http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/BradDenton/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from BradDenton en-us Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:54:02 +0000 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:54:02 +0000 Today we went to Granada. The trip there was about two hours on the highway here. A pretty serious climb into the mountains from the coast followed by a whole lot of olive orchards. I was pretty tired because I finally had the jetlag issueup at 5 and unable to sleep. UGHToday was the most beautiful day we've had. The weather was so perfect Always sunny and never too hot and the leaves http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Granada/blog-337094.html Hello from Marbella Spain Brad Janie Greg and I are here for a few days enjoying the Spanish Riviera. All the vegetation is the same as in Mesa just healthier and bigger. Maybe that's what it's supposed to look like at homeWe drove to Gibraltar today after sleeping 12 solid hours to overcome the jetlag kinda worked kinda didn't. We had the greatest cab driver a Gibraltar native na http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Gibraltar/Gibraltar/blog-336614.html Everyonersquos getting ready to get the heck out of dodge. Today all we had on the schedule was to take the bunk bed parts to Dondo assemble them and spend the rest of the day cleaning packing and preparing to go. Our vehicles were all gone either in the shop or in use by other Care for Life people. All we had was a small covered pickup. So we had to pack the beds tightly in the truc http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312969.html Wersquore coming into the homestretch of the trip. This morning as I was getting ready the lady who cleans the place mentioned that it was her last day. I said yep. She said she had a favor to ask. I said what. She said he son doesnrsquot have shoes and could I give her some. I thought that was a little forward but of course itrsquos impossible to say no under the circumstances. And http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312966.html A couple days ago Ryan received a text message saying that Care for Life had won 85000 metacais about 3500 and a motorcycle from the phone company. We figured it was probably not legitimate but it didnrsquot have any of the normal earmarks of a scam. It wasnrsquot asking for money and it told us to go to the phone company rather than some other address. So we thought it was worth c http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312964.html Big day today. We went to an orphanage called Nhamantanda about a 90minute drive north of here. There were some pretty interesting things to see on our way there. One thing we saw was a government office along the road that looked like a weigh station would look in the US. There were six or eight speed bumps in the middle of the road so we were crawling along for a quartermile or so. A http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312937.html Today we went back to Casa Banana to finish teaching sewing stuff. Before we did that there was a brief Care for Life lesson on ldquothe rights of children.rdquo Itrsquos interesting Irsquove seen several references to the ldquorights of childrenrdquo here. They talk about it much more than we do in the States. Maybe thatrsquos because as a practical matter children do not hav http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312933.html This morning Warner Woodworth a BYU professor in international development left for home. Hersquos been here with us the whole time although usually doing different things. When I went to the meetings with villagers he was the one I went with. Hersquos a pretty interesting guy. Remember Oulessebougou Mali He was instrumental in starting up that whole thing. He is involved with the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312892.html Today was Sunday and we went to a nearby branch in a place called Inhamizua. The rented ldquochapelrdquo is in a pavilion sort of place with openair rooms mostly surrounded by netting. It was pretty cool though if the weather was bad that wouldnrsquot be the case. The branch is small enough that they meet for just two hours basically omitting Sunday School. When sacrament meeting s http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312886.html Today was fairly uneventful. More of the same really. In the morning we worked on a machessa and in the afternoon we did some work and played with orphans at the Dondo orphanage where wersquove spent time several times before. At the machessa we tied grass into long bundles that will go on the roof. There were a lot of villagers who showed up which is a really good thing. The more they p http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312882.html Today we went back to Marafina the village where we had that meeting and people wanted tshirts and salaries and werenrsquot too sure they wanted to be involved in Care for Life if those things werenrsquot forthcoming. Today actually went pretty well. In the morning we divided the kids into groups and did two activities with them. Half of them made little toolboxes think miniature version http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312880.html Today we went to an outlying community to teach the kids the ldquoStay Aliverdquo class and also some crafts they can use to make a few bucks. Actually that makes things sound a little more impressive than they really were. Itrsquos the local Care for Life employees who teach the ldquoStay Aliverdquo program. Today I didnrsquot understand most of it but the most memorable part w http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312860.html Today was our day to go to the beach. The only problem is that it was the first rainy day wersquove had. The drivers were late. Wersquore not sure why. We called them and asked where they were and they said they were on their way within five minutes later. They didnrsquot get here till an hour later. Apparently thatrsquos a cultural thing here. Aggravating but common. Who knows http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312700.html This morning we went to a community called Casa Banana. Yeah House of Bananas. And what do you know it turns out they have a lot of banana trees there. The kids were taught about hygiene in the machessa and then we taught them some rudimentary sewing skills to make hand puppets. I went into it thinking that was pretty dumb but it was less dumb than I thought. I suppose thatrsquos not a http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312697.html Got a question about how wersquore treated as outsiders. Wersquore always treated well. People want to look at you and a few will stare somewhat but not many. If I catch someonersquos eye Irsquoll usually smile and wave and they always wave back. Theyrsquore certainly a lot more enthusiastic about us than if we were in Paris Got a question about whether itrsquos hard to see all http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312693.html Today was Sunday but I still had some adventures. Today we another team member and I started by making breakfast which was French toast and eggs. Unfortunately some on the team are slobs. They donrsquot really clean up their messes. Itrsquos like living in Heritage Halls. Not good from a slobby kitchen standpoint. We had leftover scrambled eggs lots of lsquoem. Maybe 10. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312692.html Today was interesting again. Maybe not as good as yesterday but good. The first thing we did in the morning was go to work at the village where we had the long discussion I told you about before. We went out to work on the machessa which is a community center that will serve as a place for community meetings health stuff and whatnot. Itrsquos about 20 feet by 50 feet. I worked mo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312650.html First Irsquoll answer questions Irsquove received. The food here for us as opposed to the natives is about what yoursquod get in a freshman college dorm because the people doing the cooking are usually 18 yearolds. And theyrsquore using somewhat weird Mozambican food too which doesnrsquot help much. But itrsquos not terrible. We have PBJ every day for lunch yum. A http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312627.html The first thing we did today was go out to a farm owned by Care for Life to work. We basically did manual labor on the farm for the morning. It was a reasonably good experience but a few hours of it was plenty. Tucker remarked repeatedly how it was a good thing that hersquod been swinging a pick in the back yard so that hersquod know how to swing a Mozambican hoe here. Theyrsquore ubiq http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-312626.html July 16Okay so I finally got access to some email. Whew It took some finagling. The flights here sucked but no worse than expected. Actually the leg to NYC was the worst. There was a guy in front of us snoring and it was just really uncomfortable as all get out. We got an hour or two worth of sleep each. When we landed in NY I felt woozy but it wasnrsquot a rough flight at all. Turne http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Gauteng/Johannesburg/blog-312623.html