sweet pai & my bodyguards

This past weekend I got to stay at the orphanage! I ate dinner in town with about 20 of the IRIS missionaries at a yummy chinese restaurant and then we went to Surf for icecream-mmm!! We got back to the center late and I had a room all to myself, which was so nice and relaxing-but kinda lonely! Saturday i slept late and had lunch with the kids! Rice & Topping...mmm.
Then i went with some of the boys to get a coke and we played pool. They taught me all of the in's and outs of an africa cell phone...there are apparently some tricks that i needed to know now that i am "mozambican". you can 'beep' someone (this is not a text) and you can send each other minutes and you can block your minutes so that no one can use your phone...among other things that we don't really use in the usa. i had to write them all down. After that we watched the IRIS soccer team play a team from the city. I had dinner...more rice & toppings...and then we watched 2 movies in the cafeteria. It rained really hard Sat.night! It was awesome! I met some visitors from England, and chatted with them a bit before i went to bed. Sunday i went to church and had lunch with the Texas missionaries that live there. She made homemade biscuits....mmmm my favorite! It was a great weekend seeing all the kids...they miss all of you who have been there & asked about ALL of you!! We even tried to call some of you! They do not forget a face...it is amazing. There were kids that knew my name still who i have never seen before...at least i can't recall. i love spending time there. Even though i live here now, it was still hard to hug them goodbye. oh how they have stolen my heart! you must meet them someday!



this is sweet Pai...isn't that name so cute!? He was new to the center when we were there in July. He is super sweet. He knows some english and is very loveable. He misses Morgan & Josh alot! Before Josh left in July, Pai just cried and cried in his arms.....you guys have to come back, they are asking for you!!!!


this is joseph being silly, and antonino...this little boy sat in my lap for about 2 hours while we watched a soccer game...he does not speak english but just needed someone to hold him!


my bodyguards:(L to R) joseph, jobi, john-jacob-jingleheimer smith*, ernest, & elgin

they don't look like much, but they are VERY protective! to get home from the orphanage i take a chapa...but it is unsafe to ride these alone and i don't really want to try it...so these 5 offered to take me back. the chapa ride is about an hour into the city and then there is about a 20 minute walk after that...so it is quite an adventure...but they were excited to get away from the center for a bit! their ages range from 14-18 and they act like a bunch of girls! They don't ever stop talking and giggling...all in portugese mind you...i gave them a hard time b/c they ALL know english but continue to speak in another language! Mostly they are just making fun of one-another. It is funny to hear them talk 100 miles an hour in a language i have no clue about! i had one on each side of me, 2 in front of me & 1 behind me as we rode in the chapa...they were a little over-protective, but it was sweet of them! i met all of these boys the 1st time i came to Mozambique so i feel like they are my little brothers now. i stopped at a gas station and bought them a drink and snack to show my gratitude for bringing me home safe & sound. The lady at the counter asked if i picked these kids up off the street...whatever! They do not look like street kids! haha..i just laughed!

* in case you are wondering about john-jacob-jingleheimer-smith & how he got that name...here is the short version: alot of times the kids will not tell the visitors their real name...and they make one up...so 'john' told us his name was jacob when we first me him and then we were told it was john & then found out that the missionaries call him jo'al. So...Daisy coined the name john-jacob-jingleheimer-& i changed schmidt to smith and we sing that jingle to him....


my brothers & me
(ernest is taking pic!)