Mozambique Diary
March 24 - 30, 2002
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On operations:
At moment our team is still working in Montepuez district, and the task name is Nairoto, that is a province in north of Mozambique where the TBS teams are situated. There are no particularly relevant events from the time of my last report, however it is important to note that the team is still working in order to identify a line of mines and we are faced with a difficult obstacle in that the team is dealing with heavily contaminated soil from various items of metal. The task was an ex-barracks next to the village and the earth contains a lot of rusted cans, bullets and other items of scrap and for this reason it was necessary to interrupt what we call combined demining method (detector and excavation) and to use just excavation which is a very slow but safe method. It is also extremely hard work this method and involves excavating the earth down to 20 cm and removing every item of metal. We all get very dirty and very tired using this method and we all prefer using detectors, but sometimes detectors cannot work.
The life in general
I am Luis Eugenio Ripia, 27 years old, not married yet and a muslim. I am based in Cabo Delgado at Ingonani village (my living area) and I am living together with my mother and my dad. I completed my studies in 1999 (standard 11) then, later on, I took a course on basic financial administration.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find a job in this area. Jobs in Mozambique are extremely difficult to come by and many people educate themselves but then cannot find work to suit their abilities.
I came to the HALO office because as there was an opportunity to join as a medic/deminer. I wanted to be a medic as I have done some medicine in the past according to my school background, but I was then told that the required number was achieved already (more bad luck) because I was really interested to attend the course to be a deminer/medic.
Anyway, once in the HALO Trust I’m feeling very good, since I’m able to buy things to feed and help my parents, and also I’m feeling good about the demining activity. Rain has been one of our main problems, but now its now getting rare and it only rains in the afternoon which is the end of our daily demining activity (this is a good sign but can also be a bad sign because the soil will be too hard).
In the future and when I have raised enough budget, I am drawing up a plan to buy a big area some where in Pemba to build up my own house and get married. I already know the girl I will marry. She is pretty, but not as pretty as some of the girls in Pemba.
We spend most of our weekends sitting and listening to music or playing cards in our campsite because Nairoto is a very small village and it doesn’t offer much to do.
Luis Eugenio Ripia
(Deminer)
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