(again...All right forgive me now…I am not going to go back through and check for spelling and grammar errors. I know I know it is a disgrace to my kind and my major BUT I am tired want to help with dinner…)
Well well long time no write. Hopefully the two consecutive entries will not scare you away.
I’m almost frantically writing about bonding and this past week BECAUSE I will not have Internet access for almost a week. EARLY tomorrow morning we are leaving for our survey trip! We are going to drive almost 13 hours to another village to survey the area for ministry needs. We are going to research what it would take to live as a missionary in the area and we are going to meet with and encourage some church members along the way. So yeah we will be gone for 6 days. Get excited!
Sooo this past week was great. Mark Berryman was here; it was fun to see him out of the classroom and “in his element.”
MONDAY
We went swimming at the Cotton Club..that was hilarious. It was so cold that the little girls lips turned a light shade of blue.
After swimming it was the girl interns’ turn to make dinner…we were proactive and went to the market early before we went swimming. We got all of our ingredients with the help of our language teacher. It was very fun walking through the market with all of the people and random stuff for sale. It was cramped but awesome.
On the menu: stir fry WITH goat meat, egg noodles, onions, green peppers, and tomatoes. Green salad, with homemade Asian dressing, home made croutons, peanuts, and tomatoes; and for dessert lemon bars!
I say that we did excellently; EVERYONE went back for seconds!
The funniest part of evening however was that the boys came dressed to impress: hair slicked back, pants pulled high and socks showing. Hilarious.
We of course played some games: celebrity and king frog. Boys won celebrity boo. Ted won king frog.
TUESDAY
Village visit: Kaitlyn, Mark, Ted, and I went with Allen. We actually went back to the very first village I visited to pick up some church members THEN onto the village about and hour further away.
We got there and walked around the town with the church members; they showed us some lorania (mud) stoves they have been making. These stoves are excellent because there is no open flame (which decreases the amount of burns) and there is less smoke.
We had a Bible study in the church, which was great. Allen talked about the selection of church leaders.
They fed us lunch: ixma (sheema) and matapa beans. It was excellent. Bible studying went a little long so we ended up staying until around 2.30…we would have normally left around noon. There were good conversations and hilarious occurrences including a church member reading out loud from the book Mark was reading—which was impressive because this guy did not know very much English.
On the way back we had to take tons of church members home…so all 6 of the white people had to pile in the front cab…it was more than cozy ;) A couple hours ride back…including a “guess the song” game we were home.
Because we had some time to spare (since we missed our language lesson) we played “Ticket to Ride”. (Promise we do more than sit around and play games) it was a fun game. Got pretty intense.
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WEDNESDAY
A sad day. We switched houses. Girls moved to the Westerholms and boys to the Howells. BUT we did not move before our market hunt. All of the interns were basically on our own the whole day: we went to the market with the goal to buy crazy outfits with the theme of the world cup! The goal obviously to experience buying stuff in the market; then we all walked to the cotton club for lunch.
It was fun to just be the interns. We laughed, talked, caught bees (guess which gender did that), and ate some good ole chicken and fries.
THAT night we packed up our stuff and brought it over to the Westerholms, where we had team night. So we all had dinner together and played games. We also had a great time of worship and prayer with the families and each other.
First night at the Westerholms was great. Amy is wonderful she made cute little signs that said welcome with our names on them. The boys were a little offended because apparently Amy did not make them welcome cards… ;) who knew boys were so into crafts.
THURSDAY
We woke up at our new home! The day was dedicated to cooking/baking. We all made bread with Amy early in the morning.
We broke up into teams and used different recipes with different ratios of white flour to the local kasva flour…Amy wanted to experiment with different ratios with the final goal of making a bread from an inexpensive readily available ingredient.
Mark and I were partners and we made the bread that was 50 percent white 50 percent kasva. This was the bread with the highest ratios.
It was hilarious having all 8 of us plus Amy in her little kitchen trying to all makes bread dough. So great.
The bread rose. We waited. Hung out, read, Jon and Zack sang. Then after it rose we rolled it out and put it in the pans! Amy put it in the oven for us because around 10.30 Rachel came and picked us up to go and make bageas (I have no idea it that is how you spell it). Bageas are like a bean hush puppy french fried thing. They are excellent. We helped grind the beans then we helped fry them up over the fire!
Rachel brought her little girl Katie who is 5-months-old, and I held her almost the whole time we were there. She is so cute and so sweet and I loved playing with her.
We made so many bageas; we were all a little sick by the time we left.
We went back to Amy’s and she had the bread cut up and numbered ready to be taste tested! So fun. We all voted on the bread based on taste—and the winner you ask? YES THAT IS RIGHT THE BREAD MARK AND I MADE WON! Which was even funnier because Mark hated our bread during taste testing.
After we taste tested it was time for ladies class and I was teaching! We drove to ladies class (and we were all, including Rachel exhausted, fighting sleep) we sang and I “taught” on the oaths section of the Sermon on the Mount. Rachel translated and I think I did pretty well; the ladies seemed to enjoy it.
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Onward to the Westerholms; we were all so tired, BUT we stayed up to play a new game (one that the boys are obsessed with) called Guillotine. Yes it is based on the French Revolution.
Then bed. (sorry some of these details are hurried or vague I’m tired and trying to tell you all about this week before we leave)
FRIDAY
Today is Mozambique’s Independence Day. Whoo hoo. And also a village visit day! Chad did not go out like normal because he had to take Mark Berryman to the airport SO 4 of us went with Allen to the village.
Ted, Jon, Mark, Kaitlyn, and I went with Allen to the village where we mudded a church. This was the village where I made a little friend, Fatima! When we pulled up she ran up to me and hugged me! (SO SO SO AWESOME!) We had bible on fasting. It was great except the whole time Kaitlyn and I were avoid little hands that wanted to pull our hair. Don’t worry though they pulled the hairs that had fallen off of our heads that were on our shirts and played with them………..our hair is so different I guess it is really that interesting…
So Bible study was great and fun; we walked around the village with the kids Fatima and another little girl (Kaitlin Petty’s friend) held my hands. In African culture it is acceptable for men to hold hands…so naturally the boys had little boys grad their hands too! It’s so cute seeing these huge white boys holding hands with ity bity African children.
We passed Fatima’s home and her mother stopped me and told me to wait; she gave me a bowl of peanuts! So kind of her.
Got to the car, piled in and headed back. Again it was a snug fit because we had people in the back, but none the less fun. We had an ipod this time so we rocked out to a wide variety of musical artists.
Got home and we are now helping Amy bake some snacks and goodies for the trip! Apparently our meals might or might not be regular…ha ha we are kind of going on faith and generosity SO the snacks are important.
WHEW
We got it done guys we did it!
Please be praying for our trip; we leave tomorrow morning around 5 and are going to be driving all day. We will be driving back on Thursday of next week. Thank you for your continued love and prayers.
I’m having a blast, learning a lot and growing closer to the Lord, He is so good.
Lots of love.
Caroline
Friday, June 25, 2010
BONDING!
(disclaimer i have not checked for spelling or grammar errors. i felt that as an english major it is my duty to warn you)
Hello lovely friends and family
In this installment I will be reporting to you on my BONDING experience and also the happenings of this past week!
So…
Last Friday morning, after our language class, we prepared to be dropped off at various locations, with various church families for a weekend affectionately called: Bonding. Bonding is a 3 to 4 day experience where you as a white American individual spend time working with and getting to know an African family.
4 interns in Chad’s car. 4 interns in Allen’s car. I was in Allen’s car and I was the first to be dropped off. I stayed “in town” about a 5 minute drive from the missionaries homes. I stayed with Delphenia and Belarmindo, a precious mom and pop coupled who are members of the church in town.
I arrived at the house. Allen, KP, Ted, Zack, and I all got out of the car so Belarmindo could introduce me to the “chief” of the village. What you are picturing when I say chief is probably inaccurate (ha ha). He did not have on traditional African garb or even live in an extra cool house; he was just a dude, in a very colorful shirt, who lived down the street a bit. He has no real authority but for traditions sake the government has allowed for these chief to remain.
After our short introduction we went back to my “home” and with a few final goodbyes I began my bonding.
