My Bird

Today, 3 of my boys showed up at the door with a present for me....a little bird. They named is Sarina which means "little sarah". I have no idea how they caught this bird but they brought it in a little plastic box that holds computer disks. They even found some kind of plastic thing that works as a water and food bowl. When I asked them what I was suppose to feed it, Abrantis responded "whatever you are eating today."

Feeding Sarina some granola.

Abrantis "Malucu" with Sarina

Abrantis wanted to make sure Sarina had a friend so he found some "friends" in my toy box. Sarina was afraid of the cadbury bunny that clucked.

But I think Sarina likes the rubber duck!!!

Not really sure what I'm going to do with Sarina. For now she's on my veranda. I love the little ways these boys show they care!!!

UPDATE: Sadly, Sarina de Passarina did not make it through the night. But she is one present I will never forget. . . just as I'll never forget the boys who gave her to me. . . they have a place in my heart.

1 Death, 1 Prodigal, 1 Feast

Today we went up to the Gaza province to take visit Fazinda and Castigo, 2 former street boys who have now been living with their families since May and to take one street boy, Pedro, back to his family.

As we walked up towards Fazenda's house, his grandmother, who normally rushed to greet us and get us chairs, sat on the ground crying. Fazenda was not there as he had been sent to fetch other family members from a near-by town. In Shanghan, the local dialect, the grandmother began to tell Luis, my coworker, that her only living son was in the hut dying. He had returned to his parent's home 6 days ago because he was sick. They had taken him to the near-by hospital where he received some medicine and was sent home to die. Luis went inside the hut to check on the son. He reported back that his heart had stopped beating but there was still life in his eyes. We began praying for his healing. Moments after we finished praying, Fazenda's grandfather arrived and went to the hut to check on his son. The son was gone. He called over his wife who began weeping. Now 14 year old Fazenda is the only family they have left.

Seeing death like this reminds me of how harsh life in Africa is. We left the family to mourn with promises to return in 2 weeks.

Next we went to Pedro's house. Pedro is 12 years old and has been living on the streets of Maputo for 3 months. He originally came to the city to live with his grandfather. One day as he was out in the city, he damaged something in someone's garden. The security guard took him to the owner, 45 minutes outside of the city, to confess what he had done. The owner was gracious and decided not to punish Pedro or make him pay for the broken belongings. But they didn't offer him a ride back to the city. Pedro eventually found his way back to the big shopping center in the city. He asked a street boy if he could tell him how to get to a certain area of the city. The boy said he didn't know. So instead of returning to his grandfather, Pedro stayed with this boy who brought him to Masana. And tonight he is back with his family in a little village about 2 hours from Maputo.

Another prodigal son returned to his family after 3 months of living on the street, begging, and stealing.

We left Pedro with his grandmother and siblings and continued on our journey to Castigo's house. As we walked up, chairs were brought out for us to sit in. No one came over to sit with us but carried on with what they were doing. It didn't take us long to figure out they were preparing a meal for us....the honored guests. Family member after family member appeared as word spread that we had arrived. As the women cooked for us, I kept myself entertained by making silly faces at all of the little children who were so captivated by the white people visiting. The women prepared a delicious meal of rice and chicken. After eating, all of the women and children gathered around. The grandmother of the family, said "In our village, first we eat and then we greet you." She then spoke on behalf of her family in expressing how grateful they are for all that we have done to help Castigo return to his family. As we left, they lavished us with gifts - a large bucket full of tomatoes, 3 or 4 large heads of cabbage and a live chicken.

Now back in my Maputo apartment, the tears have flown as I've reflected on the day and allowed my heart to truly process it all. Time after time, our home visits remind me of the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. First there was death to self as the son chose to humble himself and return to his father asking for forgiveness. Then we read of the beautiful reunion between father and son as the prodigal returns. Their reunion is followed by a feast in honor of the son who was lost and now is found.

Today we too experienced all 3 - death, a prodigal returning home, and a feast.

Land Mines

A couple of days ago i was flipping through a book at Masana. Its a book used in the public schools here in Mozambique for grade 5 and teaches grammar and vocabulary. I was very impressed that all of the texts in the book did a great job of describing Mozambican culture - communities, farms, ceremonies, etc.

The following title caught my attention: Cuidado com as Minas! That translates to "careful with the mines." It was followed by a comic strip of a girl who is sent out to collect fire wood. As she's picking up wood, she comes across a land mine. Just as she is about to pick it up, a man rushes up to her and tell her not to touch it and then gives her a brief lesson on the dangers of touching things when you don't know what they are. She then goes around the community with this man informing the neighbors about the location of the land mine so that they know to avoid it.

Definitely not something you'd find in an American grammar book. The book was published in 2005 so it's not very long ago that land mines left over after the civil war were very much a concern.

Such a different world I live in.

Break In At Masana

A couple of nights ago, someone broke into the kitchen at Masana. They climbed over a wall with barb wire on it, climbed up the outside wall of the kitchen and in through an opening about a foot wide between the wall and the tin roof. Once inside, they stole a stack of 40 plastic plates, our electric tea kettle, and all of the chicken for the month of August that was in the freezer. Then they exited through the same space between the wall and tin roof . . . breaking part of the wall in the process.

It could have been a lot worse as this is our only storage area at the project so all of the school supplies are there, our guitar, footballs, and other kitchen supplies. We are now in the process of figuring out how we are going to block off that space between the wall and roof. Please pray for protection over the project. . .the Lord is really doing great things among us!!!

