Inhamizua Weddings

Elder Lake asked me to make the wedding cakes for 7 weddings. One on Thursday and 6 on Friday. Isabel da Silva (District RS Pres{also cleans for me}) helped me make the cakes the way she does it.  Wow!!  What a lot of work.  I told him he owes me big-time!  What I have on is my capulana apron.

 This is the kitchen area of our Manga Chapel.  There is a real (although small) kitchen in the building, but they only bake cakes in there.  This is where the real cooking happens over coal and charcoal.

 Here I am helping them shred cabbage for coleslaw.  I was told that I had to make my pieces smaller.  It was very difficult, but they made it look so easy, especially Maria!

 Here they are frying pieces of fish.  Elder Thurston and Elder Domingo are hard at work.

 Irma Louisa is cooking "feijão" (beans) full of good stuff to go with the rice.

 This is the rice (arroz) cooking station.

 Here the sisters are cooking fries (batatas fritas) and chicken (frango).  This is a typical church dinner.

 These couples get married and then the next day they are baptized.  It has been a real problem because it costs so much to get married that couples usually just live together.  The dowry (lobolo) paid to the brides family  is usually very high, the marriage license and the party are very expensive.  Our missionaries are helping them to complete the paper work and then break with tradition and get married so they can be baptized.  Then they are married in groups and the ward has a big party for everyone.  Works very well.

 Here are the 6 cakes.  I used cooked frosting and it held up pretty well.  The day was so hot and it took so long to get started and done I was really worried that they would all melt.  But they were okay and the couples were able to take them home.

 Elder Lake is standing on the Left and President Camelizene (District Pres) standing on the far right is getting ready to start the marriages.  Each couple comes up to the small table, gets married and signs the official paperwork.  The people in the congregation usually sign after each marriage so the process takes awhile.

Here is one of the brides waiting in a hot car until time to go in.  We have about 5 dresses at the Beira chapel for them to use.  They are really getting used and some are showing it.  But these lovely sisters are so happy to be getting married!   Some of our couples are older and have grown children.

Inhamizua Primary

 This is our Primary in Inhamizua.  Jonqueiro was called to help me with the music, but likes to teach instead.  (He is one of my piano students)  Irma Maria Da Silva Fernando is the 1st counselor. 

 Sister Laura Mafungo (bent over) is the Primary President.  We drew pictures of a blessing.  The children love to draw.  They don't do much of that in their homes.  Paper and crayons are expensive.

As you can see, our Primary is always full and we have all ages.  So far, we don't split into age groups.  It is really difficult anyway, because the older children take care of the younger siblings and they won't be separated. So it would probably be two groups of  all ages.   Pascoa (2nd counselor) is standing in the back of the room.

Catching Up!

 This is the beach just across the street from us.  This was so cute.  Her husband set this up for her and the baby and then took the older children out to the water edge.

The tide is out and they are looking at sand dollars.

 No one knows what the name is for sand dollars.  They try to call them "estrelas" (star).  There were all over the beach in our area.

 This one is moving back under the sand.  It was so fascinating to watch them. 

We don't get out here often enough.  The water is quite warm here.  We are told that is why our shrimp is so good and big.

Helping Elder Lake

 This bean is from the tree in the picture above.  We were parked at the morgue at the hospital that is only a few blocks from our home.  A man in our Branch passed away on that Sunday and we took Elder Lake ( who is the Branch President)  and his companion Elder Franscisco to the home to help the family.  It is the families responsibility to get the body to the morgue and then they have the funeral there the next day.  They do not embalm here and so the funerals are right away and not at the church but at the morgue.  They have a small area for the family and friends.  Then everyone gets into the back of a truck (or two or three) and drive to the cemetary.  Sometimes there is someone playing a drum as they drive there.  The people in the front truck hold a wooden cross up.  They often sing songs as they travel to the cemetary.

This is a picture of the road to the members house.  We are leaving on our way to the morgue.