Another beach experience

 We went to the Clube Nautica,  about 3 blocks away,  for a pizza on the beach.  It is one of the nicer restaurants.  This 'loja' is just outside their fence.  This is also our typical store.  Larry is in his element. 

 We were with Elder and Sister Snelson.  The pizza was pretty good and the scenery was fantastic.

we are

 As we were waiting, we watched the sunset go from the left side of the beach to the right.  Beautiful!!

Almost dark,  Soon we saw the lights of the big container ships that were out on the horizon.

It was so funny.  To get to the tables out on patio on the beach we had to go through this door (really the window)  But it was an enjoyable evening with good friends!

Catching up

 This is a typical Manga neighborhood.  That is the road we were driving on to get within walking distance of Vasco's  home.   We are into summer and it is really pretty.

 The workshop is down this path about 150 yards.  It is always very muddy when it rains.

 Taking a small break after the mid-day meal. ( We were taking the picture from the truck, wish it was better quality, but I didn't want to put the camera out of the window.)

 Each neighborhood ( usually about 20 or so homes) has a well.  They carry the water to their homes in big yellow oil bottles.  We have two of these as emergency water storage in our apartment.

Aren't these children precious?  They stopped their play to wave  goodbye to us.  A simple, but usually happy life.

Visit to Vasco's home and workshop

 Elder Brain Snelson is talking to Vasco about his wood articles.  We drove thro almost jungle in the Manga area to get to his home. It was a good thing that we had a small truck and 4-wheel drive.  It was just a path. Sis Bueno told us that he learned the trade from his father while they were incarcerated in camps during the war.  He was 10 years old.

 His son is the one who pulls the strap that runs the wheel of his lathe.    It is hard work.  But they support the family with their hard work.  They are members of Manga 3 branch.  One of the Bueno boys worked in the shop with him learning the trade before they returned to SLC in November.

This is  the lathe that Vasco does all his wood working on.  It was amazing to see what he produces.  I couldn't help comparing it to Grandpa's (my father ) workshop in the basement.  What a difference!

 A group of the neighborhood children came over to see us 'white folk'.  They all wanted to touch my hair and then I taught then the finger play and song "Here is the Chapel"  I even knew the words in Portuguese.  It was fun.

 They enjoyed it and more children kept showing up so we sang it at least 10 times, English and Portuguese.

These children walked along the path with us to say "tchau" and sing and dance for us.  They were so cute.

Birthday

  Larry's birthday was another day in the life of a missionary couple.  But we did take time to wish him a happy one.  I found a package of gummy-like raspberry candies to wrap and give him.

 Latter in the week, we purchased more shrimp.  They were huge!  The men who sell them come to our apartment when they have a fresh catch, and of course they cost more per kilo.

 We sauteed them in garlic and butter and WOW!  Delicious!  We ate our fill and had left-overs.

I made shrimp linguine with the left overs and we had two meals worth of that.  It was fast to make and turned out really good (especially since I have sooo much experience cooking with shrimp!)

Road to Rio Savane Beach

 This is very typical to see in the outlying areas of our city.  These men are carrying supplies home on their bicycles.  Sometimes the bike is so loaded that there is no room for them to ride, so they push it along.  We really enjoyed see this one bike propped up while the rider takes a break..  What a good use for his stick! (Also picture of Elder Dille's finger)

Many of the people here make their own bricks and build and remodel their home a little at a time.  This pile of bricks is probably for sale.

 The roof of this home is grass and the walls are sticks and rocks and mud.  Very typical building.

 Another view of the road and the bicycle propped up with a stick.  We loved it!

 This group of people were in the area between the main road and our Inhamizua church building.  It was Sunday afternoon and they are making the charcoal that they cook on.  The bags standing up are how they sell it.

An example of  the roads that we travel.  There will be more shots, when I find them. This is on the way to Rio Savane Beach.

Shopping for Beds

 This week we received two additional Elders and so we had to find and buy beds for them.  We found this store in the baixa (downtwon).  It has almost everything.

 It took a while because the store only takes cash and we didn't have enough.  Elder Snelson (Brain) went to the bank for funds.  The other gentleman in the picture is the owner.

 The owner told us that they have lived in Beira for many years.  He sent his family out of country during the war and owns a beautiful family home west of us near the coast.

 As  you can see, it has a 'muito grande' array of items.  We particularly liked this stack of pans!

