Low Tide and High Times

         Yesterday I went to the beach with the boys from Masana. There were 50 of us in three cars, 16 people in the car I was passenger to in a nice Mozambican version of a four-runner. We listened to Jay-Z and the car was full of shoulder-shrug dancing and Portuguese accented singing, which is all that could be accomplished in the clown car that was our transportation. (Side note: There is a law in Mozambique that you cannot put any body parts out the window. Hands, fingers, butts, etc. However, there is no law against the amount of people in a car, but possibly a seat belt law?) Anyways, the beach was beautiful. It was one of those rare days where I wish I had brought a camera to capture the moment (sorry, mom). It looked a bit like this except with a bit more glass and water patches about:

                                          Thank you, Google images.


            The sandy beach stretched enough to give us plenty of room to play soccer, Frisbee and sand wars and enough space to outrun Saul and his miniature sand crab (He thought it was hilarious until I had one too). There was a lovely breeze and a minimal amount of sunburn on my part, the boys went even so far as saying, "Wow, beautiful." when I put my sunscreen on. Real charmers. 


            It was the nicest kind of Mozambican day and I don't think I will ever be able to get the sand out of my hair. 

Uno: 8472728 Me: 0

Waterfalls or, Cascadas de agua in Portuguese (Which, mind you, sounds much nicer. Cascades of water...) is what I was fortunate enough to enjoy in South Africa last weekend. The whole family piled in the car early on a Thursday morning. All seven us, plus luggage, plus snacks, books, kicked-off shoes, toys, tangled ipod strings, five seats, plus some laps, oh and Adventures in Odyssey, can't forget that. I wonder what ever shall happen to Connie? It was a nice time though, 4 days of a nice time in fact. We visited eateries, the botanical gardens, the neighborly South African mall, where there is a guard for each parking section, and of course those great waterfalls. Here is Allie and myself after waterfalling, which has now become a great verb to own personal advantage. 

                       Yes! Pictures, I know! You may actually make it to the end of the blog now. 


        Well it was such a nice trip, but I was quite glad to cross the border back to my home where I could get back to speaking my fluent Portuguese... or something like that. It was comforting though, to return to the populated streets, the hectic driving, baby's on backs, clown car chapa's, all things attached to the Mozambique that I am becoming quite attached to. 


                                                          Plus, I missed my friends

         Here is Armando and Francisco, two boys from Masana. This great caption in time was taken out my window as we were stuck in traffic. They are the best. 

       Speaking of Masana, lately we have been playing basketball (altered due to the fact the baskets are buckets on chairs and the ball is a soccer ball), dodgeball (forgot that whole no-aiming-for-the-head rule), and charades (flower and cat, best choice). I'm trying to stay creative, but please feel free to add to my idea fund. As long as it is not Uno, it will be well received. 

        This week a boy named Chico, (Short for Francisco. I was a bit disappointed when I found that it was only a nickname) from Masana, was reintegrated and now lives at home with his family. Hoorah! I miss him, but it is great to experience the process of the entire ministry (The staff of Masana will continue to do home visits with Chico and his family for at least a year) and knowing that Chico will always have a loving family at Masana who want the best for him. Plus, on our way to buy fruit today, we picked up a new friend along the way, both him and his toy disguised as a tire. 

        Ate a proxima vez!

