Hardship, Hope and Helping

I arrived in Mozambique on 2 July, ready to spend five weeks learning about the ALMA link and experiencing life in the Diocese of Lebombo. This Diocese covers the entire southern half of Mozambique and I spent most of my time based in the capital city, Maputo. I was living at the Bishop’s Residence and from here, was able to explore Maputo by foot. The city is an amazing place, a fascinating hybrid of Africa and the Mediterranean. Great big avenues lined with palm trees and lazy street cafes can be found around the corner from a bustling market selling everything from fruit to batiks. Shacks and transparent poverty co-exist with vibrant commercialism and a landscape of cranes, high-rise blocks and Portuguese colonial remnants.

My experience of the Diocese reflected the diversity of the city. I visited many churches and projects, all very different in style, aims and approach. On my first Sunday I went to the English service at St Stephen and Lawrence in downtown Maputo. The church itself resembled a typical Anglican building in England and the service was a fairly standard Eucharist, lasting just over an hour. The following Sunday by contrast, I found myself at St Barnabas in Bagamoyo suburb for ALMA Sunday. Here, the proceedings lasted about three hours, were in Ronga and had an infectious sense of freedom and vitality. Such diversity, within the framework of a familiar service, seems to me to be one of the great things about being an international communion – even though I didn’t understand the exact words, I was easily able to follow what was going on. And this was by no means the longest service I attended. On my last Sunday I went to the five hour celebration for the tenth anniversary of the Umbeluzi Archdeaconry – not only did the service include baptisms, confirmations and thanksgivings, but also a wedding. It was quite amazing!

The Mozambican churches are leading players in community development and social initiatives, and I visited a number of Anglican and ecumenical projects in and around Maputo. At Bagamoyo, I attended a very lively pre-school and St Stephen and Lawrence has its own Street Boys’ Project, providing boys who might otherwise have been homeless with education, vocational training and accommodation. In Matola city, an industrial area not far from Maputo, a Girls’ Project is similarly providing girls at risk from sexual abuse and hunger with food, schooling and the opportunity to learn how to sew and cook.

Two ecumenical projects I visited have left a particularly lasting impression. The first was one in which the Bishop has been instrumental, the ‘Swords into Ploughshares’ project, run by the Christian Council of Mozambique. With so many guns still circulating in the aftermath of the long civil war, this project aims to collect arms from people and offer them useful tools or equipment in exchange, such as sewing machines or ploughs. And recently, artists have begun to use the discarded weapons to create pieces of artwork. One of the two artists I met had made a huge globe to be suspended at the African Union Conference held in Maputo while I was there. This is surely the kind of inspiring and transformational work that the church should be involved in. Indeed, the hopeful creation of objects of beauty out of machines of destruction seems to me to reflect a truth lying at the heart of the gospel.

The second project was the Christian Network for AIDS/HIV (in Portuguese, ‘SIDA’) – this network has been established for about a year now, and aims to support and resource denominational AIDS projects in spreading awareness of HIV/AIDS and preventative measures. As perceived pillars of the community, it is vital that priests and church communities are putting out the right message about AIDS, taking it seriously and doing all that they can to fight it. In a number of Anglican Churches, there were visible posters stating, ‘AIDS is not a punishment from God. It is a disease.’ I was also able to visit an AIDS hospice run by the Missionaries of Charity in one of the poorest suburbs of the city. Here, five sisters look after people dying from AIDS and many AIDS orphans, some of whom will soon die from the disease, some of whom will never develop it. The ethos cannot really be described in words – but in a place where toddlers grabbed onto your legs in their palpable desperation for love and a woman died while I was there, I do know that there was an incredible sense of peace and tranquility, and perhaps unbelievably, joy.

But not all of my time was spent in the capital. I also had the opportunity to spend some time in rural areas, in two provinces to the north of Maputo. The countryside is as different from the city as it is possible to imagine – vast areas with no infrastructure of roads, houses, hospitals or transport. I spent five days at Maciene, in Gaza province, where the Cathedral is located. Maciene is also the site for the sisters of the Order of St Paul, a hospital, school, adult literacy and education programme as well as the base for a Diocesan-wide lay training programme. It is moreover, an exceptionally beautiful place. One day, a few of us walked to the coast and went crabbing on the long stretch of deserted beach. Another day, we walked to a freshwater lake via coconut trees and a group of women washing at one of its shores.

