Pastor André
Plamer came from São Paulo, Brazil and Pastor Carlos Walter Winterle came from
Cape Town, South Africa, and we met at the airport in Johannesburg to fly
together to Beira, Mozambique, for another Training Session of the Theological
Education by Extension – TEE - program offered by the Seminário Concórdia to
the future pastor of the Lutheran Church Mozambique – LCM. It was 4th
July, a Friday afternoon when we arrived in Beira and we had time to buy stationery,
food and other stuff to take with us to Sena.
We didn't stay in a hotel this time, but in a Christian Guesthouse
which has hosted many missionaries in the last decades according to their Guest
Book.
It is called
Beach House, and it is an old Portuguese style house with several rooms and
collective bathrooms.
The manager,
pastor Anacleto, received us very well. We were referred to this house by a
Brazilian missionary I met some years ago on a plane to Mozambique, Pastor
Anézio.
This is the
beach behind the house that gives its name to the Guesthouse.
Rustic canoes, build up from a single tree, were all along the coast…
…and fish were
sold at the road in the morning.
Something
interesting just outside the gate: Large spiders had built a net from one tree
to another, and it looked like the spiders were hanging from the sky.
We were lucky
to be referred to the Bible Society in Mozambique, a small store in Beira. It
will now help a lot, because it was always difficult to bring many Bibles from
Brazil (they are heavy and the luggage is restricted), or to order them from
Maputo, the capital far the South of Mozambique.
Ready to
travel on Saturday morning to Sena and to face 500km along a bad road. Our
faithful driver Mr. Micas fetched us at the Guesthouse. It was very nice to
meet him again. We spent more than 10 hours to reach Sena.
We arrived in
Sena at night and were hosted in this little hostel, where I had stayed when
for the very first time I went to Sena in 2010.
The rooms should have all facilities. But if the tap was working, the
shower was not working; if the fridge was working, the TV was not working; if
the toilet was working, the air conditioner was not working…
We sometimes
had our breakfast and our dinner at this outdoor restaurant…
and this is
the kitchen that prepared fresh food for us.
The hostel
was in the main street of Beira…
…close to a
free street market.
People used to
sweep the road in the morning…
…and you have
to protect yourself from the dust.
Good tangerines were available every morning, and we bought some for our
breakfast and to take to the class.
It was nice
to see people early in the morning bringing their stuff to sell in the street
market.
The women
carry everything on their head: wood for the fire to cook…
clothes,
food, water in containers… Just to share a little bit about the local culture…
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