Waiting and waiting....and waiting some more

 Well, I caught my first indigenous infection - in my eyes. They had been bothering me for a few days and 

I was hoping that hot compresses would do the trick, but by Monday both eyes were beet red and very sore.

 I guess I wasn't careful enough and touched my face after touching something - or someone - else. I got 

so desperate that I called the Cuban doctor that had treated our missionary and his asst said I could see 

him he next day. Yay! I also had the worst headache that I've had since we got here - I think because of 

the eye pain - all day, and nothing would relieve it so just before Dad went to bed, I asked for a blessing. 

Within 5 minutes, the pain had lessened by 50% and within 15 minutes it was gone and I was able to sleep. 

 The next day we headed to the hospital. I had an appt, which we think is unheard of here, so when we got

 there, we walked past dozens of people and they took us right in.  I kinda felt like a heel. I didn't need, or 

want an vision exam, but the asst gave me one anyway. And it was awesome! I put on these funky glasses

 and she changed the lenses out one at a time and asked which was better 'first' or 'second'? Good thing 

I already knew the drill since it was all in Portuguese.... 

   They had me read a little poem to test my far-sightedness. Don't you love how the modern exam machine is sitting next to me unused? And the flashlight - no such thing as a penlight in the doctor's pocket.

 

  It actually worked pretty well! So now I've got this eye prescription and I'm curious to know how it compares with my US prescription. After the assistant did her thing - and told me I have glaucoma - she took us back to the doctor.

 He was great - efficient and competent, rare things here. He prescribed 3 medications. He also told me that I don't have glaucoma. :) We've learned that we have to look at the box and see where the medicine is made before we buy it. Medicines from India, Pakistan, China, or Africa are inferior quality. But after going to 5 pharmacies, I had to get antibiotic eye drops that were made in India. Neosporin eye drops are so common in the US, but non-existent here. Sigh.... When we were leaving, we saw this heap of old beds, etc sitting outside. No inside storage for this stuff!

 After the exam, we headed to the airport to pick up some packages and then drove to another city 25 minutes away, to deliver wedding dresses. One of the elder's mom gathered and sent 6 wedding dresses, which we badly needed here. They kept 3 in Maputo and sent 3 here. The elder happens to be the branch president for this city and their branch was scheduled to have 6 weddings the next weekend, so we took the dresses, along with some others that we picked up at the church, out to them. They were pretty excited!

  Then we dropped off some Christmas packages to E. Galland. He was one happy guy!!

 

    A lot of the elders in that apt. had some things carved by Vasco, the wood-carver. Here's E. Lynn with a statue of Christ that he had done.

 Then home - long day.

 

 We got new neighbors! Our apt bldg is 3 floors with 8 apts total. We were the only ones on our floor but we've had someone move next door and across the hall. One is a couple from England that's lived in Africa for 8 years but they've always lived in English-speaking countries. He worked for Toyota in S. Africa but I don't know what company he works for here. Neither of them speak Portuguese. Across the hall is a family of a dad, mom, and 2 girls, 12 yr. and 15 yr. 

 The mom is from Mozambique and the dad is from Italy. The dad is really friendly and out-going and the mom is nice, but more reserved. The 12 year old is friendly and has come over to borrow a pencil sharpener from us a few times. I made brownies and took it to both families this week. I also gave the girls a sharpener and one of the Chinese jump-ropes that Brooke sent in her Christmas pkg. (Thanks Brooke!) They were all really appreciative although the family was kinda surprised. I don't think Mozambiquens do "welcome to the neighborhood" kind of things. One of these days, I'll take their picture for you. Oh, the family has such a cute dog!! It's the smallest Maltese that I've ever seen. And the only one I've seen in Africa....

 One day this week was "visiting day". We had 3 sets of elders stop by for different things and then Mariana came by for help with her mission papers. She's going on a mission! She's writing her thesis right now but thinks she'll be done with the paper and her defense before the committee by July. Here she is with her papers :

The elders scored because I was testing cornbread recipes (it was SO good!) and so everybody got a piece of cornbread and honey. Needless to say, it was gone by the end of the day. I didn't take pics of the first 2 pair of elders, but I did take a picture of the last pair because when I glanced over at them, they looked so funny framed in the doorway.

