The Money Jar

I met with some of the workers to let them know my intentions for the weeks I will be in town. Mainly that we are doing Christmas and also that I’d like the kids to brainstorm and come up with ways we can serve our community.

Even though my porch is actually only 2 steps,
there is always room for coloring!

Sunday is church. A new church building has been put on the property. The other big change is that they play American worship music in addition to Portuguese & Macua. Church consists of about an hour of signing, prayer, testimonies, a short message and more signing and prayer. I like it… probably because of all the singing =)

Monday and Tuesday feel like a bit of a waste. I spent most of them trying to set up my MiFi (wifi that is supposed to run off a cell phone SIM card). I’ve tried 2 different cell phone stores. MCel is the main company in town. It was an interesting experience. You wait in line outside of the store, only to be let in by a security guard and given a number. Your number depends on your issue and they go from A01 – G99. I’m given a G#. It’s frustrating because people who walk in after me get to go before me. After an hour of waiting we finally get a turn and they basically say they can’t help us unless I bring in my laptop. Luckly we had the car this day as we were planning to buy pop for Christmas, so we tell them that we will be back in 20-30 minutes and ask the security guard if we can come right back in. He says yes.

25 minutes later, we are back but the guard doesn’t let us in for about 10 minutes. When we finally get in we get to head to a back room for a computer tech to look at my laptop. After a phone call for help, the man says he can’t help because I have a Mac, but he sends us to another place. We go there and the tech says this won’t work with MCel. Ahhh, life in Mozambique. I remember my favorite restaurant from last year had a Wi-Fi sign, so we will try there another day.

So many things here take so much time, I should have expected this. I was really hoping the MiFi would make it easier to communicate back home,  but I just don’t have time to figure it out right now.

I told the kids about my book tonight (see “Book: Dreaming of Moz” above). I was nervous. I didn’t want them to think I was using them to become rich. It was hard, but mainly because facial expressions here are so different than in the states. I thought 2 kids were mad while I was talking, but afterwards I realized that they weren’t.

Izack looking over the book.

I haven’t made much on the books, but I bought swim trunks for the kids in the house with part of it, put a little toward my trip and started a money jar for the house. My hope is the money jar will be used to help people in the community. I want the kids to be in charge of how we spend the money. I’m hoping this challenges them in new ways and some of them realize how fun giving can be. We told them about the money during family time and shared the verse about the widow giving what she had (Mark 12:41-44). I’m excited to see how this turns out =)

After family time the kids came into the kitchen to get swim trunks and see the book. It’s so funny how such little things make them so happy.

Latino and his new swim trunks!

Yesterday I asked Juma P if he wanted a hug, he became shy. Tonight he came to my door grinning from ear to ear saying, “Thank you Mana Amanda” I asked if he wanted a hug and he shook his head yes. The smile grew and grew. I got thank you after thank you and one smile and hug after the next. When you get the chance to give to kids like these, you really understand that it is better to give than to receive. 

I'm pretty sure this hug makes me happier than Juma P =)