28 weeks

At 28 weeks, I think it's about time we made an official internet announcement of our pregnancy :) I've had two pre-natal checkups, one in portuguese in Mozambique, and one in english in South Africa. Nate had just enough time to take the above photo during my 19 week check up as there was no print out photo or dvd accompanying the 2 minute scan :)

Due date is Feb 25th!

Pineapple season

One of the perks of living in Africa is fruit fresh from the farmer/tree/ground. It's fruit like you've never tasted before! Here we have 3 pineapples, 2 pumpkins & a bunch of mangos - all for a cool 4 bucks.

December 1

Happy birthday most wonderful hubby!
You sure do make some good looking children :)

Flashback to London

Our trip over to Africa began two months ago yesterday! We were blessed to have an eight hour lay over in London during the day while the Olympics were there! The city was alive with energy and excitement (more so than usual!)

Still in the States, waiting to board our flight.

The view from London Bridge

The Olympic rings 

The Olympic Rings again

Eliana's favourite part - the subway! Poor Lilah could hardly keep her eyes open :)

We searched high and low for a meat pie but with time running short and no pie in sight, we grabbed a sausage roll each instead. Looks like we'll have to wait for a good Aussie meat pie the next time we visit Australia :)

Beach Babies

It took us over a month, but we finally made the 1 hour drive down a bumpy road to the beach. We were visiting a bush church and then celebrating a few baptisms at the beach. It was a little walk down there. Eliana procured some help.

Once we got to the water, there was no stopping Lilah. She was ALL about it. Waves in the face, sand in the mouth, sunscreen in her eyes did not not matter. She just LOVED the water and had a ball.

Eliana was hestitant around with a crowd around but later warmed up.

After the service our family went a little ways off to enjoy the beach a bit more. I think we've got two little water babies in our hands :)

Functionality

Our team leader made a true observation in our first month. "When you first arrive in this country, you work for the house. After a while the house starts working for you." :)

A few days after we arrived in Mozambique, our lovely single swivel kitchen tap/faucet started leaking A LOT of water. Nate spent heaps of time searching every hardware shop in town seeking a new washer. No one had one. Every shop owner informed Nate that he needed to buy a whole new tap. When all other options were up, Nate finally purchased a new faucet. It looked nice, but was, as Nate put it, "a piece of junk". While Nate was trying to attach the lovely shiny new tap it broke in four different places. Not exactly quality material! So swivel taps don't seem to be an option in this part of the country. Finally, Nate put together some spare parts to make this little beauty. Functionality over aesthetics. Gotta love it.

Women's conference in the bush

Two weekends ago I was able to go out with three other women on my team to a women's conference in the bush. About 150 women came from around the area, some walking a day to be there, to sit around The Word and fellowship. 

This was the drive out there

On the drive out to the conference.

The leaf covered enclosures were our shower and our toilet

This was our shower - one of the nicest I've used in the bush. It had banana stalks to stand on and a tunnel underneath to drain the water out.

This was our toilet.

This is where we slept, behind the church building. The other women slept on mats inside the church.

This is an old termite hill next to the church.

This is the kitchen where our meals where cooked (over open fires).

Here is where the traveling women set up their kitchens to cook their food.

Some banana trees loaded with fruit out the front of the church.

This is where we had our meetings.

Here are some samples of the singing and music. Unfortunately I must have covered up the speaker in the 2nd clip, but you get a taste of the dancing we enjoyed.

Fish on Friday

This is the story about two almost clueless people trying to make their way in a new country :) It was the Friday afternoon of Family S's second week in Mozambique. Dad and Mum had completed their first full week of language classes and were feeling the brain strain. Their baby girl, Lilah, had been badly sick for their two weeks in their new home so Mum, being, tired, pregnant and worried had trouble talking to their two afternoon guests without crying. Mum had already employed a lady to help with house work while full time language studies were underway, but being in an emotional state, sent her house worker, her empregada, home early. Suddenly, some carpenters rang to say they would arrive any minute to put up some shelves. Two men came and began working away with loud drills and sawing and banging, much to the delight of Lilah and their oldest daughter, Eliana. 

Finally the carpenters finished their work, which was of very good quality. However, cleaning wasn't part of the carpenters' job so the house was filled with sawdust and scrap bits of wood. Mum suddenly started to regret sending her empregada home early :) Then, Dad and Mum had a great idea. A drive out in the fresh air with the setting sun and then a trip to the local nighttime fish market to buy some fish for dinner. First they made a quick trip to another family's house who were out of town but who said Dad and Mum could pick up their internet from outside. So Dad parked the car and did a few internet jobs while Mum sat in the back with two wiggly, squirmy girls, swatting at the mosquitoes that were freely entering their car in the twilight of night.