Mean People Never Sleep

     Dear Blogolonians (A community of bloggers?),
I haven't posted for quite a while now, but since I've been here I seem to be losing track of time. All my days go by so quickly, full of new, non-routine type things that seem to drain me much more than my normal states life (States! That's what everyone calls America who doesn't live in America). I'm never drained in a negative way, just in the way that everyday is a combination of being around kids, trying to speak and understand Portuguese, and also it happens to be very much still summer here, so at the end of the day I am tired, but so excited for what the next will have in store.
   We have been going to Masana twice a week now, which is the house for street boys, and it is one of my absolute favorite places. Every Wednesday we plan games to play with them, and yesterday it happened to be chalk fencing (yes, they did have to put on hand on their hip as the most prestigious fencers do), and water balloon games, which turned into a hectic water fight that I was surprised didn't happen sooner. I have to tell you something about Masana though, which I don't think I can fully describe, but I will try my best. Every kind of game, sport, or organized event is 18373X crazier at Masana then I have ever experienced anywhere else in my life. There is always yelling, whether it's nice or not I wouldn't know, there is always a great joy and celebration in winning, the games don't ever go as planned, and I happen to hardly ever keep score (They'll never know!). Besides the games that we play, we always spend time just hanging out and getting to know the boys better. Because we continue to show up on a regular basis, the boys that were more shy and cautious at the beginning, are starting to open up and want us to be included in their activities. It brings me absolute joy to be around those boys.
      Another place we have been visiting regularly is Project Purpose. This one is the opposite of Masana in my mind in terms of the kids temperaments. They are all easily organized, quiet and  somehow make you want to take them all home with you, thinking that it would be easily manageable to have 20 kids around. Anyways, we have been doing bible lessons and projects with them these last few weeks and it's very exciting to know how much they look forward to the time we visit them. They all run up to greet us and to give us hugs, and although they know we will return soon when we leave, it breaks my heart a bit when we have to leave them and they don't want to let go from our hugs.
    Since I'm such a fan of bullet points, I'd like to insert some here to tell of all the going's on:

• It's been raining daily here lately. It's ok, the humidity still likes to be at 100%
• Yesterday I went for a run and was followed Pied Piper style by about 15 kids
• I've been learning a lot about Mozambique and it's unique culture and one of my favorite things about it is how relationship oriented everyone is. No one has picked a text message over conversation as of yet!
• I made a new friend named Tereza. She was the first person to ask for my phone number but I'm still not quite sure what that number is yet... :S
• I went to a Superbowl party. It started at 1:30 a.m. and we BBQ'd.
• When you buy produce or other trinkets off the street, you know if they like you when they give you a little extra for free. 
• The boys at Masana have a different idea of how to play checkers. It's more fun, but I think people at home would call it cheating.
• The other day I bought a coke zero. I asked the lady I bought it from how she was doing in Portuguese. She then continued to speak Portuguese far outside my realm of knowing. I told her in Portuguese, "I don't understand but I like Coke Zero." At least I still know what I like in foreign language. 
• The other day when it was raining, the roads were flooded and cars were getting stuck. Within two hours it had stopped raining and the roads were dry! I feel as if it is bit of a miracle every time it rains here. 
• I've been trying to teach the boys how to tango and say, "Wassup?". I don't know how well it's working out.
• The girls like to braid my hair but it tends to feel as if they hate me when they braid it by all the pulling and ripping out my hair gets subjected to. 
• People like to mosey here. Mosey to school, mosey to their friends, and especially mosey across busy intersections. 
• I just love Mozambique

         I know this bullet pointed list doesn't nearly give justice to the amount of fun and memorable times I am having over here, but each day I am loving more than the day before. I will be sad when my five months here is up. 

      Until next time! Oh and P.s. the title refers to a T-shirt I saw a Mozambican man wearing the other day. It's one of my favorites so far. 

