cheat

I am cheating a bit with the update today as this is a copy of the two week report we sent to Oasis UK:


The best address for us is: Jim and Jane Curell, Caxia Postal 92, Beira, Mozambique. All our email address’s are still the same. We are thinking of taking our retreat at the end of November, however we will let you know the exact details when it is booked. Also, we are definitely taking our holiday with the Zim team and are planning on traveling there on the 23rd December and returning on the 4th January but once again will let you know as soon as things are finalised.

Amber and Sophie are living with a family from Marina’s church who have three daughters-they are 16, 18 and 19 but the oldest is away at university at the minute. Their house is only a five minute walk away from town and they are getting on really well with the family. Rachel and Lizzy are living with a family from their church, who have one daughter, one son and a niece living with them. It is the same family that Laura and Becky stayed with a couple of years ago. Amber and Sophie have running water 24/7 (although it is cold!), but the other girls don’t so have to wash with a bucket which they are gradually getting used to! They are getting on really well with their family aswell.

Marina has been absolutely brilliant and has really helped us to settle in here, we don’t know what we would have done without her!! We feel like we’ve been here longer than two weeks, because our orientation was so detailed and we’re beginning to feel a lot more independent. We can find our way around now and know where they sell the best cakes! Or where the air conditioned buildings are! All the other Oasis Mozambique staff are great and have really made us welcome. We are finding the devotions really encouraging and relevant, and it is really nice to have a training day once a week to pray together and find out how everyone is.

We were all ill for the first week at least, all thanks to Amber! She was ill on the way over and we think it was a bug from England! Rachel was ill the longest but finally felt completely better on Monday (a week and a half after getting here!!) We are all fine now though which is really good timing as we started our work yesterday. Somehow Marina managed to escape the bug!

Lizzy and Rachel are at Fe Dos Apostolos in Vaz. They have visited it but have not been to a service there yet, as there was a big service for all the churches in the district at another place last Sunday. Their timetables are pretty full with church stuff but they are excited about it. They started their work yesterday with an English lesson which went really well and are also involved with youth group, kids clubs and evangelism. All of us are also helping with the kids groups at English Speaking Fellowship once a month. Amber and Sophie are at Apostolica Pentecoste in Munhave. They went to their first service on Sunday which was four and a half hours long, but it didn’t seem that long!! Yesterday they visited the hospital with a few members of the church, which they found quite tough as they visited the children’s ward. They will be visiting the hospital on a weekly basis to pray for people. They are also involved with kids club, PEPE, youth group and English lessons. Marina is going to try and arrange for all of us to work at Lee’s House of Blessing on a regular basis once our Portuguese lessons have finished.

Sophie is doing a great job as team accountant and has been keeping detailed reports of money spent and receipts etc. It’s a bit different to other teams as we need to split the money between the team as we are in pairs, but we are working it out. Sophie is just going through the orientation finance report with Marina and will email you this at the end of the month.

Prayer points:

Thankyou that we all got here safely and are feeling so much better now. We are all beginning to settle in and it’s feeling a bit more like home.
Rachel would like prayer for proper sleep! She keeps waking up during the night and so is tired in the day and running out of energy. She would also like prayer for learning Portuguese, as it is quite hard.
Amber is finding it hard with not being able to go out by herself, it gets a bit frustrating at times and her emotions are really crazy. Also again with the language as she is finding it difficult to pick up.
Lizzy is missing some home comforts and the no running water is getting her down a bit. Also she is feeling really emotional and her moods changing quite a lot which she is finding a bit hard to cope with.
Sophie would like to be able to build better relationships with her Mozambican sisters but is finding it quite difficult because of the language barrier.
We would all also like help with dealing with the poverty over here. It is really hard when people ask you for money and you just see how bad it is for some people.
Also for prayer as we start work, that we won’t be scared or overwhelmed but excited at new challenges that we face.

