Thanksgiving...a little atypical!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! So somehow I think us Americans forget that Thanksgiving is solely an American holiday. Being on a multicultural staff, living in Africa makes that extremely clear! Haha...here's some wonderful pictures from my Thanksgiving...

My dear Bercario babies playing outside in their bathtub...or pool!?Dear sweet Cleita!Wesley...very pensive!Augustinho while playing in the water! It was definitely at least 100!Francisco and Cleita...some of the cutest babies ever!!!Innocence?! I think not...Pedro playing in my garden...Narciso and Mae (brother and sister) having a little play time today!Adilson in the Baby House post lunch...Alberto not sleeping during nap time (possibly my fault)...ps- this little one learned to climb out of his crib on his own this week...oh the things the Baby House will teach you at a young age...Dionisio...so excited not to be sleeping during nap time!Alfiado being a monkey in his crib...Oh Sheldon...dance moves galore!Joao and Lucas hanging out before afternoon program!

It was certainly a full day! This morning I helped out in the nursery for about an hour so our tias could go to a Bible study. It was already about 100 by 9:30 so we let all the little ones play in a bucket of water outside! Maybe one of the cutest things EVER! Then I went off to find Narciso to let him play with his sister, Mae, who lives in the Baby House. All of Narciso's buddies followed us. It ended up being 4 little boys and dear Mae playing in my garden for about an hour. They made me laugh a lot and had tons of fun! After I had some lunch, I was off to prepare for the afternoon program in Laura's dorm. This week I am having the boys trace their hands, decorate them, and glue them to a big circle to make a sun. They were so excited when it was complete and we hung it on their room door. So cute! I played with my little friend Lucas for a bit, let some of Laura's boys come play with cars, got snack and everything else ready for afternoon program tomorrow since I won't have any time to prepare tomorrow because I'll be working in the Baby House all day and just sneaking away to make crafts with the boys! Next came cooking garlic bread to bring to our pot luck dinner. It turned out great with melted cheese on top and everything. A full day for sure!
I want to write you all a list of all the many things I have to be thankful for here, but it is going to have to wait until at least tomorrow! I'm exhausted...it's already almost 11pm and I have to be up in the Baby House by 7:30 tomorrow morning. Today was a great day filled with sun, fun, and many little ones. Tomorrow will be a bit different and certainly more nursing focused!

Love you all and pray Thanksgiving was a great day for you as well!

Hardships...

Some days I sit in my cozy little apartment here in Moz with guards at our front gate to protect us at night, running water (most days) that is safe to drink right from the tap, electricity that keeps my fan running, washing machines, gas stoves, and a refrigerator and think...how unfair. Most people in this country live in small reed huts with dirt floors. Some have no water for miles and certainly no electricity. Today when I got up, I decided to wash my clothes. Mainly because EVERYTHING was dirty. It has been raining since last Thursday NONSTOP! And I needed to do laundry then, but knew it would NEVER dry. So yesterday the rain finally let up about mid afternoon.
So, I walk into the kitchen where the washer I share with 7 other people is and it has a sign on it saying...out of order, please don't use. I got a little annoyed and decided I would try the other washer on base. Full of clothes because of course no one washed during the days of no water or the days of rain that followed!
So I decided for the first time in my life I would attempt to hand wash my clothes. Ok, I take that back. I have been hand washing "dry clean only" clothes for awhile because I"m too cheap to pay to get them washed, but I've never washed more than about 3 things at a given time. Now remember I hadn't done clothes in a LONG time, so I had 3 VERY full loads of clothes to do because of the all the rain and grimy children I work with. About an hour and a half later I am sitting in my yard with 2 loads done and very tired arms and hands. The last load will have to wait for tomorrow because it won't fit on my lines to dry and I'm just too tired.
Point being I have a GREAT appreciation for the "mamas" of this country and many others who do their entire family's laundry with no running water and then lay it out on bushes and other things to dry. What strong, determined people they are. Lord please bless them for all they do to keep this place running!

