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.