Lena's Shop

I went out to Matola this afternoon to check on Lena and the kids (Zacarius, Matilda, and Dudu). Lena's shop is doing okay. She has had a little over a week to determine what products are and are not selling. The type of rice we bought her is not the kind people like so they are only buying it if it's an emergency. Her top seller? Packets of chicken stock. In two weeks, I'm going to take her shopping with me and let her choose the products people will want as well as bargain a bit on the prices. Sadly, I always end up paying more for things because I am white. So it will benefit Lena more to do the shopping herself.

Please be praying for Lena and her business. . . that the Lord would really bless her and prosper her so that she can take care of her children.

My New Home!

Quite a few people have asked to see pictures of my new apartment. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with another girl named Sarah. Sarah and Sarah!!! She moved to Maputo in January and is working with Samaritan's Purse. Our apartment is in a great area of the city known as Museu. It's within walking distance of many places - including the church that I work at every day! I am really loving living in the city!!!



my living room. . . complete with cable tv that has a few channels in english. we even get espn so hopefully i'll be able to watch some good SEC football next fall!!!



our kitchen. sarah and i both like to cook so we'll have lots of fun times together in here!



my bed room. the walls are still bare and i'm still living out of a suitcase. i'm waiting on a dresser that is being built for me and then i'll get it all decorated.



our dining room. we've already had quite a few friends over for meals and look forward to having many many more!


and last but not least, this is our "closet". but it's huge!!! i have a spare bed that we are going to put in here and it will be where you can stay if you want to come visit!!!!

Old Friends, New House

This weekend, I was had quite a few visitors from the Iris Center. It was so much fun being able to open up my new home to the boys I worked with last year as well as the wonderful friends God blessed me with at Iris.







Laura, one of the missionaries at Iris, brought 5 of the boys that lived in my dorm last year to visit me. These were some of the boys that I was closest to last year and that I've missed terribly. We pulled out all of the toys and they played for a while then quickly got sucked into watching all of the fun tv stations i get at my new house! KFC is on the corner by my house so we walked there for dinner. Over dinner, Augustino, Inacio, and I reminised over how we had come to that same KFC a year ago when Augustino had been discharged from the hospital across the street after battling malaria. I remember him being so thin and weak for quite a while after that. We also laughed over the fact that Inacio wears the same white shirt every time he goes out somewhere nice in the city. . . and every time he ends up with tomato sauce all over it!!!

My new roommate, Sarah, and I cooked dinner together Saturday night and had Valdemar, Mito, and Joao over for dinner and a movie. Earlier in the week, some of the youth had joined me for dinner - Manuel, Joseph, Ernesto, Nelson, and Binario. I am so thankful for the friendships the Lord has given me with all of these guys. They are all such wonderful young men. I can't wait to see all that the Lord has in store for them in the future!!!

Another Saturday in Matola

This past Saturday, we headed out to Matola again to finish up construction on the shop for Lena. Lena and her family live very near the ocean so this time I left the boys to work while I went with the kids down to the water. They had so much fun swimming and throwing sea weed at each other! By the time we got back to the house, the boys had cut a window into the shop and all we needed was a small table for her to put the product on. So we jumped in my car and went to the local market where, apparently you can buy anything you need including a wooden bench to put products on! On Monday, I will go back out to Lena's to actually stock her shop and go help her determine how much to sale things for.



me and the boys from the shop window



group picture outside the shop



seaweed fight!!!!



me giving the kids a quick math lesson.

A - E - I - O - U

Each day at Masana, we have school for the boys. They are divided up into 2 groups based on how well they can already read and write. The more advanced group is made up of about 4 boys. That leaves about 10 boys who, for the most part, cannot read or write. Some of the boys know the alphabet and some do not. There is only one teacher working with this group and since the boys are at varying levels, it’s hard to really work with the ones who have never seen the alphabet before. So I am going to start working with one or two of them more one-on-one.

A couple of the missionaries at the Iris center have put together worksheets to use when teaching kids to read portuguese. I am going to start using some of them next week. Other than that, I am pretty clueless as to how to teach kids to read so if anyone has any advise, I’d love to hear it!!!

Please pray for the boys as we try to teach them to read and write and do basic math. These are such important skills that they need.

Building in Matola

Last year, someone built a small shop for Lena (Zacarius and Gaspar’s mom) outside of her house. But she never had enough money to purchase the initial product to sale. With the help of The Vine, I am going to help her get started!

This past Saturday, 3 of the Iris youth, Ernesto, Nelson, and Manuel, went to Matola with me and we started fixing up the shop. It is very basic – walls built out of kiniso (a straw like material) with a tin roof. Some of the kiniso was missing so we did some repairs and added a new wall with a doorway. The floor was dirt and during the rainy season turns to mud so we put down a cement floor.

It was a fun adventure! We bought the cement on the way to Lena’s house but everything else we bought from a market near their house (and by near I mean about a 20 minute walk). Nelson and I walked to the market with Zacarius, Gaspar, Matilda (their sisiter) and Neto (one of their friends). We bought 3 bundles of kinisio, nails, wire, and some bread for lunch. Neighbor’s near Lena’s house sold us the other materials we needed including small rocks, dirt, and another bundle of kinisio.

The boys worked so hard and got everything done in about 4 hours. Lena was right there with them mixing cement and putting up the kiniso. All of the kids pitched in as well and went to get buckets of water to mix with the cement. I helped out as well when the boys would let me!

Here are some pictures from the day. We still need to replace some more of the kiniso, cut a window to sale from, and build a shelf for her to put the products on. So more to come!

Vai Tomar Um Banho (Go Take a Bath)

The funniest part of the day at Masana is around 11:00 each day. We have just finished the reading, writing, and mathematics lessons and move into a time of games. Everyday, we play the same card game . . . cinco cartas (5 cards). The game is pretty normal for about 15 minutes. Then Luis, one of the other workers, tells the boys that the next person to lose has to go take a shower. And suddenly the pressure is on because no one wants to take a shower!!!

One by one we each go out of the game. As it gets down to the last 2 boys, Luis gets close so that he can grab the loser before he runs away. The game ends and all the boys begin screaming “vai tomar um banho! Vai tomar um banho!” Almost without fail, the boy who lost will try to run away. Luis and another boy will pick him up by his arms and legs and carry him back to the bathroom. It’s the funniest sight and I get to witness it 7 or 8 times each day!!! I’ll have to try and capture it on video one day to share with all of y'all!!!