Delphenia put me right to work. She got a piece of fabric to cover my hair and I helped “hit” rice from the stalks. (I know I’m going to sound ignorant but who knew rice grew on stalks…not me). They giggled at me a bit, as I was hitting these rice clusters with a wooden stick, but I would say I did pretty well.
After hitting the rice we tossed it in these baskets to get all of the lighter, unwanted pieces out. I was horrible at this…I tried a few times but I just ended up causing all of the good rice to go flying.
Soon after it was time for lunch: ixma (sheema) and matapa. Sheema is this corn meal mush stuff that is like really really thick mash potatoes; and matapa is a mixture of greens and other vegetables. After lunch Delphenia told me to take a nap…I’ been there for 2 hours and she told me to take a nap. Oh my. I slept in my own little “house.” It was a small mud and grass hut next to Delphenia and Belarmindo’s. It was nice to have a little space to my self to unwind and process what was going on.
After my nap Delphenia and I sang together and read the Bible together. So precious. She had me read to her in Makua and she read to me in Portuguese. After our worship time we moved back to the rice…this time we were pounding it…yes in one of those basin looking things that you use a huge stick with! Yeah that thing. I tried it…it is hard. Delphenia is in her late 50s and she was throwing the stick up in the air and clapping! She’s basically a hoss. She called in a few of the neighborhood kids to help…and once they say that a white girl was there they must have spread the word because about 15 kids showed up.
I watched Delphenia and the kids hitting/crushing/whatever the rice for a while THEN Delphenia told me to go play with the kids….she was totally like my mom the whole weekend ☺
So went out front and there were dozens of kids! I was so excited! They taught me some fun game, but let me win…courtesy to the guest I guess. BUT it was a tad frustrating; especially when we were playing this one game that is a cross between monkey in the middle and dodge ball. There are three players and the one in the middle is trying to fill up an old coke bottle with sand (the dirt here is like sand) while the other two throw a ball back and forth and try to hit the bottle person.
I filled the bottle 3 times in a row…the kids would not hit me! ha ha ha I also sat down and taught them how to play tic.tac.toe.
Soon I was fetched by my African momma to get washed up for dinner; in the latrine set up there is the latrine for the bathroom then next to is an area for washing. There is a huge bucket filled with water and a rock to stand on while you’re washing. I think she wanted me to take a full-fledged bath because after I came out and the only thing wet was my hands and face she almost told me to go back and wash more…but thankfully that did not happen.
We ate dinner. It got dark fast (around 5.30) then I was in bed by 6.30. ☺ good day.
SATURDAY
Woke up early around 5…had breakfast with mom and pop around 6---egg sandwiches (I know right!) and hot water with sugar (their version of tea).
After breakfast Delphenia and I headed to their farm, which was only about a 10-minute walk outside of town. We cut mela off of stalks, which were already on the ground—it was hard work! I got several blisters on my hands, a lot of ants bites on my feet, and a pretty decent sun burn BUT it was a good feeling when the job was done. We were at the farm for about 2 hours…we finished around 10 am!
We headed back to the house and Delphenia had me carry some supplies wrapped up in a piece of cloth on my head. Yes my head. She tried to get me not to use my hands and just balance it…that did not happen. (ha ha) as we were walking back some of the villages members saw me and just started laughing. Not an uplifting experience, but people generally laugh whenever one of us does anything so it was somewhat expected.
Got back to the house put down our loads then off to get water! She also made me carry water on my head…oh my gosh it was so heavy; I got water all over myself. Good thing the water pumped was only 2 minutes from the house or I would have died or spilt all of the water!
Got back. Sat down. And the kids came.
We play tic.tac.toe or as they started to call it ticky.tacky.toe. They also taught me some of their games they played in the sand. One was a mixed between tic.tack.toe and chess; the other was like a guessing board game.
Around 11.30 it was time to start lunch so Delphenia brought me into her “cooking hut” to help her; she let me cut veggies and eventually I got to stir the imxa (sheema). Now understand this stuff is thick! After it cools it has the consistency of play dough but not that gross…ha ha. The crazy thing about being in the kitchen with Delphenia (besides the smoke) was she picked up coals, hot pans, and hot lids WITH HER BARE HANDS!!!! It was not for terribly long but she picked them up all the same…African ladies hands are apparently fireproof.
After lunch it was naptime! Ha ha So I went into my little hut and lied down. I was going to journal but I was so tired that I fell asleep almost immediately.
Woke up around 2.30 and had some more worship time with Delphenia. If you are wondering where her husband Belarmindo was this whole time I will tell you that he WAS there…he was just under the weather so he stayed in bed or sat outside most of the time).
After worship time, more playing with the kids; but in the middle of playing Delphenia kind of stopped them and said; “ok now stop playing and teach her some Makua.” So we stopped playing in the dirt and had school. ☺ One little boy kind of took responsibility as my teacher—he was about 10-years-old so cute and so helpful. The kids would point to things and tell me what the Makua word was…my teacher even brought me a piece of paper to write some words down.
After the lesson we went across the way to play and yes take pictures! Oh my gosh you bring that camera out and those kids go crazy! (P.S. the kids had not even seen my camera…but for some reason they knew I had one and kept doing a picture taking motion until I got it out of my bag!)
I was called in from playing for dinner. I helped get stuff ready. It was very very dark before we ate so I got out my flashlight and Delphenia apparently had one so she got hers out as well.
We had rice and chicken. Which is very special—since they have to kill one of their own chickens (which are not pumped full of hormones so they do not have as much meat on them as chickens in the states). We ate and a visitor came, a young woman with her little baby. They stayed and talked with Delphenia for a while; the young woman tried to talk with me but I was so mentally drained that I just smiled. They laughed of course, but language learning is so hard; and I hadn’t spoken any English out loud in almost 48 hours. (crazy)
Went to bed. Woke up early. God ready for church. Ate breakfast—Delphenia was running around like crazy getting stuff ready quickly so we could leave for church.
It was about a 10-minute walk from her home to the church. We got there shook hands with everyone (as is custom); then we went to visit one of the church ladies who comes to the weekly Bible class the girl interns have been attending. She was not feeling well so we went to help her get ready for church.
Service was great. A young guy who spoke a little bit of English asked for my pen…here’s the story: Delphenia would not let me wait outside for church to start because she did not want me to burn….yes she was my mother, so I went inside and journalled a little bit. One of the visiting church members came up to me and started talking to me in English. He saw my pen and remarked, “That is nice pen. I do not have one.” And I was like “Oh yeah it is nice…would you like it?” and without hesitation he replied, “Ok.” (ha ha no shame ladies and gentlemen no shame)
Church was about 3 hours long—several of the members got up front sang and did a sort of dance/sway thing. It was great to see their energy and passion for the Lord. Also one of the church members who speaks a little bit of English stood in front and translated for me (very broken English but I got the gist of what he was saying)
Church got over around 11.30 and I headed back to the house with Delphenia. Allen was “scheduled” (a loose term in Africa) to pick me up around noon.
We got back to the house and the kids came. They sat down and started to review and teach me more Makua. Allen showed up close to 1…and it was so so so good to see him! His two precious daughters, Abby and Ellie, came with him and getting big hugs from them was the best feeling in the world!
We got my stuff and said our goodbyes. And yes: my host mother kissed me on the lips. I tried to avoid it. But she pulled me back in for a big wet one….
It’s strange writing down what I did on bonding because it does not seem like I did that much…it is an experience that I cannot fully tell you about because you were not there. It was stretching, it was strange, it was enlightening, it was freeing, it was good, it was hard—but the over all feeling I have about it…I’m so glad I did it, but it will be sometime before I will want to do it again.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for participating with me in this adventure. It means so much to me that you are interested in what I’m doing and I feel very loved knowing you’re in some way here with me because you’re reading this.
Look forward to a next installment that I’m going to write right after this one…
Hello lovely friends and family
In this installment I will be reporting to you on my BONDING experience and also the happenings of this past week!
So…
Last Friday morning, after our language class, we prepared to be dropped off at various locations, with various church families for a weekend affectionately called: Bonding. Bonding is a 3 to 4 day experience where you as a white American individual spend time working with and getting to know an African family.