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so we have started work now which is going ok. Lixzzie and I hd our first english esson, four people showed which was a great number to start with, but we are having to re work all the lesson plans in the oasis book as they already know the basic stuff. But i is cool developing our own 'curriculum' and means that we have an excuse to visit cafe riviera lots!
Last week was a bit different as there was a surprise bank holiday on the thursday so we spent the day on the beach. It was the 20th anniversary of a president dying and they didnt announce it till four on wdnesday. so i means that we missed our poruguese lesson (shame!) but also means that we couldnt go to visit PEPE which is the pr school system run in several churches, but its all good as we get to go this thursday with sheena instead so dont have to start our other english lesson till next week, by which time we will know exactly what we are doing!!!!
Mozambique is great, nothing is done on the same timescale, so our overseer leonoradidnt show up to unlock the church till 15 mins after the lesson had started, one girl didnt arrive for an hour! And on staurday after kids club(much fun) our pastor told us that we were eating lunch at his house, so we had to text Rosa (in portuguese-go us!) and let her know w would be out for lunch and dinner.
Lizzie and I had a prope social life this weekend, Lunch with Pastor Samuel, dinner with Marinas Moz family at the house that is entirely blue inside an out, and then we spent all of yesterday with Tim and Beth, who woirk with Africa Inland mission, they picked us up at eight to go to sunday shcool at their church F.D.A in inamandima(sp?), thewn after another 4 hr service we went back to theirs for lunch, Beth and their son Johnathon had baked a great choccy pudding, that they call brown stuff, yummness.
5 MINS LEFT!!!!!
Have to go now, but please all email me, especialy if there is any big UK news, we are all suffering from ten o clock news withdrawal!!!!!!

Everything about everything !

