April 5, 2010
Dear friends and family,
The last month has been a hectic but exciting time for us in Mozambique. The seminary started on February 15th with 30 students and is doing very well. Director Don Hulsey is doing a great job as well as Daniel Maduel and Xavier Massingue who are all teaching the classes, which last each morning from 8 to 12:30. The next part of the curriculu
m consists of hiring tutors who are teaching the students who don't have a 10th or 12th grade education. These are big milestones for Mozambicans and because of the civil war which lasted 17 years and ended in 1992, we are just now realizing the devistation of the educational system which is now just recovering. I remember talking back in 1996 when we first arrived and seen the poor education standards, if any, and that we realized that it would take an entire generation for the country to improve...and it has. We are finally seeing young people graduating and going to college. A new merging middle class is developing. Mozambique is moving forward, and we have felt it a privilege to have been here and seen it happen first hand.
Each year we take the CAM students on a field trip. Many times we go to South Africa or Swaziland for two or three days. But we have wanted to find something here in Mozambique and this year we were able to go to Maputo Bay Adventures which is a survival camp just a little over an hour from Maputo, or 2.5 hrs by catamaran boat.
The first trip in February was for the 7-9th grade boys. There were seven of them and I (Larry) went as one of the chaparones. The camp is run by missionary friends, Jim and Stacie Bowers, who are using the camp to reach a more educated class of young people in the Maputo area. The camp is quite primative as we stay in tents and rough it a bit in the bush. The food is always great and the activities are full of challenges for the students to stretch themselves as well as develop key teamwork skills.
There were physical challenges and mental challenges associated with learning to use compasses and GPSes to find clues and locations on long hikes. One hike I was on was to be 7.5km but ended up being 15km due to lots of wrong pathes taken. But it was exciting to see the kids work through problems and learn to overcome them. On one long hike they had to find a village, barter their hats and machetes for two chickens, fire wood and manioca (tuber root). They didn't realize at the time that what they got was dinner and they had to kill, clean and cook the chickens and manioca. I have just one picture of "dinner" for the squeemish at heart....:)
The last of the feld trips was taking 22 3rd-6th graders to Swaziland. Susan and four adults went along and the kids had a great time and experience. They left at 6am on Friday and returned Saturday evening. Their first stop was to a factory that makes specialty soaps out of marula fruit oils. It was quite interesting as the kids were given a tour and also were able to tun the machine to crush the nuts to extract the oil. They then drove to Nisela Safaris where they stayed the night in traditional Swaziland bee-hive huts. The kids loved hem and the challenge was to get in and out of the litle door which was about two feet tall. The day cntinued with a drive through safari where the students saw man variets of animals and were able to get out of the vehciles and see some close-up. Fortunately there were no carnivores at this game park. 
In the evening the students cooked over an open fire and made up skits to entertain everyone. It was a very long day and extremely hot so everyone was tired but the kids didn't want to go to bed as the beehives were so hot and had no fans. Eventually all were told to go to bed as the next day was to be a long one as well.
Dear friends and family,The last month has been a hectic but exciting time for us in Mozambique. The seminary started on February 15th with 30 students and is doing very well. Director Don Hulsey is doing a great job as well as Daniel Maduel and Xavier Massingue who are all teaching the classes, which last each morning from 8 to 12:30. The next part of the curriculu
m consists of hiring tutors who are teaching the students who don't have a 10th or 12th grade education. These are big milestones for Mozambicans and because of the civil war which lasted 17 years and ended in 1992, we are just now realizing the devistation of the educational system which is now just recovering. I remember talking back in 1996 when we first arrived and seen the poor education standards, if any, and that we realized that it would take an entire generation for the country to improve...and it has. We are finally seeing young people graduating and going to college. A new merging middle class is developing. Mozambique is moving forward, and we have felt it a privilege to have been here and seen it happen first hand.
Each year we take the CAM students on a field trip. Many times we go to South Africa or Swaziland for two or three days. But we have wanted to find something here in Mozambique and this year we were able to go to Maputo Bay Adventures which is a survival camp just a little over an hour from Maputo, or 2.5 hrs by catamaran boat. 
The first trip in February was for the 7-9th grade boys. There were seven of them and I (Larry) went as one of the chaparones. The camp is run by missionary friends, Jim and Stacie Bowers, who are using the camp to reach a more educated class of young people in the Maputo area. The camp is quite primative as we stay in tents and rough it a bit in the bush. The food is always great and the activities are full of challenges for the students to stretch themselves as well as develop key teamwork skills. 
There were physical challenges and mental challenges associated with learning to use compasses and GPSes to find clues and locations on long hikes. One hike I was on was to be 7.5km but ended up being 15km due to lots of wrong pathes taken. But it was exciting to see the kids work through problems and learn to overcome them. On one long hike they had to find a village, barter their hats and machetes for two chickens, fire wood and manioca (tuber root). They didn't realize at the time that what they got was dinner and they had to kill, clean and cook the chickens and manioca. I have just one picture of "dinner" for the squeemish at heart....:)A few of the favorite challenges were archery, team work to get everyone over the "Berlin Wall" and climbing the rock wall.
In the late evening all the students had to take turns with "guard" duty for two hours. A staff person was on duty as well and gave opportunity to just talk freely around the campfire about anything, including solving all the worlds problems and great discussions about Christ and what He means to each of us.
The last of the feld trips was taking 22 3rd-6th graders to Swaziland. Susan and four adults went along and the kids had a great time and experience. They left at 6am on Friday and returned Saturday evening. Their first stop was to a factory that makes specialty soaps out of marula fruit oils. It was quite interesting as the kids were given a tour and also were able to tun the machine to crush the nuts to extract the oil. They then drove to Nisela Safaris where they stayed the night in traditional Swaziland bee-hive huts. The kids loved hem and the challenge was to get in and out of the litle door which was about two feet tall. The day cntinued with a drive through safari where the students saw man variets of animals and were able to get out of the vehciles and see some close-up. Fortunately there were no carnivores at this game park. 
In the evening the students cooked over an open fire and made up skits to entertain everyone. It was a very long day and extremely hot so everyone was tired but the kids didn't want to go to bed as the beehives were so hot and had no fans. Eventually all were told to go to bed as the next day was to be a long one as well.Saturday morning they left the camp and drove to Manzini where they toured the Swazi Candle Factory and craft shops. They were given demonstrations by a master candle maker where he was able to make an elephant from a block of wax. Many of the students were also given wax for them to experiment with.
All in all, the trip was a great experience for the kids and adults. They arrived home Saturday evening full of stories and tired from their long days. We are so thankful for having such amazing students. Many commented on how well behaved (really?) was the group and we too think they are special in deed.
Thank you for your prayers and continue them as we need the Lord's wisdom and vision to meet the challenges of running CAM school.
in Christ,
Larry & Susan Weil
