The sun in Mozambique is absurd.
Humidity might add to the intensity of the heat radiating from the sky and maybe the Doxycycline we take to prevent Malaria makes our skin more sensitive but I got a good 3 shades darker in two days!
Here's a typical ministry day in Mozambique.
6:00: Usually wake up in my own sweat with many random bites from mosquitos, red ants, spiders and once I even woke up and saw a baby scorpion on my mattress! I can't go back to sleep so I try to cool off. We have no running water so I take a bucket shower.
What's a bucket shower you ask? Simple.
Step 1: Pour bucket of water over entire body.
Step 2: Lather up, everywhere.
Step 3: Pour another bucket of water to rinse.
It's amazing how little water we actually need to clean ourselves, kinda.
7:30: Our Mozambican friend gets us bread every morning.
So every morning we have pb&j. Every morning..
8:00: My team, The Less Thans and team #Agapetos are working together this month so we head to our ministry site in Nhangau to help our contact, Elias build an orphanage.
We walk 15 minutes to Dondo, where we look for a schapa. The sun makes a 5 minute walk feel like a 15 minute walk! Also, women have to cover their knees with loose fabric so we wear these wraps here called capulanas which trap heat from the waist down!
Schapas are like taxi vans and the drivers are very aggressive. It's 20 mets (less than a dollar) to get us to our destination about 40 minutes away.
The first day we tried to get our schapa, we didn't know there was a system and the drivers started fighting to get us in their van. They trapped poor Alison at one point so we would take their schapa.
9:00: We arrive at Nhangau and wait for Elias who always comes with a big smile on his face.
We walk through the small market, pick up some food usually mangoes, pineapples, bananas or beans and rice. Then we walk 20 minutes to the orphanage.
10:00: We arrive at our work site.
Elias is man of God who has great faith.
God called him to build and orphanage where children and mothers can live together.
So far he has a big plot of land with a lot of tall grass and one very simple, rectangular, concrete home.
When we arrived, he said he wanted to paint the walls and build a kitchen, oven and bathroom. We asked him if he had the supplies to start this project and he said no..
He said that he asked for a team and we came a week later so God will provide!
We were a little thrown off but not even an hour later he received a phone call from his friend in America who wanted to help him with funds for this project. Boom! Blown away.
It took a week and a half for the funds to come but in the meantime we cut all the grass in the field with a long machete-like thing and played with the kids that gathered around us.
3:00: We begin to head back to Iris because schapas are sometimes hard to come by.
Our record in a schapa is 25 people, 2 fish buckets and a baby. Shappas are supposed to seat 4 people to a row and there are 4 rows.. We've also been stopped by the Mozambiqan police to check our Visas (which I didn't have on me at the time, so I hid behind Rae. They checked everyone but me!..Thank God!
5:30: We eat dinner. Either rice and beans, rice and fish or rice and spinachy green stuff all of which usually has some sand in it.
6:30: Team time/ feedback time.
7:30: Squad time which is usually worship and time for sharing.
9:30: Bucket rinse, cover my mattress with the mosquito net and pray I sleep through the night!
This is the reality of how we're living and its hard but honestly it's not that bad.
We eat what we need to so we have energy for the day, we have decent living space and a good supply of clean water which is so necessary because we're sweating out everything we drink!
This is where your support money goes so thanks for keeping me alive!
