Bon Dia!!
I never thought I'd start a letter off this way, but here it goes...
It is amazing that certain dirts are dirtier than others...especially African soil. No two villages are alike nor is the terrain. Africa is a cornucopia of sights...mud huts in the middle of dry brown dirt and few trees, or red dirt and green trees and big gigantic rocks that are called mountains--but not like mountains out in the west--or you have red dirt brown huts and green hilly terrain. There are rivers that look like lush oasis' and you can see women and children carrying gallons of water and pounds of goods walking for kilometers on end along roads that are partially paved and then broken...if Cal Trans decided to become Bush Trans, their work would be cut out for them! Africa is beautiful and I'm only in one of its countries...I can only imagine how amazing the other parts of this continent look!!
As I write this I am sitting in the back of a camion (large truck) with roughly 25 others...most are mission school students and Mozambican bible students (training to become pastors)...in the landrover behind us are more pastors, visitors and some of the "nationals" who are the older iris kids and they become interpreters for the akunas (white people) as we go into villages to discover what love looks like.
We got to be a part of a special bush outreach as the village we visited was celebrating the dedication of a brand new children's center...each children's center is different, and the place where we stay Aldeia de Allegria is a resource center--now a normal children's center consists of an iris pastor and his wife taking in orphaned children and adopting them. The center we got to see dedicated held 10 children. Each of the children was photographed and interviewed because Iris is starting a child sponsorship program, where others in the world can help in ways that can help these children walk out their dreams...as I find out more details, I will let you know... Both Heidi and Rolland Baker (yes they camped in a tent with all the visitors, missions students, bible school students, and Iris kids) were there to dedicate the center, have church with them (and the village) and provide dental care...the Baker's were not doing the care, but two dentists and their staff came to Iris to serve this third world country with basic dental care that is of course much safer than typical African teeth yanking!!
We spent three days in the bush bush and my favorite quote came from my friend Lisa (Aussie), "Wow you're really sunburnt!" As I put a wet wipe to my face she laughed and said, "Oh I guess it was just dirt!" Well it was a dirty weekend, but it is so amazing to sit in the dirt with the beautiful Mozambicans where language can be a barrier, but simply sitting is enough to make a friend...much laughter assured!!
This morning we saw a woman pounding maize and she worked with such skill lifting up her heavy pole and thrusting it into the maize...we watched and three of us tried her job for a second...she along with all the children, the men sitting under the roof in the shade, and the other mamas laughed...we laughed because we fought the pole and the maize while she effortlessly uses gravity to its advantage to pound through the maize with a thud--it was a tough job and she was fit for it. In my broken Makua after asking her name (inchinatipani) I said, "koshukuru Alina" (thank you Alina) and in turn after I shook her hand she said "Koshukuru!" as she put both hands over her heart to display her appreciation that we noticed her hard work and it touched her heart...I walked away feeling extremely greatful for that moment and out of the entire bush adventure, that moment of connection was priceless...that's what love looks like...
As we sit in the back of this camion, I am beginning to ponder all that has transpired in these past 5 weeks...we have 12 days of class left before graduation, and December is almost here...well maybe I should not think that far ahead as we haven't hit Thanksgiving...Yet time is a flyin' and things are a changin'...
So let's see how week 6 goes...
Deus Abencoe
Desi
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