Two Month Anniversary (in Moz)

There has been a lot going on the last two months!  I have some pictures below to help show a few snippets of life here.

Diego and Lucas were great helpers on the flights to Moz.  Yes, if you look close you'll see that my children are wearing shirts with pilot epaulets…

It’s nice to be outside in the morning or late afternoon when the temps creep down.  Diego rides his scooter and Lucas tries to break free!  We arrived at winter’s tail end which means we can slowly adjust to the temperatures that are coming and were able to learn to drive here before rainy season hit.

A view of our street from our gate.  If you look the other direction, our neighbor kitty-corner to us is a coke distribution center.  This means a fair amount of traffic – but much of it is people carrying plastic cases of glass coke bottles on their heads!  

 The scary corner – on a hill, full of hard to see foot, bike and motorcycle traffic, where you turn onto the main road to the airport while remembering which direction to look because here we drive on the left side.

Did I mention it is dry season?

We arrived three weeks before Mozambique Family Conference.  This is a time when the team gathers together for a couple days of rest and team meetings.  There were team meetings every morning lead by a visiting church team from Florida, and bonding time each afternoon at the beach.  It was about a 2 hour drive out and oh-so-worth-it.  The conference came at the perfect time – we were starting to get pretty overwhelmed by all the differences here so we appreciated a chance to step back and process some of our experiences while they were still fresh. 

It was our first time to the Indian Ocean.  Lucas’ early morning wakeups meant that he and I (Holly) enjoyed some lovely walks on the beach shellhunting and watching the fishermen.  It is beautiful – now who wants to come visit? 

All the MAF kiddos in country.  All the little guys were disgruntled with the idea of a picture…

Birthday exploring.  Blue tailed lizards are our friends – they eat mosquitos for us!

Diego started 1^st grade with two other MAF 1^st graders – Annie & Bekah.  It was such a relief to this momma’s heart to have everything go so well!  Their school is about an hour drive away and they travel on a cute blue bus.  It picks Diego up about a two minute walk from our house.  They were a black and white uniform and have orange PE shirts.  His smile at the end of his first day says it all! 







It is a Christian school in English, but they have Portuguese classes.  There are students of many nationalities and religions attending.  There are also music classes, PE, swimming and electives.  It started five years ago and they are now working on developing a high school program as well.  We are so grateful to have this school and these excellent teachers loving on our son.

Rapale International School – the grounds and the 1^st grade classroom. 

Grady and I are doing observation flights and waiting for the test date for our Mozambique pilot written exams – they only do the exams in the capital (a 2 hour airline flight away) and only when they have enough people signed up to do the exam.  We've been on the list for over a month.  Grady will also have a maintenance exam to take.  We have both been to the Niassa Reserve in the north – Grady had to overnight there and even saw hippos in the river!

Often times people have little farm plots outside of town.  We were able to visit one of our night guards’ plots after they finished the manioc harvest. It’s a root kind of like a potato (or yucca if you’re familiar with Latin American cuisine.)

I (Holly) was able to fly along on a flight in the new Caravan last week, which took a journey along the coast, right over Mozambique Island with all of its old colonial buildings.  One of the pilots saw a whale, but I missed it. 

A few pictures of the yard here at home.  I am my mother's daughter - I bought four plants that I'm putting in this week and it makes me smile just thinking of getting my hands dirty!

Please be praying for our vehicle situation.  We are thankful to have this one on loan to us, but our vehicle is having importation issues.  

Partial eclipse viewed through breaks in the clouds.

These last two months have definitely had come with their challenges, but overall we have really enjoyed our first two months here - I hope you can see that through these pictures!  We're looking forward to many, many more months in Moz!  Please be praying for us as we continue to settle in and as Grady & I continue training.  Ask for wisdom for us to deal with many new and unfamiliar situations - that we could each day handle them in a way that points our kids and others towards Christ.  And please let us know how you are doing as well!