Linda, (Care For Life president) who is a new mom to me in a way, left back home on Thursday. She was followed by Ruth and Patrick (Researchers from the University of Utah) on Saturday. I had the most amazing first 2 weeks with these great people with strong work ethic! It was a great way to start the summer! On Friday we had the privilege of receiving 2 new volunteers, Nancy (Idaho) and Michelle (California). Nancy will be teaching vocational training with Karen and I and Michelle is a journalist who will be writing a couple of stories and taking pics etc. They are great additions to the team! On Saturday, Dr. English (Arizona) along with his intern Nate (Arizona) arrived and will be helping out in the health division. Dr. English is a dermatologist and will help quite a bit while here. Nate is probably one of the coolest guys I have met. Super chill about life and super stoked to be in Mozambique! These next 3 weeks with these volunteers will be a hoot!
Here is a lovely picture of Ruth and Patrick-Coworkers! They were like my parents while I was here. Very smart, lovely and kind people. I'm grateful I was able to know them while I was here in Mozambique.
Ruth and Patrick gave a lecture at the Pedagogic University to the public about Social Work in Foreign countries...or something like that. A lot of it went over my head, but I was impressed with what they did. They were here doing a research project along with a group of students from the Pedagogic University in Beira which is why they spoke. The picture above is a list of all the famous Africans who had spoken in the same lecture hall! Some of them, to say the least, include Nelson Mandela and Samora Machel (first Mozambican president)
Nothing like eating fish for dinner! Seriously, we have a wonderful maid, Isabel, who cooks us the greatest food in the world. Okay, I will admit, fish heads don't seem like the most appealing thing, but I like to think they are more for decoration, haha. Regardless, I love the food here!
I finally had the chance to visit my old Branch Inhamizua where I served for the last 7 months of my mission! I made many friendships and felt strong the love of God in this wonderful place. This wonderful couple above (Amisse and Pascoa), got married a couple of weeks ago and their little girl Olivia, was the girl I blessed as a baby when I was Branch President. It was so great to see how big and grown up she was! Her father and mother were not as active when I was a missionary, but look at what they have accomplished now! They are married and now have plans to go to the temple someday. It's awesome seeing some fruits of your labour. I saw lots of other people and have plans the end of June and in July to visit lots of families from Inhamizua!
Meet Ajax. Our friendly neighbourhood spider man.... oh wait, no its actually just a spider. A very large spider. Yes, there are very big spiders in this country. Usually if you keep your distance, they will keep theres' haha. I know the picture makes it obvious that its big, but to put into perspective the spider is at least as big as the palm of my hand, if not bigger. Yup. Very big like I said.
We also went to our first orphanage today! (sorry no pics at the moment!) It was the most incredible thing ever! The kids sang for us as we arrived and sang for us as we left. Pastor Domingos runs the orphanage and manages 72 kids! How crazy is that? He is an incredibly religious man with great faith in God and has the biggest heart and loves every one of the kids. We taught them how to make backpacks along with playing soccer, and painting nails (for the girls of course!) My heart was strengthened as I was there and realized that God has a great love for the African people.
Anyways, thanks for reading my blog. I hope you are learning something new about my adventures in Mozambique! Love you all
Hey KELVIN.
ReplyDeleteThat's too funny. Kevin's technically easier to say isn't it?!
Your adventures sound too wonderful! Doing good - can (and should) be fun.
I read to all the kids your post today. They loved listening and loved the pictures.
That's so great that you were able to go back to that branch! How amazing that those 2 are married now. Blessings!
LOVE YOU!