4 interns in Chad’s car. 4 interns in Allen’s car. I was in Allen’s car and I was the first to be dropped off. I stayed “in town” about a 5 minute drive from the missionaries homes. I stayed with Delphenia and Belarmindo, a precious mom and pop coupled who are members of the church in town.
I arrived at the house. Allen, KP, Ted, Zack, and I all got out of the car so Belarmindo could introduce me to the “chief” of the village. What you are picturing when I say chief is probably inaccurate (ha ha). He did not have on traditional African garb or even live in an extra cool house; he was just a dude, in a very colorful shirt, who lived down the street a bit. He has no real authority but for traditions sake the government has allowed for these chief to remain.
After our short introduction we went back to my “home” and with a few final goodbyes I began my bonding.
Delphenia put me right to work. She got a piece of fabric to cover my hair and I helped “hit” rice from the stalks. (I know I’m going to sound ignorant but who knew rice grew on stalks…not me). They giggled at me a bit, as I was hitting these rice clusters with a wooden stick, but I would say I did pretty well.
After hitting the rice we tossed it in these baskets to get all of the lighter, unwanted pieces out. I was horrible at this…I tried a few times but I just ended up causing all of the good rice to go flying.
Soon after it was time for lunch: ixma (sheema) and matapa. Sheema is this corn meal mush stuff that is like really really thick mash potatoes; and matapa is a mixture of greens and other vegetables. After lunch Delphenia told me to take a nap…I’ been there for 2 hours and she told me to take a nap. Oh my. I slept in my own little “house.” It was a small mud and grass hut next to Delphenia and Belarmindo’s. It was nice to have a little space to my self to unwind and process what was going on.
After my nap Delphenia and I sang together and read the Bible together. So precious. She had me read to her in Makua and she read to me in Portuguese. After our worship time we moved back to the rice…this time we were pounding it…yes in one of those basin looking things that you use a huge stick with! Yeah that thing. I tried it…it is hard. Delphenia is in her late 50s and she was throwing the stick up in the air and clapping! She’s basically a hoss. She called in a few of the neighborhood kids to help…and once they say that a white girl was there they must have spread the word because about 15 kids showed up.
I watched Delphenia and the kids hitting/crushing/whatever the rice for a while THEN Delphenia told me to go play with the kids….she was totally like my mom the whole weekend ☺
So went out front and there were dozens of kids! I was so excited! They taught me some fun game, but let me win…courtesy to the guest I guess. BUT it was a tad frustrating; especially when we were playing this one game that is a cross between monkey in the middle and dodge ball. There are three players and the one in the middle is trying to fill up an old coke bottle with sand (the dirt here is like sand) while the other two throw a ball back and forth and try to hit the bottle person.
I filled the bottle 3 times in a row…the kids would not hit me! ha ha ha I also sat down and taught them how to play tic.tac.toe.
Soon I was fetched by my African momma to get washed up for dinner; in the latrine set up there is the latrine for the bathroom then next to is an area for washing. There is a huge bucket filled with water and a rock to stand on while you’re washing. I think she wanted me to take a full-fledged bath because after I came out and the only thing wet was my hands and face she almost told me to go back and wash more…but thankfully that did not happen.
We ate dinner. It got dark fast (around 5.30) then I was in bed by 6.30. ☺ good day.
SATURDAY
Woke up early around 5…had breakfast with mom and pop around 6---egg sandwiches (I know right!) and hot water with sugar (their version of tea).
After breakfast Delphenia and I headed to their farm, which was only about a 10-minute walk outside of town. We cut mela off of stalks, which were already on the ground—it was hard work! I got several blisters on my hands, a lot of ants bites on my feet, and a pretty decent sun burn BUT it was a good feeling when the job was done. We were at the farm for about 2 hours…we finished around 10 am!
We headed back to the house and Delphenia had me carry some supplies wrapped up in a piece of cloth on my head. Yes my head. She tried to get me not to use my hands and just balance it…that did not happen. (ha ha) as we were walking back some of the villages members saw me and just started laughing. Not an uplifting experience, but people generally laugh whenever one of us does anything so it was somewhat expected.
Got back to the house put down our loads then off to get water! She also made me carry water on my head…oh my gosh it was so heavy; I got water all over myself. Good thing the water pumped was only 2 minutes from the house or I would have died or spilt all of the water!
Got back. Sat down. And the kids came.
We play tic.tac.toe or as they started to call it ticky.tacky.toe. They also taught me some of their games they played in the sand. One was a mixed between tic.tack.toe and chess; the other was like a guessing board game.
Around 11.30 it was time to start lunch so Delphenia brought me into her “cooking hut” to help her; she let me cut veggies and eventually I got to stir the imxa (sheema). Now understand this stuff is thick! After it cools it has the consistency of play dough but not that gross…ha ha. The crazy thing about being in the kitchen with Delphenia (besides the smoke) was she picked up coals, hot pans, and hot lids WITH HER BARE HANDS!!!! It was not for terribly long but she picked them up all the same…African ladies hands are apparently fireproof.
After lunch it was naptime! Ha ha So I went into my little hut and lied down. I was going to journal but I was so tired that I fell asleep almost immediately.
Woke up around 2.30 and had some more worship time with Delphenia. If you are wondering where her husband Belarmindo was this whole time I will tell you that he WAS there…he was just under the weather so he stayed in bed or sat outside most of the time).
After worship time, more playing with the kids; but in the middle of playing Delphenia kind of stopped them and said; “ok now stop playing and teach her some Makua.” So we stopped playing in the dirt and had school. ☺ One little boy kind of took responsibility as my teacher—he was about 10-years-old so cute and so helpful. The kids would point to things and tell me what the Makua word was…my teacher even brought me a piece of paper to write some words down.
After the lesson we went across the way to play and yes take pictures! Oh my gosh you bring that camera out and those kids go crazy! (P.S. the kids had not even seen my camera…but for some reason they knew I had one and kept doing a picture taking motion until I got it out of my bag!)
I was called in from playing for dinner. I helped get stuff ready. It was very very dark before we ate so I got out my flashlight and Delphenia apparently had one so she got hers out as well.
We had rice and chicken. Which is very special—since they have to kill one of their own chickens (which are not pumped full of hormones so they do not have as much meat on them as chickens in the states). We ate and a visitor came, a young woman with her little baby. They stayed and talked with Delphenia for a while; the young woman tried to talk with me but I was so mentally drained that I just smiled. They laughed of course, but language learning is so hard; and I hadn’t spoken any English out loud in almost 48 hours. (crazy)
Went to bed. Woke up early. God ready for church. Ate breakfast—Delphenia was running around like crazy getting stuff ready quickly so we could leave for church.
It was about a 10-minute walk from her home to the church. We got there shook hands with everyone (as is custom); then we went to visit one of the church ladies who comes to the weekly Bible class the girl interns have been attending. She was not feeling well so we went to help her get ready for church.
Service was great. A young guy who spoke a little bit of English asked for my pen…here’s the story: Delphenia would not let me wait outside for church to start because she did not want me to burn….yes she was my mother, so I went inside and journalled a little bit. One of the visiting church members came up to me and started talking to me in English. He saw my pen and remarked, “That is nice pen. I do not have one.” And I was like “Oh yeah it is nice…would you like it?” and without hesitation he replied, “Ok.” (ha ha no shame ladies and gentlemen no shame)
Church was about 3 hours long—several of the members got up front sang and did a sort of dance/sway thing. It was great to see their energy and passion for the Lord. Also one of the church members who speaks a little bit of English stood in front and translated for me (very broken English but I got the gist of what he was saying)
Church got over around 11.30 and I headed back to the house with Delphenia. Allen was “scheduled” (a loose term in Africa) to pick me up around noon.
We got back to the house and the kids came. They sat down and started to review and teach me more Makua. Allen showed up close to 1…and it was so so so good to see him! His two precious daughters, Abby and Ellie, came with him and getting big hugs from them was the best feeling in the world!
We got my stuff and said our goodbyes. And yes: my host mother kissed me on the lips. I tried to avoid it. But she pulled me back in for a big wet one….