Cereal Tastes So Good Here

    Good afternoon, or as my Portuguese speaking friends would say, Bom Tarde!
I think that's right at least. I've been trying to learn and speak Portuguese the past week to the best of my ability and usually I can say hello, how are you, and ask them what their favorite color is. Beyond that though I can either keep asking them to repeat themselves or my favorite fallback, laughter. It works out great unless they are asking me a question, in which case they laugh with me and then stare at me until they get a response. Oh well, fluent isn't my middle name so I suppose I should just try to learn as best I can.
   Anyways, we finally made it to Mozambique last Wednesday morning after a 12 hour overnight bus ride. I wasn't so bad, in fact I hardly remember it except for the border crossing and me sleeping with my head resting on the food try most of the trip. When we arrived, Dave and Amy, who we are living with, picked us up and took us back to our new home for the next five months. My oh my! I love it, partly because I can be outside in the sunshine more often then not and also because I am able to sleep top bunk in our bunk beds! Another great feature is the mosquito net I sleep under every night that feels very much like I am sleeping in a tent. I've been trying to work out the kinks and working out the blue prints to remodel my queen at home into a new top bunk.
    Besides settling into our new crib, we have also had the chance to meet tons of new people from missionaries to Mozambicans to anybody else that has happened to wander over or that I have met out and about during our daily excursions. We have already visited and become educated with many of the projects and organizations that are going on, such as CCM, Project Purpose, and even some farming projects that have become very successful. Yesterday we visited Project Purpose, (which will become a twice a week routine beginning this week) and it has become my favorite place so far. It is set outside the city in the Matola and houses about 20 children between the ages of three and fourteen. Most of them don't know who their fathers are, and their mothers are unable to care for them due to their unfortunate involvement in prostitution. There is only one building constructed so far that houses all the children, but it is a huge improvement from the huts that they were being cared for before. The long term goal of the project is to house at least 120 children, and to eventually be able to put them into foster homes are places where they can be more cared for on an individual level, such as with close family or friends of the children. The kids though! Oh! They were so loving and as soon as we just smiled at them they were all over us. I sat down by one of the girls and said my Portuguese bit, and then signaled that I liked her hair. As soon as I had done that, four little girls crowded around my hair, petting it and braiding it tight. Cornrows now! Just kidding, but I feel as if I probably lost quite a bit of hair. Needless to say, I had a great time with all of them and I am most looking forward to going back and having a real relationship with them.
       Goodness gracious, there has been so many things that have happened since my last entry that I can't think of it all. I have some great fun facts that I have learned since being here which I think can catch everyone up to speed.
1. Mozambicans are very superstitious such as it is bad luck to mop the floor at night, borrow salt from a neighbor at night, and if a black cat is seen up ahead in your path, you must turn around and walk backwards until the place where the cat was has passed.
2. Mozambicans have the best types of church services. Events and birthdays and any great news are all given their own song, with claps and sways attached!
3. They have the largest variety of candy, especially chocolate
4.  Portuguese is NOT Spanish (Francisco says, rolling his eyes after I mispronounce something for the tenth time)
5. Running around the property for 40 minutes is much more boring than any treadmill I have ever been on
6. Patterns and matching never matters. Either does what your shirt says in English (The last few days I saw one man wearing "I'm allergic to stupid people" and another one advertising a push-up bra)
7. There is such a thing here as the real price of something and the "banana" price.. it's ingenious really. 
8. Weddings here usually have three different ceremonies involved over the course of three different days, and it is very expensive. This is one of the main reasons so many people are not married.
    Alright, I know there are so many more things, but I must go! I have a pineapple head to plant and then harvest in three years! (It gives me a great excuse to come back)
        Ciao Ciao!

What a Great Date

   Why hello there, readers!
I am here in South Africa, and even better, I am finally posting in my blog! I have realized (a bit too late) that blogging is really not one of my gifts or special abilities. Anyways, I suppose I'll just catch everyone up with the goings on as of late.
    After staying up all night packing, I mean... rechecking my packing list! I left for the Sacramento airport on Tuesday morning at 3:30 a.m. There I met up with Jo and Allie and said our final goodbyes as we headed off to our first flight to Salt Lake City. Ok, bada bing bada boom 30 minute layover until our flight to Atlanta (Still no sleep!) and then from Atlanta we boarded our final flight to Jo-burg, South Africa. The flight was thankfully only 15 hours and we were at least all able to sit by each other for the long flight. No babies were crying, only one man was loudly snoring, and the movie selection was great (or so I heard). We arrived at the airport at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday and proceeded to go through customs and grab our overstuffed duffel bags and head to the train. Ok, I would just like to give you this great vision of three girls  (That's Jo, Allie and myself) each dragging two rolley duffel bags, a backpack, and a smaller "carry on" duffel. It was a great way to meet new friends and it gave us a workout fit for Jillian.
     Anyways, besides all that we made it to South Africa and Jo's friend, Sam picked us up in Hatfield and took us to her house in Pretoria. Sam has the best family made up of her husband, Luther and her three kids, Ben, Tristen, and Meghan. We have spent the last few days here hanging out with the family and visiting all of Jo's friends that live here (Jo lived in South Africa for 3.5 years playing soccer and doing Missionary work). So far Allie and I have drank some delicious cappuccino, played soccer with the South African soccer team, The Tucks, visited Jo's old church, 3ci, and been asked out on a date by Ben, the four year old of the family. Ben told us, "Maybe tomorrow I can take you two out on a date and open the door for you and such." I think this is going to be the best kind of trip.
    Can't wait until we leave for Mozambique next Tuesday! I'll be updating before then... yes!