that’s what I like about you

1. you can jump out of the car during traffic and buy any of the following: fruit, pasta, rice, vegetables; movies, paintings, boutiques; skirts, t-shirts, tanktops, pants; and my personal favorite: molds for cinderblocks.
    *when the dog bites, when the bee stings*

2. seeing little feet print everywhere in the sand :o) little toe prints make my day better, every day.  i look down and think “awwww that is so cute!” and it never gets old!
    *when i’m feeling sad*

3. never having to carry things from one place to another on base because there is always a boy around to help, especially when buying refrescos & carrying my suitcase –both super heavy.
    *i simply remember my favorite things*

4. sending boys to the market so that i don’t have to walk in the nasty heat :o) and giving them something productive to do during the summertime

      *and then i don’t feel so bad!*

5. eating with my hands

6. refrescos: i LOVE drinking coke out of a glass bottle.  it’s old school and tastes amazingly better. coke light rules.  *there is no diet, they have “light” everything instead*
7. this is a love/hate relationship: my beautiful pink mosquito net, with pretty butterflies.  i feel like an african princess.  but sometimes i just want to fall into bed but i can’t, i have to crawl through my net.
8.  i live at the beach.  the Indian Ocean beach, no less!  it’s the coolest ocean on the map because its the furthest from home! *sweet*
9. the nearby islands and the bay: beautiful and easy/cheap to get to.
10.  all the delicious fresh french loaves and fruit i can find every morning.
11. I get to (re)-learn Portuguese! *this is actually something God’s been showing me slowly: it’s a very safe environment for me to learn one of my native languages, kids don’t really care if you mess up every single word ;-)
12. My family is right next to me :o)  It’s an amazing safety net, a great comfort and such a unique and amazing opportunity to get to know them better!  This time here is going to change our relationships for ever, how cool!
13.  I live at a children’s centre, my boys are here all the time.  Which is completely exhausting a lot of the time.  But it means I get to eat breakfast with them in the morning,  I get to see them during showertime –which is so adorable—and I get to band aid scrapes, oh and hug them good night! i love night time with kids :o). 
14.  Podcasts, this isn’t unique to Africa but it’s definitely unique to my experience: I can download loads of podcasts from home and stay connected :o)

border trip

Wow.. today was so … african!  I had to go to the border and get my visa stamped, something I have to do once a month (long story). The day started with rain.  I was really excited because it hasn’t rained in a long time, maybe a month, and usually it means I get to wear jeans because it’s not hot.  It was humid and rainy all at once though, so I wasn’t in jeans… I decided to wear my white shorts since most of the day would spent in the car.  In my head that meant a skirt would be uncomfortable and they’d probably stay stark white all day.  Well we left right at 9am, me and Gildo (the driver) and all seemed fine… that is, all seemed fine in the first 100 feet of driving.  When we left the center I quickly realized what a journey it would be to get to the border in the rain.  It was a torrential down pour.  The car’s A/C wasn’t working very well (but it’s the only car with A/C)and there was no heat to speak of, making the windows wet inside and out, so I couldn’t see what was in front of me.  I prayed Gildo could. Here’s a little history about Mozambique: freedom from Portugal: 1975, end of civil war: 1995; country-wide floods: 2000.  So every time it rains, it’s really flooding.  Thus, the toll was closed which meant we had to go the long way; the long way on top of the slow driving due to rain!  And, Gildo was taking our truck off the road and driving through huge puddles most Americans avoid, in order to get in front of the traffic!  Basically, he was doing exactly the opposite of what Americans are taught to do –scary!  Oh my gosh, it took 3 hours to get to the border, which is how long it should take round trip!

Well everything at the border went well, which is an amazing blessing, and kept my spirits high for a most of the rest of the day.  Right when we left the border Gildo slows down and says, what I understood as: I’m tired.  But no, oh no, he was saying “oh no, the tire.”  So we pull over and he jumps out to check out the tire.  In true Mozambican culture, we end up with five guys helping us.  So I just stayed in the car, even though I wanted to help (because I love cars) I thought staying dry was a better option :o)  I ended up just furthering the stereotype of white people being lazy and girls knowing nothing of cars…but again, I thought being dry was a much better choice.  So they put the spare tire on, and for whatever reason, the decision is made that this spare isn’t good and we need to fix our original tire before trying to make it home.  From later observation, I’m pretty certain there was next-to-no tread on this spare tire.  So we drive two minutes with the guys who helped us hitching a ride in the back of the truck and land at a little place that apparently fixes cars.  I’m in a small heaven here :o)  First of all, the guy who’s working there looks my age and he’s really cute.  But more importantly, I get to hang out at a car shop and watch this guy fix the tire in Africa!  It was awesome.  This, like the border stop, kept my spirits high.  I took the liberty to walk around and check everything out, it was really fun!  So after ten minutes and 100 mets ($3) we’re off again on our original tire. 