Welcome Naftal! (This one is for you Laura)

We welcomed several other kids to the center in the last few days (not only my little Francisco). Naftal is 7 and a new member of Laura's dorm...the dorm of boys I've been working with. He's still a little quiet, but very cute! He seems to have a confident spirit. We prayed over all the new kids at church Thursday night, and he was going to get up all by himself and walk up there until I took his hand. He is healthy and happy at the moment and his brother is also living on our center.

Meet Naftal and be praying for a healthy and quick transition for him into dorm life!
Also, all for you Laura...here is the crew last night during movie time!And two of your little ones singing at church last night!And last but certainly not least, our dear Sheldon...being adorable as usual!

The New Man in my Life!!!

Don't get too worried...he is only 8 months old tomorrow! We got a new little one into the Bercario (nursery) today.
Meet Francisco; he is certainly stinkin' cute!As for his story, it is a sad one. His mother died about 2 months ago and his father is having a very hard time with it. He has been attempting to care for Francisco but is not able at this time. We are hopeful to only have him a short time in order to give his father time to heal and rebuild his life. He has a few minor infections at the moment...ear infection, scalp infection, and scabies. But, he has already taken to white people as you can see and was laughing hysterically at me soon after this picture! Please be praying for all of his little medical issues as well as his transition into the Bercario. Our good friend Dionisio (the funny one with all the faces!) has moved on to the Baby House...so now with Francisco the Bercario is back up to 6!

And for other good news...I have water again! I'm still not sure what happened but about 3pm it began working again. No one really has an explanation. Second, Aleya (my roommate and another nurse on base) has been able to pass along the need for funding for the Bercario to friends and family and God has faithfully provided pledges to cover expenses for 3 more months! That means our babies will have at least a few more months in this great environment.
Please let me know if you feel led to help with the Bercario in any way or just want more information!

And one more picture of Francisco...please be praying for him!

A day without water...

First, let me tell you that the weather in Mozambique is the MOST unpredictable thing ever. Last week it was over 110, HOT, sunny, HOT, humid, HOT! Now it is in the 60's, cloudy, chilly, windy, chilly! So strange...but I'm not complaining! I love when it is chilly here. I sleep so well and don't have to worry ALL day about whether or not I have had enough water to drink.
Speaking of water...
I woke up this morning and what is the first thing we all do when we wake up?? Go to the bathroom, correct. So I went to the bathroom and flushed...it registered that the flush didn't sound normal (but things aren't always normal here). So, I went to wash my hands...turned on the sink...NO WATER. So did I think, oh guess we have no water today...nope. I tried to turn the shower on because of course what is my next move...shower time. NO WATER. So I get dressed and give up on the showering, hand washing (although I'm a nurse, I used hand sanitizer), and teeth brushing for the moment.
From then until now (only about 5 hours...and 2 1/2 of them I spent helping in the our filing room) let me just tell you all the silly things I've done...
~Tried to wash my breakfast dishes
~Gone to the bathroom and flushed
~Attempted to wash my hand 3 or 4 times
~Tried to fill my water bottle
~Attempted to wash my lunch dishes
...and probably many more silly things
What creatures of habit we are? I just expect water will come out of every faucet, shower, and toilet. Even when I know we have no water, I still expect it. I can't help but think about all the people who never have water here. They have to walk miles to a well or buy water from someone, and it still isn't safe to drink. Here we have running water that is safe to drink and (when we have gas) it is even hot for showers! I am so blessed.
Ok...I know you are wondering, why don't you have water today and is it working again? The answers are...I have no idea why we don't have water and neither does anyone else. Most questions like that aren't answerable here...you just have to be satisfied with the answer: I live in a developing nation, what can I expect. And no at the moment still no water. I know James (our AMAZING maintenance guy) has been working on it...I'm just praying we can flush our toilet soon!
That's all I have...just a day without water!

Living a Miracle!