I just read my last post, and I think I typed it without taking a breath, this one should be longer though. Its our first official day off today as we started our timetables this week, we are all off to have a picnic on the beach later! We finished orientation on friday, it was gret we spent loads of time stiing in cafes ewating cakes that are the size of small boulders. I think that the four of us will come back a lot fatter (apparently thats good!?!) mainly from eating cakes and giving in to constant chocolate cravings.
Alll of us are ok healh wise now, we somehow manage to bring a tummy bug with us from the uk which we all had for the first week buti thik thatwe are all over it now so can properly enjoy the huge range of cakes. We went out to a chinese restaurant (madness, chinese in beira!) for lizzies 23rd birthday the first sunday we were here and Marna had arranged for them to make a birthday cake, it was the biggest one i have ever seen , like something out of a film covered in white icing and roses.
We have moved in with our families now, so we are eating real mozambican food, mainly rice and fish or chicken, but there is also a really nice thing called matappas which is kale peanuts and cocunut all crushed up and made into a sauce type thing, i am going to try and learn how to make it so thats something for you to look forward too :). On friday evening we had a cooking and shopping challenge, Sophie and Lizzie had to make and English dish and Amber and I had to try Mozambican, it was great ,we even made our own coconut milk, and its a lo cheaper to cook mozambican than english as you can get most of the stuff off the market stalls, i think that we spent about 50p on vegetables and the rest of our money on chicken and rice, which we wernt brave enough to get from a market. One of the guys in the office has told us that one day he will kill allive chicken for us so that we can taste the differnce, goody!
we have all got used to living in Beira now I think, we can navigateour way around on Chappas and know where all the best cafes are. Our sleeping/eating times have changed too, as we are not allowed after dark, we are home from about half five, at about half 6 we have biscuits and tea and then we eat themain meal at about half eight, then we go to bed. Sounds early but we arenormally tired way before dinner. then we get wken uop at half five (!) because our family get up then, but normally sleep again till just before seven, the get up and have brekkie, lunch is early at 12. ecveryone comes home for lunch so once we start workwe will as well.
Our house is really nce, you can forget that you are in Mozambique, mine and Lizzies room has a little balcony with a great sea view so we can watch the sunset every night. the only thing missing is runing water so we have got used to 'showering' by throweing cvo0ld buckets of water over ourselves, and flushing the loo by pouring water down it. its bizaree because the bathroom is really nice and looks all modern, but there are big buckets of water everywhere.
our family are lovely as well, but they wont let us help clear up anything, we have Rosa who is the mum. Its really weird that she goes to vaz for church, and she is nthing like the other women there, she works in a bank, weras trousers(!) and play computer games on the dvd player to relax. Sghe speaks a bit of english so we are gradually learning all about her and her family. She also had two girls from the last team to come out, Laura and Becky, so she knows what to expect from two englsh girls. We also live with her daughte Madlena (13) son Lulu(11) and niece Euridse (16), there is also a nephew who sleeps there occassionally who we met last night. The kids dont speak much english and itcan be frustrating trying to talk to them as our portuguese is far from great, but we can jst about do it with the help of dictionarys and sign language. Madlenas favourite food is pizza so yesterday we had a go at making it with her, it was great, we just made u[p the recipe as we went alonmg and it actually worked, we had loads, but Mozambicans love to eat so not much was left over. We had a really nice evning and king Kong was on Tv (in English!).
So tomorrow we start work in Vaz, which is two chappas from our house, about 20 mins each way i think. Its completely different there to Beira town. Beira looks as though it is falling down, yo ucan tell that when theportuguese wre here it was a really nice place, lots of colonial type building, but now its scabby. Vaz is more like the africa that you see on tv, huts with corrugated roofs etc, and the church is a drak mud room type thing, they arerebuilding it by bulding up breezeblock walls round the poutside and when they are done they tehy just tear down the original inside.
Our timetable at themoment is really good,
Monday- day off
Tuesday- mornign free for planning then an English lesson 2-4
Wednesday- Training day at the Oasis office
Thursday- eenglish lesson 9-11 portuguese lesson
Friday- team time in morning (lie in) prayer walking, visiting sick people etc in the afternoon, Marinas house for dinner and a chance to watch english stuff on tv yay
Saturday- kids clube 8-9.30 (that means leaving the house at 7.15!!!!!!) youth gruop 9.30-11, afternoon free ofr planning
Sunday- church @9, singing and dancing required afternoon free then helping with sunday school at english fellowship
So thats my week.
we are having a weekend retreat at the end of November, at least we hope atthe end as that is ambers birthday, bt if the rains have started then the roads are impossible so it may have to be sooner. we are going to a really nice bbeach plave where you stay in grass huts and can swim in seawithout sewage(!) lol with that and zimbabwe it siounds like we are on holiday. But our excuse for zimbabwe is that we have to leave the country every 90 days to renew our visas, so it is a work trip,lol.
I went to church for the first time yesterday, Lizzie and I went to the joint Fe dos Apostolos service in Manhave, a great intro to chuch as it was four hours long. We had met an amerivcan couple at ennglish fellowship who work wih the fe dos apostolos in nymandima so they translated the whole thing for us which was really useful, especially as they made us go up to the front an be intreoduced to everyone. Joao whpo works at Oasis was there as well and looked really pleased that he knew who we were and cuold introduce us to all of the youth. He taught us some greetings in Ndau (SP?) the other day so now he always greets us with bosh dia and muno pona instead of bom dia and como esta. Crazy languageness.
Our work overseers are Valentino, who looks about 14 and Leonora, who also looks really young but is already divorced and has a son. they are really lovely and we have adopted leonora as a sister. Our pastor Samuel is also great, he is so funny. He doesnt speak english eiter, just knows odd words that he throes into sentences. he is really excited to have us there as he knows what becky and laura got up to and the fe dos apostolos somewhere else.
The churches are grouped by name, which sort of is related to denomination, so Lizzie and I are Fe dos Aposotlos, in the Vaz group,at the Vaz chrch, but there are also three other groups of about four churches all fe dos apostolos, its confusing.
Amber and Sophie are working with Apostolica Pentecoste in manhave, about 15 mins out of town, nd they live about tenmins wlak from us, practically in the centre, so we can easily walk past there flat on the wayto town.
The other day Marina showed s a cake shop right by where lizzie and i catch the chappa to vaz, and they sell snickers! it was very exciting as chocolate is hard to find. Shoprite is great too, they seel random stuff, but never what you are looking for. They already have christmas decorations up anmd Lizzie and i bought mince meat to make mince pies for the family at christmas.
Anywho I have spent forever on here. Byeeeexxx

