singing at MozOvos last weekend

singing at church last weekend

go to this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdeWo4esIKM

birthday fun

Once every couple of months the group that meets outside the Schmidt's house goes out to MozOvos to have a special sunday together. That day was today. Some girls came over yesterday and we spent the entire day baking cookies. There were tons of cookies and lots of singing and laughter. It was enjoyable and great to see so many people coming together to worship our great God. 

A brief snapshot of the some the cookies waiting to be baked.

This is an appliance that is plugged in and can bake things like cookies and cakes, I've never seen anything like it. It's used often instead of an actual oven.

The chickens at MozOvos

I was also wished several feliz aniversario (happy birthdays). It was great. Afterwards the interns, and Mary and Felix's family (my neighbors) came over for lunch, just like every Sunday afternoon. I was then sung to and had a lovely birthday cake. It was a great day.

my birthday

 In the afternoon I was headed home and Mary and I decided to check out the wedding that was happening at our landlady's house for her son. We went and met people and were able to enjoy some time there. It was definitely a full dose of Mozambican culture, as I was strongly urged to stay and take a seat and mingle with people. 

Food being cooked for the wedding, notice that the chicken is being grilled over a wheelbarrow.

two boys at the wedding who kept wanting their pictures taken

I was far from America, but it was definitely a birthday to remember!

my class of sixth graders

Here are a couple pictures of me with my lovely class of 6th graders!!

making pizza and learning portuguese

There are some girls from church that come over on Saturdays. They wanted to learn how to make pizza, so Lynne taught them. While we were cooking everything had to be said in English, while we ate only Portuguese was spoken. It was fun to be able to bond and pick up on some more Portuguese. The girls were scared at first when they knew we could only speak English while cooking. They picked up real quick though and did great!

Getting ready to make pizza!

laying out some flour to roll the dough

measuring oil for the dough

shredding cheese!

before entering the oven

explaining how to cut pizza

the finished product

After making pizza and eating it, we walked down the street to watch a soccer game that the interns were playing.

school days

I was able to spend the past week at the school that I will be teaching at, Christian Academy in Mozambique. This year a record has been made as there are over 60 students enrolled, which is the most there have ever been. I've been able to meet and get to know the other teachers during three days of orientation, and also was given a couple of days to set up my very own classroom. I am teaching 6th grade and will have a whole five students! I'm excited for the opportunity that I will have to get to know them all pretty well. 

When I first arrived at the school another curve ball was thrown at me. I was asked if I was interested at all in teaching US history to juniors and seniors. After a couple days of considering, I accepted the challenge. School for the high schoolers actually started on Thursday. So I've had two days of being an "official" teacher. The class is great so far. There are 8 students, with five countries being represented. It is definitely going to be interesting teaching US history to such a culturally diverse class in Africa. But it will be good! I like history quite a bit and have since high school, I'll just have to brush up on some of the material.

I'm excited as well as anxious for Monday to come. To meet my students and establish myself as a professional. Luckily since I am teaching one class for the high school kids, I don't have to teach grammar and spelling to my sixth graders. I'm grateful for that. 

One of the hardest things about leaving the US to come to Africa was the fact that there is natural distance that will grow between myself and people at home. Honestly I was never looking forward to that aspect of all of this, but communication is easier now than it ever has been. And I've been able to be a witness of God's provision in this area on both ends. I am looking forward to seeing these relationships grow even more over the next year. Something that I have recently and once again been reminded of is God's faithfulness in providing for our needs. Not in the same sense that I learned and realized this while raising support, which was definitely awe-inspiring, but my eyes have been opened to how our God provides friendships and relationships when and how we need them most. In those new relationships He's definitely also provided encouragement. I'm extremely grateful for this. 

Pictures of the school and my classroom are soon to come!!

moving and mice, rain and birthday cake

On Friday morning we went to clean and prepare my house to be moved in to. We hung up the curtains and got the mosquito net up on the bars, but then the string snapped. After that we were going through the cabinets to make sure there weren't any places that need to be dusted. When we checked out the kitchen cabinets we discovered that some small critter, most likely a mouse, had been chewing through the tupperware. There were also some droppings left behind, and traces of other small bugs living in the area. So we have to call a fumigator and that postpones me from being able to move into my house for a couple more days.

Yesterday we had English class with three girls that meet with Lynne regularly on Saturdays to learn English. They were very shy and Lynne said this was the most they had spoken since she'd begun meeting with them. It was fun to be able to participate and even learn a few Portuguese words and phrases myself. Later in the afternoon Lynne and I walked down the street to buy a few vegetables and other small items. The market area is close and only a short walking distance away, which is good.

This morning we had church, which was started completely by the interns, here at the house. Next to the house is an outside covered awning type area where the services are held, and also where the English class was held on Saturday. The service was great, although I didn't really understand too much of what was being said. It started raining halfway through and got really loud, which made it even harder to listen for words that I might recognize from Spanish. The worship was great as well. The service is done completely in Portuguese and translated into Changana (Tsonga) for an older woman who doesn't know Portuguese. The sermon was about James 2 and having works that go with your faith. But that you can't have faith without works, and that works without faith are useless, because even the Devil believes, and shudders.

As the service ended the rain started pouring harder. The back part of the awning had a lot of rain in it, and the weight of it cracked the wood planks that were holding up the plastic covering. Luckily it was in the back and noone was around it to get plunged under. 

 After the service I got to talk to my soon to be neighbor Mary, who is from Rwanda, which means she speaks English. Mary works at, CAM,  the same school that I'll be teaching at and has two adorable children Angel and Angelo. It was helpful to have someone that I could communicate with, then we talked to a few of the interns who also know some English. I'm still working on trying to learn their names. I then played some guitar from following what they were playing. That was entertaining for a bit. They wanted me to play a song and sing, but I couldn't really think of anything easy enough to join in on.

It is a Schmidt tradition to have a big Sunday lunch in the afternoon each week for the nine interns, Mary and Felix's family, and their family. Today was special as one of the intern's birthday was this past week. His family made him a cake, which he brought for everyone to share in celebration of his birthday. There is an enormous sense of community in this place.

I am both excited and anxious for Monday morning, when I report to school for my first day. It's going to be a good feeling to have my own classroom. There is a chance that I may be trading one subject out to teach high school US History, which could be interesting. One other thing that I'm looking forward to, that I didn't know about is that I get to teach Bible. I'm really excited for that. This week should be a great time of preparation before students arrive for the first day of class next Monday.