Bassa dam. The centre of town (where the church is) is on the south-west side of the river, and the airport is on the north-east side. When we were first driven across the bridge we said "we would really like to walk across the bridge". Our hosts seemed to regard this as a rather eccentric English request, but humoured us, so this morning we got our walk.


The Zambezi is wider than the Thames in central London. The bridge is very busy - in the last couple of years a new bridge has been built for heavy trucks a few miles upstream, but city traffic and pedestrians still use the old bridge. Strangely, there seem to be very few boats on the river - especially odd as the reason for the founding of Tete centuries ago was that the Zambezi is navigable from the Indian Ocean up to here.


Our hosts tell us that there are many crocodiles in the river but we didn't see any (but I guess not being seen is part of a croc's job). Apparently that doesn't stop people washing their clothes in the river despite the occasional croc attack.

Pictures of the Igreja Anglicana Epifania, Tete


With all our communications problems we haven't been able to post any pictures of the church. So here are a few, taken this morning.

Tuesday 21 April 2015

Arriving in Tete






Relaxing at Johannesburg Airport (before the panic)
We very nearly didn't make it to Tete last Tuesday. Seconds after I took this photo of Ann relaxing at Johannesburg Airport, Dilly came rushing back from going to buy a pack of cards: "they've closed our flight! We have to get down to the gate now!" Our flight from Johannesburg to Tete had been on the board but was not showing as "Boarding" - and then was suddenly closed. We raced down to the gate, but the staff there were unhelpful: "You'll have to go tomorrow". We explained the flight was never shown as "Boarding". "Oh yes, that sometimes happens". But still we were stuck. We pleaded - Sarah was at the front, tearfully explaining that we had to get to Tete for a church dedication. Eventually they seemed to relent and we were shepherded onto a minibus and driven across the tarmac to the plane. Nether the crew or other passengers seemed perturbed by our late boarding.
After that, our flight was relatively uneventful and we landed in Tete about two hours later.

Our plane on the tarmac at Tete
Arrivals at Tete Airport




More on our visit to the Cahora Bassa dam

Sorry this is all a bit out of order - trying to catch up now we have internet access. Yesterday (Monday) we did get to see the Cahora Bassa dam, up in the mountains north-west of Tete and apparently the fifth largest hydroelectric project in the world, generating around 2000 MW (pay attention - there might be a question about this in the church quiz on Saturday evening!). We even gor to see the turbine gallery cut into the granite heart of the mountaun (sadly no photos allowed).

Sunday's service

No space  here to fully describe Sunday's epic 6-hour church service, and most of my photos are on my camera so will have to wait until we get home. However here are a couple of pictures - one of the Bishop with the choir and one of Dilly with Bishop Carlos by the church's dedication stone.

Haberdashery

Some great fabrics on sale in the local dress shop. Dilly is currently negotiating a purchase...

Downtown

We have a rest day so have come into downtown Tete to explore, change some money and maybe buy some souvenirs. Also we took some great fabric which Neema (the church warden) gave us after supper at her house yesterday evening, to the tiny tailor's workshop, to have shirts made (cost 200 MTC, about £4).

Monday 20 April 2015

Visit to the market

On Friday we visited a huge market on the edge of Tete which some of the congregation use for their shopping. The highlight  must surely be the mice kebabs.

Visit to Cahora Bassa dam

After a drive of about 150km from Tete, we arrived too late for our tour of the  hydroelectric plant - so it was rescheduled for 2pm and we adjourned to a hotel in nearby Songo for a pleasant lunch. Much cooler here up in the mountains.

Sunday 19 April 2015

On line at last (with thanks to Hassan)

We are on line at last so able to update our blog. Today was an epic day - a church service that lasted 6 hours, including dedication of the church, all sorts of legal stuff to do with authorising people to do various things, many baptisms, confimations, a eucharist, the presentatuon of gifts from other churches (including St Mary's), and some great music from visiting choirs and the local choir. We ended up at an excellent party this evening given by one of the confirmation candidates, whose son, Hassan, is a Muslim, and works for M-Tel, one of the local mobile phone companies. After hearing of our communication woes, Hassan sent his son to his car to get a SIM card which he installed in my phone and that is what I am using now to post this message. Many thanks Hassan!

Monday 13 April 2015

On the way...

We're on the plane. Waiting to leave at 7pm. I think you can probably guess what the inside of a plane looks like so won't add a photo. But we are all here and all still speaking...

Sunday 12 April 2015

Gifts for Epifania

Our last Sunday morning before setting off tomorrow afternoon. We showed the rest of St Mary's congregation the gifts we are taking to Tete. Anne has spent many hours producing this set of vestments (with designs closely based on the design of some of our vestments) for the Tete clergy and a banner showing the River of Prayer ALMA logo. We're also taking the chalice and pattern that John is holding here, that have been suitably engraved as gifts from St Mary's Stoke Newington to the Church of the Epifania.


Kathleen's blanket for Tete

Here is Kathleen displaying the blanket she has knitted for us to take to Tete. Kathleen is 101 but still indefatigably knits, and gets many requests from friends to knit blankets for babies. Kathleen knitted us this blanket, and we will give it to the Church of the Epifania to give to a mum and baby who need it. Hopefully we may get a photo of the blanket in use.


Saturday 11 April 2015

Pictures from St Mary's 150th anniversary

Here are a few pictures from St Mary's 150th anniversary (of the consecration of our New Church) in 2008. Some friends from Tete came over to visit for the anniversary - this is the last time we met.

Jonathan Clark, Fr Francisco, Bishop Richard, Julio and Filomena

Here they are with our then Rector Jonathan Clark and Richard Bishop of London.


And here also with the then Speaker of Hackney, Cllr Ian Rathbone.

We're off to Tete!

We're off to Tete in Mozambique for the consecration of the Church of the Epifania, which will be on Sunday 19th April. Watch this space for updates on our adventures!