Early Thursday morning the power went out. We have been having lots of rain storms the last few days. It doesn’t just rain here it’s either sun or torrential down pour. This morning it was so nice and cool (78) from the storm that I didn’t even put the batteries in my fan. It was completely silent in my room and when I put my head on my pillow I could hear the mouse! The word for mouse in Portuguese is rato, they don’t differentiate between mice and rats. So sometimes when I hear the thing or see signs of it my mind starts running wild. So that morning I laid there imagining a cute little mouse like you see in Pet-smart. Also the boys think nothing of mice when I tell them there is mouse in my room they don’t even acknowledge it. Julie is always ready to lend an ear when I need to talk about my cockroach and mouse problems =) What am I gonna do once she leaves?!
Today I also got to really experience Africa. We went into one of the village to meet with Juma P’s mom and to hear their story. Driving there was crazy. The center is about a 3 minute walk to a paved road, Juma’s house is probably a 45 minute walk. The main street is lined with bamboo stalls selling things like peanuts, fabric, flip flops, used clothing, soap and other basic necessities.
We wound our way though bamboo fences and houses where we came to a small hole in the ground that was full with water. A mosquito breeding ground no doubt and right next to that was Juma’s house and their latrine. It actually looked like one of the nicer house in the area made of sticks, stones and mud.
Juma’s mother and younger brother were there and I also got to meet his sister Gina. Gina is such a beautiful little girl with an amazing smile. I instantly fell in love with her. She is so shy and you can tell she just wants to fade into the background.
Julie interviewed the family for me and I asked her to try and focus on the positive. Juma’s mom speaks Macua the local tribal language, so Julie would speak to the camera in English, then to Momade in Portugues and he would speak to Juma’s mom in Macua. Her story is heart breaking and it’s difficult to tape and take pictures of such pain and suffering knowing that I’m planning to share something so private.
The house they live in is not their own, rather a woman is letting them borrow it. She fears that one day the woman will show up asking for her house back and they will be put out on the street. I asked Julie what a house would cost and she thinks around $1,500. Might not sound like much but in a community where $100 a month is a good wage, for a woman who doesn’t have a job it’s unthinkable.
At some point her husband died from AIDS and she too has tested positive along with Juma P. She said that much of her family have stopped talking to her, I can’t remember if it is because of the death of her husband or because she has AIDS. Either way she is fighting this battle alone. I will make a video about my conversation with the family and post that once I’m home.
As far as the house itself goes it consists of 2 bedrooms and 2 common rooms. One room has a few bowls and pans and the other contains only a bucket for drinking water with a cup on top. I am surprised at how clean a house with a dirt floor can be kept. There is not bath in the house and up until a few weeks ago they were taking bucket showers in one of the rooms. What changed, The Dream Project built a latrine outside for them to go to the bathroom and take bucket showers. Be sure to see the pictures, it’s crazy how a family can be in need of something so simple.
Michael has officially arrived. While we were in taping the family, he was outside evangelizing to the neighborhood and counted 17 people committing their lives to Christ. Even better he told them he would be back the following Monday to disciple them and teach them more about the Bible.
I also handed out crayons and a sheet of paper to the kids Michael was talking to and three minutes later a group of people showed up wanting them, including this really intimidating woman. It’s just so hard because I have no clue what people are saying and they really don’t smile in daily conversation. Once someone explained that there were no more crayons she was fine. She went to grab this little girl who doesn’t speak, hear, see or walk. Michael prayed for her and it was a very precious moment.
In one of my letters I spoke of Izack’s and Njuale’s mother. She passed away a little over a year ago. She is buried at the cemetery with a simple wood cross marking her grave, and because of that the boys are concerned that someone will bury another person on top of her or something like that. We are trying to figure out how to put a cement cover over her grave to mark it.
Originally we were supposed to get it covered today but we were running out of daylight. We ended up buying cement blocks and cement and other stuff. It turned into a much more expensive project than Julie had thought and Abhrimo thought it would be better to wait till the next day to start at 5:30am.
