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. ☺