This little girl is my buddy. We were teaching weaving at this community and it was our last visit. The machessa we were supposed to teach in was being used for a community meeting so we gathered all the children and walked to find somewhere else to sit and teach. So here I am walking along taking pictures and playing with some of the children when out of no where I feel a little hand slip into mine and I looked down to see this little girl smiling shyly up at me. She held my hand for the entire walk and giggled when I started skipping and tried to skip along with me. She was adorable! She didn't leave my side and I never learned her name but we were definately best buds that day.

They liked the feel of my hair and ended up petting me and laughing hysterically...

I gave my little friend a hug and said goodbye to her but she followed me all the way to the choppa (our van). The kids stood outside the windows and smiled and yelled to us while we took their pictures and my little buddy waved at me until we drove away....look at that face how can you not love her??

This is something I thought was hilarious...there we were driving down the road and in front of us was a van with LIVE goats and chickens hanging out on top just cruising down the highway. Look close, you can see them.

Building Benches for the Machessas

When we drove up with the wood and supplies for the benches the ladies in this community started singing and dancing. It always gave me chills when they did. It's so different in person but the video is still moving.

We spent time in 4 different communities building benches for their Machessas (community centers). CFL supplied the wood and supplies needed and the children were more than wiling to help. I once had a man take a hammer out of my hand while I was in the middle of pounding in a nail because he was so excited to help. The children would watch and wait and as soon as we even looked at them they would run over and hold a nail for us or steady a board.

The younger children were sent outside to play and sing songs while the older kids got to help build the benches.

When we were done the children piled onto the benches. I don't know what they were more excited about...the benches or getting their picture taken!

Rice



We saw mozambiqueans pounding rice in front of their homes every day and we finally got a chance to try it ourselves... I was terrible at it! The big pole is heavy and awkard to hold if you don't know what you're doing...and apparently I didn't because the Mozambiqueans thought I was hilarious looking and giggled at me the whole time I tried.



They make it look so easy with babies strapped to their backs!



They're awesome...

I love this picture.

I took it while we were sitting with the children and teaching them to sew. The younger children were supposed to be outside playing while the older ones sewed bags but this little one snuck in. He was standing there looking shy and curious so I tied some extra string around his ankle and took a picture. He ended up running outside very excited to show everyone and one by one some of the other children would sneak in and stick out their ankles to me and smile huge when I tied little bows around their ankles. Every once in a while Vicinte (our driver who helped manage the children when we did crafts like these) would shoo them back outside but they would giggle and sneak back in for more string when he had his back turned. By the end of this visit there were about 20 little boys and girls running around showing off their little ankles with bows on them.

This little girl is very special to me. She has a head too large for her body and a belly that is swollen and legs that are so skinny she can hardly walk on them but she is so beautiful! I fell in love with her one day when I saw her standing next to me looking a little lost and shy so I gently touched her shoulder and she immediately melted into my leg and her reaction is something I won't ever forget. She never said a word she just looked at me begging me to love her and I did. Though she walked very slowly she would follow me around and hug my leg quietly and sweetly. I miss this little girl and I think about her every day and wonder how she is doing and if she knows how special she is and that someone loves her very much.

This is a video of me and her....and a lot of everything else that was going on around us.

Kedesh

I LOVE THESE GUYS! The Kedesh orphanage is an all boys orphanage that is more like a big family. The boys here are very well taken care of and most of them speak English because of the man that runs it who is from the US. We loved visiting Kedesh because the boys are so much fun! The picture above is of them with their new blankets that we tied.

Capueira

As a thank you for the blankets we were invited over for food and dancing. The boys showed us their sweet capueira moves that were amazing to watch!

There's so much talent at the Kedesh orphanage! Dancing, singing, capueira, and cooking...these guys are awesome!

Water fight at Kedesh!

Water fights happen often at Kedesh because of the heat and humidity. It was a warm day on one of our visits so naturally a water fight broke out...and this is their winter!

SOAKED!

Noemia

This is my friend Noemia. She is a little girl we met at the Dondo Orphanage. My friend Stacy met her two years before I did when she volunteered with CFL and asked me to find her and take pictures with her. She was shy at first, but we became good friends! We took nail polish on one of our visits and she decided she wanted her nails pink and she helped me paint them...

