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.