Oh Happy Days

First off, I’ve got to say a big happy birthday to both of my sisters. Lisa’s b-day is tomorrow (March 2) and Sara’s is in two weeks (March 14) but I doubt I’ll be able to post again before then. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Love you both-

Okay, I think I’m becoming very easily impressed. These photos may not look like much to you guys in the States, but to me it’s a blessing straight from above. That’s right; I’ve officially got running water in my house. Which means I can take a real shower (albeit without warm water) instead of just dumping buckets over my head. It’s the little things in life… of course, right now we’re having a water crisis and so I can’t use it anyway – but I know that it’s possible in the days to come. An answer to prayer :-)

And speaking of answers to prayer, the population of English speakers here in Cuamba has doubled since Christmas. When I first arrived it was just me, a family from England and a lady from England. In the past two months we have added a family and a single lady from Australia. Plus, I’ve met a family from South Africa who has apparently been here the whole time but somehow we failed to cross paths… It’s really nice to be able to just speak English sometimes – especially after getting back from a week-long trip into the bush where people barely speak Portuguese. And these families have some great kids who are fun to play and hike with.

And now for the grand introduction of my new bud. I took a trip to Malawi last week (I’ll get to that in a minute) and I brought a friend back with me. This is my pooch. She’s half German Shepherd and half Doberman and she’s currently about nine weeks old. My Portuguese name is Natán or Natániel, and so I’ve lovingly christened her Natália – Tali for short. She’ll be my sidekick, and so I figured we should share the same name ;-) I’ve always thought it would be fun to date someone named Natalie, but I’ve never found one in the right circumstances and so I figured that having a dog by that name would be the next best thing. She’s already my shadow and follows me all around the house, it’s hilarious. Right now we’re working on potty training, and then I’ll work on tricks. I’m sure she’ll be grateful if anyone is willing to send me some dog treats – I can’t get anything here. I’m going to make her a jogger, a hiker and a camper. I’ve always wanted a dog to go hiking with.

Okay, so that brings us up to date with big events in my life here (funny what constitutes ‘big’ these days) but maybe someone out there would like to know what I’ve been doing for the past month and a half, eh? Life is busy but always full of flavor. This first photo is from Angoche, a coastal town where I spent a few days at the beginning of February meeting with my team. I just like the photo and so I wanted to put it up here. The town used to be beautiful, but was ravaged during the war and never really rebuilt… The second photo is interesting given the surroundings – I don’t know if you can read the graffiti on the back wall (you may need to click to enlarge the photo), but it says “Escola da paz”, which means “school of peace”. Ironic to say the least…

I’ve also been taking a lot of trips out into the bush lately. I’ve been going from one area to another where we have some existing churches in order to see what their needs are. So far, the biggest requests they’ve made of me are for biblical teaching and to be taught how to read. It’s humbling that these are their most urgent requests in the midst of drought and starvation.

Speaking of which, I’ve been helping out in a few areas with food distribution lately. The rains stopped very early last year, and so everyone has been on minimal rations since January. Some of the other missionaries around here have gotten together food distribution projects and asked me to help out. The first photo is from a food drop here in Mozambique. Do you think you can spot the white guy? It’s tough, I know… That’s Phillip, one of the Australians. All the locals were waiting to see if they would be able to carry anything home. Before making a drop, the church and government leaders get together to determine the neediest people in a given area, so it’s not just randomly handing out food. The second photo is from Malawi, where they’re having the same problems. This final photo shows how they carry away their goods. Notice a couple things: first of all, it’s a woman carrying off the food – the women do the majority of the hard work around here while their husbands watch or “guard” them to make sure they aren’t harassed. Second, notice that she’s got a baby on her back. A woman who is of child-bearing age is very rarely without an infant here in Mozambique. So this little woman, who probably weighs all of 120 pounds, was carrying a kid on her back AND about 100 pounds on her head (45 kg). The people here never cease to amaze me…

Okay, and as I’ve mentioned a few times, I just returned from a trip over to Malawi (Mozambique’s neighbor to the west of where I live). There are three missionary families who live in the southern part of the country, and I was fortunate enough to spend a few days with them. I went down to see where they lived and get to know them, and while I was there I was able to help them out with their food distribution project and also get my little pup. Malawi is gorgeous. Green mountains, tons of tea plantations, and they actually have lakes. I didn’t swim in any lakes, but I hit a couple mountain pools that were FREEZING, but wonderful. In the first photo you can see just how green it is. Those are tea plants in the foreground – they have great tea. The second photo is me stopped on the side of the road. It was raining in the distance, and so you can see the rainbow right behind my head. If you look closely, you might be able to see the double rainbow. And for the record, it has been a full seven months since my last haircut :-)

Cheers y’all. Until next time-