It’s strange writing down what I did on bonding because it does not seem like I did that much…it is an experience that I cannot fully tell you about because you were not there. It was stretching, it was strange, it was enlightening, it was freeing, it was good, it was hard—but the over all feeling I have about it…I’m so glad I did it, but it will be sometime before I will want to do it again.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for participating with me in this adventure. It means so much to me that you are interested in what I’m doing and I feel very loved knowing you’re in some way here with me because you’re reading this.
Look forward to a next installment that I’m going to write right after this one…
Monday, June 21, 2010
africa--week numero 2
(so sorry there will be no pictures this week and as of now no added pictures to last weeks entry. the bandwidth just isn't strong enough i guess---but eventually there will be pictures. not sure when that eventually is though...anyways enjoy)
Salama! (Hello/Greetings)
Nhavo? (How are you?)
As you can clearly see (from my greeting) I have been diligently practicing my Makua, which is the local language in this part of Mozambique. :) Diligently practicing yes, retaining a lot…that’s debatable BUT I am learning.
The last time I spoke with you I had just climbed a treacherous mountain and was about to partake of a meal wholly shopped for and made by the boy interns.
In a word the meal was excellent.
They did a great job! They came back from hiking and pretty much immediately went to market and cooked the rest of the day. On the menu: chicken with a tangerine and papaya (I’m pretty sure papaya) glaze [the chicken was killed and plucked by jon and ted…. Great job guys] grilled mixed veggies, pita bread [yep made from scratch] potato chips [IMPORTED FROM AMERICA!] and for dessert banana frozen yogurt with a chocolate mocha drizzle….Yes at this moment you should be amazed. Ha ha
So tonight is the girls turn to make dinner…and obviously I cannot divulged our menu to you but it is going to be excellent—a rival to last week for sure.
TUESDAY
Tuesday was a village visit day! This week KP, Jon, Mark, and I went with Chad. We had language class early in the morning then around 10 we left down the paved road.
We went to three villages. At the first we hung out while Chad taught one of the church leaders to read. Also in that village we visited the daughter of the man we taught to read. His daughter was very sick and very young. It was very jarring to see this skinny, sick, precious child and not be able to do anything. It was a helpless feeling and was the first time I’ve really felt a deep sense of sadness since I’ve been here. Chad thinks she might have AIDS because her mother died a few years ago most likely from AIDS. Chad said he could hopefully get the girl some medicine or take her to the hospital sometime this week.
Also in that village we met this hilarious old couple! The wife basically put on a show for us. She taught us how to plant and how to cook food. At first when she saw us she grabbed Mark’s hand and led him under an awing to sit down; she grabbed my waist to “help” me sit down. But the best part was the whole time when she was “acting” her husband was just giggling at her (SO CUTE!) ha ha Mark got some video footage so hopefully he will eventually put that on facebook.
Second village we went to was for a bible study. BUT when we got there a family asked Chad if he could take a pregnant women to the hospital; she was having complications with the baby. So what to do? Leave the interns in the village for a half an hour to “teach” the bible studying or take the woman to the hospital?......He took the woman to the hospital. Ha ha
It was completely fine because Chad has a really cool teaching tool that all you have to do is crank this box/speaker and it teaches the lesson in Makua; then the other person turns the pages of a picture book when there’s musical cue. EXACTLY like those books you read as a kid :)
So there we were four white people sitting with 26 Africans alone in the middle of a village. Ha ha priceless.
Chad returned after about 40 minutes and we headed to the next village ;)
The last village we went to was for another Bible study. We drove up got out and this precious little toddler ran up to Jon and stuck his arms up so Jon could pick him up! Precious.
We were at this Bible study for quite some time. Soooo we found ways to occupy ourselves since we don’t really understand Makua or Portuguese. I wrote in my journal, KP made faces at the kids who were watching us (always), Jon wasn’t feeling too well so he sat, and Mark played “Mozambican Math.” Example: World – Ellie (the Howell’s daughter) = world not living in. oh the things we do in times of boredom.
So after Bible study it was getting late…around 4.30-5. So we hopped in the car and headed back to Mozambique. About and hour drive down the paved road and we were home.
WEDNESDAY
Early morning language lesson with Faw.knee.two (that is the phonetic spelling of his name) THEN we had girls hang out time! All of the girl interns went with Rachel and Amy to the “Cotton Club” which is the cool hang out around here. It’s just a small little restaurant and it actually has a small pool that we are swimming in today! (ha ha how awesome is that) We talked and had lunch it was really nice to get to know Amy and Rachel a little more and just connect with all of the girl interns.
At 2 p.m. we had our intern weekly meeting with Chad. We all got together and talked about our weeks: Our highs and lows, what we had seen, what we were thinking. I really really love that time!
Wednesday night was team night at the Howell’s. And Rachel made the most delicious dessert I’ve ever had in my whole life: chocolate cake with chocolate icing and pink peppermint frozen yogurt….all made from scratch. Please just pause and think about the awesomeness of this for just a second….ok good? Yeah it was amazing. Ha ha
We played a couple of really fun games too. We played celebrity: which is the game where you play three rounds, the first is like catch phrase where you can say anything to get your team to guess the celebrity, second round you can only say one word, and the third round is like charades. Of course we played girls against guys…at first we thought we’d tied then kaitlyn recounted and we discovered the boys won by one point….boo.
So we moved on the another game….King Frog. It was HILARIOUS! It’s kinda like big.booty. You each have an animal movement/noise and you do your motion then another person’s motion and then they do their motion and another persons…got it? You get out from pauses/hesitations AND the catch is when you get out everyone moves up a seat (like in 4.square) so you end up changing animals! Ha ha I got down to like the final 4 or 5 BUT in the final two was KP and Ted. I laughed so so so hard!
We hung out for a while after the game talking about spiders….and other poisonous bugs. Invigorating.
THURSDAY
We woke up early early early ALL eight of us piled into Allen’s truck and we drove about an hour to mud a church building! Yes mud a church building.
We got there and the bamboo structure was already completed so our task was to get dirt piles while Allen and the kids got water in the truck. There were a lot of dirt clods that we had to break up…a lot of them were filled with ants….gross. I got blisters from breaking up the clods with random metal objects. And we all got bitten by ants OH and there were stickers everywhere.
Once we got all of the water we needed we started mixing it in with the dirt to make a thick mud paste. Several of the boys took off their shoes and stepped into the mud pile to help mix it but I just used my hands. After it was mixed we started to put the mud in between the bamboo structure. It was messy but really fun. We had a crowd of course. OH AND I made a sweet little friend pretty soon after we had gotten out of the car her name was Fatima and she held my hand when we walked to the church and every time I looked up she was standing on the other side of the church building where I was mudding!!!!
We mudded and mixed all morning. We got over half of the building done which was great. They made us lunch sheema (ixma) and beans: classic. Then we headed home. Poor boys in the back got bounced around—Kim actually switched with Jon because he wasn’t feeling well. And I don’t know how he did it but Mark read in the back…talent.
We got back around 2 and soon after the girls headed to ladies class. Love those women so great. They fed us rice and beans. KP did the lesson and Rachel translated; Kaitlyn and Kim both prayed AND next week I’m teaching the lesson. We are going through the Sermon on the Mount!
Came back. Ate. Got reading for bonding.
Bonding is where each one of us stays the weekend with an African family. So this past weekend we were each by ourselves, in Africa, with a church family, speaking little to no English.
I’m going to write a separate blog entry about this experience ☺ BUT I can tell you it was fun and it was enlightening, but I am glad to be back with the Howell’s and other English speakers.
So for now I hope you’ve enjoyed this installment.
I’m off to eat breakfast THEN the girls are headed to the market to shop for our meal. AND we must not forget swimming at the cotton club at 11.
OH AND….mark berryman is here!!! He is our teacher/African internship coordinator from Harding. He’s going to be here this whole week hanging out with us. Really glad he’s here!
With lots of love to all of you. Please continue to pray for safety and health! (We are all doing relatively well health wise praise the Lord)
<>< caroline
Salama! (Hello/Greetings)
Nhavo? (How are you?)
As you can clearly see (from my greeting) I have been diligently practicing my Makua, which is the local language in this part of Mozambique. :) Diligently practicing yes, retaining a lot…that’s debatable BUT I am learning.
The last time I spoke with you I had just climbed a treacherous mountain and was about to partake of a meal wholly shopped for and made by the boy interns.
In a word the meal was excellent.
