Christmas Week

This has been a Christmas week like no other. I never would have thought that I would be hot and sun burnt on Christmas day. I spent the week on Ilha with the Snider’s and another family, Roger and Lynne with their 2 boys, Andrew and Steven. They are friends of the Snider’s from Maputo. Also, Beverly came with them. She is Steven's teacher and a wonderful woman with so many life experiences. She has stories to listen to.

We left for the island after a short delay on Monday. 6 of us piled into the cab of Steve's truck and 4 boys climbed in the back with the luggage. In the second car the rest of the group fit in. I got to ride with Amani on my lap, I lucked out! This ride was our longest out of all of our trips to Ilha but fantastic. It was so nice to get one more trip out there. I can honestly say that our time spent on the island was a high light for me. It is like no place in the world. Pictures can even begin to describe what it looks like and the feeling of the place is... incredible. I meet several people there who were so kind and accommodating. There were 3 boys especially who were really fun. These guys; Miguel, George, and Labron James (or so we called him) made sure that we had all the jewelry that we could possibly need. They all speak English well and so that helped me a lot. They would go with me to pick things up or show me where to find things.

Miguel was particularly helpful on Tuesday when Mia and I wanted to go find some fabric to make dresses out of. He walked us all the way down to the market and got a good price for us and the back to the hotel. Our dresses turned out very cute. We got them on Christmas day and Mia was so excited she could barely wait for her dress to be done.

Wednesday we went on a boat ride to Goa Island. This is the island with the light house. We spent all morning there in the beautiful white sand and the cool ocean. Some of the family went on a walk to look at the light house again. I was in the water the whole time! That may have been a bad idea though. All of us got a little to much sun and made the rest of the day a little more painful. The rest of the day was at the pool in the shade as much as possible. Then for dinner the two families were going to have some time just with each other so we went to a new restaurant. There is no kitchen at the new place so we had samosas, meat balls, fish balls, potato salad and bread. As soon as it was ready to be brought out Steve got a call. It was from a good friend on the island. He was calling to tell us that dinner was ready and he would be waiting with his family on the beach to eat it. This caught us a little of guard so we hurried up and ate a little of what we had ordered and headed over to the beach. The amount of food that was prepared for us was incredible. It rivals the amount of food the Coatta family goes through on a holiday only there were about a 3rd of us. There were some interesting choices for dinner, everything from chicken to goat to fish and crab. It was quite the spread. The kids sat in the car the whole time, I believe they all had some sort of sun poisoning.

Christmas day was interesting. I woke up at about 4 because I was so hot and my burn was sore. I got to spend a lot of time in prayer and in my Bible. It was different but a great way to start my Christmas day. Christmas wasn't too exciting to be honest. I sat by the pool and played with the kids and talked with Beverly. At about 3 the decision was made to head back to Nampula, it was that or switch hotels. This time all 7 of us fit in to the cab. Kaleb, Lucy, Amani and I were in the back and Mia sat on Sarah's lap. We had 2 more passengers in the back. Miguel and his friend need a ride to Nampula so they hopped in back. Amani fell asleep almost right away and I can't tell you how wonderful a little sleeping boy feels in my arms. He was so sweaty and hot!

Now it is the day after Christmas and it is as hot as ever. The day has been spent doing laundry and packing the last few possessions. My bags are ready to go and waiting for the last few items!

This has been the most wonderful experience I could have ever had. I am so blessed to have had the chance to spend an extended amount of time in Mozambique and with a family who has become family.

Pictures: Rag curler night! Noisiest bugs/huge grasshoppers, and a teacher and her first grade class

It has been another week of Nampula, Mozambique and I am ready to come home. This week was our last week of school which makes everyone excited and a little unfocused. I had a lot of activities for the afternoons so this week passed right on by. I thought it would be a long week but now that it is happened I wonder where it went.

I was writing down all the things that I have learned and I can't even begin to put it in a list, it just goes on and on. The reason I was doing this is because I was asking God the question "Why?" And I know we don't need to know why before you do what you have been asked to do but I think that you can ask it after, to learn. So as I am making this list I know some of the reasons I have been here, in Mozambique a country most people have never heard of, for 4 months. I also know that I will not know the full impact of this trip for some time.

I will get back to my week though. Tuesday is where I think I will start. Well, Monday was Kaleb's 11th birthday so we celebrated with his favorite meal, Skyline chili and a brigidaro cake. On to Tuesday, we had a regular day of school and then I went to SIL, the school down the street for the missionary families, to hang out with Kelly. I spent about an hour with her and then had to get back for Portuguese lessons. I can't say that I learned much in class that day. I had Amani on my lap, he wanted to be part of the class, and the Stubblefields came over to say good-bye. I am really going to miss them. They have been great friends, I have learned so much from them.

Wednesday, Kelly and Angie invited me over to have dinner, watch a movie and sleep over. One strange thing was that I had to ask Steve to give me a ride. Do you know how weird it is to be a 24 year old who is asking for a ride to her friends house for a sleep over? It was like I was 12 again. We had fun though. We watched the movie "Maricle on 34th Street" and had popcorn and chocolate. It almost felt like Christmas. Kelly and I were shivering with goose bumps on our legs. It has been on the cool side here, 70. I know that does not sound cool to most of you but when you are used to 95-100 and super humid. I can tell you that the three of us spent a lot of time laughing and putting a puzzle together. I am really going to miss those girls.

