Discoveries
I can not say because of our move to Chimoio, that we have discovered the following things, but it has been since our move. Perhaps some has to do with being in a city or that because our beloved fellow MCCer, Brooke, returned to the States, we now have several kitchen appliances that we didn’t have before because we are storing all the things from her house. However, we have discovered some of the following in the past few weeks:
• Smoothies—we now have a blender (thanks to Brooke’s kitchen). And because of our proximity to a large fruit/vegetable market, we’ve been making smoothies. This morning we had a banana, tangerine juice and yogurt smoothie. The other day we had an avocado, banana, milk, and cinnamon smoothie. We’ve made some with papayas, orange juice and bananas. It’s fun way to get more fruit and to spice up our life.
• Soccer—At one of our recent Bible Studies, Joél was talking with some of the men about soccer. They told him that there is a group of guys that play early in the morning close to our house. So, since then, Joél’s gone at 5:30-7:00 and played soccer. The first few times the men we know didn’t come so he bravely played with the Mozambicans that were there. Then the last time he went, several of the men from the Bible Study were there and that was more fun for him. He’s now trying to practice at home more so he can improve his skills on the field. He practices with our day guard, Vumba, who seems to really enjoy the interaction.
• Taking walks—perhaps this isn’t so much of a discovery as much as a renewal of a favorite activity. In Denver, we enjoyed taking walks around our neighborhood, looking at peoples’ landscaping, and talking. In Gondola we tried to but often came home frustrated because it felt like we were always the center of attention. Here, we are able to take walks and walk places—shopping, the bank, CCM, church, etc—and we aren’t the center of attention. We’re able to just talk and be, admire the beautiful flowers in people’s yards (that we didn’t see much in Gondola, probably because of the lack of water directly in people’s houses), and it feels really good to be able to do that. It reminds us that we do live in a tropical country with all the beautiful flora that the tropics have.
• Ice cream—we knew that one of the cafes in town had ice cream and most of the time that we tried to get it, they had a flavor that would give me a migraine—chocolate or strawberry (It’s really rough to be “allergic” to chocolate and strawberries.). But a few weeks ago, we went into the café and they had vanilla! We celebrated and each had a cone. Joél got coffee and we discovered that they also sell individual bottles of sparkling grape juice. Yum!