   Mariana was still there, so I put her in.

 

  Then I decided to jump in too. But I had just finished my workout so I wasn't really 'picture-ready'. (Their day starts at 6 am, mine doesn't......;)

 

 They wanted to show how tall E. Oryang is and how short I am. 

 

 

 That night, Dad went to District Council meeting. We have District Conference next week with a general authority, Elder Hamilton. At one point in the meeting, they were talking about how the conference will end at 12:00pm, but then there was a youth fireside later at 5:00. They are having buses bring the people in from the farther cities but were wondering how to get the youth back to the chapel for the fireside. Dad suggested that some families in the closer branches each host a couple of kids for the afternoon until the fireside started. His idea was immediately rejected. Why? Because the members don't have enough food for their own lunch, much less to feed the extra kids. One man there speaks some English and he leaned over to dad and said in English, "This isn't Zion." Poor Africa.... It was finally decided that the kids would just hang out at the church and the district would buy bread, baloney, and cheese and drinks for them to eat while they waited - for 5 hours.....

 

 A new seamstress moved in a garage across the street. I took some capalanas to him to be hemmed. It costs 6 metacaiz, or 20 cents apiece. Here's how he works all day:

 

   Here's a giant pile of smashed cans. There's a pile next to it that's almost as tall. How'd you like that next door to your house? The people don't even seem to notice the garbage around them. They just step around it, usually. Sometimes they're going through it...

  One day, dad and I were driving down the street and I saw a hand through the window grate of the car in front of us. I saw lights on top so I thought it was an ambulance. It wasn't. It was the local paddy-wagon on its way to jail with a prisoner.

On Saturday, we had a Relief Society activity in the branch where we serve. There's another couple, the Dickeys, from Zimbabwe that were serving there before we got here. They should be attending another branch in Beira but the district president asked them to help the group. Sue Dickey organized the activity and decided to teach them how to make woven bracelets from yarn. I told her I'd help so I made a banana cake and went to her house at 9 am to ride with her. Here's how the day went. It's typical.

 

  I showed up at 9 am and she was cooking with the RS president. She was making a potato salad and baked beans (nope, they're not like ours) so I put on a towel and started chopping. Then she made cookies. We left the house at 9:50. The activity was supposed to start at 10:00am and the church is 45 minutes away.

 Comparatively, they live in a nice apt but no A/C, so all the food was covered with mosquito netting to keep the flies off of it. The foiled dish is my cake. 

 

 When we got to the church, no one was there, so we sat in the kitchen and the three of us sat and talked for about 20 minutes.

  Sidenote: One of the things you have to adjust very quickly to is waiting. Things - and people - don't move fast here. They move at snail speed. You learn to take things with you ( I do word games on my phone) or just enjoy the moment, if you're with people. You can't change it and you'll go nutty if you try.

 

Then they said, "Let's go across the street to Sister Elena's house." so off we went. We took the salads with us because she has a refrigerator. (Their standard of living is above average. Probably $1.00 an hour wages.) We walked up and said "hi" to Elena who was outside and then we went in the front door and sat down. We sat there for 15 minutes or so and then the RS president asked one of the kids for a fork and when they brought it to her, she stuck it in the potato salad, took a bite, and told Sue, "It isn't bad.", because Sue was worried that the potatoes weren't done. Then she got up, and left the living room and we didn't see her or Elena for another 20 minutes. Then Elena came out with make-up on (she's a girly girl) and we all trooped back across the street.

 Here's Elena with three of her kids:

 We sat and talked, well, mostly they talked and I chimed in every once in a while, and waited some more. Finally, one woman came. So we decided to start. In another 15 minutes, another came and then a few more until we had a total of 6, including the RS president. What do you do? Oh well. Those 6 had fun!

 

   In this city, Dondo, the elders live at the church. It's a house that the church rents so there are 2 bedrooms upstairs. We didn't have any plates for the food so we borrowed the elders' plates. And....ate with our hands. Here's a couple of other things you quickly learn to do. 

One: Go with the flow. 

