want some cake?

last night was the funniest night i’ve experienced in my entire life. no questions asked, i’ve never laughed that much. i went to bed thinking fiona, heather and i were crazy, just hyper silly girls.. i thought we had turned to laughter in effort to salvage the day where (quite literally) everything went awry. but no, truly funny things happened.

it all started with the cake, the laughing that is. we’re at my family’s house and we were making a birthday cake for erin. so we google a “very moist” recipe and go for it. we even took two trips to the store to get things we didn’t have (slash, forgot.). as the ingredients were coming together my faith in the cake was crashing… it was runny, very very runny. as i put it in the oven i said, “i don’t think this is going to work….” and sure enough, one hour later, we’ve boiled a cake. yup, boiled. haha. it’s turned into this goupy brownie batter mixture, but its delicious! the day before hev & fi made a cake that, similar to this one, didn’t rise but that one tasted of gross eggs.. so in a small way this was a step up because it tasted good :o) we put the “cake” into a pot and messed with it on the stove hoping it would do something, anything, maybe even solidify enough to use as ice cream topping. the laughing fits begin when fiona very seriously asks, “want some cake?” as she drips it from a spoon. haha. at the end of the night, we’ve got our cake in a plastic crystal light container in my fridge.

at this point in the day, just before we took the cake out of the oven, only one thing had gone wrong: we came to my family’s house in hope of escaping noise and children and ended up attending the embassy’s (family) Christmas party. but that was fine, we hadn’t been upset about that because it was only one small this, thus far that is. after the cake fiasco we are ready to leave for erin’s birthday dinner. we’re in the car, making a u-turn in the street and heather states, “there’s a problem with the power sttteeerrrring (as she’s trying to turn the car around).” we try and get the guards at my uncle’s to look at it but, being Mozambicans, they really don’t drive and have cars, thus no desperately needed car knowledge. so we’re stuck at home. waiting for a driver to come from the center. the driver tells us he’s close, so (mostly me) all of us get moody and emo and very bummed that not only do we have to miss erin’s dinner but we also have to leave now and go back home. we all completely forgot we were dealing Mozambicans here, they say five minutes and mean 30! so when we think the driver will be here in 45 minutes that turns into two hours. we keep putting off watching a movie and ordering dinner because we think the driver will be there any minute. right when i get the movie going the door bell rings. so we take our cake and head off to get dinner with the drivers (who double as very fun cool guys)

after getting pizza to-go, we’ve swapped cars with the drivers. they drive home our wonky car and we stuff into the front of a pick up truck. then begins the jamming of heather’s arm into either mine or fiona’s sides as she attempts to switch gears with a person sitting on the hump seat in the middle. laughing starts again. and also fiona’s very close encounters with her hand and my mouth as she tries to lock the door from the hump seat. more laughter. we’re driving home with laptops, settlers games, and pizza in our laps. as we’re trying to pass out pizza and our arms are discombobulated and intertwined, we’re also looking for the kfc where chico and his friend are waiting for a ride home. we pull up to one and call chico, then realize we’re at the wrong kfc. there are only 3 in the city..we laugh off our stupidity. so then we’re feeling a bit confused, and naturally ask for help (because we’re girls, not boys). well the kind woman in the car next to us (the one we yelled at for ages trying to get her attention through her closed window) tells us with a very confused expression that the road we’re looking for is in fact the road we’re on. haha, we die laughing at this point and from here on our we don’t stop laughing until we’re asleep. so we drive up to the correct kfc seconds later, since we were so close, we get chico and his friend in the bed of the truck and head home. we’re flying over all the bumps and holes in the road, in true heather fashion, and we’re making it home in lightning speed. chico calls from the back of the truck and begs her to drive slower. laughing again, but apologizing at the same time.

we finally make it home to the center and as we’re dropping off the notebook with the car details i look up to heather dying laughing, wanting to know very quickly what’s funny this time so that i can join in. in one second i see why hev’s laughing… fiona is on her hands and knees having just fallen into the sand. she tripped her way off the step and all of her things that were once in her hand are now next to her strewn about on the sand and she’s not moving. other than her laughter, fiona’s not moving, and certainly not getting up anytime soon. and so, we laugh more. the night was wonderful. for a day that came very close to being dreadful, it was amazing. the kid party, the cake, eating fiona’s hand, greasy pizza in the car with three girls squished into two seats, and finally fiona’s graceless fall, the day was amazing. we had a fit of laughter again in church this morning, where hev actually left she was laughing so hard, it was a great night :o)

time for movies!

this is my first attempt at making a movie.. who knew windows had this? i would have had loads of fun in high school with this lol. so this is a short video of some of my boys :o) i’m working on another one to show you guys a typical dinner, but this is just us playing. hope you like it!

