As we are leaving on Saturday for a month away, you might find this space static for awhile. Hopefully we won't have any grand tales of adventure that we feel we must share with you all. Just 7 hours of driving on Saturday over mostly cement roads (part of that with enormous potholes) to stay with other missionaries. Then taking the ferry over the Zambezi river next morning, and another 5 hours or so to our friends at Maforga mission near Chimoio. Next week is AIM's national conference in Chimoio, where we'll go on Monday. Then a couple days with friends after that, then the long drive north through Tete to Blantyre, Malawi. We'll be in Malawi for about 2 weeks doing medical appointments, shopping and some vacation. We are much looking forward to it.
We are experiencing the usual stuff here at the moment. Our water has been on and off for the last few days. The person who brought the water bill explained that when it rained, more water came into the dam and they had to turn off all the water pipes to clean that new water with bleach. I don't know. . . I think it sounds like he doesn't know what the heck he is talking about! We did have water for 30 minutes on Tuesday morning, and then 30 minutes Wednesday morning. As soon as it came back on, I ran to the washing machine to fill it up and wash, but discovered that the power meanwhile had gone off. Sigh. See, I thought I was being really clever and brought white towels with me to Mozambique. And all of these needed a good wash before we left. Nothing stays clean here. The water isn't even clean! I have a nice big bathtub to soak in, but once I filled the tub in anticipation and couldn't bring myself to climb into that brownish water for a luxury bath. :-) With a shower, you don't notice.
Later, the power came back on, along with the water, so I could turn on the water heater and carry buckets of hot water from the bathroom to the washer outside. About 8 buckets each load, two loads. Then the towels were hung outside in the sun to dry (as is all our laundry) along with the other 4 loads of laundry, including cloth diapers. Meanwhile, our house worker was peeling and slicing a mountain of sweet potatoes for the dish I am making for our Thanksgiving dinner tonight. We'll have about 30 people meeting together to enjoy fire-roasted chicken and the various side dishes we have brought. Happy Thanksgiving!
When Kevin went to pick up Toby at school yesterday, he found him sitting and watching the children playing, which is extremely unusual. He found Toby pale and ill, and immediately took him for a malaria test, which was positive. We started him on the medication immediately and he seems to be improving. He'll be tired for about a week, probably, and we are glad that we will have 2 days drive in the car to keep him still. He has the kind that is resistant, and we'll dose him again in a month to kill the parasite but good. Poor kid really was feeling ill last night but seems to be on the mend. Please keep him in your prayers.
Kevin meanwhile has been going over the car, preparing everything for the many miles we will drive, on some bad roads. Much bouncing ahead! We leave behind all of our pets and an empty house. Please pray for the safety of all! All of our chicken eggs will go to a local orphanage while we are gone, so we pray that they produce well.
Christmas will find us at Lake Malawi, in a cottage at Monkey Bay. It will be a bit lonely, to be honest, so please pray that we are able to find others to celebrate the holiday with. But we are very thankful for the restful time that we will be able to have. It is the "hungry time" here in Mozambique, the time before gardens are planted and harvested, and we find the many requests for help very tiring. Our resources are small and we are just not able to help many. And there is always the dilemma of who to help and how much, many questions there.
Tomorrow afternoon we will pack the car, with full toolkit and a trunk of Christmas gifts sent out by loved ones for the boys. Off we go!
-Cami
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