coming home soon....

It’s hard to believe that in just a few days my time in Mozambique will be finished! It has been an amazing time, and I have seen and learned so much. On Monday, Dara and I will head to the coast, and will take a looooonnngggg bus ride down to the capital of Mozambique, Maputo. We will spend a couple nights there, and then head back to South Africa. We will have three weeks in South Africa before we head home in early February. We’re hoping to see Cape Town for about a week, and spend a couple weeks at the Hands at Work headquarters.

Mozambique was such a crazy experience- here are a few things that I experienced which I probably won’t experience back in Canada…

1. Chasing a goat. The other morning I was outside talking to Nana (my 78 year old neighbor who I like to swap books with) and we saw a little girl standing close to a goat. The goat had gotten out, and the little girl was having a hard time catching it. I offered my goat catching skills, and tried to help her. Nana and I teamed up and had the goat cornered when it broke out to freedom again. I started chasing the goat- out of the yard, past the wood mill, and up to the church. At the church I saw a man walking and yelled “Desculpa- Ajuda” (sorry, help). The man didn’t think twice, he just started chasing with the help of one of his friends. So now, the little girl, two men and I are chasing this goat- past the baby sick bay, up to the orphanage, past the main house, and down to another missionary’s house. At this point a pastor from England joined in- chasing the goat around the house, and finally successfully capturing the goat with a football tackle. As he got up the two Mozambican men rewarded him with huge smiles and thumbs up.

2. Scary Bugs- One day Dara and I were driving with our Mozambican friend, Paula. Paula looked over at a bug on Dara and screamed. To hear a Mozambican scream about a bug is a bit alarming. Dara brushed the bug off her neck, and it turned out to be a scorpion. On her neck.


3. Spiders the size of mice- we have a new volunteer living with us now named Hannah. Hannah does not like insects at all, and doesn’t even like to use the fly swatter. The other night, Dara and I were in my room, and we heard Hannah yell- “I just saw a mouse! I just saw another one”. So Dara and I ran into the room equipped with shoes, and prepared to kill whatever came out from under the desk. I was not prepared for the spider the size of a mouse that came running out- with a body the size of a baby kosher dill pickle and legs the size of hairy carrot sticks (only slight exaggeration here). At the time we had no electricity, so we were doing this by candlelight and headlamps. After panicking at the first sighting of the spider and letting it get away, we gained enough composure to look for it again. When he reappeared I somehow managed to kill him with a two fly-swatter, mid air attack (I being in midair). After a sufficient amount of screaming, and tearing the room apart, we convinced ourselves that Hannah had only seen one monster spider- mouse, which manifested itself as two separate spiders.

So, I am looking forward to not having to worry about those kind of things upon my arrival to Canada. I am confident that Canadian spiders and insects will no longer strike fear into me.