Cultural experience...

This weekend we did not have a 4th of celebration, but more of a day in the life of a Mozambiqan. But before I go into that I will talk about Friday. Friday was our last day of the week for our afterschool program. It went great and we had a lot of fun! We began the after school program with music and then after we were done, we finally broke out the kites!!! The kids loved the "papagaios" and we had to try to make sure everyone was getting their turn with the 7 kites that we brought. After playing with them for about 45 minutes we headed in to start the crafts. We made brown bag puppets and they were so cute! We had cut out clothers for the bags and also had googly eyes that we glued on. It is so fun to watch them as they make them, and when they are finished they always say "Kaylee!! Allyson!! Kristin!!" and show off their creation. They also will say to us "En casa??" To ask us if they can take them to thier house. When we tell them that they can, they always clap and get so happy! It is so fun. So we had a great day, but we were kinda getting antsy to get off the campus since we had been there since Monday.

Well on Saturday it said on the schedule "Prayer and fasting" we had no clue what to expect (as usual.) Well we did end up going, but we of course arrived fashionably late. When we got there they were singing, and then we had about an hour service all squished on a bench. Then our "translator" (who can barely carry a conversation in English) was basically sitting on top of me and it was quite the bonding experience. After the service people started walking to these designated spots and we had no clue what was going on. Our translator Armino started like pushing to these prayer stations. He like pushed Allysons head down and said "Pray!" hahah We got a good laugh out of that. Then he pushes me to this prayer spot and I trip over these random stairs and make quite an entrance while the people our praying. I had no clue what I was praying for because the sign that said what it was, was in Portuguese. It is so interesting the way people pray here... so loud (like yelling) and passionate. It is nice to see their passion, but also so different. Then all the sudden a lady just passes out and they drag her out of the church and start like slapping her to wake her up. Kinda scary. Then no one said amen after all the praying, people just randomly started walking back to the benches.

After the service was over I texted Tomas to come and pick us up. He informed us that the leaders of the church wanted to bring us back. So we were a little bit nervous about this. We walked a couple blocks and then waited till a mode of transportation came our way. Then a bus pulled up and Olivia told me to run with her, so we all started running and got on the bus. Their was barely any seats left so Allyson sat on my lap. We thought it was crammed then, but they started piling about 30 more people on until we were maxing out the bus with probably 75 people on their. This bus was probably supposed to have 40 people on it safely. Allyson's knees were jammed into the seat in front of her, and my legs were going numb. Then a man passed out right next to us. All these people started yelling, and we have no clue why because we had no one near us that we could ask. While they were yelling Allyson and I were just sitting there and I said HAPPY 4th of JULY! We just busted out laughing, and it was good to break the ice. When we finally arrived at the seminary, Narciso tells us that it was our stop. We seriously had to push people out of the way to get to the door. No one was moving for us. Then when we almost were at the door there was like a pole right by and I seriously had to squeeze myself through and push a man to get me out of there!! When we got off we were all just standing there like... Oh my goodness, that just happened!! All that to say, we had our fair share of city time!

Today we went to the Mutatel Church of the Nazarene. Tomas was supposed to pick us up at 8 but showed up at 9:15 (we were supposed to arrive at the church at 9.) It took us about an hour to get to the church because of all the back roads and also there are so many speed bumps!! We arrived in time for the Shangaan service. No one translated for us, so we had lots of time for our imagination to wander. We sang "Trading my Sorrows" and also "God is good" (they love when we do "God is good" because we sing it in both Portuguse and Shangaan so it is always a must) Afterwards Tomas took us back to our house and we got to play with the kids for a little bit. Then our friend Clauvio called us and asked us if we wanted to go to the beach so we of course said yes! Then we waited and asked him if they were still calling and he said they had a "tyre punckture: or tire puncture and we would have to reschedule. This seems to occur a lot around here. We are really hoping to get to do some fun things here in Mozambique before we leave, but we are kind of lacking the resources (as in transportation.)

Anyways, I just ask that you pray that we stay motivated to keep taking initiative especially since nothing is set out for us. Also, the sewing machine belt is broken so even when we have our down time, we can't make the dresses like we were. So that has also been a little frustrating. We just pray that we can get that fixed quickly, especially in time for our birthday party that we are throwing. Another thing added on to all of that is that the TV stopped working and we were enjoying watching a nightly movie. It was a good American break for us. Anyways I don't mean to sound like a debbie downer, but I just ask that you would pray for our team especially these last two weeks of work. I miss you all and I am getting anxious to come home!! I pray that the Lord will help me stay focused these last couple of weeks, and enjoy every bit of my last moments here.

I know I say this a lot but I am so grateful for the wonderful support system I have at home. Being away from home definitely confirms this. I love you all and thank you for your prayers.
Kaylee