Two: Never appear surprised, shocked, or repelled by anything you see, smell, eat, etc. 

 So, I ate potato salad and pink (yup, not sure what she added) baked beans with my hands. A little tricky, but do-able. One woman brought her 3 girls. As we were eating, I noticed the little girls eating off of her plate. They were all sitting on the ground and when their plate was empty ('licked clean' is more like it), I asked her if they would like some more. She said 'yes' so I loaded her up again. I noticed another woman watching. She had the baby. 

 

 

I asked her too and she also said yes. Ten minutes later, both plates were empty again. They loved the cake! I made a big pan and there weren't many of us, so I was going to surprise the elders and leave them some cake. It wasn't quick enough. By the end of the activity, it was all gone. 

 Elena went to her house and came back with a beaded necklace that she told me to wear around my waist. When I put it on, she told me to stand up and model it for everyone. So I did:

 

 We finally left at 4:00 pm. It was so hot outside, I was dying! (I'm not sure why we didn't do it inside with the A/C.) Sue had asked 3 girls from the Beira branch to come and help her teach how to make the bracelets. Those girls had spent their whole Saturday, mostly waiting. Can you imagine any 18 or 19 year olds in the US doing that? Wouldn't happen. They had just walked over to the Dickeys house that morning but we dropped them off at their houses on the way home. Here's what their neighborhood looks like:

 

 I got home at 5:30, dead tired. 8 1/2 hours for a RS activity - making bracelets.

 Sunday, nobody was in Primary except the 16 year old secretary, Domingos. The new presidency was just put in the week before... So, I hurried and planned a lesson and found 2 pictures of the Shadrack, Meshack, Abedego story and asked Domingos to read the story in Daniel while I did opening exercises and singing time and be ready to tell it to the kids. The lesson was on obedience and I told them about the bike accident that I had in third grade because I didn't listen to my mom and went down a hill and crashed. That took a lot of sign language!  We made it through the first hour and Domingos was getting ready to tell the story when the one of the teachers showed up. Two hours late. He said he had problems getting a chapa ride. So he took over but petered out about 40 minutes later so I took over again. Oh Primary... We're having problems getting the kids to say the prayers, even though I've taught them the four steps and they can say them from memory. I'm not sure why. 

 The people here are afraid to try things because they don't want to make a mistake. It could have something to do with the fact that the people here laugh at you if you make a mistake. It's pretty weird. Even the adults do it. You gotta have pretty thick skin. Anyway, I brought stickers and gave a sticker to the two kids that said the prayers. Of course, they all crowded around after Primary and asked for one but I explained that they only get one if they say a prayer or bear their testimony (I've only seen one child do that.)

 Then we took pictures for Jason's birthday! Here was my great idea. It didn't translate to Facebook very well but it sounded really funny in my head. Happy Birthday (again) Jas!!!

 "Happy birthday, Jason! Your Dad and I stayed up all night putting birthday signs on this tree for you." 

 (It was really for the elections.)

Close-up of one of the "signs":

 

  Then the "real close-up":

 

 

  Then the classic picture with us. "Ahhhh......"

 

  You can't see me, but I'm taking a bow. ;)

We've been having a lot of problems with electricity and water going out, and this night the electricity went out ALL night long. It was suffocating!! We got up every 2-3 hours to get a drink of cool water, even though we're not supposed to open the fridge when the power is out. We were so hot and thirsty. We didn't get much sleep. It happened at midnight so dad called the owners of the apt complex. They didn't answer. So he called the electrician that works for them. He answered but refused to come out. It was Sunday and he was sleeping. The next day, the owner called and told dad that he needs to respect people. Dad said he called because it was an emergency. They said it wasn't an emergency and could wait. Apparently fire is the only thing that they consider an emergency.....oh Africa.... 

It's past my bedtime. I love you, love you, love you!!! Please be good!

PS A big shout-out and thank you to Brooke for the Christmas care package!! I have makeup that's not broken and new work-out shirts to go with the only 2 that I wear every day. And things for the kids. And beads for the YW. And Dad has socks w/o holes! And I have socks to go with the one pair that I brought. Yippee!! THANKS BROOKER!!