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.
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.
