Merry Christmas!

A few Saturdays ago, we invited over the neighbor children and another little friend and enjoyed decorating Christmas cookies together! This was a first for our friends, but they enjoyed it!

I also told the Christmas story, using these little picture cards with the verses on them. Each family represented (3) was able to bring a set of cards home to play with and learn the Christmas story.

We want to wish you all a Merry Christmas! We are leaving today, Saturday, for Tanzania to visit Victor's sick father in the refugee camp. We would appreciate your prayers! We will not be home until the New Year. We'll catch up then! Praise God Victor drove into our yard Sunday evening, December 12, with our new vehicle. We are so glad to be all together again as a family!

All Creatures of our God

It was raining outside, as it had been all day. Suddenly shrieks were heard from the children's bedroom. The 'auntie' staying with us and I turned from were we were in the kitchen just in time to see a big slimy frog come leaping out of the children's bedroom. I'm sure he was as startled as the girls were terrified! It is still a mystery to me how he got in the house. I could not get a straight story from the girls as to where they first saw him. Anyways, maybe he was trying to escape the rain. The 'auntie' staying with us bravely caught him in a basin and deposited him outside.

You can see him below, next to the waste basket in the kitchen. I'm sorry the picture is not clearer. It was a quick grab the camera and snap before he lept away.

Do you see the next creature we chased around the children's room the same night?

He here is a bit closer up....zoomed in, visiting the section of our library that holds our "My Little Animal Board Book" How appropriate!

Can you still see him, by the same book? This is our Mozambican book holder. The girls were having a hard time lining up books neatly on a shelf. I had seen a type of cloth hanging bookhold in the Aldies food store in Wisconsin before we came. So using that same idea, we sewed loops in a capulana (the wrap skirt cloths so common here), put bamboo sticks through the loops and hung it from the ceiling beam. It works great! The small books are to go on top, the medium size books in the middle and big tall books in the bottom pocket. As you can see, the girls don't always get the sizes right (the Berenstein Bears book is a medium size and should go in the middle pocket) but they are much better about putting away their books now. And the book hanger takes up very little space in their small bedroom.

Anyways, back to the gecko. Thankfully, since our first week here we have called the little geckos around our house "Sammy, our pet." So the girls are pretty excited (and not scared) when they see one and we see them (there is more than one) almost daily. It is spring here and it has been fun to find tiny baby geckos around the house. But this particular gecko has been living on the girls' floor in their room for 3 days. I don't know if he fell off the wall and couldn't climb back up but he was definitely living on the floor. He would startled me as he would scramble out of my way as I looked for things in the girls' room. I tried putting some legos as a ramp from the floor to the wall to see if he would climb up it and resume living up by the roof as most of his kin do. But it didn't work. As you can see from this picture, he did manage to climb into our book hanger. Of course, then Victoria did not want to get a book out. Earlier in the day, an MK had been playing with the girls. She has been here a year and a half and is more advanced in her tolerance of creatures. She actually touched the gecko and chased him around the room for awhile. So the night of the frog, after our brave 'auntie' threw the frog out of the house, she worked on catching this little guy. It took some work as he scampered out of reach, but finally she cornered him and he too got put out of the house. So for today, their room was "creature free." Other creatures we have found have tended to be smaller in size, a cricket, a fly, little worms, etc. It seems as if the creatures are seeking refuge from the downpours outside.

Rainy Season

It is December 6 today and we awoke to a gray drizzle that soon became a steady pounding on our tin roof. It was a welcome sound. The rains are late this year. The heat has increased in intensity, the clouds have built up, the thunder has rumbled for about 2 weeks now but very little rain has fallen. So we are thankful for the rain.

When it is pouring like it was this morning, most people stop and stay where they are. Meetings are understood to be postponed until the downpour stops. Maria, our house help lady, got caught in the market in the rain. So she found shelter there and stayed until the rain stopped, arriving about half an hour late.

