9 Years Later...

Not to get all mushy and sentimental, but seriously, who would've thought 9 years ago we'd be celebrating our wedding anniversary here in Mozambique? Definitely not me!

At any rate, in a funny coincidence, one of the other American couples here has the exact same anniversary as us! Same day, same year! Weird huh? We thought we could go out to dinner together or something but then we realized we're all either broke and/or without transportation. So instead, Ian and I had dinner in our room. Fortunately for us, it was Matapa for dinner, which I love (its a very traditional Mozambiquan dish made with shredded squash leaves with coconut milk and crushed peanuts, served over jasmine rice). So that was fun. Plus one of the other sisters heard it was our anniversary and dropped off a little card and a bottle of beer and some cashews. So sweet of her.


In other news... I started working in the accounting department this week. Right now I'm basically just doing a lot of data entry type stuff that had gotten rather back logged. One of the things I did was enter all the congregation contributions for the past couple of months. Since the internet is not necessarily familiar or accessible to all in the country, nearly all of the congregations make a bank transfer to the branch, then send a copy of their deposit slip and their form indicating the allocation for each fund (i.e. Kingdom Hall construction, Worldwide Work, special funds like Assembly hall projects, etc.). Then we enter this information into Admin2000 (an enterprise management software designed by some brothers that pretty much all the branches now use to manage basically everything from accounting to scheduling haircuts) and match the electronic bank transfers with each congregation's contribution. In fact some congregations still send in cash if they don't have access to make a bank deposit or transfer. 


Something about handling all those handwritten forms made me feel especially close to the brothers all over the country. Just seeing the forms and knowing what it took for them to get to me here was kind of touching. Plus, just imagining what a sacrifice it is for the brothers to make the small contributions that they do. This really helps to reinforce the appreciation I have for the Kingdom Hall construction assistance arrangement for the poorer countries. Literally some congregations are only able to contribute a very very small amount (we're talking $10 or $20 USD) each month, which would never allow them to be able to fund construction or maintenance of a KH on their own. Its just so loving and wise of Jehovah to arrange for all of our brothers and sisters around the world to have a dignified place of worship, no matter what their economic circumstances.


I asked one of the accounting brothers if the forms all come in the mail and he kind of looked at me strangely and was like, 'well, I guess they could send them by mail. I never have used the mail here, but I know we have a mail system.' So apparently the way they send in the forms is through the monthly literature delivery route (a rota) that the brothers make from the branch here in Maputo to the rest of the country. Once a month a truck loaded with literature is driven from the South Africa branch to the Mozambique branch (about an 8-10 hour ride). The truck is unloaded and then re-sorted and re-loaded onto smaller trucks to make the monthly literature deliveries throughout the country. Its pretty amazing actually. The brothers said the trip usually takes anywhere from 5-8 days, depending on which route they are assigned to. The brothers along the route are waiting patiently for the deliveries each month in designated places along the way. Sometimes they end up waiting hours and hours, but they won't leave and miss their delivery!


Anyhoo, we miss everyone back home. Can't believe our time here is already half way through! Time is definitely flying by, but we can't wait to see everyone again. Love to you all!