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.

Macro...

I logged on tonight because I wanted to put up this picture of a snail. I am finally figuring out how to use the macro setting on my camera and I am, I must admit, rather excited about it. What's more exciting than taking pictures of things really close up?

However, when I logged on I saw that this was set to be my 100th post!

100! Surely this calls for something more than a picture of a snail.

But the snail was my plan. I get nervous about deviating from the plan. Don't you?

So please enjoy the stunning detail of this Mozambican snail.

Maybe 101 will be more noteworthy.

Second...

SAM Ministries has a number of grannies in their sponsorship program. These ladies, for one reason or another, are alone. More often then not, they are caring for children or orphaned grandchildren. The life expectancy here is around 48. To be elderly in Mozambique means that you are a survivor. I love our grannies. I really do.

One of our grannies has been having a hard time lately. Years ago leprosy left her quite disabled and she was abandoned by her family. Months ago a fall left her with what we think is a broken hip. She didn't want to go to the hospital, though. She preferred to stay at home in her little brick house built for her by the mission. After her fall she wasn't able to get around well at all so the mission built her a little latrine of sorts close to her home and her neighbour, another one of our grannies, has been helping her.

Several times over the years, from what I understand, her husband has come and reclaimed her, taking her back to where he lives with his other wives. I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps he thinks the aid she receives from the mission (because she is alone and other wise destitute) will be funnelled over to him if he takes her home. I don't know. She is rather neglected when she is at her husband’s house. Her friend told us that no one fed her the last time she was there. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, but either way, neglect occurs and eventually she comes back to her own home, back to her kind neighbour, back to our care.

In the last few weeks our visiting team of nursing students had been visiting this granny almost every day, helping her exercise her legs and keeping an eye on some of her other chronic health problems. About a week ago her husband showed up and announced that he was taking her back home again. This was hard news. We didn't know how she would be cared for there. She was living in a nice, brick home. At her husband's she would be back in a hut. She wouldn't have a special latrine close to her house. How would she get to the bathroom? Would she eat? Would she get enough to drink?

What was even harder was trying to understand that she wanted to go with her husband. In our eyes she had a good life right where she was- a nice house, good neighbours, food, medical care. However, she wanted to leave, so the nursing students transported her back to her husband’s home.

We were talking about this around the fire one night. Many voiced their worries and concerns and their confusion as to why she would want to return to her husband. Did she want to think that her husband loved her? Did she want to think that her family wanted her at their home out of a concern for her well being? What would make her choose what so obviously seemed to be second best?

As the discussion continued I sat watching the fire and began to think about how I do the same thing.

I thought about the Father. I know that he offers me bread and fish, not rocks and snakes. I know this and yet I choose to worry and sometimes even doubt that He will provide.

I know that the best choice I can make is to love, but instead I choose anger or envy or bitterness.

I know that truth will set me free, but I chose instead to think in a way that is comfortable.I make choices out of fear instead of a desire for freedom.

Too often I choose distant second bests.

What a waste my life will be if I fill it with second bests.

How exciting to think that the best is available to me, should I have the wisdom and courage to choose it.

And this...

...this sticker on the right?

...is what a visa for Mozambique looks like.