Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Last flight home!

We all made it through security--finally. Eliel reeves had some trouble in agriculture and they took a LONG time. He made it to the gate just as we were boading. Praise God!

The flight crew on our flight from Joburg called me up twice during the flight because we had two people sick. If we would have had more get sick, they were going to potentially quarantine the entire group--potentially in Senegal or Atlanta. I was able to explain that it was isolated to just Rachel and Dale and luckily they didn't do anything more.
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Back in the USA

We have arrived in Atlanta. We now have to get through customs and get to our final flight and we will complete our 36 hour journey.
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Monday, March 23, 2009

One leg down

We have landed in Senegal after an 8 hour flight. No issues other than some sicknesses Rachel Wolff and Dale got sick on the plane, most likely from food they had earlier.
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On the plane back to the USA

Well, we made it to the Joburg airport with no issues. We had allowed for enough contingency and had 30 minutes to spare! Everyone got checked in and though and we are on the Delta plane now.

We pray for a safe and uneventful flight.
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Delay in Nelspruit


Loading the bus to Joburg


Dale sleeping on the way.


We were making good time on our way to the Joburg airport until we reached Nelspruit. The local police had a roadblock set up and all buses have to get a "road test" today. So we drove back 15 minutes to get a test done. We were supposed to only have a 5 minute test done. We went and talked with the boss man and explained that we had a plane to catch. He said no problem and that we would be done by noon.


Well, we didn't pull into the test station till 12:26. We got the test done and pulled out of there at 12:50 with a passed test!

We will have to travel fast with no more delays to make it on time. God is in control and we have to trust that there is a reason.
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Sunday, March 22, 2009

Baby Hyenas


I updated with a better picture. This was on our way out - what a neat experience to see them that close up.

Last cell phone pic from the park. These we're no more than 20 feet away


Great day at Kruger


Stork


Kudu - the antlers were huge


A hornbill. One of my favorite pictures - not sure why.....


This giraffe was literally on the road as we were headed out of the park. If we wanted to, we probably could have reached out and touched it.



This was from another person in our group, but love the picture of the Kudu jumping across the road


This elephant was alone down by the river happily eating grass.


This was taken by someone in another jeep, so unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to witness this.


A HUGE rhino. I had no good concept for how large and powerful they are. We realized pretty quickly that if they got upset and charged the jeep, we were pretty much toast.


A group of giraffes we saw right as we entered the park

We had a great day at Kruger. We got here and got on our safari buses. We were out all day and saw a lot of the main animals. We didn't see any lions or leopards, but we did see a python take out an Impala! The guides said they have never seen that before. We got quite a few great pictures of it.


We came back to the hotel and are really enjoying our stay here. We will leave tomorrow am for the airport.


An outside shot of the hotel


Our final night - playing Mafia




For the group: Pictorial evidence of the meal that spawned so many upset stomachs

Python 1, Impala 0


This provide a much better view of the Python than my cell phone camera did. Our guides say that this was about an 18 foot python. We were a little too late to see the takedown. Once the impala had died, the python uncoiled and we thought it was going to swallow the impala. However, by that time, there were about 20-25 vehicles and the guides think that the vibrations scared the python away. We came back after lunch to see if it was swallowing the impala, but there was nothing there - no python, no impala. Something took it away. The video shows the rest of the impala "herd" waiting around and trying to do what they can to get the python off of their family.


Sweet!! We hadn't expected this and the park rangers say that they haven't seen a python take down an impala in over 50 years.






Thanks to Rachel Wolff for this totally sweet video. You can hear some of the commentary and see the other impalas.

Elephant in kruger

About 100 feet away!

Giraffe in kruger

About 20 feet away!

On our way to Kruger


The 4:30 departure time made for some sleepy travelers.

We just passed the border into South Africa so we are getting close to our safari. No issues on the border crossing so no worries on that front.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Safely in Maputo

We had a safe flight to Maputo and made it to our hotel. We have a nice hotel room with a good bathroom and shower--that is all we can ask for!

Dinner at the Indian restaurant in Maputo. Dale's new favorite place.....

We had a great dinner at an indian restaurant tonight. We have an EARLY morning--we have a 4:30 bus. We have the hardcore group of Uno players in our hotel room. Only Gino, Claudell, Bobby and Danae are playing tonight.