This is when it really got fun, about ten minutes –no, five minutes, into the drive this tire starts making a weird noise.  I point it out to Gildo and he says “It’s fine--”  But before he can finish his sentence the tire totally blows out and we’re on the side of the road for round two.  This time is different in so many ways though… first, we get no help.  Second, I realize Gildo doesn’t really know how to change the tire (probably never having owned a car).  He lifts the truck before loosening the blots, classic beginner mistake.  Well it’s (#3) starting to rain, again, and to add on to the rain the road and every where around the truck is covered with ants (#4).  To try and paint a picture for y’all: the ground is moving there are so many ants.  This is when my attitude to laugh about the day turns immediately into frustration and disgust.  I have ants and rain all over me!  Eww.  Difference #5.  So I try to show Gildo how to loosen the bolts (the only way me and my mom could ever do it was to stand on the wrench and bounce a little) and he gets them loose in no time.  *white shorts, not so white anymore*  Then he tells me to get in the car, which I do immediately because I’m really tired of constantly stomping my feet to keep the ants off (which doesn't work any way).  I literally couldn’t make contact with my feet to the ground with out having ants on me.  Moving on, I’m back in the truck again because I didn’t need Gildo to tell me twice.  He ends up finishing about ten minutes later and jumps into the car –dripping wet.  I felt so bad for him, he was wet pants and shirt all the same.

We’re on the road again, and this time it looks like we’ll make it home.  This is where it’s important to remember that little detail about the spare tire not having tread left.  I was literally praying the first 30 minutes into the drive home because I was so scared.  Gildo didn’t seem to get that you have to nice and gentle with spare tires, he was taking the turns at 180kph.  I don’t even want to know what that is mph. :o)  And this is the tire on my side, too!  We stop at the first gas station we see to get more fuel and I go in to buy chocolate.  Because at this point, I need comfort food, and it’s 2pm so I need food in general hah.  I bought two cokes, two sandwiches and a big chocolate bar.  It was great that this place had sandwiches, uncommon for gas stations :o)  I got home around 3pm, three hours later than I had expected.  All in all, I got what I need done and I was home safe: good day. Nothing went according to plan: African day.

Pool Time!

this was last week: 20-Jan

I took all the boys to the pool this week!  It was such a great week because of it too. :o)  I had the opportunity to take the boys this week because I had enough funding from home, so: THANK YOU!!!  Your support has been such a great blessing to the boys, each one of them had a great time!  I took the youngest room the first day, on Tuesday.  I counted out ten pairs of water wings and spent a lot of breath inflating them only to find out the boys didn’t want or need them at all!  These were the littlest boys, average age of 5, but they wanted nothing to do with them.  Only one boy wanted to wear them, and cute little Shelton still never left the stairs the whole time.  Haha, but he had a great time nonetheless!  I loved playing with Shelton, trying to persuade him to come off the stairs.  I felt like my mom because he just clung to me the whole time (even though he could touch the bottom).  He was hilarious :o)

Wednesday I took our oldest room, about 8 years old.  They were crazy!  Typical boys.  Jumping and flipping off the edge.  At one point, Salamao’s head was about two inches from slamming into the edge of the pool… oh so horrifying.  It’s so hard for me to play with boys sometimes because they are so rough!  I have so many memories of watching Scott rough house with Connor and Brayden and having to walk away and talk to Katie because it was just too scary!  But anyway, none of the boys were harmed :o)  In their typical boyish luck.

Room 1 was possibly the most fun because I worked it out so I could really spend the afternoon at the pool. This is the middle-age room with boys about 6 and 7 years old.  The other two rooms had only had about an hour at the pool, but these guys got a solid two hours and the visitor who helped me even bought cokes for them at the gas station on the walk home!  I also got really tan that day :o) Or.. to clarify, I got pretty burned but I woke up Saturday very tan and burn-free!

Sadly, I don’t have any pictures because I only just got my camera back from having forgotten it over Christmas at my family’s house.

bad decisions

I’m learning to hear God’s voice, learning to discern His desires from my own. Something always comes into my heart that isn’t from the Lord. Every minute I’m battling a new sinful desire. So many times this ‘something’ is much more desirable to me than what I think God can offer. But it’s short. It is so short. And leaves me so much more empty than before the indulgence. I’ve had so many moments this past week where I promptly acted having knowing exactly what God told me to do. I was so proud of myself at these moments, hoping they would turn into lifelong behaviors and attitudes. But this weekend I deliberately did what I told Him I didn’t want to do. *sounds like Romans 7…* I made a commitment to the Lord that I’ve upheld on other days. But I went to sleep last night saying, “no, I don’t want to do it tomorrow….” And I woke up this morning still fighting that commitment. I didn’t want to do it. ..and I’m stubborn. …and stupid. So I didn’t do it. And now I’ve spent the entire day thinking about everything I haven’t done. Ever. In my entire life. Yeah, Satan stepped in, took advantage of my brokenness. He took the opportunity to turn my bad decision and deserved disappointment into a day filled with self pity and an overall disgruntled attitude. I’m still fighting what he’s throwing at my heart right now. But I’m trying to think about what God has given me, the many blessings I can count in my bed room right at this moment. I can see ten things, within arms reach, that have been true blessings from the Lord. I am choosing Christ. I am focusing on how to make my “right now” and my tomorrow: better. What decisions and choices will I face tomorrow where I can say “Okay Lord, I will follow through with what I promised You.” I don’t want to mess up again. I don’t want my determinedness to become stubbornness. My word will be true. If I say “okay, I’ll do this” then I am going to do it. Because today sucked. And I don’t need it to repeat itself due to my bad decision.

