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!