Mission Cross in Amatongas

New sign out by the road in front of our school

Well, it's not the big iron mission cross of our founder Fr. Andre Coindre, but we are proud of our small carved wooden cross now hanging in just about every room of the school building. The cross's were hand carved by a local artist who tried to match the original sent from the province of New Orleans. After the war our school was taken over and operated by the government with no real religious symbols present. It has been a slow process changing the culture of the school and making it a Brothers of the Sacred Heart school. This is just one small, but important, step.
Ametur Cor Jesu!

All classrooms now have a cross

The school office as well

The original cross in the brothers chapel

Primary School Families Working Together

Families of present students gather together on the weekends

There are many primary schools close by that feed our secondary school population. One primary school is just across the street from us and we actually have some primary classes being held in our school because of overcrowding. However, that can't continue as we continue to grow and need all the space we can find. This past month a plan was set into place to build a new classroom block at the primary school across the street. It was pretty incredible to see the families come together to begin the process of making bricks from scratch out of mud and sand nearby.

Bricks are formed two at a time

Women gather to feed the workers

25,000 to 30,000 bricks will be needed for the new classroom block

10,000 at a time are dried and cooked in the huge kiln

Primary students in their present classroom with no windows

However, they do have books and dedicated teachers



Eggs Have Arrived in Amatongas

We now have 100 laying hens. It took months of research investigating why we couldn't buy laying hens in Mozambique. I finally found out that the huge chicken and egg company in Mozambique has a monopoly and though they sell millions of eggs, they don't sell the hens at point of lay. So, thankfully we have our own Br. Fabian from Zimbabwe who was able to contact people from his country and with a little effort we bought and imported from his country the hens at point of lay.

 

The hens will lay eggs for about a year and a half and we are presently collecting about 50 eggs a day, enough to feed our boys and sell the rest from our little general store.

 

And in our random pic from the day below, we have vendors coming by the school everyday to sell to our students and teachers. Bananas and fried bread are popular items.

 

 

And Now We Have Doors

It has been a long two and a half years waiting for the completion of work on our school. We now see an end in sight. The new doors started going up last week and it brought joy to our hearts. A school just looks much different with doors, don't you think? Thanks to our friends from Spain at Africa Directo and The Community of Madrid "C.A.M. for making this dream a reality. We could never do this work without help from so many around the world.

The first classroom with a door. Oh yea, and windows too!

Our new dorms are beginning to house a few new students as well.

The first picture of the front of our school with windows

 

Homemade sunglasses out of glass bottle, sticks and grass, priceless!

 

New Five Ton Trailer

I know it has been a while since I last posted and many people have been asking me if I was feeling well. Thankfully, my health is good and I have no excuse other than the busyness of each day here in Amatongas. However, the kids finish their second tri-mester exams today and will be away for a few weeks beginning next week, so I thought I would begin posting again. Get ready for many posts in the next few weeks in no particular order as there's a great deal to write about and update.

My first post is a thank you post. We are really blessed to have many people helping us do the work we do each day. A few months ago the Ruckstuhl Foundation in Baton Rouge provided us with this new 5 ton trailer. The trailer is used almost everday transporting corn and bean crops from our big farm about 5 kilometers from the mission. It has become essential to our future goal of self-sustainability. However, that's not the entire story. We also help the local people bring in crops as well as transporting many things like bricks, sand, rocks, wood, coal and it has even been used to transport people for funerals.

 

As always, the local kids lend a hand. Always a group effort in Amatongas.

The trailer and tractor make a big impression in our village each day

The local brickmaker with 8,000 bricks

Around The Mission

There's never a dull moment in Amatongas, activity from 5 am until 10 pm everyday. I begin March with a post about a few activities that don't get much puplicity but are essential to our mission. I'll try to highlight more as the month progresses.

First, our bakery began as a small operation a few days a week and has grown to 6 days a week. We bake bread for our boarders breakfast and then sell the rest out of our store.

Our hand-made brick oven covered in clay. You mean you don't have one?

Raul works daily mixing the dough and forming the rolls

The wood burning oven bakes 300 a day

Best bread in Mozambique!

Secondly, I'll highlight our general store. It has grown from a small room with 2 shelves to a much larger room selling everything from groceries to hardware. I don't know what we would do without the store now. It has become the center of activity around the mission and around Amatongas.

Saraiva, one of our student monitors, helps out in the evenings

Dino and Saraiva, I think they are celebrities in Amatongas now

Our chickens are sold here, now 300 each month....

.....,cement and other building material as well

You have probably seen too many pictures of our new desks already, but here's another one. We can't say enough about the impact our desks have had on our students thanks to our friends at Africa Directo and CAM in Spain. Our next big project is shown in this picture below as well. Yes, the new windows are coming soon.

It's a whole new world with new desks

Superior General Visits Amatongas

Br. Jose Ignacio (right) and Br. Ray Hetu (left)

The Superior General of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart arrived Wednesday to begin his official visit to the community in Amatongas. Br. Jose Ignacio Carmona is joined by General Councilor Br. Ray Hetu. Brothers Jose and Ray will be visiting for about a week. They are just finishing a two month visit to our brothers communities in Eastern and Southern Africa, Lesotho, Zimabawe, Zambia, Kenya and Uganda.

The brothers join our boarders for supper each night

Resident students perform a traditional dance for the visitors

Residents students welcome our special visitors....

....with personal letters.

Residents helping to dry corn on the roof

Resident students in the new school uniform

Who doesn't have tons of corn drying on their roof????

Electricity Out Again

The electricity was out most of the weekend, my only real excuse for not posting. That should be sufficient. Actually, we have been pretty lucky here of late. The electricity normaly goes out during rain and/or wind, however there was no reason this weekend.

I meant to upload some of these pictures in my previous post, but I just recently found them buried in our computer.

Residents read over the rules and regulations of program

The new residents are welcomed by the old

Br. Fabian knows how to mix the new guys in with basketball

Our Director, Br. Lucas, organizing in the office

This weekend members of our Immaculate Conception Parish youth group helped with harvesting the corn and planting beans. They are putting in some service before getting ready to go as a group to the Diocese wide Palm Sunday weekend celebrations about 50kms away near Chimoio. Some of our residents are members of the Youth Group as well.

The people here love roasting fresh picked corn, yummm

Marcos, one of our Resident Monitors, joins in the work

Parish Youth Group picking corn

Random Pic of the Day - Our local market across the street from school