Our New Guitar

Thank you to Chick Music in Athens, GA for donating this guitar to Masana!!! The boys are enjoying learning how to play. We have to keep reminding them that there is only one guitar and that they will have to take turns. They are all so eager to learn a few chords. And our worship times each day are much more fun with the guitar. The workers at the project are enjoying it as much as the boys!

I bought a strap and a couple of pics at a music store here a couple of days ago. Who knew that pics would cost $2 each in Mozambique?!?! If anyone would like to send us some guitar supplies (tuner, pics, strings, etc) we would put them to good use. My address is:

Sarah Olds

Suite 337 Private Bag X11340
Nelspruit 1200
South Africa

This Is Mozambique (T.I.M.)

This week I have been reminded of just how different life is here in Mozambique.

today some workers cut all the branches on the tress outside of my apartment building. hopefully it will take care of our mosquito problem! it was quite entertaining to watch as the men shimmied up the trees barefoot and chopped the branches with a hatchet. no buckets to lift them up or ropes holding them in case they fell or other "normal" safety measures taken. they didn't even block off the road to pedestrians so i just watched them running as branches fell. i was planning on taking my car to work today so that i could get the dent (see next story) looked at but my garage was completely blocked by the tree branches. T.I.M.

yesterday, i parked my car outside of the church i work at in the city. the church is on the bottom few floors of a tall apartment building. as i was walking back from my portuguese lesson, the church guard called my over to look at my car. there was a large dent and white marks above the front wheel. he then began to pick up pieces of this "rock" that had fallen out of the window of an apartment above. the "rock" was actually sea coral and was knocked out of the window by a gust of wind. we eventually found the man who lived in the apartment with the falling coral. he takes no responsibility. . . says he rents the apartment and the sea coral belongs to the landlord so it's her fault. T.I.M.

after the falling coral incident, i went to matola, a city about 20 minutes outside of maputo. there was a bad accident on the road. I eventually just turned off my car and sat for 45 minutes doing portuguese homework. they finally opened up one lane of traffic. there was an 18 wheeler carrying bags of cement involved in the accident so they were cleaning up all of the spilled cement. it took me 2 hours to get somewhere that should have taken 20 minutes. when i headed back to the city a couple of hours later, they were still cleaning up the accident!! the rush hour traffic was backed up for miles every chapa (public bus) stop was packed with 50 to 150 people waiting to get a chapa home. the woman who works in our house said she didn't get home until 9:00 last night and she left our house before 4:00! T.I.M.

this is normal life in mozambique. and i do love it!!!

addition to TIM: i took one of the boys, naldo, to the doctor today. he got stabbed last week and had to get 8 stitches. we were supposed to get them removed today. at the local health center, they told us to come back tomorrow because they didn't have any of the supplies they needed to see patients today. T.I.M.

Police Search And A Knife Wound

The first boys to arrive at the project this morning were Abrantis, Ernesto, Naldo, and Mario. Right away, Abrantis and Naldo gave me some money to hold for them in my pocket. I am always leery of guarding their money because usually its earned by stealing lights from cars and selling them on the black market. But I took the money and was quickly distracted by Abrantis, who we jokingly refer to as "Malouco" which means crazy person. He gave me some folded up newspaper and told me to open it. As I did, whatever was inside of it started to move so i screamed and threw it at him as all the boys laughed at me. It was some contraption they had made with paperclips, a rubber band, and the tab off a can of coke.

Their joke was interrupted by an undercover police officer entering the project and asking to search all of the boys. He had followed them from the black market where he had watched them selling stolen lights. He asked that we gather all of the boys. Two of them quickly went to the wash basin where I heard the clanging of metal. I went and peeked inside the basin and saw that they had discarded the "keys" that they use to steal lights from cars which is actually a flat piece of metal.

The police officer searched 8 or 9 of the boys. He found 2 lights in Mario's pocket. Surprisingly, the police officer was not there to punish the boys though. He is working in the black market to try and arrest the adults who use the street boys to steal things for them. So Pastor Paulo, our director, Mario, and 2 other boys accompanied the police officer to the black market to point out the people they sold stolen lights to. It's so encouraging to see the police targeting the adults who benefit from the kids stealing. If we see the day when the black market no longer exists, then maybe the kids will no longer steal.

The rest of the day continued as normal.....we went to play soccer, had our church service, and ate lunch all together. A group of 10 or so of the boys walked me home so that they could get a soccer ball from my house. I gave them the ball and off they went to play at a court here in the city. An hour later, my doorbell rang. It was Naldo, Mario, and Jito. Naldo had a piece of scrap paper stuck just above his eye and it was soaked in blood. He had gotten into a fight with one of the other boys, Luis, while playing soccer and Luis cut him with one of the "keys" they use to steal lights.

Thankfully, I live right across the street from central hospital. So i grabbed a washcloth to replace the bloody scrap of paper and off we went to the emergency room. After accounting the story of what happened to the worker at the front desk, a police officer, the doctor, and 2 nurses, we left the hospital with 8 stitches. And it took less than 2 hours which is pretty fast for an ER in any country!!!

An eventful day to say the least. I love the boys I work with and I so desperately want to see transformation in their lives. We talk to them so much about stealing and fighting. They are such huge problems to tackle and I know that it is only God that can cause the change in their hearts. If they could only grasp His love for them and learn to love other people with this same love.