I really wanted some yard to crochet, but he looked at me and said, "they don't crochet here.  You need to go to Zimbabwe where it is cold."   He did have one large skein of white crochet thread, so guess I'm into making doilies.  Sister Snelson (Kim) and I each bought a pillow for our couches.  They are not very comfortable and this will help.

Beds purchased and loaded.  Larry is talking with a blind man and his son  from the street. Life is extremely hard for handicapped people here. This is our truck.  We are hoping one of the new Elders is 'man enough' to sleep on a pink mattress!

Rio Savane Beach

 Rio Savane was a very beautiful beach.  We drove for 1 1/2 hours north-east.  It wasn't that far, the road are just pretty hard to drive on.  Saturday Nov 2, when we arrived the tide was out and so we had to walk across the bay to get to the island beach.  Usually the boat would be there to take us across.

 It was a pretty long walk.  Lots of shells to step on and mud pockets to stick to your feet.  We finally had to take off our shoes and hope not to step on shells and get cuts.  We did ride in a little boat across the final 100 feet of channel.

 Finally made it.  This is the entrance to the park.

 It was a wonderful surprise.  We did not have to wade through garbage to get down to the ocean.  Our beach front is pretty bad.  It was a beautiful day.  A little overcast and hot but not too bad.

 Where are we?  Standing in the Indian Ocean in Mozambique Africa!

 We had such an enjoyable day!  The beach was so lovely and there were only a few other people there.

This is the same place that we walked across to get to the island.  When we left the tide was back in so we got to ride the boat back across.  The parking garage is in the right side of the picture.  We were with the Snelsons and the Bueno family, Joao, Kelly and their 3 teenage boys.  They are from SLC, and have been here for about 9 months.  Irmao Bueno works for Care For Life, a humanitarian non-profit here in Mozambique.  He is a counselor with Pres. Kretly

Fresh Shrimp

 This is at the beach front just across the street.  The shrimp boats go out every morning.  This is one of the tree canoes that locals use.  There are bigger fishing boats, but the individuals use these.  They are very old, hollowed out trees.  The yellow spots are plastic that has been nailed over weak spots over the years.

 These shrimp were just harvested this morning and the men come to our apartment building and call us to come down and buy what we want.  This is a first for us.  Fresh caught shrimp.  We are told that the our coast here in Beira has the largest shrimp in the world.  Elder Snelson and Pres. Kretly have bought some called Tiger Shrimp that are as big as Dads hand.

It took about an hour for us to clean and devein the 2 kilos that we bought.  It took all of 3 minutes to cook them.  We boiled them in lemon and garlic and WOW were they good.  Really tasted a lot better than the one that you buy in Tremonton from the freezer.  Yesterday Dad bought another 2 kilos and they were bigger this time and it was so much nicer.  For the price per kilo, the fishermen cleaned them for us.  That way we get all the benefits without the apartment smelling like fish for a week.  I will fry them in butter and garlic today and they will be YUMMY!!!  They are not anymore expensive that hamburger.

More Life in Beira

The other morning I heard lots of car horns honking and when I looked out the window this is what I saw driving along our street.

 A private school "the Cinderella Princess Schools" was having a parade to celebrate 12 years of education.  They will be adding grade 12 to the curriculum this January,  Each of the trucks represented a nation as it was also United Nations Week.

 The parade lasted for about 1 hour because each float was accompanied by many cars with signs and balloons and horns honking.

 They ended just across the street at a park and very nice covered area and had a party.  This group of young men were on the Mozambique truck and played drums.  It was very fancy drum work and sounded wonderful.

 This boy was very enterprising.  He was gathering all the balloons off the cars and trucks and then re-selling them along the street.  They sell everything and anything to make a living.

These two boy wanted to be a part of the party.....but could only look from a distance.  At the other end of the block were two more boys in another tree.

 We are assigned to work with the Inhamizua Branch.   Sunday was our first day there.  It was General Conference so I did not meet many or see what Primary was like (or non existent?)  This is one of the streets we drove down to get there.  It is about 40 minutes from us.  This is a WONDERFUL road!  Very unusual.

 All our streets are lined with these little roadside shops.  They sell everything, food, cloths, shoes, coal, sticks, rocks, sand, live chickens, tires, repair cars and bikes and furniture. etc....

This is looks like the street we turn down when we drive to the Manga 2 building and the Manga elders apartment.  It gets worse.  There are not even any pot holes yet.