Next, Family S made it to the fish market and were immediately met by market sellers who were aggressively attempting to sell their catches of the day. Dad and Mum started to realise that they didn't know much about types of fish, how to clean them or good prices so they blindly bought a bunch of 10 fresh fish and returned home.
Upon arriving home, Dad and Mum managed to zap a potato in the microwave for their two tired girls. The girls went to bed. Amidst the sawdust that was still spread everywhere, Dad and Mum attempted to gut and clean the fish. After massacring two fish beyond edibility Dad and Mum started to wonder if the fish market on such a crazy day was a good idea after all :)

Then Dad, the hero of our story, took his portuguese skill, the rest of the fish and a knife onto the dark street in order to seek the help of some passerby. He quickly found the guard of a Mozambican family down the road who was willing to show Dad how to gut and clean a fish Mozambican style (scales off, guts out, eat everything else). Dad drew quite a crowd and amidst answering the crowd's questions of why his empregada or wife wasn't cleaning the fish, was able to learn to gut fish Mozambican style. Dad left 5 fish with the family of the guard then returned home victoriously with 3 fish for dinner. Mum fried those fish like their was no tomorrow then Dad and Mum finally slumped themselves into some chairs and ate what they could out of the fish at 9pm. After cleaning up as much of the sawdust and woodscraps that their energy allowed Dad and Mum at last crawled into bed. It had been a long time since they had looked forward to a Saturday morning sleep in with so much enthusiasm :)

Around our neighbourhood

Here is a park near the river. Green grass is a rarity in Mozambique, and always refreshing.

This is a typical pathway. We are the only ones I've seen so far who navigate the streets with a pram, though.

If you look closely below, you can see a lady carrying a basket on her head and a baby on her back. That is the normal transport for babies around here. I wore Lilah on my back the other day and a lady told us we should employ her to carry our babies so that I wouldn't have to do work :)

This is the local rubbish truck.

Here is our local rubbish bin. It has just been emptied by the garbage men shovelling the rubbish into a trailer. There is a family of ducks, some chickens, and some street dogs that love to hang around the rubbish area.

This is our street.

Here is a local well where the women and children from our neighborhood fetch their water.

Here is our apartment building.

Our apartment is the one painted yellow.

Here is the driveway that we share with another family. That's the truck that our company generously provided for us.

Pancakes without power

Nate made pancakes this morning but halfway through the batch, the power cut off. Thankfully, we have a gas stove, so it all turned out alright :)

Without power, we decided to take our first venture to a cafe for our first coffee out. However, the power was out in most of the city so coffee was not an option today.

We decided to share a bottle of coke and a couple of custard cakes. Not a bad replacement :)

Our first Sunday in Mozambique

Our first Sunday was, not surprisingly, a new experience. We arrived at the city Baptist Church during the Sunday School hour, while adults were still studying the Bible together. Then, a bit after 9 more people started arriving for church. Eliana needed the bathroom at this point, so I took her outside to the church 'toilets' out the back. Picture a small outhouse with a broken cement floor and a hole in the middle. Eliana almost attempted using this, but in the end decided not to. I took Eliana back inside and asked our team leader if she could go to his house, which would be the closest western style toilet. So Nate, Eliana and our team leader left to take Eliana to the bathroom while I stayed at church with Lilah as the service was beginning.

Not long after they left, the person leading the service said it was time to introduce their new guests. So I stood up and tried to explain the situation to the whole church with the little portuguese I knew. Later I realised I said, "My male daughter I need the toilet" Thankfully, our team leader's son was there who explained the situation a little better :). The people were very understanding and commenced singing and dancing. I think the church consisted of about 30 people that day, but their singing was full and beautiful. It's fair to say that their singing would compete with a congregation of 300 in most Western churches!

Lilah walked around the back of the church a lot and some Mozambican children decided to take charge of her. They picked her up and played with her and then eventually left the building with Lilah in their arms. I chased after them, calling out, but with all of the activity outside they didn't hear me. The children were almost about to round a corner into a biro (community) when they finally heard me and stopped. I took Lilah back with a smile, not really sure how to say I wanted to be able to see her at all times. Lilah and I went back to church while the children went their way. They soon returned with their purchase of a few lollies and gave Lilah a piece of gum and a lollypop! I didn't know what to do but thankfully Lilah didn't realize they were for eating and just held onto them. As soon as she dropped the gum I gave it to the oldest girl who happily put it in her mouth. I eventually distracted Lilah with something else and hid the lollypop out of site, lest she pop it into her mouth and discover the delights of processed, coloured sugar at the age of 1 :)

Nate and Eliana eventually returned, we were introduced to the church and then everyone came and shook Nate's hand while singing a song. They would have shaken mine too but I was already out the back with Eliana. She wanted to try using the church bathroom again! The rest of the service I was up the back or outside watching Eliana and Lilah play with the other children, which involved a lot of dirt. When we arrived home at about midday, the first thing we all wanted to do was wash our hands, face and feet. I turned the tap on, but discovered that the electricity and water were off for the day. We were very thankful for our full 10 litre water filter that day!

First impressions

After 2 and a half weeks we have the internet connected in our apartment! When we arrived, we found our place was fully furnished with company owned equipment that is stored here for people learning language. Our team-mates here in Mozambique worked so hard before we arrived to make us feel welcome. They cleaned, put up curtains, moved in furniture, fully stored our pantry and fridge, baked, made welcome gifts, and I'm sure they did a whole lot of stuff that we don't even know about! We give thanks for them! Below are some photos of our home that I took in the first day or two of being here (before unpacking). 

our lounge room

our bedroom

our bathroom with a washing machine (a very nice surprise!)

our dining area

our kitchen - the biggest we've had in our 5 years of marriage :)

We probably won't change much of the house as we are only in Quelimane for a year while we study portuguese. Plus, I'm not sure we'll find the time :). We got stuck into language study less than a week after arriving and before the last suitcase was unpacked!