Day 95: Travel Day out of South Africa. Took a group picture of the entire squad before boarding the bus. I love my Z-Squad family. We spent the rest of the day and night on a bus to Mozambique.
Day 96: Arrived in Mozambique mid-morning..but sat at customs for a couple hours waiting for visas. We finally made it to our ministry (Beacon of Hope) shortly after lunch. We are sleeping on our sleeping pads this month, covered by bug nets…pray against Malaria.
Day 97: We had orientation in the morning. Beacon of Hope normally has 10 boys living on the property who are being educated and discipled, but they are currently home for summer break. However, our contact has three children (and an adult son) who live on the property. We spent most of the afternoon working in the garden (planting vegetables so there will be food when students return next month).
Day 98: We were given a tour of the community in the afternoon and stopped off at the market to buy our fake hair for our hair weaves. The local woman (Menina) who works at Beacon of Hope will be able to give her family a simple Christmas because of the extra income she will earn from doing our hair. The average worker in Mozambique makes less than $100 a month..but as I have learned… basic needs such as food and propane are more expensive than in the U.S..
Day 99: Day of rest. I spent the majority of the day enjoying my hammock, while reading the book Redeeming Love and Menina made us delicious food for lunch and dinner. On a bad note… I am pretty sure my mosquito net failed me last night.
Day 100: Kat and I spent 3 hours in the morning sterilizing water for our teams. Bottled water is expensive, so we put our steri-pens to use (Thank You Laura Agee!) and sterilized water from the tap. In the afternoon I had a meeting with Angie (the director of Beacon of Hope) to discuss several of the special projects I am working on this month (fundraising, database updates, website overhaul, setting up child sponsorship, and videography).
Day 101: I spent the majority of the day working on a video for the Christmas Fundraiser we are setting up for Beacon of Hope. In the evening I got my weave put in… it took Menina about 8 hours to do, and she only wanted to charge me 150 MTS (the equivalent of $5), thankfully she allowed me to bless her with a little more.
Day 102: We were supposed to work in the garden in the morning, but it was thunderstorming. We learned quickly that Africa does not drain when it rains and lots of areas flooded. We decided to work on writing curriculum for the school instead. It was my day for kitchen prep so I spent time cooking dinner as well.
Day 103: I spent the entire day working on the Christmas Fundraiser (interviewing Angie, finalizing the video, setting up online giving, and creating a price sheet for the gifts). We had mexican for dinner and made our own tortillas (which took several hours)!
Day 104: Worked in the field all morning. In the afternoon I worked on posting everybody’s blogs for the Beacon of Hope Christmas Fundraiser.
Day 105: Spent the entire day updating contact and donor databases for Beacon of Hope. I was able to squeeze in a quick nap with Popino and a bucket shower. If you haven’t noticed I have been wearing the same outfit for three days (thus is life in Africa).
Day 106: Day off. We went into town for lunch. We fit 17 people in a truck (still not quite sure how we made that work). In the evening, Dusty’s team arrived (they will be joining us for the rest of the month).
Day 107: Woke up at 5am and worked in the field until lunch. We prefer to work early in the morning because it gets up to 110 after lunch. In the afternoon, I continued working on database updates.
Day 108: Woke up early to travel into the bush to meet with the family of David (one of the students). His entire family lives on one small plot of land and has to walk over 20 miles when they need basic supplies (rice, oil, etc.). The rest of their food is grown/killed right near their home. David is currently in the process of building himself a house on the land.