Just quickly

This is going to be a quick one as Lizzie and I are meeting Marina in a minute to go and visit our pastor, Pastor Samuel, to discussour timetable beforewe start work on Tuesday. we are going to be based with Fe dos Apostolos in Vaz (vash) which is a little way outside of Beira itself. Our day off is a monday, and we also get saturday and sunday afternoons free. So i will let you know once it has all been sorted and we know what we willbe getting up to.
we found out yesterday that we are going to be going to Zimbabwe from about 23rd of December to 4th(?) of January, so weget to be with the Zim team for Christmas which is great as nearly all the Oasis staff are going away. Yay!

Tada

So I am here! Wow, sitting here in an internet cafe which is pretty much just a room with omputers, nothiung cafe like about it. The keyboard is funny so please forgive my typing. It is all a bit strange, but we are settling in ok. At the moment we are staying at Jim and Jane Currel's house(country directors) whilst they are on home leave. Lizzie and I are being forced to bond ads we are sgaring as crazy water bed. Feels like you are sleeping on a boat the whole time.
The journey was madly long, and I dsiscovered that my body like to make me throw up oin strange situations, Jo'Burg airport is no longer that appealin g to me! We got a real african welcome though, with our polane to Beira leaving an hour earlier than we were told, fortunately helen who works for Oasis was taking the same flight so we got here ok. The plane was tiny really cute, and they gave us boiled sweets before takeoff. At Beira they asked to search my bag aaaaaah and were really intriegued by the footballs, but Marina and Jill were there to explain what we were doing. Then 7 of us plus five lots of luggage crammed into a people carerier and now here we are.
Wwe spent yesterday at the beach at clube nauticos which is the safe buit, and we swam in the pool. We also had our first chappa experiences. They are the public transport system, basically breaking down mini buses crammed with peiople, they are fairly easy top use though as there are only three routes in Beira and the price is always 5 meticais (11p), no matter how far or where you go.
The money is slightly confusing as they have changed currency and there are still some old notes and coings floating around but we wil soon get used to it.
off to lunch at Marinas friends market stall in a minute so,
Ate logo!

2 DAYS!!!!

This is scary close now. All that lies between now and the day that I change hemispheres is my 19th birthday, which for some reason seems rather insignificant at the moment, it isn't that I have forgotten that tomorrow is my birthday, it is just being a bit overshadowed. I have loads of cards to open already though, lots of them have come early this year so I have built up a little collection of envelopes in the kitchen.
It suddenly occured tome today how much I have already gained, despite not having left the country yet. One of the biggest things that I wanted to gain form this exerience was to grow in my faith, and already that has happened, especially since the training week. It's amazing. It's also been great to realise how much support I have from everybody, yesterday I got a card from someone at church with £50, so unexpected and so great!
We had Christmas dinner yesterday with Grandma and Grandad, Emily, Anne and Neal. Twas really nice, I am going to miss not being here for Christmas, but at least I have had the food, and Nana said that she will send me out a packet of bread sauce to make up for not being there.
I managed to cry yesterday as well though, we had just sat down for dinner and Katie's brother Ben came round with a card (and birthday present) for me. The card was from her and all of her family to say good luck and it was so nice that she thought of doing it before she went away that it made me all sad. But it was lovely.
The commisioning service the other Saturday was really good, Lizzie and I were there and it was really good to see her again, especially as she won't be at the Airport on Wednesday. We had a talk from Steve Chalke and then all of the frontliners and degree students stood up and we were prayed for. We all got given a bracelet to wear that says 'keep hope alive' to kind of remind us what it is all about.
Not sure if I will write again before I am in Moz so:
Byeeeeeeexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx