Black Friday!

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. It was certainly different being away from my family and friends. Instead, I had a nice dinner with a large group of Americans (mostly missionaries) here. It was a nice social time and the food was good, but I was sad to miss the day with my family and church community back home. At least the Packers beat the Lions.

I know many people are anxious to hear about my trip to Mozambique. Some of you will get the stories from Kim at church, but I'll certainly lay it all out here. However, the trip was a week long and I took over 1600 pictures (admittedly, most of them were junk), so it's going to take a while to share everything. I'll be posting some pictures and explaining them over the next few blog posts. Because I paid attention in 7th grade english class, I'm starting with the setting. You can always enlarge the pictures by clicking on them.

We landed in Nampula, Mozambique on Monday, November 14. Nampula is the capital of the province of the same name, and is one of the major cities (if not the major city) in northern Mozambique. It is growing rapidly and has the vibrant feel of a living city. The pictures below were actually taken on the trip back through Nampula on the way out when we were leaving Mozambique. I was standing in the back of the pickup, which allows for some great picture taking. So if you see the top of the cab, know that I was comfortable and safe up there.

On the way into town, the road is lined with "shops" selling basically anything. It's a regular outdoor market and certainly fun to observe.

I managed to pick two pictures without many people in them, but the market was actually quite crowded. The blue things on the left side of this picture are mosquito nets. Malaria is a big problem in Mozambique, but as far as I know, our group didn't have any problems with it. A blessing.

Now we're getting into the real city. This is a pretty standard street in Nampula, with traffic flowing pretty freely. I think I accurately described traffic in Mozambique as a game of rock, paper, scissors. Big truck beats small truck, small truck beats car, car beats motorcycle, motorcycle beats bicycle. Bicycles just get out of everyone's way.

At first, I was hesitant about taking pictures of these guys. But when they saw me with a camera, they started waving and giving me the thumbs-up. Very friendly people.

This guy was in back of me, and when he saw me taking pictures of the other guys, he indicated that I should take some of him as well. The car behind him is starting to go around him because he's just sitting there as I take his picture.

The Hotel Milenio. I believe this is where my dad stayed when he visited, but I stayed on the farm. We did come here for dinner Wednesday night and had some delicious chicken Marsala. Posh.

The apartment buildings reminded me of all the generic pictures of the developing world, so I figured I had to take this shot.

On the right there is Shoprite, the grocery store.

Here's a large traffic circle with a park being constructed in the middle. It'll look very nice when the tin fencing is taken down.

Nampula is very nice, but trash piles are something that can be found in most big cities and I didn't want to sugarcoat Nampula.

The education system in Mozambique is in trouble. This is a school, and not a bad one at that. But they will run four sets of students here throughout the day. One set from 8-10, one from 10:30-12:30, etc. They recognize that education is important, but the facilities and resources are just not there to make the education adequate.

What African city would be complete without an overloaded Kombi churning out black exhaust?

A group of women meeting in the shade. Plenty of goods for sale in Nampula.

One of the shops selling tires and rims. I didn't see many cars that had been decked-out, but it's clearly available for those willing to pay.

Again, I don't want to sugarcoat Nampula. It's a developing city and there are still areas that are poor and struggling. The trench running through the middle there is a set of train tracks.

Here's the Nampula airport. A nice little place, but I wouldn't want to stay there for the 45 hours I spent in the Johannesburg airport.

Up next week: The Characters (and some of them are real characters)