Maxixe, Mozambique 7 July 1996 Dear friends: It is early (4:30a.m.) Sunday morning. I am alone (and glad to be) after a very special, good and energy-consuming week. Last Sunday Morcene Pacule, a neat, petite gentleman 84 years old arrived from Panda. He was holding tightly to the end of his 4 foot long walking stick and taking each step carefully as his wife Nera, holding the other end of the stick, gently led him to our house. They had come at Lawrence's invitation to spend a week with our students teaching music. They were tired after their long journey from Panda to Balaza. They had walked from their home to Panda. They travelled 80 km in the back of a pickup truck ("chapa") to Maxixe. They took another chapa from Maxixe and then trudged up our sandy road. Morcene Guebuza Pacule was born in 1912. He is the father of Levião Pacule - a middle aged pastor in Maputo, and Inácio, who was a student and teacher at Zakewu Likumbe Bible School. I had met him a few years ago. I knew that Morcene was old, but hadn't realized that he is now totally blind. Nera doesn't know when she was born. Morcene thinks it was 1931. She is slightly taller than Morcene, lean and strong. I first met Nera in 1989 at the annual women's organization (Xirilo) meeting. She came to that meeting through a war zone, risking her life to bring greetings and offerings from the Panda women. Instead of praising her for her courage and commitment, the Xirilo leaders chastised her severely because she was not a properly uniformed member of Xirilo. I was very upset by the treatment she received and I talked to her and expressed my admiration and appreciation. A bond was established between us. There are so many people that I meet that I know, even as I'm greeting them, that I will have difficulty remembering, but not Nera. Nera is Morcene's third wife and not the mother of either Leviao or Inácio. Upon arrival Nera took charge of me, letting me know exactly what Morcene's needs were. Did we have some sleeping mats? Yes, the mattress on the floor would do nicely. Where is the latrine? the bath house? Hot water for bathing, please. It would be easier if Morcene's food were served in a bowl. At supper she put the banana or bread within easy reach and gave occasional verbal directions respecting his dignity and independence. Conversing at the table Morcene discussed the teaching assignment with Lawrence. He said, (in Xitshwa) "Thank you for inviting us to visit you. We had a good journey from Panda. All the people there send greetings. We are not musicians. We have never had any schooling in music. What is it you want us to do?" Lawrence replied, "When I heard you sing at Panda I wanted my students to learn from you so I invited you to come. I want you to sing for the students and then teach them some songs that would enrich their ministries. Sing as you did for the pastors' conference in January." Monday morning Morcene and Nera Pacule met with the students in our one room school - with the students at their tables in a U in front of them. First Lawrence introduced them to the students and explained why he had invited them to come and teach. Then he invited the students to introduce themselves and tell why they would like to learn some traditional music. Their introductions were fascinating including, for Morcene's benefit, not only their names and birth places - but also names of parents and grandparents so that he could place them in their proper clan contexts. The students also were genuinely appreciative of this opportunity to learn from an elder and welcomed Morcene with a warmth and enthusiasm that exceeded our expectations. And then the music began with a responsive chant: Morcene: Ku! Ku! Ku! Nera: Ganga! ... They got our attention and then sang half a dozen songs. The students selected the song they wanted to learn first and we requested that the words be dictated so that they could write them in their notebooks. Nera is illiterate and not quite in touch with the difficulty of writing long phrases, but the students scribbled furiously. I couldn't keep up. We asked her to repeat and wrote and corrected the words until we were ready to begin singing. Three hours flew quickly by and that became the pattern of the week. I was reminded of Elliot Wigginton's book, Sometimes a Shining Moment - telling about the writing the Foxfire Books with his students. He understood the riches of wisdom, knowledge and skill that folk have. He invited simple folk to share stories, practices and their crafts with students and insisted that the students treat them with absolute respect. Our students were magnificently respectful and appreciative. Students hosted Morcene and Nera for suppers. They chose supper rather than lunch because they needed all afternoon in order to prepare properly. We gave each host an additional 20,000Mt ($2) as a hospitality fund "to enrich the stew". On Tuesday Olinda was the hostess. Olinda is about 50 years old. She is a widow with 10 children, including 3 sets of twins. The four youngest children are with her here at Balaza. The others live in Maputo or are working in South Africa. From our house she borrowed 4 spoons, 4 plates, 4 cups, a pitcher for water. After the evening worship service we went to Olinda's house. Greetings were exchanged, hands were washed in warm water, grace was said and food served in Olinda's neat reed house. The table was lovely with a bright tablecloth and big bowls of rice, wuswa (stiff maize porridge) and fish in a coconut cream sauce. When we had eaten, Olinda, Morcene and Nera began to "bhula" (converse). Olinda told Morcene what had happened after the death of her husband - how his relatives had come and taken her bed, broken her dishes and eaten her ducks - leaving her and her 10 children destitute. Olinda told how friends in the Congregational Church in Maputo had helped her with a bag of rice and money so that she could survive. She said that without their prayers