They did a great job! They came back from hiking and pretty much immediately went to market and cooked the rest of the day. On the menu: chicken with a tangerine and papaya (I’m pretty sure papaya) glaze [the chicken was killed and plucked by jon and ted…. Great job guys] grilled mixed veggies, pita bread [yep made from scratch] potato chips [IMPORTED FROM AMERICA!] and for dessert banana frozen yogurt with a chocolate mocha drizzle….Yes at this moment you should be amazed. Ha ha
So tonight is the girls turn to make dinner…and obviously I cannot divulged our menu to you but it is going to be excellent—a rival to last week for sure.
TUESDAY
Tuesday was a village visit day! This week KP, Jon, Mark, and I went with Chad. We had language class early in the morning then around 10 we left down the paved road.
We went to three villages. At the first we hung out while Chad taught one of the church leaders to read. Also in that village we visited the daughter of the man we taught to read. His daughter was very sick and very young. It was very jarring to see this skinny, sick, precious child and not be able to do anything. It was a helpless feeling and was the first time I’ve really felt a deep sense of sadness since I’ve been here. Chad thinks she might have AIDS because her mother died a few years ago most likely from AIDS. Chad said he could hopefully get the girl some medicine or take her to the hospital sometime this week.
Also in that village we met this hilarious old couple! The wife basically put on a show for us. She taught us how to plant and how to cook food. At first when she saw us she grabbed Mark’s hand and led him under an awing to sit down; she grabbed my waist to “help” me sit down. But the best part was the whole time when she was “acting” her husband was just giggling at her (SO CUTE!) ha ha Mark got some video footage so hopefully he will eventually put that on facebook.
Second village we went to was for a bible study. BUT when we got there a family asked Chad if he could take a pregnant women to the hospital; she was having complications with the baby. So what to do? Leave the interns in the village for a half an hour to “teach” the bible studying or take the woman to the hospital?......He took the woman to the hospital. Ha ha
It was completely fine because Chad has a really cool teaching tool that all you have to do is crank this box/speaker and it teaches the lesson in Makua; then the other person turns the pages of a picture book when there’s musical cue. EXACTLY like those books you read as a kid :)
So there we were four white people sitting with 26 Africans alone in the middle of a village. Ha ha priceless.
Chad returned after about 40 minutes and we headed to the next village ;)
The last village we went to was for another Bible study. We drove up got out and this precious little toddler ran up to Jon and stuck his arms up so Jon could pick him up! Precious.
We were at this Bible study for quite some time. Soooo we found ways to occupy ourselves since we don’t really understand Makua or Portuguese. I wrote in my journal, KP made faces at the kids who were watching us (always), Jon wasn’t feeling too well so he sat, and Mark played “Mozambican Math.” Example: World – Ellie (the Howell’s daughter) = world not living in. oh the things we do in times of boredom.
So after Bible study it was getting late…around 4.30-5. So we hopped in the car and headed back to Mozambique. About and hour drive down the paved road and we were home.
WEDNESDAY
Early morning language lesson with Faw.knee.two (that is the phonetic spelling of his name) THEN we had girls hang out time! All of the girl interns went with Rachel and Amy to the “Cotton Club” which is the cool hang out around here. It’s just a small little restaurant and it actually has a small pool that we are swimming in today! (ha ha how awesome is that) We talked and had lunch it was really nice to get to know Amy and Rachel a little more and just connect with all of the girl interns.
At 2 p.m. we had our intern weekly meeting with Chad. We all got together and talked about our weeks: Our highs and lows, what we had seen, what we were thinking. I really really love that time!
Wednesday night was team night at the Howell’s. And Rachel made the most delicious dessert I’ve ever had in my whole life: chocolate cake with chocolate icing and pink peppermint frozen yogurt….all made from scratch. Please just pause and think about the awesomeness of this for just a second….ok good? Yeah it was amazing. Ha ha
We played a couple of really fun games too. We played celebrity: which is the game where you play three rounds, the first is like catch phrase where you can say anything to get your team to guess the celebrity, second round you can only say one word, and the third round is like charades. Of course we played girls against guys…at first we thought we’d tied then kaitlyn recounted and we discovered the boys won by one point….boo.
So we moved on the another game….King Frog. It was HILARIOUS! It’s kinda like big.booty. You each have an animal movement/noise and you do your motion then another person’s motion and then they do their motion and another persons…got it? You get out from pauses/hesitations AND the catch is when you get out everyone moves up a seat (like in 4.square) so you end up changing animals! Ha ha I got down to like the final 4 or 5 BUT in the final two was KP and Ted. I laughed so so so hard!
We hung out for a while after the game talking about spiders….and other poisonous bugs. Invigorating.
THURSDAY
We woke up early early early ALL eight of us piled into Allen’s truck and we drove about an hour to mud a church building! Yes mud a church building.
We got there and the bamboo structure was already completed so our task was to get dirt piles while Allen and the kids got water in the truck. There were a lot of dirt clods that we had to break up…a lot of them were filled with ants….gross. I got blisters from breaking up the clods with random metal objects. And we all got bitten by ants OH and there were stickers everywhere.
Once we got all of the water we needed we started mixing it in with the dirt to make a thick mud paste. Several of the boys took off their shoes and stepped into the mud pile to help mix it but I just used my hands. After it was mixed we started to put the mud in between the bamboo structure. It was messy but really fun. We had a crowd of course. OH AND I made a sweet little friend pretty soon after we had gotten out of the car her name was Fatima and she held my hand when we walked to the church and every time I looked up she was standing on the other side of the church building where I was mudding!!!!
We mudded and mixed all morning. We got over half of the building done which was great. They made us lunch sheema (ixma) and beans: classic. Then we headed home. Poor boys in the back got bounced around—Kim actually switched with Jon because he wasn’t feeling well. And I don’t know how he did it but Mark read in the back…talent.
We got back around 2 and soon after the girls headed to ladies class. Love those women so great. They fed us rice and beans. KP did the lesson and Rachel translated; Kaitlyn and Kim both prayed AND next week I’m teaching the lesson. We are going through the Sermon on the Mount!
Came back. Ate. Got reading for bonding.
Bonding is where each one of us stays the weekend with an African family. So this past weekend we were each by ourselves, in Africa, with a church family, speaking little to no English.
I’m going to write a separate blog entry about this experience ☺ BUT I can tell you it was fun and it was enlightening, but I am glad to be back with the Howell’s and other English speakers.
So for now I hope you’ve enjoyed this installment.
I’m off to eat breakfast THEN the girls are headed to the market to shop for our meal. AND we must not forget swimming at the cotton club at 11.
OH AND….mark berryman is here!!! He is our teacher/African internship coordinator from Harding. He’s going to be here this whole week hanging out with us. Really glad he’s here!
With lots of love to all of you. Please continue to pray for safety and health! (We are all doing relatively well health wise praise the Lord)
<>< caroline
Monday, June 14, 2010
my first week in Mozambique
Hello American friends and family.
*disclaimer--this is a super long blog entry and you must COMMIT if you are going to make it through? can you do it? we will see. :)
We have officially been in Montepuez, Mozambique for 9 days! (whoo hoo) AND miraculously no one has been deathly ill (ha ha)!!!! 2 people have had upset stomachs and 1 person got pretty car sick on our trip this past weekend, BUT praise no one has been bed ridden. Please continue to pray for health and wellness.
On the morning of Sunday June 5 we proceeded to church! The night before Allen and Chad divided up the interns into two groups. One would go with the Westerholms to church and the other group with the Howells. Kaitlin, Mark, Jon, and I went with the Howells to a church just a few minutes from the center of town.
It was in a simple concrete building, men sat on the left, women on the right. There were simple wooden benches for the adults and the children sat on the floor. We sang and prayed, heard Allen preach and a couple other elders preach---for 4 hours. Yes all of you who “suffer” through an hour church service feel blessed. Ha ha.
But surprisingly the service went by very quickly. I was blessed, encouraged, and intrigued by the faces and voices of everyone around me. Rachel, Allen’s wife, interpreted most of what was being said which was helpful and increased our enjoyment, because you know we don't understand Makua or Portuguese...yet.
