Alex's Grand Adventure--HXP in Mozambique

Hey! This is Alex. So the summer after I graduated high school, I went on a humanitarian trip to Mozambique through the HXP organization (Humanitarian Experience for Youth). It was an 18 day trip, involving loads of fun activities from a safari to whale watching to whitewater kayaking to sightseeing in the city. Each humanitarian group has 19 youth builders, 2 “counselors” (1 guy 1 girl), and a “trip mom” and “trip dad” (older adults who each have a kid in the group too). These people all became my family. They are all driven, loving, hardworking, and have a desire for continuous learning in life. I love them all.

Our task in Mozambique was to build a school. We were the last group of builders to arrive that summer, so we were in charge of making and finishing the concrete interior floor, painting the interior and exterior, constructing the roof, installing doors and windows, reinforcing the bottom of the exterior with more concrete, and building the ramp that led up to the entrance of the schoolhouse (the other groups earlier in the summer slacked off big time apparently, so we had to cover for them if we wanted to finish the school on time).

To fly there, everybody met up at the Newark airport on July 25th in order to make our 16 hour flight from Newark to Johannesburg. Then, after landing in South Africa, we spent a couple of days as tourists, going to Kruger National Park, some cool caves, eating South African junk food, watching some tribal dances (and also dancing in the tribal dances), holding cool snakes that could eat us but chose not to, kayaking down crocodile-infested rapids, and lots of sleeping. After a few days of this, we drove the bus across the  Mozambican border and towards Matola, where we would be staying and working for the next two weeks.

 Mozambique is actually one of the poorest countries on the planet (3rd poorest, after Somalia and Burundi). The country’s government is riddled with corruption, the life expectancy is over 20 years lower than ours in the United States, crime is rampant, the effects of civil war still linger , the healthcare system is in tatters, and like many other third world countries, there is no official trash collection system, Mozambicans just burn their trash wherever they dump it- in their yards, on the street, random fields, even soccer pitches.

Despite this, the Mozambican people are some of the most giving and charitable folks I have ever met. The LDS church members we met lovingly offered everything that they had whenever we would stop by their houses, offering up every chair, every drink, every ounce of food they had available for us. I felt nothing but love, discipleship and warmth from the saints in Mozambique. The spirit was more than abundant, and dwelled freely in the homes of these saints.

This is when we stopped at a gas station that doubled as a Rhino/Water Buffalo sanctuary.

These are some tough flics I caught of some animals in Kruger National Park.

This is me with some of the guys on the bus.

Me with some of the school kids.

This is me with Jeremias, one of the members in the Matola 2nd ward (the church is actually super strong in Mozambique, they’re building a temple there soon and there are already 2 missions).

Me with some of the construction workers that helped us complete the construction of the school properly.

Best trip ever! Loved it all, would do it again in a heartbeat.