Then she decided she wanted to paint all by herself...


Check out the talent!! Of course when the other girls saw her painting my nails they all wanted to try painting too so by the end of our visit I had about 10 layers of pink nail polish on my nails...We had a lot of fun painting but...I am glad someone thought to bring nail polish remover!

This is just a video I took while we were driving by one of the markets in Moz. One of my favorite things was to just stare out the window while we drove places because there was always so much to see. I loved just watching the people live. I knew I would miss this type of thing when I got home and it's true! I wish I could go for a ride again and stare out the window at the people working or children playing. I was reading in my journal and I wrote about some of the things I saw while we were driving. Once I saw a group of children having a push up contest and another time I saw a little boy pushing along a homemade toy made of old rusty wire and a little tire he probably found on the side of the road somewhere. Another time I saw a little boy just outside of his house squatting over a muddy puddle on the ground with a plastic cup in his hand and he filled the cup up with water and drank out of it. I saw mothers braiding their daughter's hair or working with a baby tied to their back...I never got tired of observing the way these wonderful people live.

The Grand Hotel

(Picture and info from Wikipedia)

History

The hotel opened in 1954, when it was billed as the "pride of Africa," and was widely regarded as the largest and most exquisite hotel on the continent. Its owners intended to include a casino, but failed to secure the necessary government authorization. The hotel was never profitable, and never attracted the wealthy clientèle it was intended to. It closed as a hotel in the early 1960s. The swimming pool and conference rooms continued to be used during the 1960s and even after the independence in 1975. The last event conducted in the hotel was the new year's eve party in 1980-81.
Since independence in 1975 its basement were used as cells to hold political prisoners. Some members of the police and army started using the third floor as their living quarters. After 1981, it started being taken over by the general population. The new guests used the entire parquet floors as combustible. The building has no running water or electricity, and is currently inhabited by more than 2,000 people.

Today
Journalist Florian Plavec describes a visit to the hotel in a July 2006 feature in the Austrian newspaper Kurier. According to his accounts, virtually everything of any value has been looted from the hotel, including its marble and bathroom tiles, wooden flooring, sinks, and bathtubs. The former pool now serves as a water collector for clothes washing, and the former pool bar as a urinal. The hotel has also experienced structural damage, as trees continue to grow out of terraces, and floors collapsed. -Wikipedia

And here is the Grand Hotel today. If you look close you can see the tree growing out of the top floor. We didn't get to go inside because...who knows what goes on in there, but we did get to see it from the outside. The Brown hut outside the hotel that you see in the picture below is a movie theatre and the pool it was talking about is in the back, the water is nasty and they use it to wash their clothes.

The life expectancy in Mozambique is 40 years old and the lady in this video is around 70...miracle? She's not only alive, but check out her sweet moves! They sing and dance after community meetings and I was lucky enough to get it on video.

HOUSE OF INNOCENT ANGELS

Feeding the orphans at HOIA (House of Innocent Angels), one of 5 orphanages we visited while we were in Moz. It is a lot smaller than the baby orphanage. They lay their laundry outside on the grass to dry and they bathe from buckets but the children seem very happy and loved. There is one little boy there that everyone loves, his name is mashecky...only I don't know how to spell it...he has bad skin problems, I think someone said it was scabies, but if you got him to dance you would understand how cool this kid is. I'll post a video of it.

My first visit there we took beads and string and made bracelets and neaklaces with the kids. One of the girls there named Sara around 14 years old was my buddy and she made me a bracelet that I ended up wearing the entire time I was in Africa. I love it because the mozambiqueans love it. Every day I had babies grab it and touch it, Armindo would sit on my lap and say the color of each bead and then count them one by one. I even had teenagers and adult women tell me they liked it and smile huge and some would point to the beads in their hair. I was so proud of my little plastic beaded bracelet.

Mashecky's dance

The girl in the Strawberry Shortcake shirt has a twin and those two girls are the coolest tom boys i've ever met and the boys were fun to hang with too. Just cool kids.

This little boy is 2 years old.... ridiculous.

This little girl is SO cute! Big smile and cute little bum, she was wearing a dress and nothing else.
That's the orphanage's laundry in the back ground drying on the ground.