Thursday I woke up at Kelly and Angie's apartment and got ready for my first chapa ride. I have been avoiding this the whole time I have been here. I don't know how to describe it to you, it is the public transportation. It is also turns out to be transportation for live and dead animals. Fortunately for my first time there were no animals and it was a nice chapa. The smell of it though can cause an instant headache. The ride is short from the apartment to our road so it wasn't too bad. I got home around 8:30 and we started school and the kids worked hard and were done by 12. It was raining hard and I had planned to go to the small market with Angie and Kelly that afternoon. We waited until the rain slowed and then hopped on another chapa to get back to the apartment to pick up Angie. By the time we headed out again to get to the market it was full on raining again. It was fun to be doing something adult like. Until this point I had just gone to their house or they had come here and we sat around because, truthfully, there is no much else to do. We went to the ATM and then to the market where Angie did most of the bargaining and then on our way back we passed a really clean, nice looking bakery. I treated the girls to natas which I will miss dearly and then we went to wait for the next chapa that could fit us all in. These chapas were much fuller then my first 3 rides, everyone was going home from work. The chapas are vans that are meant to seat 12 to 15. They seem to fit at least 20 in at a time. There is no spare room at all for anything! As we were riding back we realized that either the girls would have to ride to my street with me and then get on another chapa to ride back or I would have to see if I could get a hold of Steve to pick me up (this option is out because Steve forgot his phone) or I would have to ride the rest of the way by myself. I decided that I could make it but had the girls tell me about 10 times how you tell them to stop because there are no "marked" stops they just pull over whenever anyone yells. So they get out and I continue on. The chapa has now emptied considerably, it is me and about 6 men and they are all laughing about something. I am nervously watching out window to make sure I don't miss my stop. We are coming up to the road and I start to say "sida", I don't know what it means but I do know that they are supposed to stop. They are playing with me because they keep going, I say it again and again and finally I say loudly, "STOP!" and pull on the guys jacket. They are all having the time of their lives at my expense. It is ok thought I made it home safely and they got what they were looking for, a good laugh.

Friday was our last day of school. Fridays are test days and they normally go fast but the kids were so motivated to get out for the year that they sat down and got their work down in about 2 hours. I then spent the afternoon packing up the classroom and doing more laundry. The Kerns' invited me over for dinner so they picked me up at around 5. The Kerns are Stephan and Sharon and they have 2 boys, Cohen and Christian and are expecting their first girl in March. They are great people and have become good friends. They spent Thanksgiving with us and many other days. We had pizza for dinner that I got to help Sharon make and then we sat around and chatted while the boys put themselves to bed. That was funny, I guess they had never done that before but decided that it was time.

That has been my week. It was a good week, our last full week in Nampula. We will spend our next week and Christmas on Ilha with another family, friends of Sarah and Steve's from Maputo. I am very excited to be there and soak up all the sun I can before coming back to winter.

A couple quick prayer request. I am allergic to something here and have broken out in rash form on my face. It is so incredibly itchy I can barely stand it. Also, we are making the trip to Ilha all in a truck. The van was sold, an answer to prayer, so 7 will be fitting into a 5 passenger car, Mozambiquen style. Thanks so much!

So, I didn't know what to write about this week and I don't think I know yet so I decided to just start writing and maybe something would come to me... (Pictures, what the water looked like after our huge Saturday night storm, the kids winter in an African summer) pitures will come, internet problems again

It has been a crazy week; I will start with Friday, December 6 at around 4:00. Sarah and I were playing our afternoon game of Sequence when she asked me the strangest question, well it isn't a strange question but the time of it was. She asked, "What will be the first thing you will want to eat when you get home?" I thought and thought and came up with not a food but a drink, Diet Coke of course. But while I was thinking I thought, we still have 4 months till we go home, we aren't half way through our stay here and just last week the decision was made to move to Ilha de Mozambique. So, back to our game, we were playing along and Steve comes home from work and Sarah gets the biggest smile on her face, I know something is going on now, and says "I think you need to talk to Jean." I excuse myself for a moment and then return to hear Steve say, "How would you like to go home?" I was astonished. I guess it had been talked about but I wasn't counting on it because i had planned to be here and it is expensive to get a family of 6 back to the United States. It has been a week now since we found out and bought or plane tickets. For those of you who don't know yet I will be home on December 30th. Just in time for the New Year.

