Wow... A short break can fully change a person!
In April I applied for my Visa to travel to Mozambique. The embassy said that I could remain in Pemba for 90 days. Before I left I knew that I would be here for 124 days... So last Wednesday I have the opportunity and privilege to escape and go on a little vacation. A friend and I found a sweet deal on a return flight and decided that the hot showers in Johannesburg would be a great place to rest! So we left and in 72 hours I had 1 bubble bath, 2 days of shopping (the long term missionaries sent lists), 3 Hot buffet breakfasts, and 4 steaming hot showers!! I don’t think that I will ever be the same again, I lost about 6 shades of what I thought was a tan!
For the first time in my life I sort of enjoyed shopping, it was just so nice to wander around without obligation or responsibility. I did not realize how exhausted I was or how much I needed a break until I returned to Pemba... I am a new person. I am learning a lot about rest and taking time to re-focus, I think that it is more important than most anything else. How can we care for anyone else, African, or Canadian, or American, or anything esle-ian if we do not first care for ourselves.
Besides being rested there is not too much new going on here. I am building some great relationships with my housemates and still enjoying my interactions with the Mozambicans... I love throwing random kids up in the air! Tonight we start a week of 24/7 prayer... I enjoy these weeks and I look forward to the changes that happen as people pour themselves deliberately into prayer.
One daily event that I just remembered that might make you smile... One interaction that makes me smile everyday is when any one of a group of about 20 boys addresses me... these specific boys know that my name is Candace but they all call me Frango... the English translation is Chicken. This is because of a teaching I did back in May that involved a story about a boy named franco. So every single day as I walk around the compound I smile as off in the distant I hear that I am being summoned “Frango, Frango... Chicken, Chicken”
Here are some random pictures from the past months:
The first 3 are on outreach, the third being the view from the squatty potty, notice no door just a view...
The fourth is Augusta a little baby with Downs Syndrome that I visit with as weekly as possible
And the last is a picture after I cleaned one of my feet...
