The new kid...

Notes...

I've never been very good at keeping a diary in the one sense. I have kept a journal on and off throughout my life, but it usually takes YEARS for me to fill one. The entries are very sporadic and have little to do with keeping any sort of record of events. I usually write about things that I am thinking about, or something I learned, or about something I hope will happen. In the midst of all the extended passages about what I'm thinking or feeling there will be a little statement that says something like, "Oh, by the way, I graduated from college last month" or, "Oh, by the way, I spent the summer in Peru." See what I mean? For historical purposes, it's rather useless.

I'm afraid that my blog has gone much the same way, which is unfortunate for those of you who read this hoping to hear about what is actually happening here at the farm.

Allow me to try and do better.

1. I only have a few weeks left here in Mozambique. I haven't mentioned this because I wanted to surprise a few people when I went back to Canada. As it turns out though, it is one thing to surprise people when you are popping home for a visit and quite another to try and surprise people when you are coming home. I can just picture myself bursting into my home church a few weeks from now and saying hello to the wonderful people who support me financially who perhaps might be a bit confused as to why I'm not in Africa. So, the cat is out of the bag!

2. The health manual is done and printed and the health course makes its debut into the curriculum of our seminary tomorrow. We also wrote a (much shorter) book (a booklet, really) about how and why churches can promote health in their community. This booklet is the health manual's travelling companion. Who knows where all they will go?

3. On Friday the shepherds started a brush fire to clear some ground for our sheep to graze. Unfortunately, said brush fire reignited itself several times throughout the course of the evening. Mr. Boss beat it out.

4. Speaking of the sheep, they seem to have developed a distaste for their pasture and have taken to grazing around our homes and the office. Several times I have come out of the office only to find that I am surrounded by sheep frantically nibbling on the lawn.

5. Also on Friday, a helicopter landed on the farm. It was friends of Francois and Alta, just stopping in for coffee. This happens every now and then, but it's still exciting.

If you really want to read about what happens around here please allow me to direct you to Lynn's blog (you may know her as "Mrs. Boss"). She does a great job of recording all the happenings around here and she takes a lot of lovely pictures.

Okay, there we go. The regularly scheduled random postings will recommence shortly.

I have good friends...

...I have evidence.

Currently in process...

...one pod of hippos.

(Heather, I changed it just for you. Did you know you can also call a group of hippos a herd, dale or bloat? Anyways, totally besides the point...)

Stitches...

Here is Eunice (and baby Melody), Alta and I. We are clearly discussing something of great import.

I mentioned how we have started teaching some of the older girls to sew. They are learning how to make little African animals out of local material.

Alta and Eunice wanted to learn so that they can help out after I am gone.

This morning I taught them how to make giraffes.

Here are the fruits of our labour. Aren't they cute? Mine is the one staring off into the heavens. The rebel. Alta thinks they all look like rebels, what with their shaggy haircuts and all.

I think the girls are going to do a great job and I can't wait to see how this all turns out!

Here is another member of the gang. Tendai is the happy recipient of all my initial creations. This little lion is waiting for Tendai to get back from South Africa!

Soon to join the group is a hippo and an elephant.

A warthog and a leopard are on the drawing board.

Don't you want one? Or all?

Skills...

Once students complete their education at our primary school (Preschool through Grade 5) they have the option of continuing their education in some of the other towns in our areas that have schools with more grades. SAM provides a little house and food and the students are visited every other week (or every week) by a staff member. At those visits there is a devotional and games and some chit chat to see how everyone is doing.

One of the groups of girls had mentioned that they missed having art classes at school so it was decided that we would try and provide that for them. I have been experimenting with making small, stuffed African animals out of local fabric and we thought that the girls might like to learn how to make them.

My first class with them was this morning. I asked Joao (a university student here to volunteer for the month) if he wouldn't mind coming along to translate. He agreed. All the mission vehicles were gone, so I asked if he wouldn't mind riding with me on The General. I told him that he could use the helmet. He agreed.

I got my supplies together and went to pick up Joao. He hopped on the back of the bike and off we went! Or so I thought. About half way down our drive way I looked in my mirrors and found that Joao was no where to be seen. (This explained why he wasn't responding to anything I said!) Feeling rather foolish I turned around and drove back to camp, trying to figure out where and how he might have fallen off. I found Joao in the campsite. Apparently he had jumped off when I first start the bike. We had a good laugh, he got back on the bike, and we drove to the next community down the road.

When we got to the students' house we gathered the girls together and started our class. I had printed patterns of a hippo and today we practiced threading the needle and making even stitches all away around the paper pattern. The girls were amazing! They did so well and I can't wait to start sewing with fabric next week. I never have a camera at the right time- they looked so sweet sitting together on their grass mat, concentrating intently on making straight, even stitches. Next week?

It was a good morning. This afternoon also looks promising, as one of the missionaries and I are going to meet with the principal of a school down the road. She is interested in using the health curriculum that we have been developing at her school. Exciting!

To summarize...

Well. Hello. I hear that you are tired of looking at the snail.

Things have been rather busy around here the last little while, what with teams of nursing students and manuals and health lessons and sick people. I shall try and recap using pictures I have scalped from numerous sources.

Like I said, we have had nursing students here. They truly bless our community here and we were so glad to host them!

They were involved in quite a few things, including:

Teaching at women's classes.

Helping with Well Baby clinics.

Teaching health lessons at the primary school.

Helping to construct new handwashing stations.

(The first graders line up to use the new hand washing stations after some fingerpainting.)

Because we are good hosts, we took them to one of Mozambique's national parks (actually, it was more like THEY took US to the park). I had never seen lions so close up!

Our nearest international airport is conveniently located on the coast. Please enjoy this tiny photo of the lovely Beira coast. Oh, I love the ocean.

It has also been rather sad around here the past little while. I know of at least five deaths in our community in the last month and a half, including one of the dear grannies in our sponsorship program. Mozambique can be tough.