Since the news was given to the kids, the atmosphere in the house has been completely different. Everyone is happy, the girls are running around the house and laughing, Kaleb is saying that he will never say he is board again in his life; it is over all an excited group. Along with that though came a very long week of counting down the days to various events. We have a countdown for Kaleb’s birthday, now in just 2 days, Christmas, 12 days, and 15 days until we leave for home. Each day I try to think of something fun to do so all of us aren’t just sitting around waiting for the days to past. Monday the girls and I worked on picture frames made from beach glass. That was a fun project but it is hard to stick glass to glass so mine came apart, I am thinking that they won't make it to Minnesota. Tuesday Allison, Kelly and I planned on making a music video. We planned it all out, it was going to be so good but our video camera isn't working. Wednesday, I am not sure what I did at all. Oh yeah, the girls were jumping on the trampoline and there was ice that fell out of the freezer because the power was off for so long it fell. I got bowls of it and made snowballs and threw them at them. We then covered the tramp as best as we could with ice and they jumped in it. It was a precursor to Minnesota life. Thursday, Allison and Kelly stopped by again, we sat around and talked or didn't. We watched Allison do DDR on her computer and then they went home. Friday was a long day of school and then a really boring afternoon, not much to do, nowhere to go. Today, people were in and out buying things that Sarah and Steve are not taking back to Minnesota. It was fun. I got to chat with a lot of the people that I have meet while being here. Some of them I am really going to miss.

Then Allison and Kelly came over, yes for the 3rd time this week. After we had dinner we headed to my room to play games and chat. They are my saving grace this week. I had so much fun with them. We spent a lot of time laughing and Kelly is a teacher so we compared stories about past classes.

So, as you can see, I may live on the other side of the world but my week can be just as boring and regular as yours.

There is something that I have been working on and a conversation with Kelly tonight was helpful. I have been wondering what God has in store for me because I was supposed to live in Mozambique for 7 months and he is cutting it down to 4. Why? I am not supposed to ask why but it is so hard to wait to find out. I have had to remind myself a lot that God is in control! He knows what he is doing I just need to trust and obey. This is the phrase that Kelly used. She said that she just learned this lesson; it was a hard one but good. I have a feeling that is what I am supposed to take out of this time. I can't do anything to speed up the process and he may not let me in on what the next step is for a while. I know I am in good hands and I will trust that.

That is the thought I will leave you with because that is the thought that I am left with. May God bless your week!

Last week for the kids Bible. I had them pick out a verse that has to do with thanksgiving and then tell me why they chose that verse. Lucy's verse was 1 Thessalonians 5:18, I am going to start just before that in verse 16. "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is what God's will for you in Christ." When she chose this verse I knew that it was going to be the focuse of my week.

I have to admit that last week was hard. It was thanksgiving week. A week of preparing for an American holiday and a day that you spend with your family. I have to say that in my whole time here it has been hard and I have been homesick as expected but it wasn't until Thursday that all I wanted to do was go home. This is when I had to remember the verse.

Be joyful! I am with a fantastic family who knows how to celebrate national American holidays where ever they are. We had friends over that are so amazing in what they do and what they have deticated their lives to doing. i had the chance to talk with them and learn their family's traditions. One couple grew up in Brazil going to boarding school. Their memories of Thanksgiving are in a cafiteria with their friends and teachers. It was so fun to campare memories and learn how to celebrate our thanksgiving differently then we have before.

Pray continually! If I learn nothing other then this, which I know is imposible, I know I have come a long way. I have realized how pwoerful God is not nessisarily what he does but who He is and the presents he has in my life. He is always here. It is one of those things you need to experience. You can believe it is true and trust Him because He says He is here and he always keeps His promises but wow to experience it first hand is encredible. This amazing sence of pease and over whelming love comes over and I feel like I can make it through the day again! Prayer is the best way I know to make God a part of every minute!

Give thanks in all circumstances because it is the will of God! That could not have been stated any more directly. As a Christian, you strive to live a life pleasing God. Focusing on Him and what he wants you to do with your life. It seems as though he would like us to give thanks no mater where we are or what we are being asked to do. God provides in all places, in all times, so why not give thanks. I love thanksgiving for this. It is an amazing reminder of all the things to be thankful for. Just to thank Him for His presents, if that is all you have, is enough to get through the day.

So, that is what I learned this last week. On the day after Thanksgiving we headed out for Ilha, our favorite place to be. It was just as beautiful this time as every other. One of my firends, Ashlie,came with us. She was here for 2 months and had not left Nampula, she had not seen the Indian Ocean so I invited her to come with us. You should never come to Mozambique and not see the ocean. That is the most beautiful part of this country since there are no animals to see. I know, I thought that was wierd too. Back to Ashlie, it was really fun to have a friend with me. She was so amazed to see what she did and to experience it. It was my 3rd time there so I am more used to it. We took a walk so I could show her the beach and some of the homes. On Saturday we took the kids to the history museum. That is what the pictures are from. It is a house that hey redid and have many items that the kings of Portugal used as well as the first president of Mozambique. This island is so full of history you have to sit down and study it and then go experience it.

After the museum I went to pick up the dress I had made. It almost fits. It is acutally pretty good for a guy who didn't take any measurments he just had seen me once or twice. I may have to do some adjustments on it but over all it is nice. We left for home on Sunday and were back before dark. Ashlie left for the States on Tuesday. I am so happy that I have made many friends here. Especially Ashlie, she is a great person to sit down with and have a nice long chat!

Now it is on to live the next week that God has planned. Thanks for all your prayers and words of encouragement. I will write again soon!