Sunday, June 8, 2008

Saying Goodbye


Saying goodbye is the hardest part of any adventure. I will miss Mozambique terribly when I get back to the US. Why must all good things come to an end? I am not looking forward to saying goodbye tomorrow. The people here have taught me so much and I am a better person because I got to know them. I hope to come back to Mozambique. I have promised myself that I will never forget this experience and that I will always remember to serve others who have less than I do. I think it is important for each of us to step out of our daily routines each day to experience someone else's reality and to learn how to help them better. This is where real happiness lies.

Pessoas Lindas



Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Amazing Technology





It amazes me how technology finds its way into the darkest most poverty stricken places. The sewing machine this man is using is an extremely old Singer. He makes excellent men's collar dress shirts. They looked almost store bought. I was amazed at his talent. This is in the middle of nowhere! No patterns, and very limited materials. The boy in the first pic placed that light above his front door. I asked him how he figured out how to power the light and he said he figured it out on his own. These kids can't even speak Portuguese! They don't read or write, but yet they figured out how to create light powered by a battery on their own! Amazing!

Good Times





This is a picture of us going out to the fields to work with the people in the communities. The second pic is one I took of a scene in the middle of the street. The last pic is of a little school I found. The kids loved the video camera I showed them and the teacher took a picture of us together. I don't think she had ever seen a video camera because I had to teach her how to use it. It was a great technology moment!

Monday, June 2, 2008

Just a Reflection


I took this picture because when I saw this man's feet it reminded me of the story of Jesus washing his disciple's feet. I'm sure he would have washed all of our feet. This trip has truly made the Atonement much more meaningful to me. I can't believe that Jesus took upon him all the calamities and sins and physical infirmities of the world. I just cannot comprehend it, but I am grateful for it.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

The Adventure of My Life!






This was the craziest weekend I have ever had! On Friday night we left Care for Life headquarters to visit the Gorongosa National Park (http://www.gorongosa.net) . We left home on Saturday at 3am. It was really early. On our way to the park we encountered a car coming the opposite direction from us with only one head light in the fog. By the time we noticed it was a car, we had almost all crashed. It was a close to death experience! Once at the park we started to see animals. Suddenly, we saw a huge elephant that almost attacked us! Then we ran into some people who's car got stuck in the mud. We had to pull them out of the mud trap they were in. Finally, just to top things off, our car died in the middle of this huge wild animal park (with our windows rolled down). We were glad we hadn't seen any lions.... yet. Well, and so we had to stay the night there. No toothbrush, no clean anything, no nothing. It was great! Then in the morning we found out a helicopter was going to take us back to Beira. So we flew in a helicopter! The footage is great. I will show it to you all when I get back. You can't ask for a greater adventure than that!

A Picture's Worth 1000 Words