Hi my name is Candace but you can call me Chicken...

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...

Still Here and Smiling

I often walk around for a week saying to myself (often out loud) “I need to write a blog” but then when I sit at my computer I have no idea what to write! So here I sit on another beautiful day in Mozambique not quite sure what to tell my faithful readers. Let’s start with a story (or three)!

Just over a week ago I had the opportunity to lead a group of 18 people on an outreach into the bush bush. It was an intense outreach and yet God still showed up and we still got to experience his goodness. You must know as warning the stories that follow are not common and if you want to come to Africa do not let these stories stop you!! As we arrived in the village and started setting up our tents one of our team members felt a sharp pain on her thigh, upon investigation a relatively not small spider came away from the source of the pain. Redness started spreading up her thigh. We had 3 nurses and other medical professionals with us and when this happened everyone came to my tent looking for me. My reaction inside was “WHAT, a SPIDER bite, I am a STUDENT I do not know what to do”!!! So I ventured out with a first aid kit, praying for help under my breath. We were 4 hours away from the nearest medical care and outside of cell phone reception. Prayer was the only thing that I could do, we prayed intensely and we watched the redness stop spreading and it even receded a bit, the swelling went down. I drew a circle around the bite and we watched for the following days... She is now totally fine.

The next night I was sharing stories from the back of a truck, as I spoke my translator had two jobs, one was to translate and the other was to remove giant flying bugs that were landing on me! He picked them out of my hair and off my shirt, THEY were HUGE, but I kept sharing and it was good. I have a bunch more stories about removing bugs and spiders from my body and off of others on my team but I do not want to gross you out too much... okay only one more bug story...

Around 5:30am on our final day of outreach I was feeling a slight tickle on my face... I opened my eyes to find ants crawling all over the wall of my tent. The smaller ants got through the mesh and were crawling over my stuff, my clothes, my body, and my face!!! I did not freak out as they were not fire ants, I simply got changed and evacuated my tent and gathered myself. Then I packed up all my stuff and continued on with my day... I never want to wake up with bugs on me EVER AGAIN!!

Over all I am doing well, learning how to give up control and just letting be. I have moments of missing home but other than that I absolutely love being here. I am leading another team on outreach next weekend. I would appreciate your prayers over myself and my team. Wisdom is highly valued and needed on these trips.

Thank you for loving me

Candace

“If you don’t quit, You win!”

Some of my Favourite Things...

So I have been here 7 weeks now and I have realized that I have been silent in the blogging world for too long! This week I would like to share a few of my favourite things about being here in Mozambique.

Since my last blog 80+ westerners have arrived for our missions/cultural school. I have the joy of leading and staffing in this school. One of my favourite things is living in community. I lived in my house by myself for a month, it was sort of lonely. Now I have 5 ladies living with me and they each bring me so much joy!

I love swimming in the Indian Ocean... and then climbing in giant trees with my friends and stuffed monkey named Cheeky.

I love going to the village of Mieze with the medical outreach nurse. I find myself playing for ages with a little boy with cerebral palsy.... he is just TOO cute, his name is Omari. He is just starting to walk so I am actually helping him develop his leg muscles ;)

I love worshiping God in community everyday

I love helping people adjust to this lifestyle

I love the chicken shack!!

I love the Joy that I live in.

I love teaching about HIV and AIDS to over 100 villagers in Mieze

I have also fallen in love with sitting with people with AIDS. I love to hug them and pray with them and learn Makua from them. I think that I could spend my whole life just hugging these ladies with HIV.

I also love the fact that beautiful sunsets happen EVERY single day!!!!

I think that I could keep going for ages and ever but instead I think that I am just going to post some pictures of a few of these things and carry on with my day.

Blessings on you and all that you do!!