Snippets

We are here. The sights, smells and sounds of Moz welcome us as the sultry heat hugs us and melts us down to a puddle, perhaps the only water in sight. Familiar faces, friendly faces, missing faces, it is all here. People squeezed as human sardines into chapas race through an obstacle course of pedestrians, bicyclers, pot holes and vendors. We pass through open markets with mangos and pineapple, capalanas and sandals. The tall coconut trees tower over the mud homes reminding us of one thing. We are here. We are back in Dondo.

In amusement I watch the children from the orphanage across the street in a loud frenzy attack their morning ritual as they push their pickup truck with great gusto down the road to get it started. Women pass by with sunny yellow water jugs adeptly balancing them on their heads with babies tightly bound to their backs. The flourescent flowers summon the seduction that all is well in this part of the world. The drums of the witchdoctor in the distance beat it back into my brain that all is not well in this land of poverty and darkness. That is why we are here and it is good to be back.

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PROJECT LIFE: To be a teacher is never easy. One must prepare and memorize a lesson and then produce a flawless delivery that keeps even the best of students from falling into a stupor. Imagine then what it must be like to not read or even speak the language in which your lesson has been written. That is the case for some of our activistas as they give a Bible study out in the bairros each week in Project Life. I am an American who speaks English through a translator who speaks Portuguese and teaches a Bible study to women who speak Sena who hear it once and then teach it to Bible study groups of men and women out in the bairros. It goes without saying that we need the Holy Spirit's wisdom and strength to accomplish this end. Yet, as I look at each of these activistas, I realize that no one is better qualified to teach their fellow Mozambicans. They have suffered loss of children, husbands, houses and health and live daily with dire poverty. They know the God "who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." I am looking forward to what God is going to accomplish through them.

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GREEN DOOR: I always think that I have heard it all and then I hear another story about life in Dondo that astounds me. A friend of mine was sleeping in his mother's mud home in October. He is not young, but almost thirty. In the middle of the night a rat chewed on his hands and feet. The damage was already done before he awoke to the pain. Apparently that is a common thing to happen if the rats can get in. Another reason to build Green Door houses - a house that is safe from robbers, mosquitos, rain and RATS! Yikes!