Monday- Went to the funeral of one of the women from the Maputo II branch that we had met at our line dancing activity. She died of an Asthma attack, and it was interesting to see how funerals are done here in Mozambique. Everyone there was very friendly and one of the men was nice enough to give us (the girls) a ride back to ADPP which is like a half hour out of his way, people are so nice here. Then for family home evening we were in charge of the treat and activity, so we made tin-foil desserts with fresh apples, pineapples, bananas, and coconut...they were amazing.
Tuesday-Went to teach in the morning and then in the afternoon went to go meet Mia Couto, a very famous writer within the lusophone literature community. He was so down to earth and had some great stories to tell us, he is an ecologist as a formal profession but is a writer on his free time...basically like superman, well kinda.
Wednesday-Taught during the morning again and then in the afternoon went out to go visit an orphanage where most of the kids parents had passed away due to AIDS. The kids were all so fun and taught us some dances and games that they like to play, which was awesome. Then we started taking pictures of them and they wanted to use the cameras, it was the funnest thing for them, so we have like 100 pictures of random things now, but it kept them entertained!
Thursday- Went and taught in the morning again, which went well although the kids have trouble really getting what I'm teaching and with 60 students and only 45 minutes that doesn't really add up to much progress, but they at least pay attention most of the time. In the afternoon we went and met a congress woman who works at ADPP and is from Portugal. She has a HUGE house down the street from ADPP is a poet and her late husband was a very famous painter here in Mozambique, and so she let us go hang out at her house and swim in her pool, which was almost surreal. I had gone by that house so many times wondering who it belonged to and now I know!
Friday-Dr. Williams asked me and two other students here to make a 1 and a half hour drive out to Shangalane, which is still in the Maputo Province to go teach for the afternoon at One World University, which is a 4 year institution giving bachelors degrees in Education. So I went and rode to this super rural but lovely brand new university in a 4x4 truck, taught college (weird, I know)for the afternoon, and rode back in the same truck this time out in the back of it. It was so fun because it looks so rural, just like you see on the movies, it was sunset, and absolutely beautiful.
Saturday-Got up ate breakfast and went down town for a day of shopping. We went to the artesanato fair, meaning it was a fair where people displayed the crafts they had made and got some sweet souveneirs for people. Then we walked up to the main street and went to Mimmo's to celebrate Kailey's birthday, she turned 18 today, yay! Then a man recognized us as the white people from ADPP and gave us a ride home in the back of his truck which saved us from having to catch a Chapa, the little VW busses that they cram 30 people into during rush hour, we are blessed!
Tomorrow-District Conference, which means we get to sleep in a bit! Yay, Okay and here are some more pics...
Me and Christina, a woman I met in the Province of Gaza, you take a 40 Km. dirt road out to her hut and she will be there. Doesn't speak portuguese but Shangana, the native dialect. She was so nice and kind, even though there was a language barrier there, I could tell she was a warm and loving person, som
Lana and I having lunch of Xima (a paste made from ground up corn) Hortela (pumpkin leaves mixed with peanut oil) Mandioc root, and chicken. It was really good, simple and good.
When we were leaving the community they gave us some Cashew fruit, which is what I am eating in the picture, and to tell you the truth, I hate the fruit as much as I hate the juice, big surprise there! But I smiled and ate it anyway....
When I say we ride around in the backs of trucks a lot, I'm not joking! It's actually a lot nicer for us because there are less people stepping on toes, pushing into you etc. I just try not to think about what would happen if we crashed!
A market, just wanted to picture what we see every day here while driving around.
Sunsets here are awesome, this was on the way back from Gaza, which was about 300 Km away from where we are living, it was an experince getting there!
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