Sat 16th. Market Shopping.

Had a good night’s sleep and this morning headed off souvenir shopping (again!) honestly? I think I just wanted out for lunch. Today on the trip Pai and Rosa came with us. Pia had got dressed up for the occasion. He had his Timberland boots on. So I planned to go and buy nothing! Have come back with a table 300mts, 2 pairs of trousers 250mts, a bag 300mts – that was a hard bargain and some cards, I think I paid too much but don’t care. I love the market. John also came with us. It seems odd seeing him without Andy. He has apparently gone back to some family members. Oh I also got a pair of very fake Havana’s for about 50mts - £1.

John

Pia.

Lunch was good. Travelling through this city I found myself wandering how much it would cost to buy a house here.

I sat beside Jennie on the way back and chatting to her is a lot of fun. Her heart is really to work in the communities and help them with medicine. She was telling me that in Moz most bodies are buried inside 24 hours. A rotting corpse in 45 degrees is not what any person wants around. Also meds are meant to be kept at 25 degrees – so working in communities without a fridge to store them in is very hard.

Over lunch Pai had a sip of one of the other guy’s milk shakes – you want to have seen his face! Them some ordered a second round of drinks and he ordered his own! Pia with his first ever chocolate milkshakes! Chatting to him today I discovered that actually his real name is ……..

So how he got Pia is anybody’s guess. I think he maybe picked it u on the street and it stuck.

Coming back I spent some time with Paulo in the girl’s room. He is growing well and it seems however he has no use of his left side. How this has happened is quite sad. The back to my favourite place of the baby house.

Dino has been taken into hospital. His vomiting and diarrhoea would not stop. Everything they put inside him came back out in someway. His eyes were more sunken into his head and they just don’t know what the main problem is.

Nemias was back! He had gone to his father over night. His father is Raphael, one of the Pastors here. His wife/girlfriend died in childbirth leaving him with Nemias. He was very sick as a baby and Raphael didn’t really know how to look after him so brought him to the center on the agreement that he would start to look after him when the time was right. Now seems to be that time but the pattern looks like Raphael takes him and passes him onto another family member and then he returns him the next day. They are bonding which is great but if he will ever be able to look after him is another question.

I went for a walk to fine some ‘space’ as I seem to have a shadow here, it’s hard to shake. On a compound of 350 kids, finding a quiet spot is not at all easy. But as it was Saturday I reckoned the school rooms were a safeish bet. So I sat journaling for a little bit but soon enough I had a new friend Mercia. She is 8 and came and sat with me and drew me pictures. She then drew a picture of her and her ‘brother’. In fact her sister Olga, the younger Olga. They are very sweet together. We had a lovely time together counting, drawing etc.

Mercia

A relative of Fransico and Lorenzo came today and from what we could make out wanted to take them back. At least they put their foot down and would not let take them.

So I wandered down to the girl’s dorm tonight. The TV is broken so no DVD or milk tonight. But was impressed that they were eating all together. Rose tells me that each Saturday night the girls cook and learn how to cooks and then eat together. She shows me how she kills a chicken and chops its head off. Something I have never done! And can honestly say I have no plans to in the near future.

She told me Ailsa was at the woman’s conference. Its moments like this I wish I had gone. I then took a walk to see what the boys were watching, basketball. Hummmmm

Sitting outside was one of the boys. Just sitting in the sand with crisp packets and an empty soap box. He called me over to help him. All this boy wanted was someone to sit in the dirt with him and fill a few plastic crisp packets or pieces of plastic with sand so he could them for what ever he wanted to build. 20 minutes I sat just doing this and being instructed by him, as to what would be good and what would not. He was so happy to have someone help him. How many kids at home would be happy to sit and lift handfuls of sand into empty walker’s bags!

This evening has been lovely, am finding not getting any space really hard and still feel quite numb from some of the emotions going on inside and tonight I do feel quite lonely which is quite strange. I keep looking around and thinking I want to lift so many of these kids and raise them as my own. Feels very weird.

John said today my Portuguese was very good! Compared to what I don’t know. But I felt pleased. Today has been amazing. To be able to spend time with two kids just giving them love and time has been incredible.