Inhamatanda community

So we seem to not be able to put pictures and text underneath...for now. So until we have figured this out, here are some comments to the pictures:

Picture #1: The children love pictures. We take pictures and then show them and they squeal and laugh out loud.

Picture #2: A special woman that was thankful for Anita

Picture #3: Before the community meeting in the "machesa"

Picture #4: This is one of the new latrines that they just built. It is very well done and helps them significantly in terms of hygiene.

Picture #5: These guys wanted to see what was going on in the meeting house.

Picture #6: What's up?

What a day! We were speaking Portuguese all day and it has been a long time since we have used a full vocabulary in Portuguese and I must admit that I was a little lost at some points because it has been 10 years since I have spoken the language and the accent is different here. Also, the small villages speak another dialect called Zena, so there had to be some translation today.

There was a community meeting today at Inhamantanda that we attended today with Joao. It started with some beautiful singing which was so good that I looked over at Anita and she was a little cloudy in the eyes. This community has great voices. Anita and I were introduced and we said a few words. Right after we talked we asked if any of them had any questions. After a little pause, a woman got up and thanked us for being there but especially for Anita because she and the rest of the women had never seen a woman from Care For Life. The rest of the meeting was all about letting the women speak first on the community success and issues. It was great to see how having Anita here has already made an impact. I like this lady that said that about Anita so much that I asked her for a picture after the meeting. The picture above is of that lady with Anita.

Just a few impressions... smart people, good at building things, good sense of humor, happy, cute little kids, hazy streets filled with people, loads of people walking anywhere and everywhere, killer potholes in the road, many women carrying heavy items on their heads (up to 140 pounds), etc.

Care for Life is really doing a huge amount of good. Joao, the director, is a good man and has incredible leadership skills. He truly is in this for the right reasons as is Soloman, the country director, who is also the district president for the Church of this area. We had a long drive with both of them today and really enjoyed learning from them.

We are soaking in methods of Care For Life and feel like we are educating ourselves enough to give you a overview soon on what they are doing here in Mozambique and what they have asked us to do.

T and A