My Cuties :o)

These are during the afternoon program.

 

 

Here’s Zequito and Pedro singing the ABCs :o)

View Full Album

The afternoon program is something Laura does that I’ve kept going while she’s gone.  The boys adore it, it’s really cute :o) I’ve got 3 rooms in my dorm and once a week each room gets to come into Laura’s home for a lesson or activity and a snack.  Laura does way more teaching than I can do, seeing as I’m merely learning Portuguese :o) so I do lots of fun silly stuff with the boys.  We did macaroni art last week, that was really fun and it was my first time ever doing that with kids.  It went way better than I thought it would go!  The boys were really into it, and I ended up having a few boys come in later on in the week to finish their papers.  I’m pretty sure every single boy taped his up on the wall in their rooms, it was seriously adorable.  Last week we did stuff for Laura, but it’s a surprise :o) so that news is gonna have to wait!

..holding a miracle..

8 little kilos, he’s six and he only weighs 8 kilos, even after being here at the center for nearly a year!  About two weeks ago Lucas really scared us.  I went to my family’s for the weekend only to get multiple phone calls and emails desperate for prayers for little Lucas.  It was awful.  And I couldn’t drive myself back to the center, I had to wait until a driver could come get me.  He has ups and downs, good days and bad ones.  But that weekend it was really bad, and the nursing staff was telling everyone to pray and prepare their hearts for God’s will to take the lead.  Scared me to the core, especially since Laura was gone.  I wanted her to be around and Lucas needed her to be around!  But God did take control :o) and now he’s doing better than ever!  He walked all the way to my door (which is really Laura’s door) from the place where they eat dinner, which is probably 100ft and 3 big stairs!  It was so amazing.  I was so excited when I saw he came the whole way, it was an awesome surprise :o)  So now every time I hold Lucas during church or sit with him and his little stacking ups I think, “I’m holding a miracle. A real live miracle is in my lap this instant :o) “ 

and it’s the best feeling in the world.

White Skin

so I only have about five minutes, but the cutest thing happened during church :o) I sat in a different place today, in the back with people from the surrounding community instead of with my boys in the front. I had to sit somewhere with an easy exit for hospitality stuff. But anyway, this little boy ends up sitting next to me and getting really cuddly with me! It was so adorable :o) He was probably like 8? ..8ish. He's holding my hands and rubbing my skin and I'm just thinking it's the cutest thing, but then I realize that he's staring at me. His eyes are following intently where his fingers travel.... it's because I'm white! Haha, I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud when I realized this, despite my sitting in church :o) He was rubbing over my freckles and my knuckles, slowly and deliberately. Then (after realizing) I showed him this big huge freckle on the arm that was further away from him and he rubbed it --no joke-- for like ten minutes. Haha, the joys of living in Africa :o)

What's a normal day?

I get asked this all the time by you lovely folks at home: what's a normal day for you? I attempt to explain that nothing here is normal ;-) Everyday I run around trying to find different people to get different things done, like the maintenance team to fix something (because boys tend to break things often and easily), or a nurse for a sick boy, or a missionary/visitor to help out with my boys and play with them. ...there's a lot of running. Well, no, it's not running. No one runs here, at least not when it's hot (which praise the Lord it's been in the 70s for a week!). But there is a lot of moving around for the staff here, and since everyone's busy with this running, it makes it quite hard to accomplish all of your to-do list... which means the next day will be filled with running yet again.. and thus: a cycle begins. But I love it :o) I can rest easy in knowing I don't know what to expect. So, what's a normal day for me? Every day. Because everyday is different so every day is normal.

