Pics

Mom and Mary getting vitamins ready to distribute to
the students and their families



Mary in front of our house



Me with Patches and Timmy


Well, it's been sunny but cool here, going up into the 80's during the day, but dropping again to the 60's at night. Being only 5 kms from the ocean ensures that there is usually a breeze too.

Am enjoying wearing my flipflops again, but have been using long-sleeved shirts and even a sweater to stay warm at night! It doesn't help that our house has only tiled floors (great in summer, when we'd sleep on the floor to keep cool, but bad in winter!)

Well, we didn't make it to Central Church for the 11AM service as I had hoped... the pastor of the Laulane Church (the campus church) insisted that we stay after attending the 7:30AM Portuguese service to attend the Shangaan service as well. He even talked our family into singing a special song. (I couldn't refuse him as we had gotten along so well the year I volunteered out here... I tutored him in English.) It was a good service however and I thoroughly enjoyed the music. Our special song, "All for Jesus" (in Shangaan) went over very well!

I have been thoroughly enjoying Mum's cooking! Today it was a nice Sunday dinner... roast beef and gravy, Yorkshire pudding (her specialty!), mashed potatoes, etc. I was given dish duty and it was a delight!! The reason being that there is a bird bath just outside the kitchen window and standing at the sink doing dishes I was able to see all sorts of amazing birds coming to drink -- laughing doves, red-eyed doves, bulbuls, hooded kingfisher, pygmy kingfisher, weaverbirds, natal robin, etc., etc. I really must make a list of them and keep track while I'm here!! (I think some plates are extra clean because I was so engrossed in watching the birds that I scrubbed the same thing for a good 5 minutes at one point!) It's a real paradise out there in the backyard!

This afternoon Mary and I were given the job of serving at "pharmacists" ... Mom , who is the school nurse, has received/bought(?) several large containers of multi-vitamins and it's time to dole out vitamins to everyone. So we were filling little containers with 30 or 60 vitamins in each. That took up much of the afternoon and we kept busy with that while our mom and dad went to the hospital to check on Gabriel, (the little boy suffering from kidney failure in the hospital) and take him a couple toys (Mom ended up taking toys for all the children in that ward... there were about 10 I think :o) Then tonight we showed a DVD (concert of the Drakensberg Boys' Choir) to all the Bible college students in one of the classrooms using our Jesus Film equipment. That was so much fun! They loved seeing the boys' choir and the kids of all races singing together. There was South African gumboot dancing accompanying some of the songs and that was a big hit (they aren't familiar with it here in Mozambique). Afterwards all the little boys ran outside and imitated the dancing. :o) My little tag-along, Elizabeth, came and perched next to me on the rickety wooden bench. It was chilly so she leaned in close (I think she liked my fleece sweater). She is so cute, very serious...doesn't smile much, but very cute!! I caught her staring up at me with large, curious eyes a couple times tonight. I'd love to know what she's thinking.

After the film, we bid everyone goodnight and came on back home only to have the electricity go off ...typical Africa! We were going to watch "The Queen" (and we did, later on), but it was so nice and relaxing to just sit together as a family by candlelight, listening to nothing but crickets chirping. This really has been what I've needed these last few months! I feel more like myself now than I have in ages! Well, it's getting late... hopefully tomorrow I'll FINALLY get to see my best friend Joinha and her little boy, Noel. They were away this weekend so I've not had a chance to see them yet.

Mary and I are also going to visit our old school, Christian Academy in Mozambique (CAM). It's moved locations since I went there, but some of the teachers are the same so we are looking forward to seeing them. We also need to get the tent aired out and look over our camping supplies as we are heading out on Tuesday (I'm so excited!!)