More Everyday Life Here

 The young girls here tie together little bits of elastic and string and play Chinese jump rope.  These girls live just around the corner from us.

 Tied to the bike, to the top of the Chappa, loaded into the back of a flat bed truck or just herded down the street.  Yesterday I passed a woman by the bread store who had a yellow plastic grocery sack in each hand. One contained two pineapples and the other a live chicken.  The hen had her head sticking out of a slit in the side and was travelling along very content to see the world from that view.  I don't think she realized she was going home to be dinner!

 This is the market at Macinino on the side to buy live fowl for lunch.  I'm not very happy to be there.

 Here Sis Snelson is buying crabs for supper.  Too much work!

 This is how the local people get their mangoes out of the tree for lunch; with bamboo poles.

 These men carry sand over to this corner every morning in gunny sacks from the beach.  They aren't supposed to do that, so they are there very early and usually carry about 10 sacks each.  The police patrol by every once in a while so some days they change corners and lay low.  The men with the cart are buying. This is just outside our bedroom window.

 When people ride in the open flat bed of the truck it is called a Caixa (box) and is the cheapest transportation next to walking.  This is how they travel in a funeral procession too.

 This is the market at Maquenino.  Lots of produce.  We really do eat what is in season here.  We haven't seen any carrots for about 3 weeks.

 Sis Snelson buying a belt for her dress.  

 This is how they sell the charcoal that they cook with.  Sis. Snelson and I are helping some young men (Rapazes) get their supplies for District Camp.

Kim knows them better that I do because they work with seminary and institute.  I'm the designated driver!

Primaria Presidency Meeting

 I had a training with the new Primary Presidency in Inhamizua Branch.  It was at Maria's home.  We drove down a small path for about a mile.  We were able to pick up the Primary Pres. as she was walking with her baby and give her a ride the rest of the way.  The Elders told us which path to turn down.

 Maria (1st coun.) swept her sand into patterns for the meeting.  She had a chair for me to sit on (fortunately) and they sat on a mat on the ground.  I had a training DVD from the Area in Portuguese and a portable DVD player.

 A few neighborhood children started to come over.  Maria is sitting at my elbow.  I had baked a cake to share later.

 Pictured from L to R is:  Pascoa (2nd Coun.), Maria (1st Coun.) and Laura (Pres)  They are such sweet ladies.

Larry picked this picture because I'm really concentrating -  my tongue is out!

 The mangoes are on all the trees.  The children filtered over (a few at a time) and they were eating mangoes.

 The neighborhood children loved posing for pictures then seeing them on the phone afterwards.

 Larry kept them occupied while we had our training.  They were enthralled by him.

When we got home his shirt had small  manga hand prints all over.  A sticky mess,  a good afternoon!!

Shopping at Christmas

 We had been told that the week before Christmas and between Christmas and New Year the grocery store would be a madhouse.  Therefore we were prepared not to go.  But the best laid plans of mice and men......Our Inhamizua Branch is being bused every Sunday to another location until they get our new chapel constructed.  On Sunday the 22nd a special Christmas fireside was being held by the missionaries at 4:30.  Instead of  two trips, the branch just remained at the other building.   Pres Lake requested that we purchase the food for a light lunch for the branch on Sunday.  So the Saturday before Christmas found us at Shoprite TRYING to purchase rolls, lunch meat, apples and water. 

 I was never so glad to be done with anything in my life.  You know how much I like crowds!  You couldn't move!  It was hot, sweaty and smelly, the lines were clear to the back of the store and they only had half of  the check stands going.  8-10 people were waiting for your cart at the check-out stand and at the parking lot, let alone finding a parking spot was a nightmare.  It took us 4 hours to get through and many LOOKS because we were buying in bulk and needed 2 carts!  The only reason we were able to find enough of each product was because we were buying for the branch and were being blessed.  

Feliz Natal e Feliz Novo Ano

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  This tree  (called 'Arvore de Natal' ) is outside our old Inhamizua building.  The church did not renew the lease and we are getting a new chapel [modular] closer to the area where the people live.  It is so pretty and looked like Christmas to us.  We could just picture lions or elephants or giraffes resting in the shade under it.  Anyway, it just says AFRICA to us.  We had a wonderful Christmas with the missionaries.  We hope that everyone else had a great day with family and loved ones.

Here are the Elders who work in our area.  They work in Beira, Manga, Munhava, Inhamizua and Dondo.  It is so fun so associate with them and help them when we can.  They are all hard workers and are sharing the gospel with many people.

We had all the Elders over to our apartments (this is President Kretly's apartment) for dinner (which Sis. Snelson and I cooked) and a "white elephant' gift exchange.  Then 1/2 of them used all our computers to Skype home.  The rest of the Elders came over the next evening (Christmas day) and Skyped with their families.  That is why we didn't call anyone until later.  It was a wonderful experience to spend Christmas with these exceptional young men.  We served them BBQ chicken sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and chocolate cake and ice cream.  Most are from America, a couple from New Zealand and several from Angola, Moçambique, and Cape Verde.  We ended our evening Christmas eve by reading the Nativity story in Luke and feeling the spirit there in the room with us.  We are very grateful to our Heavenly Father for allowing us this opportunity.  Is is difficult to live here and leave our lovely family far on the other side of this world, but we feel assured that He is taking care of them for us and we in turn are doing our best to take care of his missionaries.

 We liked this picture. This is what the doorstep of both apartments looked like for two evenings.

This was taken on the 31st of December at Zone Conference.  On the front row with us is President and Sister Kretly (center) and Elder and Sister Snelson (left).   What a great way to start the New Year.