God is my Provider. This is the side of the Lord He's been showing to me most, and it's been amazing. I'm learning to completely trust in Him to give me what I need, and not in my own doings. See, I'm broke. It could be possibly more descriptive to say: dirt broke. This isn't a knew state for me, I was oftentimes broke in the States too, haha. But at home I knew how to to get more money: babysit more. I'm seeing that that was a luxury, that knowledge of how to get more money. As of yesterday I had 140mets (something like 4 or 5 bucks) in my wallet and I've got $13 in my bank account. But the issue with this bank account money is that I don't know how much the fee will be to pull it out! I can't seem to figure out how much they're charging me over at Wachovia, sometimes its .50cents but sometimes it's $5.00!! So I'm too scared to touch it and overdraft into an astronomical debt. But! It's been fine. Because God is my provider :o) Amen. There is always enough. That's a motto here at the center, and it's completely true. Yesterday I had three lovely ladies over for dinner because I had more than enough food :o) I found this awesome market down the road from the center and ohMYgosh it is cheap! I bought vegetables for stir-fry for something like $2! I still have 50 mets in my wallet! God is so great :o) Also, I've been wanting a new mosquito net for my bedroom because my current one is blue.. my room is pink (obviously.). So I didn't neeeeeed a new net, no, I knew that. But I wanted one! So bad too! And yesterday a friend of mine got a new net for her room and graciously gave me her old one! It's a beautiful white :o) God's awesome.

In about three hours I will be doing my first afternoon program without Laura, or any help for that matter! Today it's the littlest ones, about 5 years old :o) I made a little craft puzzle for them, it was fun doing it hah. It's a puzzle of the alphabet where only two pieces fit together, the captial and small letter :o) It's cute. They'll also be doing a puzzle with their name. This is if everything goes well! We'll see... :o)

Tomorrow is voting day here, pray the country. I have a missionary in here with me now talking about how none of the tias may be around tomorrow... haha... and there's no school... So this means I may be left alone to give the boys showers, breakfast, lunch, dinner, showers and bedtime alone. hah. That's so ridiculous it's funny! God will help me out tomorrow :o)

I'm off to start my first afternoon program! I love you guys :o)

week as a visitor :o)

Regardless of what day I actually post this on, I'm writing on September 28th :o)

It’s Monday morning, the start of my fifth day at the center. I'm in love. With everything: the culture, the people, the customs, the missionaries and the children. It's all facsinating to me. Weird, definitely :o) but it's a good weird. Right now I'm sitting in the visitor's compound, laptop out, watching a little Swiss boy smack the tire swing with a stick... it's amazing the things little boys find fun. I spent the end of last week hanging out with the other visitors and going around to different ministries and communities Iris is connected to. Thursday night, my first night, we had a church service here on grounds for the children. Celia, on spoke about a trip **hah, well, I'm back at my computer two hours later :o) I stopped mid sentence to go over to Laura's dorm and play with her little boys, that was fun. Little boys are the same, cross country and world wide, it's lovely. All I could think about the first hour were Connor and Brayden.. I love them... I remember how they could talk me into pushing them on the swing for hours and I wouldn't even realize it. Not until the next day when my arms were sore and I had to figure out why.. well back to the present** Celia spoke at church about a visit she had to Northern Moz, and it was amazing because she preached to the children that they are rich and blessed. These children here at the center are so wonderfully blessed. They're safe, have regular meals, have friends their age and older and younger; they have a providing family here at Iris. It's so fascinating, beginning to understand just how blessed these children are.. it really puts into perspective how greedy the rest of the world is. I don't think greedy is the right word, but the rest of the world lives on a very different standard. We are even more blessed. Which means we have even more responsibility to the world. I'm okay with the responsibility.

I also visited the Borcaria, which is the dump (or kind of a landfill?) for the city... it's all the trash of the city.. but... there is a community living there. It's overwhelming. I can't even write much about it because I'm still trying to process and understand all that I saw. I have to go there many more times before I can expound on everything I felt. But it was wonderful because we had the opportunity to pray over a lot of people. A lot! There were about 250 children and parents in the little hut (exactly what you would imagine: a hut in Southern Africa) where we sang praise songs.