Bobby didn't do so well at this game of Uno. He drew so many cards he needed a two level hand.

We are looking forward to our safari tomorrow. My only hope is to get a picture of a lion taking out an animal!

Sabbath in Beira

We are now in the airport in Beira waiting for our flight to Maputo. We had a rainy and windy night and a lot of peoples tent covers blew over during the night. A couple of folks had water come into their tents so it made for a wet final night.

We had a great worship at the seminary in Beira. Mell and Lovely sang for special music and I preached my first sermon. Tito Charneco helped me prepare for it and I had a lot of prayers that helped me not be nervous.

Our group at the church on Sabbath

Church members

Mell and Lovely singing

Me preaching

Me and Julio, the Maranatha jobsite foreman - he was a great help and was glad to get to know him

We had our final meal and Susan Woods had made ice cream for our last meal! It was a fabulous ending to our time in Beira.


The Woods family were fantastic! They have dedicated two years of their lives already to the Mozambique project and have another year to go.

We are headed to Maputo to spend the night and go on our safari in the morning.

Friday, March 20, 2009

End of the work week

We completed our work week today. The medical team treated over 30 patients today, mostly dental.

The job site as we completed our work. We didn't complete as much as we thought we would, but we know that it will be completed!
Most of the work crew worked till lunch today. We took our team pictures and gave the official project team shirts to the local work crew. They were a great crew and we enjoyed working with them very much.

Team picture


Our wonderful Maranatha crew members with their team shirts

The "Wolff pack". We have one family that has grown in attendance and brought others into our team

The Grout Team

One of our block teams - they named themselves Team Bob Marley

Aunt Geneva - she has been on so many trips I don't even get to tell her what to do anymore - she just knows it and does it.

One of our block teams - they named themselves WWS (Wolff, Wilson and Spencer).


Spencer family - throwing some odd TCU sign.

Our Hydraform teams. They had to learn a new system that none of us had used and did a great job for their first time on a project.

Meron and Glenn (below) - our Rebar team.


Another block crew - they called themselves Xmen


I don't have a picture of the final block crew (Eric's team), but here are two of his team members with the rest of the end wall crew.

After we ate, we all went to the Seminary in Beira to distribute beans to the church members. Eight of us came back to the job site to try and finish the classrooms. We would have finished if the Maranatha crew didn't have to tear two walls down to fix a problem.

Distributing beans at the church

One of the bonuses on Friday afternoon with having a small crew was that I actually got to work (shocking.......). The team occasionally gives me a hard time that I don't do any work, so this is evidence that I DID actually do some work.


They were getting ready to install the windows and they realized that the window grid was too wide. They had built the steel wrong. So they tore the wall down, cut it off and re-welded the steel. Then we still got pretty far on that last wall in the afternoon.

We were SO close to completing all of the Hydraform. We just had that little bit left to complete.

I got a bit of a shock today--literally. Per usual, it rained overnight and again today. I had been cutting holes in the block for the block teams, but had to go run the wet saw for a minute. Shen I got done, my gloves were soaking wet and not thinking, I grabbed the concrete saw and started cutting block again. Well, I got a pretty good shock and put the saw down quickly! After I recovered and out a new pair of dry gloves on, no issues the rest of the day, thank God!

Me and the shocking saw.

The rest of the group went into Beira in the afternoon for some sightseeing and shopping. They seemed to enjoy it and got some souveniers to take home.

A shipwreck on the beach in Beira
We had a great worship tonight and were singing songs around the table when it started to rain. Everyone scattered to their tents to try and stay dry. We are praying for no rain in the morning and especially no rain at 1:30 when we load our luggage and head to the airport.

It has been a good week, but a faith testing one as well. We have learned a lot this week and about humility for me.
We look forward to church tomorrow and to starting our excursions.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

My "alabama chromed" shoes


My trusty steel toe boots that I have used for the past 4 years have reached their limit. My soles are detaching from the boot and I am trying to make them last. Luckily, I had two people bring duct tape as a precaution. I didn't think I would have to use it for my boots.

They were holding up till today. My left sole detached so my foot is very uncomfortable. One more day though!