Update and a new bed….Finally!

Hey everyone. Things have been pretty quiet around here lately.
Finally, our lives have slowed down a bit and we were granted an
opportunity to spend a weekend at site and just relax. By staying at
site for the weekend, we were able to hold our first successful JOMA
meeting at site. We have tried to have others but this was the first
time that we actually had a decent turnout and was able to accomplish
something. We set the rules for our group, had a JOMA related
discussion, and finished up by explaining the process of how we were
going to run our Journalism group. We elected editors and had people
sign up to either be “Jornalistas” or “Técnicos.” The Jornalistas will
be responsible for going out into the community and doing the
reporting and interviewing for the story. They will then write the
story with pen and paper and hand it off to the Técnicos to type up.
Not surprisingly, many students want to be a Técnico because they
cherish any opportunity that they can get to use a computer. However,
I think their favorite part of the meeting was the game of Hangman
that we played at the beginning with the kids who arrived on time. We
had to wait about an hour and a half until a lot of people had shown
up to the meeting so we played Hangman with the students who were
there the entire time. They loved it; it was fun to watch them play.
They didn’t completely understand the whole process of filling in the
words when the letters were guessed so it made for some really
difficult rounds of Hangman but fun none the less.

Our big success story from this last week though is our new bed.
Finally, after waiting since December for the mission to construct us
a bed, the Padre ordered one to be made for us in the Vila. For us, we
didn’t really care where it came from as long as it was new and a
decent size for two people to sleep on. It was a long and arduous
process and the day that we finally got it was no different. I was
supposed to ride with the Padre’s assistant in the truck that the
mission has to pick it up at eleven o’clock in the morning. We arrive
at the place where the bed is being constructed and it is not yet
finished. The carpenters tell us that we should come back at around 3
and it should be done. Well, I’m not that frustrated because I think
that we will just head back around 3 and it won’t be a big deal.
However, on our way back to the school, the Padre’s assistant informs
me that the Padre needs to take the truck to Beira, so we won’t have a
truck to pick the bed up. Keep in mind, the bed is about 20-25 min
walk away in the Vila. I learn that the new plan of action is that I
am going to grab a few students from the dorms and we are going to
walk into town and carry the bed back, in pieces. It was definitely an
humorous experience to witness all these students walking down the
main road carrying parts of our new bed that would need to be
constructed once we arrived back home.

As for me, I am getting excited because the school’s P.E. teachers set
up soccer tournaments for all the different classes and I have been
invited to play by one of our friends on his 12th grade team. We had a
game last night and drew 0-0. I promised Espanhol that I would score 3
goals for him and, unfortunately wasn’t able to pull the hat trick
off…maybe next time…Last week, they had a big opening day ceremony for
the field and the tournaments and we played teachers vs. students.
That was a lot of fun. One of the other Chemistry teachers was the ref
and proceeded to call an unjust penalty kick in favor of the teachers
so that we won 1-0. It was pretty funny. The students were not very
pleased by this. I hope to continue to play with the 12th graders and
hopefully improve my skills a little bit so I don’t hinder the team
too much! Probably the best part about the whole thing is that one of
the teachers that helped create the field and make the goals is a huge
Barça fan and made a wooden sign that said “Bem Vindo ao Estadio Camp
Nou.” For the non football fans out there, the Camp Nou is the name of
the stadium where Barça plays. Maybe one of the most hallowed grounds
on earth after Reser Stadium and Wrigley Field!

Well, as I said before, nothing too crazy has happened to us these
past couple weeks but it has been a nice change of pace and have
enjoyed the rest. We are going to attempt to post some more photos
this time but like always, we are at the mercy of the Chimoio
internet. And for those who accused us of lying about the photos last
time, ahem Josh, we are going to bless you all with two photos of
Jordan this time! Hopefully the go through! Miss you and all and we
will see ya soon!!!

Brian and Jordan

PHOTOS:

Here is the first photo of the elusive Jordan Mills. This was taken of
us on an island off the coast of Mozambique near Vilunkulos. We were
on a snorkel trip and I liked my goggles too much to remove them for
the photo….

This photo is of some of us on the boat that took us out snorkeling.
From left to right is Gary, A.J., me, and Dov.

This photo is another one of Jordan after she made some amazing pizza
for everyone when we had a group of people here in Gorongosa the
weekend prior to Vil. Jordan’s pizza is so good I’d say that it rivals
Pizza Caboose….

Here is a photo that Espanhol took of a Macaco that came around our
house one weekend. Our neighbor fed it some Sugarcane and Espanhol the
budding photographer got a good close up of him gnawing on a piece of
it.

This photo is a picture of all the students coming to our house
carrying parts to our bed. Thank god for alunos!!

Finally, this one is all the thanks that those students ever needed.
They were so excited to take a picture when they arrived at the house.

***Update from Karen: I got this e-mail from Jordan after 20 minutes of attempting to send the photos:

“I swear I’m not making this up… the photos won’t send!  I’m trying
and trying!  AHHH!  THanks for your help.  SOrry!”

So I guess the photos will have to wait! But for all of you photo hungry fans out there, I was looking on their friend Dov’s site and he posted some photos last week that you might like to see. The first is of Brian as Rafiki during the JOMA conference that Brian & Jordan described in their last post.

The second is of the elusive Jordan Mills and their friends by the river in Gorongosa!!

You guys look great!! Brian, I think we should send this photo in to the Portland Trailblazers “Wear in the World” next year!! Representing B Roy in Africa!! Anyways, sorry for all the technical difficulties and we hope that Brian & Jordan will get their photos through soon. I will update this post if they are able to!! And check out Dov’s blog: http://mozfantasticvoyage.blogspot.com/ to see more of his photos.