That night we ate at one of the tourist places where they import everything from South Africa. I got myself a burger and fries with a coke, what a treat… but it still just isn’t the same as at home =)
Every morning since setting my mouse traps from behind the super protection of my mosquito net I look to see if I have caught any mice. This morning I looked at the spot under the door, but there was no trap. Weird, because I had duct tapped the sucker to the floor since the mouse kept pushing it out of his way. I shine my flashlight all around looking but nothing, so I decide that when the boys swept that morning they must have seen the tape and pulled the trap from under my door and thrown it away.
I spend the next hour or so reading and decide it’s time to shower. I walk toward the door to turn my radio on and I see movement! It scares me half to death and I have no clue what came out of my mouth... some sort of yelp scream combo. So here I am still in my PJ’s (shorts and a tank top) trying to decide if I’m dressed appropriately enough for the boys to see me (bc women are supposed to keep their knees covered). I throw on a tee shirt and decide changing my pants would take way to long. I pull open my door to see who is outside and start saying Rato, Rato and gesturing for someone to come help me! Carlos comes in and I cower near my bed, and I’m like get it out and don’t come near me with it… of course he speaks no English. Then I’m like wait I want to see how big it… so I peak over Carlos’ shoulder for half a second cause the little guy is in one of those sticky traps and I hate to see them squirming, I think he was about 4 inches long… yuck! The worst part is Carlos brought me back the trap… he somehow managed to pull the little sucker off of the sticky glue. I tell you these kids are fearless.
Julie then asked me to organize some of the toys in the garage and all I could think about was mice hiding out in the corners of things. It was so hot in the garage, even with a fan I was dripping sweat. I did find some good toys, books and movies for the activities cabinet.
Adriano took me into town to show me all the good places to buy things and I learned that I have to hand over my passport for about 2 weeks. That’s weird to me but in order to extend my visa I have to do that. On the way back to the house, we stopped to get the boys from the cemetery the two hour job turned into a full day of work.
Back at the house Julie tried to pay Abrihimos 500 MZN ($16) for his work keep in mind that a good days wage is 100 MZN ($3.20), he was like no I want 9,500 MZN (about $300)! A few days back he came into the Center asking for work saying he would take whatever we would pay him and so he was hanging some awnings over a few windows for us. Julie never even thought to ask what he would charge because he said pay him what we want. He said that he would normally charge 15,000 MZN but that he was cutting us a ‘deal’ and the reason the price was so high is because the grave yard is filled with bad spirits that could have chased him home and done bad thing to his family.
This is a Christian man, but here in Pemba the belief in spirits and witch doctors is so culturally strong it hard for people to break away from the thinking.
Things here just don’t work like they do in the US and if Abrihimos decides to take us to court and they saw we were white and Abrihimos was native he would win before we even opened our mouths. The truth is that The Dream Project is on a very tight budget over here and we don’t have an extra $300 to pay someone. When someone said this to Abrihimos his response was I know money is tight but you should have asked what the cost was.
Ugh what an ending to a long day. I just sat and listened but there was probably three hours of conversation trying to speak some truth into Abrimhos, but he wouldn’t budge. These are 4 kids with nothing who just wanted to properly cover their mother’s grave. The younger 2 are orphans… it’s just mind boggling. Abrihimos apparently saw the opportunity to take advantage of us and was going for it.
He wouldn’t accecpt any money even when Julie tried to give him either 1000 or 2000 MZN. The next morning he was supposed to come back to finish his other work with the awnings but it was raining. I heard singing and I looked out the window and Abrihimos was out with all the guys singing and worshiping. I won’t even recap all of what happened but after another 3-4 hours of talking with him he finally accepted the 2000 MZN. It was crazy though!
I think the longer I'm here the more evident my Prayer Request become based on my stories. I'll let you know if I have anything additional to what is written in my stories.
For those of you that have commented one way or another... thanks! It's nice to know people enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing.
Love you all!
Amanda
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