English
Help from above
Imagine; you are living with your family, and you
have at least fife kids, in only a small four by four tiny with clay built hut.
The grass roof protects you from the burning African sun and keeps you dry during
the rain season. When it’s cold at night you sleep all together on a straw mat
around the fire place in the middle of your home. Every day you enjoy with your
family the fresh prepared Sadza. Once in a while a little fish from the Zambezi
River is added to your menu. Sometimes there is not enough food because the
rain didn’t come at the right time and the little corn plants on the field died
in the sun’s heat. As a mother you are caring, or better balancing on your head,
a 20l canister of water from the nearby river. Nearby means a walk of at least
half an hour. You can’t read nor write and the only language you understand is
Sena. As a father you try to do the best for your family and to have enough
food every day. Sometimes you go fishing with your self-made bark canoe on the
dangerous Zambezi River. It is the home of the crocodiles and the hypos and
fishing can be a very dangerous adventure. 
Suddenly early in a morning you hear
a noise like thunder coming closer and a helicopter out of the blue sky approaches
your garden making lots of wind and dust. The doors open and friendly but busy
white people disembark and great you in Portugues, „Bom dia Senhor Niacabante,
come esta“? It is a big honor when you receive visit, it is a tremendous honor
when you receive visitors from another country or continent and when they land
with a helicopter between tomatos and beans in your garden – this is beyond any
imagination! „My children are going to
tell there grand children one day about the huge help from above, landing in my
garden!” 
It is a very special day as we are able to
distribute six donated water pumps with the generous help from Mercy Air. With
the helicopter we bring the blessing directly to does in need. Four pastors and
two women school associations are receiving the life changing step pumps.
Gasoline or diesel is not needed , the pumps are only run by muscle power. More then 30 families will be impacted per
pump. The ground water level is only one Meter deep and via a hose it’s now
irrigating the juvenile vegetable seedlings in the garden.
In a few weeks or
months, tomatos, onions, beans and others are going to be harvested and sold in
the market. The association is now able to take care for the widows and orphans
in the region. With the additional income now can the children of Niacabante go
to school, he can buy mosquito net or some medications for his baby, better
seeds for the garden and maybe in a few years he is going to be able to buy a
cow and a plough.
Only after a short time and the helicopter is on
its way to the next mashamba, field. But where is that? The agreed smoke signal
is difficult to identify in the distance. There are fires all over the
place “it looks like everybody is in
need of a water pump” is my comment to Matthias our pilot. We keep looking out,
we call with our cell phone… “here, we are here – we see you” comes the answer
but where is “here”? … “here, here” comes even louder
through the phone. We can’t be too far, this is what we know. Finally
we see a flag attached to a large pool, no it is actually a wind sock. Toca is
standing on a tree stump high, waving the white wind sock attached to the pool.
Minutes later we descent smooth to ground to bless them also with a water pump.
Thank you very much to all who made this possible
who contributed towards water pumps. It is going to have a tremendous impact in
many people’s lives.