But probably the greatest thing about the service was two men came forward and asked to become apart of the church. The church members discussed amongst themselves each man’s character and asked each man questions about why he wanted to become a Christian. This is extremely different from America, but it was cool to see how purposeful and concerned the church members were about these men being serious about their declaration of faith. The church members made it clear that this decision to commit their lives to Christ was not to be taken lightly, that it was a serious life long commitment.
The entire church stood up and circled around both men as they were baptized in front of the church.
The people were gracious and giving. They shook all of our hands, had each one of us introduce ourselves and just loved on us. We got laughed at a lot---because of our lack of language skills---but hey it’s all a part of the experience.
So that was last Sunday.
Monday
we took a tour of the town. Chad gave us a lot of history and background about the Mauka-Metto people, which was helpful in broadening our perspectives. After the tour we had our first language class…. Portuguese. I’m sure glad I know some French because it helped me a lot. The rest of the day was spent hanging out and resting up. Group dinner and hang out at the Howells consisting of games, worship, and Bible time with the kids! (too fun)
Tuesday
was our first village day. We stayed in the groups from our Sunday adventure. So Kaitlin, Mark, Jon and I went with Allen out to the village of Cambardi, for a Bible study. The village was about a 2 hour drive from Montepuez. (Mind you it took that long not because of the distance but because of the quality of the roads---bumpy.)
It was cool meeting the church leaders and other men from the village, but again difficult because we did not understand what they were saying. We sang and Allen talked a little bit, then the men began to discuss some problems they’ve been having in their church. The great thing was is we, including Allen, were strictly observers in this process. The men discussed different options and ideas for addressing the problem then made a decision. This is the point where the missionaries want all of the churches they work with to get to. They want the people to take possession and responsibility for running their churches and evangelizing their villages.
In this village we had our first experience with Africa children who stare at you. Ha ha it is funny really. So we all just stared back or made funny faces to make them laugh. They LOVED when we got out our cameras and took pictures of them, even some of the adults got really excited and starting posing for us.
We headed back into town for another language class, then spent the rest of the day reflecting and playing with the Howell's girls, Ellie (4) and Abby (6).
Wednesday
we had an early language class then the girls and guy spilt up for guy hang out time and girls reflection time. Which basically meant the guys went out to lunch and “talked about their feelings…” ☺ and the girls got time to journal and process what we had seen that week.
Wednesday night was team night, which means that we all came together to worship and fellowship. Each team night a couple of us interns are supposed to teach a Bible lesson to the kids. This week Kaitlin Petty and I talked about Psalm 23 and David. We talked about how God is our shepherd just like David was a shepherd. But probably the highlight of the evening was while we were making our “sheep puppets” out of paper bags Kaitlin and I taught the girls how to make sheep noises….they were baaing all over the house the rest of the night! Ha ha
Thursday
we went out to some land that the missionary team owns. They grow a few crops, fruit trees, and have a small chicken farm on the property; and eventually they hope to build houses on the land for each family.
Our goal was to make compost---yes compost. In a couple of weeks the missionaries and some of their African friends are hosting a “farming seminar” on the land. One of the topics is how to make compost SO we made a pile to act as an example during the seminar. It will show the farmers how compost should look if it is done correctly.
We went to work piling wet grass, sticks, leaves, and then chicken poop. The stack got pretty tall I think it was a cubit meter when we finished (maybe ha ha). While we were making compost Ellie and Abby were hanging around. They helped get sticks and grass occasionally, but Ellie occupied most of her time by killing biting bugs, which she says bite you and get under your skin and into your blood---so they are not good bugs. ha ha
We all came back and prepared for our weekly intern meeting. Which is just a block of time where we all come together and dialogue about what we’ve seen and experienced. It’s a time to ask questions and to connect with one another about our experiences. Oh and we all chose a book about missions or cross-cultural topics to read then share with the group each time we meet. I’m reading a book called “Teaching Cross-Culturally.” It’s been good so far, but I will give you more detail when I make a better headway into the text.
THEN (if you are still reading I’m impressed and appreciative)
Friday
we had an early morning language class—our second day of Makua, which is the tribal language of this area of Mozambique. It’s different. Way harder than Portuguese, but we are getting there slowly.
Around 11 we packed up and left for the bush! It was about a 4 hour drive….took us a bumpy while to get there but we did! We were going to the bush for a type of church conference. Chad, Allen, and Napoleon (an African friend we picked up on our way to the village) taught some lessons and encouraged the church members of this village.
When we drove up kids just started chasing the trucks! They were so excited. We all got out shook hands with the adults, then a man brought out a bed/cot thing and told us girls to sit down….we sat there for probably 30-45 minutes while the boys set up camp. But don’t worry we were not alone while we were sitting there---we were completely encircled by about 50+ African women and children. Did they talk to us? Well a few tried, but obliviously we only speak English….so yeah they just stood, eventually sat and stared.
Finally the tents were set up and we got our to put our stuff in there---the crowd followed don’t you worry. Kids surrounded our tent and peered in while we set up our cots.
Eventually it got dark, and by this we had started getting creative with the kids. The girls were given a cot to sit back down on---the crowd surrounded us SO we made faces at the kids. They laughed and laughed. The boy interns thought it was hilarious that the kids just liked to stare at us girls so naturally they joined the crowd and watched us make funny faces.
The BEST moment of the night for me though was when Mark and I taught the kids how to play tic-tac-toe. At first we were just playing in the sand while the kids surrounded us THEN we pointed at two boys to try and play. The kids went right to it! They had watched us play probably 8 or 9 games and they knew exactly what was going on! It was very cool to teach somebody something with no words.
The stars were beautiful. We ate sheema (which is like a corn meal mush—really thick. It’s pretty good) and beans THEN we watched the Jesus film. By this time we were exhausted so the girls headed to bed.
Saturday
pretty much the same thing as the day before. Get stared at. Worship in the church. Chad and Allen talked. Our bottoms hurt because we were sitting on this logs of varying sizes. Got stared at some more. Taught the kids some more games. Stared at. Oh yeah the boys played soccer in the morning before it got too hot and us girls got bombarded with women and children trying to communicate with us. Needless to say we did a lot of laughing and shaking our heads. We learned a few words for things like skirt, shirt, peanuts etc but in general we just smiled and were laughed at. Ha ha ha
We took a break that afternoon and drove to a river near the village. It was beautiful and nice to get away from the crowds for a bit.
On the drive back we were flagged down and asked to pray for a few sick babies. It was so powerful and humbling to sit there as Allen prayed for this little sick baby. It really touched my heart knowing God was in that place and He loves those people so much.
Got back. Had beans and rice for the second time. Watched another video about Adam and Eve. Basically it was just two guys narrating the whole time! Ha ha Not so much fun. Kaitlin (KP), Kaitlyn and I went back to the tent and after the movie all of the other interns joined us. It was fun to have all of the interns in one tent just talking and laughing for a while.
Sunday
woke up.Sat in church for oh 4+ hours. I was hungry and tired and my bum hurt. But it was good besides that. Ha ha If you haven’t noticed we do A LOT of sitting around over here. Gives you a lot of time to think and pray I will tell you that.
We’d packed up the tents/cars before church so after we ate lunch we hoped in the cars and headed home.
Once we got back the showers and food were so good. oh yeah and we watched Horton Hears a Who with Abby and Ellie. They are precious.
THIS MORNING---
oh finally I’m to the present time. All the interns Chad and his wife Amy got up and climbed this huge mountain down the road from Montepuez. It was very cool BUT very scary. We basically had to scale a mountain face to get up there—but I made it! And if you have ever climbed a mountain with me you know I am not a fan of heights SO making it to the top was literally a spiritual as well as a physical victory!
It was a wonderful view from the top and a really great time of prayer and just relaxing with each other.
Climb down was much easier than the climb up and getting home today was a great feeling.
All right if you made it to the end of this epic blog post I commend you and I thank you. Hopefully the pictures made the experience more enjoyable (blogger is being mean right now and won't let me put pictures in the post...i will try a bit later to add them)
Tonight the boy interns are cooking dinner AND you guessed it ANOTHER game night. I love games. ☺
*disclaimer--this is a super long blog entry and you must COMMIT if you are going to make it through? can you do it? we will see. :)
We have officially been in Montepuez, Mozambique for 9 days! (whoo hoo) AND miraculously no one has been deathly ill (ha ha)!!!! 2 people have had upset stomachs and 1 person got pretty car sick on our trip this past weekend, BUT praise no one has been bed ridden. Please continue to pray for health and wellness.
