Another swing set

Nate has a huge "to do" list for our new home. Literally pages worth :). Right now he is fulfilling one job - 'treat the house for termites'. It's a big job which involves digging a trench around the entire house and filling it with termite poison. Hopefully it works!

Yesterday he checked another job off the list - 'build girls a swing set'. It's the second one he's made in Mozambique.

It was a hit! What a man.

Apples, Oranges and Mandioka

It has been interesting learning food names with my language tutor. Many fruits and vegetables that stock grocery stores in the western world are unknown or new to the people of our village. Grapes, strawberries, apples, oranges, cabbage and broccoli are some examples of foods without names in the heart language of this people.

A big part of their diet here is cassava, which has no nutritional value, or boiled maize flour. Sauces to have with it are made from leaves with salt, water, and perhaps onion, tomato and garlic. Some of the treats people may add to the sauces, depending on their means, are small dried fish like pilchards, or large ants that come out with the rain.

Back to language lessons

We had a lovely time in Australia over Christmas, visiting Jenni's family. Now we are back to business in the Africa. We have spent the better part of August 2012 - November 2013 learning the national language in a city on the coast. In November 2013 we moved inland to a little village where many women don't speak much portuguese and to get deep with most people, we need to learn their heart language.

So we are back to language lessons, this time with our people's heart language. Nate has a language tutor for three hours in the morning while I do preschool with the girls, and then I do two hours of the heart language in the afternoons, four days a week. So far so good!

Rainy Season

Here is a picture of what Sunday meetings are commonly like for us in Africa. We have lovely meetings with the few believers here. Nate is passionate to teach the Word and is thankful for every opportunity. This particular day it poured and poured on the tin roof during a meeting. It showed no sign of clearing up at the end so…..

Nate, my hero, ran through the sheets of rain and over footpaths of mud with a piece of material over his head to fetch the car and keep us all dry. Nate seems to be frequently running in the rain this rainy season :)