A long bush walk

Yes, this is an early post. That's because we leave tomorrow on a week-long or so trip and I've decided to give a quick update before we go.

Our graduation ceremony went off without a hitch on Sunday. It was a great day, the service was vibrant and the graduates were so happy to receive their diplomas. I took a memory card full of cool photos too...which I subsequently made a mistake on while downloading and ended up losing more than half! :( I was in a mad rush at the time and was not happy with myself when I discovered what I had done. The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.

Yesterday, Steve, Karen, Kim, George (one of our Mozambican staff) and I went on a very long bush walk. The plan was to visit the home of some people who receive help from the mission: a blind woman and a man with leprosy. We figured the walk would take us, oh, maybe 1-2 hours all together. To keep a long story short, our guide got a little lost and our walk ended up lasting 3 1/2 hours instead! It was a rather hot, dry walk since we left our bottles of water in the parked car. (Figured we wouldn't need the water on a short walk, of course.)

Despite the fact that our little sojourn was longer and thirstier than we had originally planned, it was very rewarding. One of our first stops was to visit an elderly man with pneumonia. Thankfully I had my medical bag so I left him with antibiotics and Tylenol. Our next stop was at this blind woman's house.

She has received help from the mission here for many years now, and in the last few years, this little home was built for her. The message on the wall is a "thank-you" to those who have extended help to her. I thought her idea was very unique, and I was very touched by the message where she thanks everyone for the help she has received and closes with "God be with you. Welcome."

Since it was the search of this gentleman's home that got us lost, we were quite relieved when we finally found him. He has had leprosy for many years and has lost much use of his hands (essentially, only the palms of his hands remain). I got a picture of him here with the new goats which he received from the "Unique Christmas Gift" project. Receiving these goats was a very happy and life-changing event for him!

In a way, the events of this particular day followed the pattern our lives out here in the Mozambican bush have taken for many years. Some days the path seems longer than it should be, and conditions are less than ideal. But even so, I love my "job" and can't think of anything else I'd rather do!

ttyl