Weekend trip to Gaza

Weeks before my trip, Mom and Dad had informed me that we were going to travel up into Gaza Province as they had been invited to the installation of a new pastor up in the tiny town of Mavengane, just south of the slightly larger town of Manjacaze. Umfundisi Sitoe (pronounced "Sitoy") recently graduated and returned to his home near Manjacaze. The Mavengane Church of the Nazarene invited him to serve as their pastor.

I was SO excited for the opportunity to travel up into Gaza again! My first trip up into Gaza was years ago, back in 1993 when the Mozambican government handed over the old Nazarene mission station, Tavane, back to the Church (FRELIMO, the governing political party had taken over the mission and used it as a barracks during the civil war years). I will readily confess that I have a really romanticized view of Gaza. Please don't get me wrong though, I know the reality of it too -- I've stayed up there, slept on the ground, bathed with freezing cold water at 5am out of a basin and teetered precariously over a pit toilet. Yet...this is in many ways still the old Africa and where the Church of the Nazarene first entered Mozambique back in 1922 and I confess images of donkey carts, ox wagons and the stories of the early missionaries fill my mind. 

Gaza - late afternoon - floodplains near the Limpopo River.

Gaza is beautiful country and the landscape almost has its own personality. The soil is generally sandy (well, nearer to the ocean) and the landscape is filled with cashew trees, large, lush trees with green and orange leaves. Dotted in and amongst those are Marula trees and Masala bushes, bearing their own delicious fruit.  Tucked away in among the trees are neat little homesteads, generally several mud or grass huts, with a small granary or two, the sandy area that serves as living area/kitchen is always impeccably swept clean and there might be a couple of ducks waddling through. People are friendly and often look up from their work in their 'machambas' (gardens) to wave as you drive past.

The roads are still largely sand -- or dark red soil brought in, which the hopes of it being more compact than the deep sand. Driving along these roads, one occasionally passed the crumbling remains of an old Portuguese 'fazenda' (farm/ranch) or store. These ghostly, melancholy buildings are relics of a by-gone time, when Portugal was in control of the country and much of the land nearer the coast was carved into large farms. Most are abandoned, though sometimes they've been turned into a shop or home. I know there was extreme persecution and racism at that time, part of me wonders what these buildings must have looked like in their prime.

I could go on and on talking about Gaza, but I'll stick to our trip. The plan was to drive from Maputo early on Saturday morning, heading north to Xai-xai and beyond that, to then turn off on a road heading north-west so that we would reach Mavengane, just south of Manjacaze, for the installation service. Following that, we would drop off some of the students we were bringing along, so that they could visit family. We would then drive on back to Xai-xai to spend the night. The next morning, Sunday, we would drive back to Manjacaze and then take a road north-east, up to Chicuatso, a village (if it can even be called that!) where one of the former Seminary students was pastoring, along with his family. Following the service and lunch there, we were to head south, picking up one more student in Chibuto and heading on back to Maputo.

Here's a map of our travels (you'll have to click on it to see the whole thing)

 More to follow tomorrow....   ;o)