Paulino, the Diocesan Rehabilitation and Development officer, took me to see various projects which he has been co-ordinating on behalf of the church and international funders after the Floods in 2000. It was amazing simply to drive across the flood plains, huge areas which had only been accessible by boat. In Xai-Xai, the capital of Gaza province, it was possible to see water lines up to the first floor on houses which have still not been repaired. The devastation three years ago could only be imagined. We all heard about Rosita giving birth to her baby in a tree, yet there were many more stories to be told. One priest for example, was left in a tree by his family as his legs were weak and it seemed to be the safest place for him as they went to get help. It was only after they had left that he discovered that not only was there a metre of flood water beneath him, but also a snake coiled up in the branches above him. He had to remain like that for 48 hours before he was rescued.

We visited a couple of health posts which have been established during the last three years. These are basic and vital, particularly in the light of the surprising statistic that malaria is a bigger killer than AIDS in Mozambique. These health posts not only provide drugs to fight malaria, but the staff also give talks on how to try and prevent malaria, by using nets or keeping homesteads clean for example. We also visited a couple of income-generating chicken projects and a few new churches, built to house the rapidly growing congregations in the Diocese. On the Sunday, I attended the Cathedral service and then went onto a service and Sunday School party at the Church of All African Martyrs, a church made out of local reed material, where five different Sunday Schools gathered to dance to each other and eat together.

On this and my other trip up-country, a few days with Bishop Dinis’ family at his home in Inhambane province, the difference between city and rural life became apparent. Young people clamour to be in the city, the place of opportunity and of European technology and amenities, yet others leave the city for the countryside for a better quality of life. They leave behind the grime and speed of Maputo life, to return to homes where families grow their own produce in peace and celebrate births, marriages and deaths together as a community. For me, there was certainly something very special about my few days in place where the rhythm of the day is decided by natural light, where you can see the stars, where life seems to be far more earthed in basic realities rather than a plethora of superficial lifestyle choices. Interestingly, Maciene is waiting to be connected to electricity any day now. Fr Germano, the assistant priest there, and the sisters were on tenterhooks as to how this seemingly practical change would affect the whole nature of life and community there.

In such a short report, it is impossible to describe all that I experienced. However, I would like to draw out three aspects of my time in the Diocese.

Firstly, the sheer hardship which many people and indeed the church face on a daily basis. Financial resources are scarce. Priests for instance, are on a tiny salary and most do not have transport even though they may have 14 congregations miles apart. Moreover, almost all of the Diocesan projects depended upon a continuous and un-guaranteed supply of funding from overseas agencies. The Girls’ project has had some of its funding withdrawn and as a result, is struggling to find enough money even for basic food. At the Seminary in Maputo, the men training for ordination have only one shelf of books, and even they are not in a language they speak or remotely up-to-date. Church congregations are growing at a rate that vastly outstrips the financial capacity of the Diocese to construct buildings.

However secondly, the Anglican Church seemed to be enormously hopeful and the many conversations which I had with people renewed and inspired me personally. The Diocesan staff and priests on the ground were incredibly dedicated, some working hard at ongoing initiatives, others thinking creatively about what could be started and what new work could be done. The church really seems to be making a considerable and transformative difference to the lives of thousands of people, both spiritually and practically. Services were vibrant, faith was strong and the churches were growing. I was also overwhelmed by the welcome and hospitality which I received from so many people, and have been greatly enriched by conversations had and friendships made. I think that it is these conversations and friendships which will continue to have the most significant impact on me. Being trusted with people’s stories and being invited to share my own, was for me both an extremely humbling and genuinely hope-full experience.

Finally, having been in Mozambique through the Diocesan link ALMA, one of the major questions that I have returned with is what such a link actually means. I think often we perceive such a link as a way in which we can ‘help’ a church which is less financially secure. And indeed, offering financial assistance is vitally important. ALMA funding has enabled the building of churches, a drainage system and a community vehicle. However, it seems to me that this alone could all too easily become a personally cost-free way of engaging. So, how can we as the church in England ensure that we are realistically, positively and mutually engaging with the church in Mozambique, and for that matter, other parts of the world?  I think that this is a very difficult question, and with no easy answers. For me, perhaps the beginning of one possible answer lies in some of the conversations I had. Listening to one another’s stories, connecting and empathising with each other and holding one another before God in prayer are not easy, requiring us to give of our deepest selves and to be honest and vulnerable. However, I feel that perhaps they are some of the most profound ways in which we can enrich each other’s lives.