My dilemna now is how to manage the children's play. The girls happily went outside as soon as the rain stopped. What fun to climb the sand piles (for the construction work of our garage), to rub hands in the mud, and to run off some energy. But there is a cleanliness cost to this fun! When I get the camera back from Victor, I'll take a picture. Clothes, shoes, hands, feet black with mud and sand. (Even the panties, under the pants got brown!) So do we only play and live inside during the rainy season, trying to stay clean? Or do we go for all out fun outside? Even careful play outside would leave one dirty. So we are going to try this: when they are tired of outside, we clean up and stay inside the rest of the day. As for the clothes, there will be one or two sets of play clothes that will be just that: for playing in all sorts of weather and conditions and then hand washed and used again. Crocs (their footwear) are washable as are their little bodies!

The other challenge will be drying cloth diapers! Thankfully our old 3rd or 4th or 5th hand washing machine still works to spin them almost dry. We'll be thankful for every sun ray that breaks through the clouds these next 3 months or so.

Thank you, Lord, we still have water to clean up with. Our neighbors to the right had water until last week. Their water level in the well dropped so low that it is mostly muddy murky water now. So they come for water now too. We have been learning to conserve water too. But if these rains continue now, the wells should fill up again.

The Blue Gate

The entrance to our yard is a metal gate painted a bright blue. My husband has our camera in Maputo to take a picture of our vehicle when it comes off the ship. Pray that the car will be unloaded soon! The ship has been in the port for over a week but has not been unloaded yet.

So, for now, you will have to imagine our bright blue gate. It was a bit heavy for the hinges so it hangs a little crooked and therefore scrapes the cement column on the side as it opens. That's ok. That is how I know when someone is coming in the yard.

So who comes in our yard? Well, on Monday, the first person in was Titia Maria, as the girls call her, the lady who helps us in our home. She usually walks through the gate carrying something for lunch in a plastic bag. I give her money in the afternoon when she goes home and in the morning she shops at the market for the day's lunch! Can't get fresher than that! Our staples for lunch are greens, beans, frozen fish, or goat meat.

Next the gate scraped open for four ladies with buckets in hand. It is the end of the dry season and wells have dried up at the majority of homes behind our house. So people come asking for water. We've put a limit on the number of people who come or else our well will dry up as well! We are thankful that until now, we still have water!

Around 10am the milk boy swung open the blue gate. He has brought 3 quarts of fresh milk for us on the back of his bicycle, riding at least 5 miles. He comes twice a week. The rest of the time we use powdered milk. I'll have to get a picture of his milk carrier on the back of his bike when I get the camera.

About an hour later, an old friend passed through the blue gate to say hi.

Then I see another face I don't know at the gate. A young guy was passing by, gazing into our yard, and decided to stop at the blue gate to ask for work. He saw the piles of bricks and sand in our yard that we have collected to build a garage for our vehicle. Being brick masons, he was hoping to land the building job. Unfortunately for him, we already have other masons lined up to work. So he doesn't get past the blue gate.

The last one through the gate as darkness falls is a Brazilian coworker who is staying with the children and I at night while Victor is gone. I lock the gate, praying for angels to stand guard for the night. No more scraping of the blue gate until tomorrow.

Animals, tastes, and sounds from our home in Lichinga

The first week here every evening as we sat down for supper, a little gecko, who we fondly call Sammy, crawls over the edge of the wall and makes his appearance to the delight of the girls. The first night we had to quickly explain that he is our friend before the girls entertained other negative ideas! Since then, they eagerly watch for him every evening.

Dogs! We have three of them now! And our girls who have been cautious, at times terrified, of dogs fondly talk about their dogs to Grandma every time she calls. A precious picture was Clara squatting down next to skinny Spot, taking the dry kernels off a cob of corn and hand feeding Spot, trying to fatten her up!

Here is Mjumbe, who we got from the neighbors in 2008.

Clara is holding one of two Jack Russel dogs we inherited from some missionaries that were leaving.





Matakenyas! Are little worms that burrow into your skin, lay eggs, and live there until you dig them out. They are more frequently a problem in the dry season, which we are in now. Victoria was the first to get one, in her middle finger close to the fingernail. She was very brave as her father carefully removed it with a sterilized safety pin. Two days later, it was my turn to place my foot into Victor’s lap for him to work a matakenya out of the middle of the bottom of my foot. Hopefully the matakenya story will end here!

