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
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
posted by Rachel @ 10:57 am
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