I've already described Lisa, one of my first friends here. She's working to build homes for families of up to 5 orphans to be adopted by Mozambique parents. She took me out to the property that's currently under construction. News on Friday was that 3 children are already set to move in with willing parents from an orphanage formerly run by Iris Ministries.
The property where the current house is being built got quite a bit of water with recent showers - so we had some sloughing to do through the mud and shin deep pond water to get to the house. One of the things I love about how Lisa is doing what she's doing, is that she's hiring and training vocational students to do the labor on the house. It's more work for her to help train them, but it's cost effective and gives them an opportunity to get work experience. One of the workers asked Lisa to take a picture of him in his work gear because he was so proud and wanted to post it on facebook. :) |
| Proud worker! |
On Saturday, I had my first Mozambican family meal with the family that is already living in the first house that she's constructed. The couple has adopted 4 orphans, then had one child and is now expecting another. We sat for a long time outside in front of the house as the oldest daughters washed and prepared the food. The mother was trained to sew and so an old pushpeddle sewing machine sat next to us as chickens, children, and the beloved dog ran around. It was a humble home - not out of the ordinary for Mozambique, so it was cool to see the kids thriving in a typical home environment.
Dinner began with prayer, the children each got served (special night with meat!). Normally, dinner is eaten with hands and rarely not at a table. If there is a table, I'm told, the husband sits at it and the wife and children sit on straw mats on the floor. So our meal wasn't completely typical because our dinner was eaten at a table.
After dinner the children were all asked by Lisa if they had anything they needed or had questions about. She acts kind of like a social worker in checking in on them, and there was nothing new from any of them. Then the whole table took turns in praying out loud.
We got led home in the dark with a flashlight on the narrow path by the three oldest children. On giving Lisa a final hug, the oldest daughter said, "I really enjoyed going to the beach with you that time. Do you think you could find time to go again?"
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| Someone forgot to take a pic at dinner! |
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