One week till Christmas!

time is going so fast here, I am sure that only yesterday we got off the plain, and now we are thinking about Christmas shopping(being in Africa we are running on typical African timing and leaving it till the last minute). But we still have work to do!
Last week was a bit unusual, as ever, because of the big rain. There was majpor flooding all over Beira which is mainly below sea level, and two of the worst hit places were Munhave and Vaz, what a coincidence. So it meant that on the Tuesdau there was no way we could work. Wednesday was our training day, but then Thursday moring the three of us went over to Vaz to teach my Eng lesson. Normally they are really good at my church about being on time, you wonder where they are when only 15 mninuts has passed, whereas at Sophie and Ambers church they can be an hour and a half late and still arrive before anyone else. But anyway, we went over on Thursday and were met coming of the Chappa by a group of Kids I recognisewd form Kids club. They asked where we were goign so we said to the church and off we went. Walking down the central road there were a few puddles, you could deffinately tell that it had been raining, then we turned off on a shortcut to the church that I dont usually take cos it smells. So far we are stioll dry, then we are directed another way because there is what apopears to be a lageish puddle in the way, so we go backj to the normal route tro churh, and walk into a lake. to get to the church we had to wade through water nearly up to our knees, whilst weraring long skirts and flip flops, quite an adventure. I wasnt really expecting anyone to turn up to our lesson at that point. but we eventually get to the church a little bit wet, and decide to hang around and just play with the kids a bit. So we did, then Pinto came along in a suit and bright blue wellies, and tells us that noone else can come so we all play with the kids together. They love Pinto he is so funny, and knows great songs and games.
we did end up teaching the lesson though as eventually some others came along, it was fun, we were doing places around town and directions, so played snap, Amber and I can get quite competetive! Eng;lish lessons are great at Vaz, we teach the youth group basically, who all have varying degrees of English, Pinto and Miquitio speak quite well, the other guys less than I speak Portuguese, and the girls practically none, so they are quite challenging as well. Normally we write up a passage on the board relating to whatever is being taught and get them to read and translate it, then we teach vocab/grammer/ sebntences, Then play a game. The games are great, even though they are mainly my age or older they really enjoy silly stuff like simon says and snap.
The kids at Vaz have just recently started being friendly to me, instead of just laughing, I have about four groupies who fight to siut next to me or hold my hand, it is so cute. Very gap year in Africa! I taugfht them to say School, and good morning the other day. OOOOOh and at Kids Club on saturday Pinto suddenly announced that there missionary (!) sister Racquel was going to come up and teach a bit. So I got up wondering what on earth i was going to say, and he suggested teaching a song. So the kids in Vaz spent the rest of Saturday delighting everyone with various Mozambican styles of Little Donkey, my favourite being Mr Donkey. Bless.
I havent been on a friday afternoon for a few weeks, the last time was our walk to Manga (incidentally Manga is Portuguese for Mango), but I hope that after Zimbabwe we will be able to start an evangelism/discipleship programme!
We aren't going to Lee's anymore since they moved to Dondo, which is a shame, wee loved it there, but Oasis are looking into other Kids projects we could go to. However on Wednesday we are going to take the girls in Dondo over to the Boys new house in Manga for a Christmas party, really looking forward to it! Lots of silly games planned, and biscuit decorating!
Yesterday on the way to Church at 8 Pinto told me that since we are goign away on Saturday,m I would have to 'give a word' in Church, PANIC!!!! Pinto can speak a bit of Englih, but not enough to translate, plus some peeps don't even speak Portuguese! So.........I went for it and 'gave a word' in Portuguese. Very scary . It was also very chessy what I came out with, about how even though my Family are England, Christmas wouldn't be sad because now I have a family in Mozambique, lol. Please email if you would like a copy in the original Portuguese, it must have sounded quite amusing as I am still only really able to talk in the present and future tense, but they managed to translate in into Ndau ok so yay! I must have preaching in my blood! I was quite impressive that in a really short space of time I managed to make them laugh (in a good way) and say amen in agreement!
The latest on Lizzie is that she is freezing back in Oxford, and should be getting her test results back later today so I will let you know. Whjen she went to Interhealth for the tests on Friday they said that it as probably either Glandular fever or an Amoeba that she somehow picked up over here. But she's in the best place to get better know, maybe having proper Christmas dinner will help her recovery?
Amber and Sophie learnt yesterday that you have to be very careful when tellin gchildren that you don't like tarantuals, becase they then think that it is very amusing to throw them at you! We are still managing to be ridiculousy clumsy, Amber walked into her church yesterday and has a lovely graze on her arm, and I think i broke my toe earlier walking into a concrete thing round the swimming pool, all good fun! We had a really nice morning off today, the pool was really quiet and warm so we just spent most of the morning in the water, having handstand contests and underwater tea parties!
So in case I dont write agin before Zimbabwe, or even until after Zimbabwe(!) Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Rxxx