This afternoon I was walking back from some errands and I noticed my door was open- yeak! I walked in to make sure everything was good and I was greeted by a half naked Mozambican man. These are the times when you hope that your communication skills are up to par. I turns out he’s my new housemate, “colecao da casa,” for the next week or so. He was just finishing a shower after the 10 hour drive here. So I introduced myself and offered some peanut butter (the peanut butter lady who makes it delivers it fresh in jars for 50 mets, 40 if you return the jar) and whole wheat crackers. Good times.

Please pray for our kids. We have one boy from the toddler house who is hospitalized with Cholera. Fortunately it looks like none of the other kids picked it up. One of our younger girls, Merina, is sick with malaria. We have two sick babies, one appears to be constipated and the other one balances the equation if you catch my drift. As for me, I am well although I’m being bitten by mosquitoes more these days.

Yesterday we had the last day of village school. I took the kids to the beach and we used the rest of our bag of chalk drawing on the rocks. I was really impressed- many of them drew things that we learned about in class. The kids who have come consistently have made lots of progress. Perhaps most significantly they are able to sit still and quiet, they follow directions and they leave the base when it’s time to go. That last bit is a big deal because they used to go hide or try to blend in until dark at which point they would beg or raid the kitchen or pilfer from the boys dorms. Leaving the base costs them something but it has earned them (and me) the respect of the Alpha Guards not to mention the honor of being honest. We celebrated our last day with a banana cake, courtesy of Jun. The kids who want to continue in school will matriculate into the state system.