Mozambique

Hello friends. I'm now safely in Mozambique. I've been working at an orphanage and so far much of my time has been spent helping a team assemble a playground. It is certainly the other side of the world. Temperatures are generally very hot and the sun beats down - especially in the morning. The place where I'm staying is within sight distance of the Indian Ocean and I got to take a swim the other day. A far cry from the cold Atlantic that I visited in Yzerfontein, SA. It feels like bath water here.

As soon as my place first touched down in Maputo, MZ I could tell that I was really in Africa now. Confusion, language barriers, and capriciousness were the order of the day and the difference from that states could be noticed immediately in the details as small as the grass growing from cracks in the airport runway.

Finally i was issued a visa and herded back onto the plane for the short flight to Pemba where I'm now staying. In the Jo-burg airport i met some of the people who have become my frequent companions over these next days. A team from Mississippi was flying in on the same flight. Since being here they've all become good friends. And the Canadians. It's good to hear American accents again. I love Africans, but there's something that's just reassuring about talking to another American.

The Canadian team came to build the playground that I mentioned earlier. Some of the required hardware did not arrive so we have been using out God given brains to come up with so many different ways of accomplishing seemly straightforward tasks. There's Billy, Allie, Grant and Lyle from Canada. Laura, Betsy, Amy, David and family from Mississippi. June from South Korea. People from Pennsylvania and South Africa. And so many wonderful children from right here in Pemba! I wish I could show you some of their faces, but this computer is not allowing any posting of pictures.

Rice is pretty good. Especially when you eat it with your hands.

It's really different to go to the market and be locked in a full hug by a crippled man that you've never met. And then of course asked for food or money. It's different here. But I feel at home here anyway. I'm happy and content.


jared

Link to Pictures:
Africa IV