At the center I have played with the kids in the baby house and the kids at Laura's dorm. The baby house is hilarious. It's sooo cute and full of crazy/excited children! The house has about 40(?) kids ages one to five. You walk in and they run at you. Literally. It's a bit overwhelming because they all want to be held and some are quite insisting.. but you can't pull off holding more than two kids at once lol. It's crazy how they just want attention and couldn't care less what kind of attention it is.

Aside from my activites as a visitor here at the center, I've also been getting to know the other missionaries here. They. are. awesome! It's great here because the missionaries are always coming and going from trips to South Africa (for a new visa) and trips home on fur lough. I've gotten quite close with one girl already, who's from England. And I love her accent. I adore it, in fact, I love it so much I've noticed (it's really quite noticeable) that I've picked it up! I feel so silly but so many words fly out of my mouth and they're a weird morph between Southern and British! Haha, it's crazy. There is an awesome mix of cultures within the missionaries, some are from California and South Carolina, then there are English and Austrailians too. Also, this is my favorite, there are 7 Brazilians! Woot! I'm ready to learn Portuguese but I'm pretty sure I'm going to aim for Brazilian Portguese rather than Mozambiqucan... hehe.. it might be rude though, so we'll see how that works out! I'll be moving into the missionaries compound Oct 5th where my roommates will be Brazilian and English. Two of my favorite countries! :-)

I have two prayer requests tonight, one: that I learn the language quickly, and two: that I get more support and funding. I've had a lot of conversations about both with the missionaries here. Last night me and 3 other missionaries were hanging out and talking, we ended up praying over each other. The power of the Holy Spirit is grea :o) They each encouraged me greatly, in very different ways. We spent a lot of time in conversation and in prayer about living on faith and knowing God will provide. He wants me to depend on Him, He wants to be faithful to me. If you feel the Lord asking you to contribute to me, send me an email and I can let you know more specifically how you can help me out :o) As far as Portuguese goes, I've already tried to pick up a few words. I've found talking to five and six year old children is best because they tell you the words for everything but they don't laugh at your accent, it's a good age lol :o) Also, a missionary here has told me about a tutor who she uses. I'll be talking to the tutor tomorrow and hopefully starting tomorrow or Thursday. The price for the lessons is wonderfully cheap, it comes out to $24 a month for 8 hours (2 a week).

Well it's nearly dinner time so I'm off! I miss all of you so much :o) I think about each of you everyday! Truuuust me!

cell phones and street vendors

So today is the day I got a cell phone, yay!! Now I can call ... hmm... who can I call...my uncle.. my aunt.. and my cousin... haha. Hope to see that contact list blow up soon ;-) Well, I think it's a funny story on how I got my cell phone activated... Aunt Janetta gave me an extra cell phone she has, she won it in a raffle lol! So I am completely grateful and as it turns out, it's the very first phone I ever got when I was 17! Kinda funny, my first phone in the States and in Moz are the same... but five years apart ;-) After Jason came home from school he and I headed out to buy my cell phone minutes and a sim card. Here in Moz there are no "plans" or "providers/servers," nope, it's all prepaid/pay as you go. Well, Jason and I are walking through the city and then we stop at a street vendor and Jason starts buying something... So I ask him, "What are you trying to buy?" thinking he was trying to get some knock off brand item or whatever.. I was kind of confused because I couldn't figure out what Jason could possibly need from a sketchy "don't know how they got what they are selling" street vendor. As it turns out... this is where everyone buys their minutes and sims... yeaaahhh....!! The same guys that sell stolen movies, food that is likely to make you sick for days, and handicrafts are the ones selling you minutes for your precious, irreplaceable cell phone! Haha, I love it :o)

I spent 600mets on my phone today... it's something like 3 mets = 1min, or maybe its the other way around? and 1 text = 1met. The conversion here is about 27 to 1. So it's something like 27 texts= $1 USD. Haha, aka: cheap! Also, I get ten free texts per DAY that are pre-set "please call me" messages. Jason explained that these are annoying and only the super cheap use them ... I will be of the "super cheap." no room for shame in this budget! lol :o) I also get 45 texts for every 100mets you buy... so 270 texts, is that right? (me and math are NOT friends). I also get 10 numbers to call any time that don't count as minutes. You can change these ten numbers about once a month. And finally, receiving phone calls is always free. So you text people and tell them to call you lol. All this for about $22 USD... not bad, my friends, not bad :o)

hmm... thoughts on faith...

