Bom Dia

The children are beautiful. This is when we were leaving the village. The little girl there, she said her name is Maya. She was so beautiful and kept on giving us high fives. Even the older men and women came up to us and said "bom dia" (good day).

As Crianças

So I was sitting with a couple kids. I started taking their pictures and then I would show it to them on the digital camera. I don't think they had ever seen a camera before because they loved it! They laughed when they would see themselves on the screen. Then I started putting my sunglasses and my shoes on them. They laughed. Their little bare feet were rough and sometimes they had cuts on their legs or feet. It broke my heart. Maybe next time I will bring some lotion with me to the village. They kept on starring at me like they had never seen someone like me before. It was great. I loved the kids. I thought it was so great how the technology immediately drew them to me. Later, after this picture was taken many more came and sat there with us. By the time it was time to go I was surrounded by kids. It was awesome!!! I even got to hold a little baby. Later on in the day we witnessed un teatro. The villagers had a little play out in the open and it was funny. I didn't really understand it because some of it was in Portuguese, but most was in their native African dialect. It was great to be there. I am learning lots of Portuguese.

Airplane View

Airplane view of Mozambique. It is really green here. Not too much civilization as you can see. The airplane view down on Johannesburg was a lot more brown.

This Morning

The weather is really hot and humid here. It is winter here but it feels like the middle of summer in Utah. Crazy! The sun went down at 6pm and the streets were full of people still out buying things and working. The buses here are called chapas and people pay to ride them. They are not really buses but more like family vans. Yesterday we went downtown to exchange money and to buy some food. It was an adventurous trip. Many times I felt like we were going to run over pedestrians, but that's just the way people drive here. Here the pedestrian does not have the right of way. The little boys were asking me for money but we are not allowed to give them anything. I wish I could give them something. This morning I was eating a piece of bread when we were asked to step into a room to introduce ourselves. I was taken to the front of a room full of Mozambican people and I had to introduce myself in Portuguese. Yeah. It was stressful, but luckily Raquel went first and then I kind of copied her and let people know that I'm still learning Portuguese. Everyone smiled at me and I felt good. After the short introduction people left to go work in the fields. I wanted to go with them, but I guess we don't start work till Monday. I'm so excited to get out and meet the people. That's really what this trip is all about. Forget the fact that we have no running water and that my computer crashed. Yeah, that stinks, but the place and the people are beautiful and that's really why I'm here.