and support she would not have lived. Morcene said he was grateful that Christianity countered such hard customs as the destruction of the belongings of the deceased which leaves a family destitute. Olinda has her way of protesting: "They even broke up the bed. To this day I do not have a bed. I sleep on the floor and I will never sleep in a bed of my own." The next evening we again were invited to accompany Morcene and Nera to have supper at Veronica's house. Morcene knows Veronica and her husband Chadreque so was quite at ease and he talked and he talked - with only a little prompting from Veronica and a side comment or two from Nera. He and Veronica began exchanging war stories. We heard again of her miraculous escape from her RENAMO captors. Morcene told how Inácio had miraculously escaped being killed by FRELIMO soldiers. Morcene took Inácio to a government official who took Inácio to identify the soldiers who had abused and threatened to kill him. The official was angry with the soldiers and got angry with Inácio, too, when he pleaded that they be forgiven and not punished harshly. There was a funny incident because the soldiers had taken Morcene's donkey away from Inácio. Could he identify his donkey in the herd of the soldiers' donkeys? Inácio had no difficulty because he had trained the donkey to come to him when he whistled a certain tune. The FRELIMO Commander was impressed and let him take his donkey home. On Thursday evening we were entertained by Luisa and Mateus (except that Mateus was in Maxixe, attending 8th grade classes at night school). Luisa is 25 years old. She is from Tete. She had cooked food for us as it is prepared in Tete. Luisa met and married Mateus when he was in the army stationed in Tete. Morcene playfully calls her "Grandmother" because one of his grandmothers is named Luisa. Luisa often speaks Portuguese because she is still learning Xitshwa and Bitonga. After supper there were more war stories. Tete City had not been attacked because soldiers from Zimbabwe had come to help protect the city and the bridge across the Zambezi River. Morcene told us about the terrible times in his grandfathers' day when people in different tribal groups killed each other if they crossed into each other's areas. He told about the terrible times under the Portuguese when forced labor was the practice and punishments were harsh. Nera talked about having borne 11 children only 4 of whom survived. One of her children had a horrible death during the war of Renamo against the government. He was dismembered - an arm cut off, a leg cut off - then the head. "But that's in the past", she said. "I'm just conversing." I can hardly bear to write about it. It is too horrible to contemplate. We learned new things about Luisa, Morcene and Nera as we listened to their lively conversation. And we got more insight into the incredible and long suffering of the Mozambican people. When they arrived, Morcene and Nera came bearing gifts: a basket of oranges, a large bag of grated, toasted cassava, and a dozen fresh cassava roots. Throughout the week we tried to express our appreciation in a variety of ways. Our problem: what to give people who have almost nothing? We served lemon marmalade and Papai Morcene particularly liked it. Nera said that she has lots of lemons at home. So we made marmalade together while I taught her how to do it. She will try making some to sell, if she can get enough money to buy a couple of kilograms of sugar. On Tuesday afternoon Nera came to my literacy class. We demonstrated for her the first few steps of learning to read. I think she would learn quite quickly. One of the small things I wanted to give her was a pair of shoelaces to replace the strip of rag she was using to hold her shoes together. Lawrence helped this happen. At the closing session of the course he told a little story reminding us of John's feeling himself unworthy to untie Jesus' sandal straps - and of Moses' taking off his shoes by the burning bush - and invited Nera to take off her shoes so that two of the students could put in new shoelaces to remind her of the words about "Blessed are the feet of those who carry the good news..." And then he gave Morcene 3 kilograms of salt (something else they had mentioned lacking in Panda) relating it to the scriptural passages about being the salt of the earth. The Bible School paid their travel expenses and gave them an honorarium of 100,000Mt. ($10) - which was received gratefully. I also put together a few things for them to use at home: matches, bouillon cubes, 2 kilograms of sugar (for that first batch of lemon marmalade), a small box of detergent, needles, thread, plastic bags, a packet of Marie biscuits, and bread and water for the trip home... I dared not give more. It was a good week. Morcene and Nera Pacule are special people. I loved trying to learn some of their songs. They have made me very aware of, and grateful for, my affluence and eyesight, and our kind, loving students. Lawrence has gone to Johannesburg for two denominational committee meetings: Training for Ministries, and the Theological Commission. They are small committees and he will be with good friends like John deGruchy and Bonganjalo Goba, so it should be a good week for him. Chadreque Mazive will be teaching this week on the subject of marriage. He is resident in "the prophets chamber" (our guest room) and I'm glad for his company. Since I don't do weddings, nor prepare couples for marriage, nor counsel husbands and wives, I am not attending his classes. I will be doing further preparations for my literacy teacher training course coming up in two weeks. I got materials in Swaziland recently for making some teaching aids. I spent a morning re-packing books so that I can free up some boxes so that each student will have one to keep literacy materials in. Thank you for your interest in and support for our presence and ministry in Mozambique. Sincerely yours, Carol C. Gilley