T I A Part 2

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Esmé's Mommy here.

The first "This is Africa" post last Friday wasn't exactly a positive one. Just wanted to follow up and let you know that there are positive connotations to that phrase, too. The following photos are of Africa - highlighting the reason we are so glad our baby is growing up here.

On Saturday we went to a church dedication in Zona Verde. Esmé and a new little friend stole the show for a few minutes as they played by the front door - the "dignitaries" were getting ready to start the key ceremony, but people were too busy taking photos of the babies to pay attention. At the center of baby conflict - a $0.97 doll I bought from WalMart. I'm so wishing I had brought over a suitcase of these.Here's a photo of the new church, with church members gathered around.
The old church building next door  is being put to good use as the children's classroom. In a country where the children are often ignored in church, it's wonderful to see the country's future in a building designated just for them.

Here are the Africanized pews in the old building - cardboard rolls (probably inners for plastic sheeting or something like that) tied together with string and placed on homemade concrete blocks). ("Africanized" means ingenuity here.)
While the dedication service was going on, Esmé was making friends outside. She played with this girl in a rock pile for hours.

I'm considering changing our profile photo to this one.
This boy had on a monkey shirt. Esmé excitedly called me over to see it, saying "mon."
The action brought over quite a few more boys. Esmé wasn't quite sure what to make of all the attention.
She returned to the rock pile. Notice that "monkey" boy followed.
Here he is watching as Esmé pours rocks inside a plastic bag with no bottom. Her girlfriend had had this wrapped around her foot, and when she took it off Esmé was quite fascinated with it. She tried putting the plastic bag on her foot, too.
And girlfriend found some ribbon from a cassette tape in the rocks and was "flossing her teeth" with it. Esmé had to try that, too!
Another little girl who found plenty of entertainment in a piece of tape!
There is JOY in Africa, friends! Found amidst the rocks, plastic bags, cassette ribbon, and tape.

And peace and love and all that other good stuff found in the pages of a worn Bible in the old church.


THIS is Africa!

Tihavene Dedication

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Wow – time is flying and I can’t keep up with my blog fast enough!

Mommy’s note: You don’t hear much about Maranatha’s project on this blog, as it is Esmé’s blog. If you’re interested in hearing more, check out my sister’s blog. I do want to mention, though, that an exciting part of the project has finally started! Our well drilling equipment has finally made it into Mozambique (after getting tied up in customs and then requiring huge storage fees to be paid before we could get it out – “This is Africa . . .”). And we are getting water! This is a great way to have a positive impact on the entire community wherever we are building.
Back to Esmé’s life . . .

We had lots of company – nine South African volunteers – staying with us for several days! They were very cool and even spoke English for Afrikaans-challenged Mommy’s sake.

On Saturday we went to the Tihavene church dedication, close to the beach. Here are a couple of photos of that.

Making friends:

Don't think public speaking will be one of my fears when I grow up:

One of my favorite pasttimes - chasing boys!
What do I do when I catch one? (This is Mr. Artur's boy - Mr. Artur works for Maranatha checking out new properties to build on and making sure we have the right documents.)

This family looks nice. Maybe I'll join them . . .
Another granny - cool!
I’ll show you photos of our lunch at the beach another time . . .

Ambassador Bebe

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Today we went to Machumbutane for their church dedication. Machumbutane is way out in the bush, down a long long long sandy road. True to regular form, I slept through the bumps and stayed awake on the smooth tarmac. I am becoming a true Mozambican!

Mommy was a little trigger happy at the Machumbutane church dedication today, so you shall see lots of photos here.

I seem to have achieved celebrity status at times, as you’ll see in some of the photos. Mommy and I have been talking about how being God’s ambassador here in Mozambique is my most important job, even more important than skateboarding!

The new church was very full, as you can see here. There was the group of South African volunteers (staying at our house now) that helped build this church. Plus two busloads of volunteers from Auburn Adventist Academy (in Washington, USA) came too and managed to fit inside after this photo was taken.

Here I am playing during the church service:


Here are the cows outside listening to the sermon. I said "moo" when I saw them.


Here is the old church:


Here are the new toilets. They look pretty, but be glad this photo isn't scratch-n-sniff!


Here I am playing Zacchaeus:


Here are some friends I met:


And another friend . . .


And another friend who couldn't stay awake for the whole thing. (We finished lunch around 5 o'clock, just to give you an idea of the timing of things.)



Here I am meeting some new friends:


And here I am with my entourage while taking a walk:



Mommy says this photo reminds her a little of Princess Di or some other celebrities:
Here I am saying goodbye to my friends from inside the truck:
And here are a couple of videos for good measure. The first is the children singing a song, and the second is me and Auntie Susan walking around the church with some friends.