dinner time

this isn’t super fancy or exciting, but i made a movie of the boys at dinner time :o)  it starts off with them just playing around and waving (which they love to do) then you see them serving each other their plates and spoons.  it ends with them saying the Lord’s prayer in portuguese :o) hope you like it!

New Years Eve!

We celebrated New Years last night with a party and fireworks!  I spent the whole of the day doing hospitality things, mainly organizing the visitors and helping set up all the activities for the festa (party).  It was a really long day, of course, but I loved it.  I was incredibly busy from 9am until 1230am but it was still great :o) The festa started at 7pm with a movie: Merry Madagascar (which, btw, is completely hilarious. a must own for every parent) and then we began the stations.  I had set up 8 different stations with crafts or games: making a prayer card, a crown, necklaces out of beads, etc and my favorite: chubby bunny.  This game is awesome, Ithe counselors used to do it at the YMCA camp.  You put a marshmallow in your mouth and say “Chubby bunny” and then slowly add one and repeat without ever eating the marshmallow.  It was completely hilarious, I think the boys about 12-15 were the best at it because they understood the competition in the game and they had no inhibitions about having chunks fly out of their mouths.  It’s a completely disgusting game but so hilarious!  Sadly, I left my camera at my family’s house so I didn’t get any good pictures or videos. The stations were run by visitors and missionaries and they were going really well, until we tried to switch stations.  My American head just assumed we’d have a loud speaker or something and someone would say “Switch!” and bam, it’d be done.  But no, of course not, what was I thinking?  I looked around for the loud speaker and it hit me: I live in Mozambique.  So the switching was hectic, to say the least :o) We only switched stations 3 times (instead of 8 haha!) but it still took almost 2 hours.  So in the end, it worked out just fine and the kids were happy :o)  Then we watched another movie, gave them a second (and fancy) dinner with soda and sausage sandwiches, and finally headed down to the soccer pitch for fireworks!  This was my favorite part of the whole evening.  Here in Africa they’re allowed to set off fireworks on their own wherever they’d like, but they’ve only got 30 minutes.  Very scary for any American-raised girl…this whole “anyone can set them off” business.  I’ve never been so close to fireworks in my life.  The hilarious part was that the fireworks scared some of the children, there’s a beautiful display in the sky and their crying from the sounds…typical, but still a little funny. When the fireworks were all going off around the community it was stunning.  It was so beautiful.  All across the horizon all you could see were sparkles and fireworks.  The trees and houses covered up some of them, and that’s when all you’d see were sparkles.. but they looked like fairies to me :-) At one point someone right next door to us set off a truly professional firework that kept bursting and bursting for like 2 minutes.  It was so cool.  Last night was my favorite day here, by far :o)

now go backwards

Date: December 28th, 2009

My uncle took me out driving Sunday morning.  Yep… wow… I don’t know where to begin except to say I didn’t realize just how intuitive I am until I had to try and fight to ignore every instinct in me.  Driving on the right side, staying to the left, thinking the left side is the slow side… all weird.  But by far the hardest part was remembering that I didn’t know the length of the car, which meant I had to pay close attention to everything outside to the left of the car.  My uncle got pretty scared a few times, I must admit, having been sitting on the left side with a clear view of just how close I was cutting it. He was a good sport :o)  But it’s hard to think, “You’re close to the right, so you probably won’t hit anything on your right.  It’s the left side that you can’t see Rebecca.. the left side! watch out you almost took the mirror out!”  Haha, no no, I don’t think I got that close.

Other things I had to remember, which I don’t have to think about at home: potholes.  massive ones, the kind that can take your car OUT. There aren’t very many 4-stops even though there are hundreds of intersections… yeah, that was fun.  Drivers here like to pass a LOT.  and that means you can be in your lane then all the sudden have a car 10 feet in front of you, coming your way in your lane. Yep, your lane.  that’s fun, too.

The best analogy I can think of to explain how weird it is to drive on the other side is trying to ride a bike backwards.  I felt like I moved to a completely different planet.  And here they ride all their bikes backwards, with little tiny mirrors to help you out.  It felt like someone said “welcome! we don’t ride our bikes the way you do.  You know how to ride, right? Okay, good.  Now go backwards.”