Just like I knew they would be, the orphanages were my favorite! Our visits to Ana Paula's baby orphanage (ages 0-6) were almost daily and were what I looked forward to the most every morning when waking up. Our very first visit almost brought tears to my eyes when the children ran as fast as they could and threw their little arms around our legs and hugged us as tight as they could as if we were their best friends...and this was before we could even get ourselves through the door! I was touched at how immediate their love was for us. They were so excited and noisey that I didn't even notice that first day that many of them either had runny noses or wet pants or ear infections. They were just so happy to see us and it wasn't just the first day it was every day we came. We were always greeted with hugs and smiles. I found it a little overwhelming to have one child on my back, one or even two children on my lap and one in each arm anytime I wanted to sit down, but when they are so desperate for attention it's very hard not to give it. The children there have learned that pinching, biting, hitting etc. are the best ways to get attention so behavior was a little bit of a problem, but it couldn't stop me from falling in love with every one of them. One child in particular was a little boy named Armindo. Armindo is my very special friend. He is 5 years old and loves to be tickled and held "tia levanta!!!" is what I heard anytime he wasn't in my arms. We became friends one day when I was playing with about 4 little boys ages 3-5 and they were having fun hanging on me and standing on my feet while I walked around in circles...but then one little boy stopped playing and when I looked down at him he was crying. He wasn't throwing a fit like many others do he was just standing there looking so sad with big tears running down his cheeks. I'm not sure why he was crying, but it didn't matter to me so I pulled the little boys off my back and feet and sat Armindo on my lap and asked him why he was crying. He wouldn't say anything to me and not knowing what else to do I sang him one of the only songs I know in Portuguese and wrapped my arms around him and held him while he cried. I sang I Am a Child of God to him and when I thought about the words it broke my heart. I've taken so many things for granted that this little boy doesn't have. My family and the love and appreciation that comes from them, growing up with the gospel, security...I'm sure Armindo doesn't understand fully what he is without at the age of 5 but I can promise you it has been a long time since he has had someone to hold him and sing to him the way I was able to. From then on I was always greeted by Armindo running to me and throwing his arms around my waist and hugging me and begging "Tia levaaaaantaaaa!" until I picked him up. I love Armindo as if he were my own and it was heartbreaking to say goodbye to him, but I left him in good hands and I know the Lord answers prayers and that he'll watch over my Armindo for me until I can see him again.

Upstairs at the baby orphanage was where we got to visit and hold the babies. I loved going upstairs, but it was hard to walk into their room and see crib after crib of little babies wanting to be held and not knowing where to start or who to hold first. The first baby I fell in love with was a little girl named Anita Antonio. She always smiled at me and if I held my hand out to her she would pat it with hers, cutest thing ever! A friend of mine and I were blown away by a 7 month old boy that looked about 5 months old and couldn't hardly support his own head. Winnie picked him up and was holding him for a while but eventually put him down to pick up another baby and as soon as his head hit the mattress he cried and arched his back and twisted his head to look for Winnie wanting to be picked up again. Winnie couldn't stand it and asked me to pick him up for her since she was already holding another baby and when I did he went silent and his little fists grabbed onto my shirt and he laid his head against my chest and held me just as much as I was holding him.

It is so hard to put a baby down after picking it up because you can tell that they just want to be held and loved. I got attatched to every baby I held almost immediately. They would lay their head against my chest or stare at me with an expression i've never seen on an infant's face before. I couldn't stand to put them back in their crib and hear them cry for more attention, but with so many other babies in the room you just can't spend the only hour you have with them holding just one. It was always hard for me to say goodbye at the baby orphanage because I would always wish I had more time to spend with them.

Mozambique is BEAUTIFUL!

We were given this picture at orientation and it nearly took my breath away.
This is what was typed on the back:

THE WORTH OF A SOUL

Liz Lemon Swindle

When Mothers Without Borders approached me about going to Africa, I told them I was not interested. For me Africa was a world away, "and besides," I thought, "I am too busy." Imagine my surprise when I found myself on a plane to Zambia in June 2007.

