Beautiful things

It’s important remember the beautiful things in life. Here is a list of things that I have seen in Mozambique that strike me as beautiful. In no particular order…

• Delton - Our house keeper´s son. Pictured left. He´s so cute (boogers and all!)
  
• Smiles—many Mozambicans have a beautiful smile with straight white teeth. They readily smile at me when they greet me on the street or I talk with them. We get big smiles when we give greetings in the local dialect.
• Oranges—it’s orange season now (April/May). We’ve made fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast several times. The air in market places is permeated with the smell of oranges because so many people are eating them.
• Flowers—first the acacia trees that were blooming when we got here in November. The bouganavilla is continually blooming. Now we regularly see landscaped flowerbeds in Gondola and Chimoio full of marigolds. People even have plants around the outsides of their houses for decoration.
• Road improvements—there are several sections on the road from Gondola to Beira with great big potholes and some sections where there isn’t any road at all. The last time we traveled to Beira, they are beginning to work on the unpaved parts to make it a better road. Even here in Gondola, they are working their way through a neighborhood where most of the stores are found, improving the roads. In Chimoio, they are fixing potholes and making sidewalks.
• Youth singing—at church each Sunday, the youth who attended youth group on Saturday get up and sing. They enter the church from the back, singing and dancing. Then they proceed to sing 3-4 songs, dancing with each one. In our church it is usually only about 5-6 guys singing. They blend harmonies and sound beautiful!
• Capulanas—the traditional fabric that is used for women’s skirts and head coverings. Women also use it to carry their babies on their backs. I also see people using capulanas to carry various objects, hang as curtains, as a jacket to wrap around them when they are cold. Every market sells capulanas—usually sold in 2 meter lengths—and the designs are different in every city.
• Hospitality—when we visit someone’s home, they always offer us a chair and if they have food they offer that too. We are learning to have food available or if not at least tea or coffee with lots of sugar.
• Multi-lingualism—most people speak at least two languages here-Portuguese and their “mother” or local dialeto (language). In our church (and other churches from what we are told) the service operates in the local language and Portuguese. Speakers can use either language and someone from the congregation will interpret (almost) simultaneously. It makes the service easier to understand, especially when the local language is used but sometimes difficult because the speaker does not give the interpreter adequate time to interpret. I have never ever seen people interpret so quickly.
• Education—many adults have not finished high school. However the government has opened up schools so that they can go back and finish. So many adults take advantage of this. Each evening around 5:30, we see many people walking past our house, dressed in their best clothes, carrying notebooks, going to school. In our small church of 30, at least 5 adults are presently studying and several have plans to go back to school next term. People seem so proud that they are able to go to school and are determined to finish their schooling. There are even literacy classes that help adults learn how to read. After they finish the literacy classes, they are then able to enter the 6^th grade and continue to high school. Since the war ended in 1992, several universities have sprung up in cities around the country and people are going to them as much as there is room for students.
• Clean—Mozambicans are very clean. Each morning they sweep their yards clean of debris, trash and foot prints. Their clothes are always clean. They bathe several times a day when it is really hot and daily when it is not.