Originally written on December 10th
Well, it honestly feels like I haven’t written in a very long time, it also feels like months have gone by when in real world time it has only been a week and a half.
My mom always tells me I never write enough about what’s going on over here and what the culture looks like, well, Mom…. here ya go, a blog entry just for you and I’ll try and focus on just the culture, but I can’t promise I’ll stick to it haha!
The culture at times here, okay if we’re being real, most of the time is quite frustrating. Nothing EVER starts on time, they over charge us on most things and church lasts for 3 hours in a language I don’t understand. We take vans everywhere that stop and pick up 40 people along the way and you’re drenched in sweat and wondering “is this real life?”
Sometimes I want to vomit at how cruel they are to the animals. Hanging chickens by the handle bars of their bikes as their heads bounce up and down on the tires as they ride on by. People yelling at us just because we are white to give them money, they like to use a word called MUZUNGU or MALUNGU (here in Mozambique)! 8 times out of 10 if our guys try and give us a hug or go into our rooms to give us a shout about something the Africans will think we are sleeping with them, so it’s not acceptable to be really close with our male teammates or squad mates.
But here’s the positive, they are SO JOYFUL! I have never seen such poverty and how happy they are. WAKE UP AMERICA! You have your tv and your car and you still aren’t happy. These people leap for joy when you pray for them. They souly rely on the Lord. I have NEVER seen so much joy in church services. For such a dark place there sure is so much joy.
The food is interesting. We have all learned to either eat what is infront of us or do a very good job at moving it around to make it look like we have eaten.
Now onto the practical
After the most grueling and hellish nightmare of my life which was a travel WEEK on a hot sweaty bus, minorly spraining my ankle, AND sleeping in an abandon building randomly…. I have made it to Maputo, Mozambique! So far this is my favorite African country. We are working with Africa on Fire and I just spent a week living in a bamboo hut in the peace and quiet. We had no running water or electricity. But we did have plenty of camel spiders, black widow spiders, scorpions and poisonous centipedes to keep us dancing throughout the day for our lives. It was so nice to go to bed with the sun and wake up with it. We are eating the best we ever have in Africa because our contacts are wonderful and the wife is from New Zealand. They are so amazing! BY FAR up there with my other favorite contacts. They spend so much time with us talking and listening to us and shedding light on how they got started and how they got here today. Their knowledge and all they share with us is priceless. I’m very fond of Anna (our contact) and the wisdom she shares. Maybe you have heard of Iris Ministries with Heidi and Roland Baker, well, our contacts went to their Harvest School and learned from them which says a lot about who they are and their background. Absolutely love this ministry.
We are now in the slums outside of the city and their house is wonderful. We are tenting and it’s so nice. We have bathrooms, electricity, running water, and did I mention one of our guys is a Chef? Quite classy!
No internet. I apologize this blog entry is scattered and all over the place but it’s all I can do right now.
Christmas will be spent with our contacts and will be living the simple life. My teammate Emily made us all stockings and we are doing white elephant and secret santa.
To my family:
I miss you all. I miss our loud crazy Christmas parties with wonderful food and conversation. I will really really be sad when the time comes that I won’t get to spend this holiday with you. I want you to know that I’m thinking about you all and praying for you. Please do not be discouraged if you write on my blog and I do not respond, same with e-mails. For the next 15 days I will not have any way to write back but know that I will see your comments and love and that it makes my day.
Also, my last and final stretch of support raising is here! I have a little less than $4,000 to go! I’m not freaking out anymore because the Lord has provided in dazzling ways for me before so I know it’ll happen again. If you feel like throwing in your weekly Starbucks money to the cause, go right ahead! Thank you!
