Mozambique Journal

May 18 Fonta da Vida Orphanage Mozambique

I'm taking a break and watching Benedita (the pastor's wife) and Isabelle (the cook?) get food ready. Benedita is cleaning a kind of green they called "kovi"(?)--looks like cabbage but not in a ball. Isabella and Marta are peeling cucumbers, while the small children are working on their letters: A E I O U

Benedita and Isabelle (on her cell phone)
(Mai, Rosa, and Marta cleaning kovi)
Homework


We left the Lechner's around 8:30 this morning, and drove an hour, about half of which was on dirt (sand) roads--very bouncy and curvy.
Scenes along the way

The students started playing tag with the kids and taking pictures when we first got here.
> Lauren playing tag

Nelson
Celestino, Dercio, and 2 others whose names I don't remember
They loved seeing pictures of themselves on our cameras.

Charlie showed us around while we waited for Pastor Alfonso, then we had a brief orientation and tour.
Unloading
I loved the swing under the tree.

"Laundry room"
They have 2 dorms--one we helped build

+ 1 unfinished one that we're sleeping in.
We had to sweep up the dust and debris before we set up our tents.

Each dorm has a small kitchen,

1 bathroom, 3 sleeping rooms,

and 1 meeting area.


They have a barn, too, and pens for animals:

goats,

chickens,

ducks, and pigs.

And they grow lots of things--

peri peri (very hot small hot red hot pepper),

cucumber, squash, pineapple, manioc, sunflowers, mango, papaya, cashews, masala--I don't know what all.
We hauled bricks until lunch.

They dug sand out of the ground mixed it with water, and voila! Mud for the bricks! Which were also made from their own sand.
Lunch was beans and rice and juice. Mike and several others tried the peri peri, much to their regret. :) I volunteered to help in the kitchen, and Benedita handed me a knife and sat me down by a tub of frozen fish, told me to watch Isabelle. So I got to clean fish for supper! I felt so ignorant.

But afterward I was so proud I had to get a picture with my mentor, Isabelle.
Then I hauled some more bricks, then got bored waiting for a job, so I wandered back toward the kitchen. I helped 2 girls, Marta and Celeste, grind what they said was "amendoim" (peanuts) and they laughed and laughed.

First Rosa and the two little ones picked each nut out of the pod.

Then they ground them up.

Wacky me--had my camera turned sideways at first. Duh!
Then I helped Benedita clean kovi for a while. Then Mike whistled to help haul concrete, but that didn't last long. There's nothing really to do at the moment. It's so quiet here, and peaceful. It was REALLY HOT at first, but now it clouded over and there's a nice breeze--feels good.
Sessely
I think this is right before Heath fell off!
Celeste was scraping coconut to cook with the kovi and peanuts. As my dad would say, the right tools make any job easier!

Joao, the master bricklayer. He impressed us all.
Lauren helped Pastor Alfonso bake bread. They'd pick up this dough and SLAM it down on the counter. The wood-burning oven and "bakery" were in a separate building.
Pastor checking the bread in the oven.

Celeste was teaching Mai how to play a type of jacks, using a piece of fruit (masala?) for the ball and a handful of rocks for the jacks. It was fascinating. I got some video, but Mai was having trouble. I wish I had video of Celeste--she never messed up!