Chaveiro

Sign for business up the alley - The World of Keys
(50 km/hr speed limit sign)

I think one of my very first blogs when we first came to Mozambique was about all the keys.  So could it not be any more appropriate that I start this term talking also about keys?

Our life here can often revolve around keys.  Cars have to have alarm systems, often with a special key, tire lugs are keyed, there are multiple locks to get into your house, there are one or more gates, if you can pad-lock something you do, or it will “grow legs and run away”.  I have a bag of keys for the seminary and my colleagues have bags of keys for the school.  The problem is you have to keep up with all those keys!

When you need a key, you go to a Chaveiro, which is basically a locksmith, just a key cutter.  The problem is, they often cut them by hand with files or if they have electricity, they might have the equivalent of a Drimmel tool or just a grinder with a sharply pointed stone.   

But usually, you take a master key, and they cut you one from it, which I did the other day near our seminary.  But in reality, I had gone to a couple of other small shops outside the city first, none of who had a good blank for a Yale lock.  The Chaveiro near the seminary cut two keys for me and when I compared them to the original - I questioned him as I didn’t think they were good enough but he was sure they were.   When I got them home, they didn’t even begin to open the lock, which I suppose isn’t so unusual.  I only waited about 20 minutes for these first first two keys.  

Because the keys are for the common lock that controls the front gate to the property where we live, we needed the key for entry after dark, so I was beginning to feel a little pressure about getting a key.

The Office is on the left - see the key?

A couple of days later, I went back, with the lock this time, to see if he could get the copies to work, and if possible get a couple more keys.  The fellow took them to the back little room of the little shop and for an hour, I heard grinding, hammering, polishing, Portuguese words I didn't know (or want to know!) and more.  I chatted with the people coming and going from the little shop while Ann made calls from the car.  After a while Ann (who couldn’t see me from the car) began texting, ‘are you ok?’ as the time passed.  

Finally, he came out with one key, the original and the lock.  He had no more blanks, broke one of them trying to fix it, and refunded the money for the one key.   I thanked him for his efforts, thinking how much time it can take here to do the simplest thing - but it isn’t the thing as much as how we react to that thing!  

So, what is the point of this? - that I miss Lowes or the Ace-hardware where a local teenager can cut you a nice key in about three minutes on a beautiful grinder?  Not really; but how should we respond in these situations?  Who are the people around us when we find ourselves in these situations?  How is it that we respond when things don’t go exactly the way we think they should?  Can we move from frustration to joy in the moment?  I hope that we’ve made a bit more progress in this area as God grows us in our journey towards Him.  It was an hour to have relationship time with people who need to know there is more than this moment.

All the action is behind the board with the key!

Where we live, we lock down basically from dark to daylight.  We are changing the lock to our outer gate because we have lost a set of keys and for security reasons, we will put on a new lock, which will require 12 keys for those authorized to come and go here at night.  So, I think I’ll need to find a better Chaveiro rather than spend six hours waiting for keys that might, or might not work! (I know, you are saying come back later - but if you aren’t waiting, you must not need it….so you will wait regardless!)  

The lesson may simply be to take your lock with you!

My other purpose is to provide a small glimpse of how the simplest thing, can take quite a bit of time.  Our visa’s are another example but it is a story for another day.  They are to be ready on 9 September.

Blessings to you.  Thank you for standing with us.

Dave & Ann

“They would spend the night stationed around the house of God, because they had to guard it; and they had charge of the key for opening it each morning.” 1 Chronicles 9:27