It was March 4th when I had the conversation with my mom that went something like "you're invited to Mozambique, if that's what you'd like to do after graduation." Panic set in soon after this, because many months before you could have easily caught me day dreaming of living with my Aunt and Uncle in Mozambique and working with little kids! ....only God can pull something like this together.... When that initial conversation happened with my mother my mind exploded. I kept thinking, "What?!?! This can actually work out? Why had I been so confirmed in believing it couldn't happen? I was so silly for dismissing the idea, but thank you Lord for bringing it back up!" Another dream I dismissed early in life was to live in Africa and never need shoes again. I can remember having this dream vividly when I was 12 years old. It's pretty crazy, I know. Anyways, my point is that God made this work out for me. When I said "I guess there's no way..." He said, "uhm, you just wait and see. ::chuckle::"

So I set my sights on Mozambique. And I have no idea how I'll get there or what I'll do once I'm there... and as my plans progress and dates are being set, I still have no idea!! I'm getting to the point where I'm telling everyone I'm leaving, which to me is the point of no return, but I still have no money or job. Haha! Well, once again, God steps in and sends me off to Houston. Where I not only spend quality time with my grandmother and make irreplaceable new friends, but I get enough money to fly me to Moz! And then I start getting checks from church, friends, family, and complete strangers and I somehow find myself with a bank account filled with enough money to last me a month in Moz!

What I'm trying to get at is that I am only on the cusps of understanding what faith really is... faith isn't (always) knowing why you're doing something. Sometimes it's not about the details, but I love details... God often sets a desire in your heart and then provides a way for that desire to work out in your life. Of course, it's not always this simple --but I think it more often than not, is. In this trip, for me right now, it is just that simple. God said "Go." a long time ago in my heart, and after battling a lot of fears and voices saying "You can't." I just decided to go for it. If it's a God-given desire then it will work out. This has been my mantra for many months. ***along with a lyric from a Miley Cyrus song: strength is something you choose*** Many months following were filled with "How?" and "Why?" It's not about why I'm here, that's not my motivation for leaving Richmond. It's about God showing me His way. This entire experience (thus far!) has been the most explicit example in my life of seeing and going God's way instead of my own. Faith is just going. In this capacity, faith is just saying "Ok, Lord, You're clearly opening the path for me in this direction... so I'm going to go. And I hope, one day, you'll show me all the reasons why you placed me here." I like this. It means I'm a character in a mystery.

test test? testing...1..2..3..

Am I actually blogging from Maputo? Wow. I made it! I'm actually standing on African soil and loving every view in front of me :o) It's beautiful here!

A picture pretty far from my house looking into downtown Maputo.














This is so cute! It's how they decorate cars for newly wed couples, on Saturdays & Sundays there are weddings all over the place!















mmm.. pretty fascinating...
This is the Indian Ocean at low tide. Some of these boats are wrecked but others are left there purposefully by the fisherman until the next day's fishing! There are hundreds!













I got here safely (and with all my luggage! untouched!) Friday morning. Jet lag really never hit me because the whole "traveling for two days straight" messed with my head and body so much! I got here Friday, went with my uncle for a walk to get ice cream (sorvete!) down the street, went to my cousin Jason's basketball game Friday night and then fell asleep around midnight. All in all, pretty normal --just in Mozambique! :o) I've spent the weekend attempting to get acclimated and learn my way around, but it's proving quite difficult because I can't pronounce the street names and I keep thinking I'm getting into the driver's seat but really it's the passenger side!! *they drive on the right side lol* I went to church with my family Sunday night and loved it, met some girls that are my age who I look forward to getting to know :o) And on Thursday morning I head out to IRIS! Thus far my internet has been wonderful and available, but I think that will all change when I'm at the orphanage. I can't wait to get there! Hopefully my next blog will be all about the kids I meet!! :o)