Mts. Nairuco

This past weekend we got together with some of our team members who also live in Nampula. We went to a place called 'Montes Nairuco' that is about a half hour away from the city. It is a beautiful place that has camping options and little shelters with nearby grills. It was SO great to get away from the city for a bit and it was particularly nice to enjoy the outdoors on a cool day (as we are in the middle of our 'winter' here in Mozambique).




Christian decided that one of the guys was going to be his new friend.

He pretty much spent the afternoon with him. The poor guy didn't have much choice. Christian is quite loyal if he recieves any sort of positive affirmation.

Cohen and his friend spent much of the afternoon "fishing". I say "fishing" (in quotes) because all the bigger kids had the real fishing poles with fishing line and hooks, leaving Cohen and his friend a makeshift stick with a string and a wight on it.

However, they had a GREAT time pulling up all sorts of scum and plants and trash from the pond and exulted triumphantly over each and every catch.

pink and brown

All right. Here's a Wesley Grace closeup especially for the grandmas.

far from home

In June Wesley and I left our boys back here in Mozambique and traveled to the States to be at my "little brother's" wedding. It was more special than I could even have hoped--to be with my family celebrating together, especially since it will probably be a very long time before we see them all again. We had some great professional photography at the wedding, and already many different friends and family have shared some pictures of our time together...but here are just a few images that reflect some of my favorite moments...

Jason married a darling childhood friend--Krystina Royer--a girl I also knew growing up in Brazil. It is pretty neat when you grow up not only loving your siblings, but really liking them too. And what a reflection on their character when they choose pretty great people to add to our family and spend their lives with!

Wesley Grace met her great-grandparents, Robert and Dolores Schuring, and spent some time on Great Grandma's lap one evening as we all sat around and ate pizza on the lawn of the Bible School that her Great Grandpa and Great Grandma, and Grandma and Grandpa once attended years ago...(Yes, "eating pizza" is also a part of the special memories seeing as how we've been living in Mozambique the last three years :)

This is where Wesley spent most of her time in the States--in the arms of grandma. It is so special to watch your mom love your children...

...and your dad play with them. Not only is that relationship so special, but for me, it also was a small reflection of many of my own happy memories growing up. (My parents are headed back to Brazil to work and I don't know when I will next see them, so it was such a special gift for them to be able to meet my daughter.)

Before and after the wedding, my brothers and sisters and friends and parents all spent hours playing games and sports...just dragging our sweet little kids along to cuddle up and nap in the fun.

Being at the wedding was amazing. The truth is, though, three weeks of traveling alone internationally with an infant...away from my husband and two little boys...was pretty crazy. But we made it through multiple international airports, delayed flights, cancelled flights, lost baggage, items stolen from baggage and missing our boys.

As for said boys, I think they did pretty well here on their own. It's a pretty good guess that I don't want to know most of what went on (and whether or not my frantic last minute reminders--such as to eat some fruit and vegetables and bathe regularly--were followed). Skype conversations during the three weeks I was gone from Nampula included such topics as: what items I should buy to replace what the rat chewed up, step-by-step instructions on how to make pancake syrup for Saturday morning, and clarifying to my two-year-old that I was NOT playing hide and seek with him and that I would, indeed, eventually be returning home.

It was so great to be with family far from home. And it is pretty great to be with my own little family here again too.

The road back to Nampula

Two weeks ago we made the trip from South Africa back up to Nampula where we live. There is one main road running up from southern to northern Mozambique, and while there are stretches of freshly poured black top, there are also some areas with unbelievably large potholes and gullies in the road that are often several feet deep. There are also some stretches that are just regular dirt/mud roads. Navigating these roads is, of course, challenging in and of itself and terribly hard on the vehicles (e.g flat tires, bent rims, and broken tire rods are quite common on a trip). The other danger is that many people walk along the roads in seemingly unpopulated areas--and with ten foot tall grass on either side of the "highway", it can often feel like a person appears on the road out of nowhere! Probably one of the most dangerous aspects of the trip, however, is avoiding the oncoming semi-trucks. They literally run smaller vehicles off the road in their own attempt to keep to the best part of the highway and avoid the potholes. Friends of ours only about a half a day behind us on the trip north were in a terrible accident due to this very reason.

On our trip up from South Africa this past month, we were blessed with a safe and uneventful trip...Nevertheless, it was still a long, tiring, and stressful journey as we tried to keep two little boys entertained in their car seats and a newborn fed and changed and back in her carseat for three straight days. Obviously, there are no rest stops for the children to get out and run around, no bathrooms, and no McDonalds to make the trip a bit more bearable. No matter how hard you try to find a private place along the road for any necessary stops, Cohen still had to figure out how to "do his business" with a half a dozen people crowding around him to see the novelty.

One of the places we stopped for the night was on the coast and we enjoyed just taking a walk on the beach after beeing cooped up and strapped in for so many hours.

Down the beach a ways from where we were walking, some fishermen were bringing in their catch and we got to watch them hauling their nets in and sorting through the various fish and other ocean creatures they had caught.

The women relatives of the fishermen sorted through the days' catch, throwing various types of fish, lobsters, and squid into piles.

Little children with bowls and pots also crowded around to beg the smaller fish that would not be able to be sold.

We really enjoyed being on the coast again even if for only a few hours!