christmas, what??

Back from the bush. We head out again early tomorrow morning, but we were back at the Iris center for Christmas. It was an interesting week – to say the least. We got all of our stuff ready for 9:30am on the 19th, and in true African style actually headed out around 3pm. About an hour into the drive I discovered that I suddenly had a full blown cold - plugged nose, cold and a sore throat which progressed into a cold. The next morning I woke up and could hardly move my left arm. I looked down only to find a huge swollen, fluid filled bump, almost an inch off my arm. I went to the doctor with us and he had no idea what it was. We assumed it was some kind of bite, and left it at that. 2 days later it popped so we promptly disinfected and bandaged it. To add to my list of physical defects derived on my trip in the bush is a foot infected in 2 spots, a weird bump thing on my lip, and more than frequent trips to the latrine – once again. I have come to the conclusion that the bush hates me.

I experienced a deeper level in the “spiritual realm” than I ever have before. There was some intense witchcraft in some of the villages we went into. I mean, it’s always there but there was one village where as soon as we would start up a church service all the women went over across the field and did their little witchcraft thing against us. I was kept awake all night to the sound of their drums and chanting just outside the church where we were sleeping. There are so many babies who are sick and have the witchcraft beads around their necks, so you know their parents have taken them to the witch doctor in an attempt to heal them – it’s insane. It makes you really realize how much you need to depend on God to keep you safe from it all.

To be completely honest I’m finding it pretty draining. You go to sleep with the entire village staring, and waking up to them still there - staring. You get to a village late at night, set up in the dark, show the Jesus movie, pray for people, pack up first thing in the morning, do a church service, drive a couple hours and doing it all again. People line up after the speaking for prayer, which can be really cool and we’ve seen God do some awesome healings and stuff, but there is also the frustration of the language barrier and the fact that some of them are just up there to be touched by a white person.

Aside from all that though, there were definitely positives on the trip so far. Some places we’ve gone have been so incredibly beautiful. We were pretty much as far out in the bush as you can get in Africa, driving in the back of an open cameo over dirt roads so we get to see true, untouched, authentic Africa. The sunsets have gotten better each night, and I’m getting to know a few people who I never talked to much before which is cool. I saw a ton of adorable kids, experienced some true Mozambican culture, and keep being blown away when I realize to myself, “hey…. I live in Africa!” God’s healed some people when we pray for them – even a blind woman can see now! And he’s doing a lot in me, which is worth everything I’m going through.

Man, I have so many stories to tell from it so far, but no time and the internet would definitely not do them justice. I definitely had a Christmas Eve that I’ll never forget, but no internet time to write it – get me to tell you the story when I get home!

(can I just say that the pussycat dolls are playing here in the internet café, and I find it kind of amusing. Haha. So funny.)

Christmas was great though. I got back from outreach at 4am and since the sun comes up at 4:30 I decided it would be smarter to just stay up rather than go to bed, get a couple hours sleep and feel way worse when I got up – plus, a shower was definitely top priority after having zero water for a week, and smelling pretty rotten. So I took a trip to the well and got some water for a nice bucket shower, since there was no running water in the house, and then did some laundry. After that I chilled out for a bit, and then went up to where all the kids live and watched Heidi give out their Christmas presents. It was so cute. They all got new clothes and a ton of candy, haha. Then I braved the chaos of the kitchen where they were feeding probably the entire population of Pemba rice, chicken and coke for their Christmas dinner. It was great.

Tomorrow morning we head back out into the bush, to the North of Pemba for 9 days. It is going to be intense, but I have a feeling I’m going to see an elephant, so it will be worth it, haha. After internet we’re making a pit stop at the store to get some bush necessities – aka cookies and candy. So great.

Day old blog

I wrote this yesterday, but the internet didn't work. so I saved it and am posting it today. news since the post below - I spent the day at the beach today, and I just realized how close christmas is. it's totally not a big thing here, so every once in a while I see a chtristmas tree and realize it's just around the corner. weird. here's the rest of the news:

Today is graduation. I came into town early to get some "shopping" done before 11 when everything starts. These past few weeks have been busy, as usual. We had a couple great guest speakers, some fun excursions, and I went on my first outreach to the bush, and just have one thing to say – do NOT eat a lot of mangoes in a short period of time. I became intimately acquainted with one of the village latrines, and that is not a fun experience. It’s really funny in the bush because there are kids who have never seen a white person before, and some are terrified! I made 3 kids cry by smiling at them. Haha! You go to bed with the entire village around the perimeter of your tents, staring, and when you wake up – oop! There’s the whole village STILL staring! Haha. Oh man. It’s also rainy season now, so we had a nice little afternoon torrential downpour that flooded all our tents, and made cozy waterbeds for us all that night.
Tuesday we leave for our 3 week out reach. I am on a team that is traveling all around the province of Cabo Delgado going from village to village. I was excited about it at first, but now after last weekend, I’m a little nervous. I didn’t have a pleasant first village experience, but I’m sure it’ll be great. We’re gone for a week, come back to Iris for Christmas which I’m excited about, and then head out again for another week. The other teams will be away in Nampula and Zambezia, but the ones staying in Pemba and our team will get to be here with the kids.
It’s strange seeing the end of this trip get closer. People who aren’t staying for the outreach have already started leaving, and the thought of leaving my housemates has us all a bit emotional when we stop and think about it.

Last night a group of us went out to eat, and then decided it was the perfect opportunity to jump in the ocean. Definitely one of the highlights of this trip, I think. No children, no floaty stuff because it was high tide, thousands of stars. Ahh. I love living in Africa. (I wonder how much snow we have at home….)

Still no elephant sightings, but I’ll let you know after outreach.