On the morning of Sunday June 5 we proceeded to church! The night before Allen and Chad divided up the interns into two groups. One would go with the Westerholms to church and the other group with the Howells. Kaitlin, Mark, Jon, and I went with the Howells to a church just a few minutes from the center of town.
It was in a simple concrete building, men sat on the left, women on the right. There were simple wooden benches for the adults and the children sat on the floor. We sang and prayed, heard Allen preach and a couple other elders preach---for 4 hours. Yes all of you who “suffer” through an hour church service feel blessed. Ha ha.
But surprisingly the service went by very quickly. I was blessed, encouraged, and intrigued by the faces and voices of everyone around me. Rachel, Allen’s wife, interpreted most of what was being said which was helpful and increased our enjoyment, because you know we don't understand Makua or Portuguese...yet.
But probably the greatest thing about the service was two men came forward and asked to become apart of the church. The church members discussed amongst themselves each man’s character and asked each man questions about why he wanted to become a Christian. This is extremely different from America, but it was cool to see how purposeful and concerned the church members were about these men being serious about their declaration of faith. The church members made it clear that this decision to commit their lives to Christ was not to be taken lightly, that it was a serious life long commitment.
The entire church stood up and circled around both men as they were baptized in front of the church.
The people were gracious and giving. They shook all of our hands, had each one of us introduce ourselves and just loved on us. We got laughed at a lot---because of our lack of language skills---but hey it’s all a part of the experience.
So that was last Sunday.
Monday
we took a tour of the town. Chad gave us a lot of history and background about the Mauka-Metto people, which was helpful in broadening our perspectives. After the tour we had our first language class…. Portuguese. I’m sure glad I know some French because it helped me a lot. The rest of the day was spent hanging out and resting up. Group dinner and hang out at the Howells consisting of games, worship, and Bible time with the kids! (too fun)
Tuesday
was our first village day. We stayed in the groups from our Sunday adventure. So Kaitlin, Mark, Jon and I went with Allen out to the village of Cambardi, for a Bible study. The village was about a 2 hour drive from Montepuez. (Mind you it took that long not because of the distance but because of the quality of the roads---bumpy.)
It was cool meeting the church leaders and other men from the village, but again difficult because we did not understand what they were saying. We sang and Allen talked a little bit, then the men began to discuss some problems they’ve been having in their church. The great thing was is we, including Allen, were strictly observers in this process. The men discussed different options and ideas for addressing the problem then made a decision. This is the point where the missionaries want all of the churches they work with to get to. They want the people to take possession and responsibility for running their churches and evangelizing their villages.
In this village we had our first experience with Africa children who stare at you. Ha ha it is funny really. So we all just stared back or made funny faces to make them laugh. They LOVED when we got out our cameras and took pictures of them, even some of the adults got really excited and starting posing for us.
We headed back into town for another language class, then spent the rest of the day reflecting and playing with the Howell's girls, Ellie (4) and Abby (6).
Wednesday
we had an early language class then the girls and guy spilt up for guy hang out time and girls reflection time. Which basically meant the guys went out to lunch and “talked about their feelings…” ☺ and the girls got time to journal and process what we had seen that week.
Wednesday night was team night, which means that we all came together to worship and fellowship. Each team night a couple of us interns are supposed to teach a Bible lesson to the kids. This week Kaitlin Petty and I talked about Psalm 23 and David. We talked about how God is our shepherd just like David was a shepherd. But probably the highlight of the evening was while we were making our “sheep puppets” out of paper bags Kaitlin and I taught the girls how to make sheep noises….they were baaing all over the house the rest of the night! Ha ha
Thursday
we went out to some land that the missionary team owns. They grow a few crops, fruit trees, and have a small chicken farm on the property; and eventually they hope to build houses on the land for each family.
Our goal was to make compost---yes compost. In a couple of weeks the missionaries and some of their African friends are hosting a “farming seminar” on the land. One of the topics is how to make compost SO we made a pile to act as an example during the seminar. It will show the farmers how compost should look if it is done correctly.
We went to work piling wet grass, sticks, leaves, and then chicken poop. The stack got pretty tall I think it was a cubit meter when we finished (maybe ha ha). While we were making compost Ellie and Abby were hanging around. They helped get sticks and grass occasionally, but Ellie occupied most of her time by killing biting bugs, which she says bite you and get under your skin and into your blood---so they are not good bugs. ha ha
We all came back and prepared for our weekly intern meeting. Which is just a block of time where we all come together and dialogue about what we’ve seen and experienced. It’s a time to ask questions and to connect with one another about our experiences. Oh and we all chose a book about missions or cross-cultural topics to read then share with the group each time we meet. I’m reading a book called “Teaching Cross-Culturally.” It’s been good so far, but I will give you more detail when I make a better headway into the text.
THEN (if you are still reading I’m impressed and appreciative)
Friday
we had an early morning language class—our second day of Makua, which is the tribal language of this area of Mozambique. It’s different. Way harder than Portuguese, but we are getting there slowly.
Around 11 we packed up and left for the bush! It was about a 4 hour drive….took us a bumpy while to get there but we did! We were going to the bush for a type of church conference. Chad, Allen, and Napoleon (an African friend we picked up on our way to the village) taught some lessons and encouraged the church members of this village.
When we drove up kids just started chasing the trucks! They were so excited. We all got out shook hands with the adults, then a man brought out a bed/cot thing and told us girls to sit down….we sat there for probably 30-45 minutes while the boys set up camp. But don’t worry we were not alone while we were sitting there---we were completely encircled by about 50+ African women and children. Did they talk to us? Well a few tried, but obliviously we only speak English….so yeah they just stood, eventually sat and stared.
Finally the tents were set up and we got our to put our stuff in there---the crowd followed don’t you worry. Kids surrounded our tent and peered in while we set up our cots.
Eventually it got dark, and by this we had started getting creative with the kids. The girls were given a cot to sit back down on---the crowd surrounded us SO we made faces at the kids. They laughed and laughed. The boy interns thought it was hilarious that the kids just liked to stare at us girls so naturally they joined the crowd and watched us make funny faces.
The BEST moment of the night for me though was when Mark and I taught the kids how to play tic-tac-toe. At first we were just playing in the sand while the kids surrounded us THEN we pointed at two boys to try and play. The kids went right to it! They had watched us play probably 8 or 9 games and they knew exactly what was going on! It was very cool to teach somebody something with no words.
The stars were beautiful. We ate sheema (which is like a corn meal mush—really thick. It’s pretty good) and beans THEN we watched the Jesus film. By this time we were exhausted so the girls headed to bed.
Saturday
pretty much the same thing as the day before. Get stared at. Worship in the church. Chad and Allen talked. Our bottoms hurt because we were sitting on this logs of varying sizes. Got stared at some more. Taught the kids some more games. Stared at. Oh yeah the boys played soccer in the morning before it got too hot and us girls got bombarded with women and children trying to communicate with us. Needless to say we did a lot of laughing and shaking our heads. We learned a few words for things like skirt, shirt, peanuts etc but in general we just smiled and were laughed at. Ha ha ha
We took a break that afternoon and drove to a river near the village. It was beautiful and nice to get away from the crowds for a bit.
On the drive back we were flagged down and asked to pray for a few sick babies. It was so powerful and humbling to sit there as Allen prayed for this little sick baby. It really touched my heart knowing God was in that place and He loves those people so much.
Got back. Had beans and rice for the second time. Watched another video about Adam and Eve. Basically it was just two guys narrating the whole time! Ha ha Not so much fun. Kaitlin (KP), Kaitlyn and I went back to the tent and after the movie all of the other interns joined us. It was fun to have all of the interns in one tent just talking and laughing for a while.
Sunday
woke up.Sat in church for oh 4+ hours. I was hungry and tired and my bum hurt. But it was good besides that. Ha ha If you haven’t noticed we do A LOT of sitting around over here. Gives you a lot of time to think and pray I will tell you that.
We’d packed up the tents/cars before church so after we ate lunch we hoped in the cars and headed home.