One of the first children I met was Kennedy, the little boy you see in the painting. At three years old he has lost both his parents to AIDS and was found living alone with his six year old brother and ten year old sister. When I thought of those three children struggling to survive and the millions of others across Africa in similar circumstances, I felt an overwhelming hopelessness and said to myself, "No amount of money can fix this."

Later that day while we were filming, Kennedy jumped into the arms or the man portraying the Savior. As I stood watching them, kennedy turned towards me and our eyes met. At that moment I knew it wasn't hopeless. I realized that the Savior can fix not only the problems of Africa, but of the whole world...and we can be His hands to do it.

Looking back I realized that my reasons for not wanting to go to Africa are likely the same as yours. We are busy and feel like we cannot make a difference, but I know now that neither is true. We are never too busy to lift another and every good work is known to Him who said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of....these my bretheren, ye have done it unto me."

There is hope and I feel so blessed to be able to go to Africa to serve and become a tool in the Lord's hands. I know this is what He wants me to do and I already know that this is going to be a life changing experience. Our Heavenly Father has such a great love for us and all His children. The words "Because I have been given much, I too must give" comes to mind and I know that I have been given the means to do this small act of service for my brothers and sisters in Mozambique. Again, I couldn't do this without all of you so from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

http://www.careforlife.org/programs.php

This is an email I got from Care For Life about the work we will be doing in the orphanages. This is what I am looking forward to the most.

"Here is a brief schedule to give you an idea of what we will be doing. I'll list the orphanages first and the communities second.You don't have to remember this, I'll have it posted on the wall at home base for us to check everyday.

1st orphanage that you will fall in love with is the Baby Orphanage. We will go there from 8:30-9:30 Mon-Thurs. There are 4 separate groups of kids although they are all 5 and under.

* The newborn nursery are the baby's that we don't really spend a lot of time with. They are usually sleeping.

* The one year olds are not walking yet but love to be held, changed and played with. This is usually the only time they are out of their cribs.

* The 2-3 year olds spend a lot of time in their cribs as well but we may be able to take them outside to play.

* The toddlers are a rambunctious bunch of little kids that we will be needing to plan activities and games for. They love to string cereal like cheerios, color & sing.

2nd orphanage is called Kedesh. It is an all boys orphanage and like all boys
they like to play volleyball, baseball, soccer & basketball. We will also be taking fleece for them to cut and tie the ends to make themselves each a blanket. We will go to Kedesh from 1:30 - 3 every Wednesday. The man who runs Kedesh is an American from SLC who went to Africa and started this orphanage. He will be your new American Idol!!! He is awesome.

Dondo is one of my favorite orphanages. They have both boys and girls. The boys are 10 and under, the girls are all ages to about 16-17. They are a great group of kids and love having us come. We will be teaching the older girls to sew puppets and I thought maybe we could make paper sack puppets with the younger kids. They love to color, paint their fingernails and sing and play hand games. We will go to Dondo on Thursdays from 1:30-3.

The Nhamantanda orphanage is about an hour or two drive so we will only go there once. This is an awesome place. They celebrate our arrival with song and dance. You will get goosebumps and maybe even shed a couple tears. We eat lunch with them and then we will also teach the older kids to sew puppets and the younder kids to make them with the paper sacks. I have a couple other ideas that I may be able to put together before we go. We love it here!!

Asem is an orphanage that is walking distance from our home base. In the earlier years of CFL we use to walk over there about everyday and play with the kids. The ages range from 9 years to 19. We have not been to Asem for the last several years but are going to renew our friendship with them this year. We will be taking Flannel Quilt kits to them and teach them how to tie and bind a quilt. It will be a challenge but we did 45 flannel quilts last year between 3 teams at Dondo so I think we should be able to do 20 quilts this year with the 2 teams that are going. We will go to Asem on Sundays from 2-4.

The biggest challenge is that all these cute kids speak portuguese and you have to be creative to communicate with them. I will be sending you a list of words that you can practice and hopefully memorize that will help you in teaching the crafts that we will be doing."

I am a volunteer for an organization called Care For Life and I will be going with them to Mozambique, Africa this summer to do humanitarian work. I leave on July 11th and I will be there exactly one month. I am so excited to go and I want to thank all of the wonderful people who have donated their time, money and support to this cause. I couldn't do this without you!