Tastes:

The girls have been full of questions like: “Does Africa have…..” They were happy when their father brought home corn on the cob. But the first bite produced exclamations of: “This corn is bad!” and “I don’t like it.” Hmm, African field corn can not compare with American sweet corn, as the abandoned ears of corn proved.

New fruit that we are enjoying include fresh papaya and masuko. Masuko is a wild fruit found here in northern Mozambique. I have heard it called a custard apple, with its thin green skin and soft sweet light yellowish inside.

Victoria is standing next to a papaya tree we planted in our yard in 2008.

A special treat from our Heavenly Father was finding 5 strawberry plants growing in our yard. I started our girls watering them every day and they were rewarded every day the first week with strawberries. They would make their way out to the plants every morning and excitedly bring me back the one or two red ones they found so that I could wash them. Then they would enjoy them. Hmm, when I was single I enjoyed the strawberries so much, but now being a mommy I don’t get too many strawberries! They get eaten by smaller mouths first!

Here you can see our avacado tree. Hopefully it will bear fruit in the next couple years! The girls are here with the neighbor children.

Sounds:

A couple weeks ago was an initiation celebration at the neighbor’s house right behind our house. The drums accompanied the singing/chanting until 5am. It seems like everyone in our house slept through it. I probably heard it the most as I was up several times with Joshua.

With both a Catholic and an Anglican church with in 2 blocks from our house, we can catch strains of the choirs practicing different times.

And with 3 dogs, there is a lot of barking and howling that we hear as well.
New sounds for the girls are the Portuguese words everyone around them is speaking! They are picking up greetings and words here and there. The first word they learned was “Sai!” which we say often to the dogs….”Leave” when they are in our way or try to enter the house. In the meantime, they play with the neighborhood children communicating one way or another. Victoria chatters away to them in English and somehow they get along.

More photos from our trip

Victor allowing Clara to plaster heart stickers all over his forehead...anything to keep her entertained!

The view of Lichinga as we prepare to land.

Pictures from our trip to Lichinga

In the Maputo airport, waiting for our flight to Lichinga, Sept 25.












The children, ready to go, 5:30 am in Maputo. The girls are proud of their backpacks!


























"I've been sitting still so long already!"

Travel to Mozambique

So how did your trip go, with the children, luggage, jetlag, and adjustment and all?

Well, children: They did exceptionally well. People even commented (who I’m sure had been watching with apprehension as we boarded the same plane) “Your children traveled very well.” I thought and I should have said aloud, “You don’t know how many people are praying for these children to travel well! God is answering prayer!” They were able to sleep large chunks of our long flight.

However, halfway through the 16 hour flight, Clara was ready to go back to Grandma's house and have a bath. Sorry, little girl! There is no turning back now!

Our luggage: Less than half our pieces arrived with us to Maputo and we hoped for the best but expected the worst: Either they were lost for good or would arrive later with things missing (stolen). Thankfully, the rest of our luggage arrived the next day with nothing gone. Only our carseat for Clara never arrived.

Jetlag: Thursday night, baby Joshua awoke at 10pm and the whole family was awake until 2am or 3am. We went through probably 4 or 5 cds of bedtime music and songs before everyone fell asleep.

So Friday, only Clara got a brief nap and the rest of us stayed awake until evening so that we could sleep. We had to be up early to catch the plane for Lichinga.

Adjusting: Has gone well. The hard part was when Joshua came down with a fever and vomitting for two days. Maybe a flu he caught on the way? Then Clara and Victoria got the bug. Cleaning up vomit off of pajamas, sheets and mosquito nets at 11pm -- I guess it is part of a mother's job description. Victor and I have also had turns with a tummy bug, but thankfully we are all in good health now.

Thank you for all your prayers!

Welcome to our blog!

We have set up this blog to share with you some of our life and work here in Mozambique. As the title says, "Bwana Asifiwe" "The Lord be Praised" for His faithfulness and goodness.