Once we got back the showers and food were so good. oh yeah and we watched Horton Hears a Who with Abby and Ellie. They are precious.
THIS MORNING---
oh finally I’m to the present time. All the interns Chad and his wife Amy got up and climbed this huge mountain down the road from Montepuez. It was very cool BUT very scary. We basically had to scale a mountain face to get up there—but I made it! And if you have ever climbed a mountain with me you know I am not a fan of heights SO making it to the top was literally a spiritual as well as a physical victory!
It was a wonderful view from the top and a really great time of prayer and just relaxing with each other.
Climb down was much easier than the climb up and getting home today was a great feeling.
All right if you made it to the end of this epic blog post I commend you and I thank you. Hopefully the pictures made the experience more enjoyable (blogger is being mean right now and won't let me put pictures in the post...i will try a bit later to add them)
Tonight the boy interns are cooking dinner AND you guessed it ANOTHER game night. I love games. ☺
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
AFRICA!!!
soooo i promised to blog.
so i am. ha ha.
we have been in africa for a total of 4 days. (i believe). our trip over here took a long long LONG time. we left on june 2 and arrived on june 5....here why don't i tell you:
on june 2 i flew out of little rock for dallas. connected in dallas for nyc! got to nyc around 3.30 in the afternoon. while i was waiting for my checked luggage i see Jon Waddell walking up! we get our bags and through a series of unfortunate events catch the shuttle to the comfort inn hotel NOT the comfort inn SUITES hotel. :)
we get there and low and behold we have a reservation but it has not yet been paid for...and to pay for it we need to card that made the reservations...unfortunately that card was back in arkansas with our professor and coordinator mark berryman....we did some searching and jon found out berryman's number! we called him and he preceded to fax the credit card information to the hotel! :)
jon and i waited in the lobby for a little while before ted and kaitlyn showed up! reunited! we ordered take out. GOT OUR ROOMS. then mark and kim showed up!!! we had dinner THEN ted, kait, kim and i caught a cab to go into the city! my uncle don was going to meet us there and give us a tour.
it took us about an hour subway ride BUT we finally got to nyc and walked around seeing the sights for a couple of hours! it was so great to see uncle don and he was such a blessing to me and my friends! he bought us desserts at a classic ny restaurant jimmy's. then he paid for a cab to take us home.
got back to hotel AND kaitlin petty was there!!! jon and mark had gone to pick her up at the airport since her flight got in so late.
sleep came quickly. we woke up at 8 for our flight. zack met us there and we embarked on a 12 hour one to dubai.....basically it felt like june 3 never happened. because we left ny on june 3 at 11 in the morning then 12 hours later arrived in dubai at 8 in the morning on june 4....strange!!! waited a few hours then caught another 5 hour plane to dar es salma in tanzania, africa. waiting in line for customs and for our bags...that was an ordeal in itself fighting crowds and such.....
we walked outside and God bless america or tanzania berryman's friend abraham was waiting outside to take us to a hotel! our next flight was not until the next morning SO we had to stay the night. we drove through traffic. it was crazy. weird. we were in africa.
got to our hotel. mark (our declared leader) worked out our hotel accommodations--we each had our own air conditioned rooms (i'll post pictures later). we ate dinner there. rice, chicken, duck (i didn't have any but apparently it was the best thing ever) veggies and soup. [yeah you probably did not care to know our menu...] ha ha
after dinner we basically all went to bed so we each got a good 11+ hours of sleep! woke up the next morning abraham picked us up and we went to him home for a little bit to meet his wife and daughters. we talked and fellowshiped for a while. it was a great encouragement for all of us and also for abraham.
we had a little trouble getting on our flight. they lost our reservation or something...so mark and abraham talked with the airline and got us back on the flight. we weighed our luggage...had to be under 66 pounds per person! we all made it sooo we walked through security and waited for our flight.
we had to walk outside to get to the plane it was so small...ha ha it was kinda scary i won't lie...but it only took 2 hours to fly to pemba, mozambique! the missionaries chad and allen were waiting at the airport for us! we all got our luggage packed in their cars then we ate at the airport restaurant. interesting....ha ha
hopped in the cars and 3 hours later we were in MONTEPUEZ!!!! FINALLY ha ha ha dropped the boys off at the westerholms and us girls headed over to the howells.
unpacked, cleaned up and went to SLEEP!!!!!!!
so we woke up on the 6th and went to church! four of the interns went with the howells then the other four went with the westerholms.
kaitlin petty, mark, jon and i went with the howells.
church was great. different. 4 hours long. but great :) i will give details later BUT for now it's game night with allen and rachel :)
with love.
caroline
so i am. ha ha.
we have been in africa for a total of 4 days. (i believe). our trip over here took a long long LONG time. we left on june 2 and arrived on june 5....here why don't i tell you:
on june 2 i flew out of little rock for dallas. connected in dallas for nyc! got to nyc around 3.30 in the afternoon. while i was waiting for my checked luggage i see Jon Waddell walking up! we get our bags and through a series of unfortunate events catch the shuttle to the comfort inn hotel NOT the comfort inn SUITES hotel. :)
we get there and low and behold we have a reservation but it has not yet been paid for...and to pay for it we need to card that made the reservations...unfortunately that card was back in arkansas with our professor and coordinator mark berryman....we did some searching and jon found out berryman's number! we called him and he preceded to fax the credit card information to the hotel! :)
jon and i waited in the lobby for a little while before ted and kaitlyn showed up! reunited! we ordered take out. GOT OUR ROOMS. then mark and kim showed up!!! we had dinner THEN ted, kait, kim and i caught a cab to go into the city! my uncle don was going to meet us there and give us a tour.
it took us about an hour subway ride BUT we finally got to nyc and walked around seeing the sights for a couple of hours! it was so great to see uncle don and he was such a blessing to me and my friends! he bought us desserts at a classic ny restaurant jimmy's. then he paid for a cab to take us home.
got back to hotel AND kaitlin petty was there!!! jon and mark had gone to pick her up at the airport since her flight got in so late.
sleep came quickly. we woke up at 8 for our flight. zack met us there and we embarked on a 12 hour one to dubai.....basically it felt like june 3 never happened. because we left ny on june 3 at 11 in the morning then 12 hours later arrived in dubai at 8 in the morning on june 4....strange!!! waited a few hours then caught another 5 hour plane to dar es salma in tanzania, africa. waiting in line for customs and for our bags...that was an ordeal in itself fighting crowds and such.....
we walked outside and God bless america or tanzania berryman's friend abraham was waiting outside to take us to a hotel! our next flight was not until the next morning SO we had to stay the night. we drove through traffic. it was crazy. weird. we were in africa.
got to our hotel. mark (our declared leader) worked out our hotel accommodations--we each had our own air conditioned rooms (i'll post pictures later). we ate dinner there. rice, chicken, duck (i didn't have any but apparently it was the best thing ever) veggies and soup. [yeah you probably did not care to know our menu...] ha ha
after dinner we basically all went to bed so we each got a good 11+ hours of sleep! woke up the next morning abraham picked us up and we went to him home for a little bit to meet his wife and daughters. we talked and fellowshiped for a while. it was a great encouragement for all of us and also for abraham.
we had a little trouble getting on our flight. they lost our reservation or something...so mark and abraham talked with the airline and got us back on the flight. we weighed our luggage...had to be under 66 pounds per person! we all made it sooo we walked through security and waited for our flight.
we had to walk outside to get to the plane it was so small...ha ha it was kinda scary i won't lie...but it only took 2 hours to fly to pemba, mozambique! the missionaries chad and allen were waiting at the airport for us! we all got our luggage packed in their cars then we ate at the airport restaurant. interesting....ha ha
hopped in the cars and 3 hours later we were in MONTEPUEZ!!!! FINALLY ha ha ha dropped the boys off at the westerholms and us girls headed over to the howells.
unpacked, cleaned up and went to SLEEP!!!!!!!
so we woke up on the 6th and went to church! four of the interns went with the howells then the other four went with the westerholms.
kaitlin petty, mark, jon and i went with the howells.
church was great. different. 4 hours long. but great :) i will give details later BUT for now it's game night with allen and rachel :)
with love.
caroline
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