So yesterday Lucas was doing a bit better, but I was trying very hard not to get my hopes up too much. I just kept praying and trusting that others all over the world were doing the same!
Today...you are not going to believe this...he can stand up on his own, walk across his camarata (dorm) and back, smiles, plays, and is eating well! I'm not going to lie to you I listened to his lungs and they still sound pretty terrible, but in comparison to Sunday he is a walking, smiling, eating miracle!
I heard this testimony from Sunday today as well...a group of missionaries, pastors' wives, and tias went to pray over him Sunday morning. One of the newer missionaries, Sonya, heard that she needed to pray against evil spirits and curses put on little Lucas by the witch doctor but did not know if culturally she could say that. So, she started praying that God would reveal the same thing to one of the other ladies. That lady began to pray against the spirits and witch doctor curses almost immediately, then a tia joined in as well. What a testimony to the power of prayer and the goodness of our God!?
Here's some pictures from today...

This is Rebecca and Lucas...all smiles!

Me and Lucas...sorry I always have this shirt on in pictures...I do own another I promise!

Lucas and his stacking cups...his absolute favorite toy!

He was a little upset with me because I wasn't holding him but I wanted you all to see that he can stand and walk on his own!!!!!!!!!!

Praise Jesus for this little life and thank you to all those who have prayed, loved on him, and looked after him!

Calling all prayer warriors...

Hey there all...so I'd love to tell you about my relaxing day yesterday and the fact that I got to meet the US ambassador and hang out in his house...we played rock band!!!! But that is going to have to wait.
For now I would love for each of you to pray for a precious little boy. You'll remember from a few days ago that I wrote about Lucas. He lives in Laura's dorm and was the one that was being starved at the hospital. Well he was doing great at the beginning of the week...but as of Friday started refusing food. We are really looking at him more as palliative care at this point and it is really breaking my heart. He could walk a few steps monday and was interacting with me...but today he is laying in his bed whimpering.
Please pray for healing, wisdom for those of us treating him, a peace about his care, and especially for Laura, who is away in the States during all of this.
Thank you in advance.

Laura's dorm and my first trip to the market...

One of my new jobs at the moment is helping Rebbecca (one of our newest missionaries) run an afternoon program for the boys in Laura's dorm (ages 5-9) while she is away visiting family and friends in the States. We come up with a fun/educational activity each week and have a different room of boys come in Tuesday-Thursday for the activity. This week we hung the alphabet across the room and asked the boys to match the first letter of words with the letters hanging up. They thought it was fantastic!

Here is Room 2...the oldest boys (our Wednesday group)!

Rebbecca is there in the middle of Room 2 showing them what to color so we could add their creations to the row of hanging letters!

Here's a closer look at the row of letters and some of my drawlings...yep lions for all you ADPi's out there!

After helping run the afternoon program in Laura's dorm, Rebbecca and I decided to take a few boys and go to the market today. It is about a 20 minute walk up the road. We started our trek with 3 boys (aged 6-8), Rebbecca, a visitor, and myself. About half way there after discovering that keeping 3 boys with the 2 of us was more difficult than I imagined, we ran into an older boy from the center and he decided to join us. So we gained another hand and a translator!
Let me just explain to you what I got. About 10 gorgeous tomatoes (bright red and ready to eat), 5 mangoes, and a sink full (seriously!) of lettuce...for 35 mets. That is $1.17! Everyone said it was cheap...but really $1.17! I'm pumped! So, I'm thinking I'm going to try and get there once a week!
So other than worry about the boys staying out of the road and not running into people (they don't leave the center too often and therefore seem to loose the small amount of common sense they do have as soon as they pass through our gates), it was uneventful minus one small issue. On our way back, I realized Rebbecca had stepped back in horror of something in front of us. I quickly looked to see what could only be described as a hog...not a pig, a hog on the ground in front of us. It was tied up in a sack except for it's head, which was laying in the walking path. I later found out she thought it was dead and was horrified until two men came along and picked it up and it began to squeal. This caused even more horror...but I quickly pushed the boys ahead of me and made sure Rebbecca kept walking. I figured we needed no more attention directed at us then our white skin already caused.
It appears that white skinned people with small black boys is a sight to be seen around here.... But with few issues we made it there and back, the boys have salad for dinner tomorrow, and I have the mangoes I desperately wanted! A success in all!