So I stole this amazing idea from my dear friend Chelsea
Hughes where she copies her favorite blogs and keeps them on her computer for
lazy days on the race when she wants something interesting to read.
>try it out<
She also introduced me to theveryworstmissionary‘s blog,
which, of course, I immediately became obsessed with. I’m convinced we could be
friends in real life.
It’s Saturday
here in Mozambique and it’s incredibly quiet. It’s our day off and of course I
was woken up at six thirty by my roommates (not going to mention any names…)
annoying watch alarm which keeps going off at 6:30am then another one at 7:00-
no one every wakes up to these alarms except for me.
Since I’ve been up since 6:30am, I took time to:
1 just sit
and be quiet (which didn’t last long)
2. made an
extensive breakfast of yogurt and morevit
3. organized
all my photos from the race
4.
successfully drink three cups of coffee
5. listened
to Land Locked Blues by Bright Eyes
about ten times back to back trying to learn the lyrics. Unsuccessful.
Time is now 10:30 and I’m bored with everything. Maybe it’s
all the caffeine in my system, but I remembered that I had copied over about
ten blogs from Jamie and decided to read a few.
And by a few a mean all of them.
So now I’m in the mood to write to you, who ever you is.
So much has happened in the past seven months, but it’s kind
of overwhelming to try and fill you in on everything I forgot to write about in
my last blogs. I’ll be happy to fill in all the blanks when I get back in FOUR
MONTHS!!! Maybe we can catch up over coffee or a meal from mcdonalds- since
that’s all I’ll be able to afford :]
what up dollar menuuuu.
Anyways, I’ll try and be better about keeping you up to date
with everything that happens from this point forward.
We’ve been here almost a week and it’s rockin. I mean, I really love this place and the boys.
Ohhhh. So if you don’t know, I’m working with this organization called
Masana. They are a day center for street boys in Maputo. They work they are
doing is amazing.
These boys are incredible. They are full of energy, and life, and love. But they are
rough around the edges. Of course they are, they have to be, they live on the
streets.
The boys here are range from about 8-16. They end up on the
streets for so many different reasons. It could be anything from being severely
abused at home to just wanting the city life. On the streets they beg for money, get beaten up, beat up
other boys, rape, get raped, steal, drink, get high and the list goes on and
on. Yup, as much as I wish I could
downplay these words on the list, I can’t. It’s a horrible life for them. it’s
real. I mean, the stories that I’ve heard, they are unreal. Yet to them, the
streets are better then anything that is waiting for them back home.
I’ve been told, though, that families in this culture are
huge and actually really loving when it comes to children. And when it comes to returning home,
there may be a bad person who made them want to leave, but there is usually a
really great person who wants to take them back.
Anyways, the other day I took a few minuets to just sit back
and watch the boys. They were laughing and playing soccer and the guitar, and
fetch with the puppies. They were
smiling and grabbing hugs from us in between giving each other a hard time
about this and that.
This thought kept coming across my mind, ‘why don’t you have a mother? You need a mom,
baby. You shouldn’t be taking care of yourself.’
I don’t know why I kept thinking that, but it made me think
about Peter Pan. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen so many Peter Pan themed movies
in the past two months that it’s consuming my brain. I mean, I even had a dream
the other night that I was turning into a fairy.
But this place is a place where these lost boys of the
streets of Maputo can just be boys.
And not only are they safe to just play and it keeps them
off the street for a good chunk of the day, but they are constantly filled with
HOPE (which is the amazing vision of
the staff here). They aren’t meant for the streets. They are made to be loved
by their families, they are meant to have an education, and they can have a future filled with life, not
death.
They are good boys.
And I kind of feel
like Wendy in a way. Loving on them and encouraging them to think of their
family and return home.
…
… well the coffee is wearing off. Time for cup number four.
