What you might see on the road to Nampula

Need a bed?  There are bed frames for sale along the road in several
different sizes. Now you just need a hard, foam mattress and you are set!

We drove on a Saturday and that is wash day.  Every river bank was crowded with
people doing laundry and playing in the water.



These guys were having so much fun on their raft.  They waved and
screamed at me while I was taking their picture.



We saw these along the road close to Nampula.  When we stopped
to ask what they were they explained that they were for doves.  We
are wondering how the doves enjoy their condos?



These giant bread baskets are carried to the market on their
head.  We buy lots of these type of rolls.  They are sort of
like a crusty French bread.  I have only seen sliced bread once
at our local grocery store and snapped it up.



This picture is for our grandkids in Arizona who love havalinas or
wild pigs.  I am thinking of a ham dinner right now!



Yes, it is pineapple season everywhere right now.  The best deals
are to be had outside of the bigger cities.  We bought two for 50mts.
which is about $1 a piece.



There are tons of papaya tress everywhere, although that isn't our
favorite fruit.  Each small town has a mosque like this one.
They usually are whitewashed and have a foot border around
the top painted bright turquoise.  We have yet to discover why that is. 



This is a mango tree.  They are literally thousands of mangoes for sale along the roads right
now.  Toby is in heaven.  He eats several each day.  People will have a little bowl
of them on a chair by the road near their house for sale.  They use long pole, rocks
and little children to get the top ones down.



This is the Primary group in Nampula.  They sang two songs in Sacrament Mtg. today.
They had the matching dresses made and bought the matching blue shirts for the boys.
I laughed when I read the embroidery on the shirt pockets.  It had some school crest and the words
"lead kindly light" which is one of my favorite hymns.  They sang very very well.



This is Claudia.  She and a counselor in the branch presidency are saving money
to get married in June in Nampula.  Money for a wedding dress is a big expense, so the
church has purchased a few simple Temple dresses (in the Mormon temples we wear white clothing)
that the sisters can borrow.  This is a small way to help encourage marriages.  We brought a few
for her to try on.  She came to our hotel room and modeled them and was pretty happy with this one.

These are the Elders in Nampula in front of their orange hous Another 7 hour drivee.  They are from rtol;
Elder Santos, Elder Homer, Elder Cirier, Elder Kelly, Elder Clawson and Elder Nascimento.
They are a great group of missionaries.

     We had a busy weekend of training in Nampula.  On Saturday, Toby met with the branch council and taught them how to plan a yearly budget and how to be honest with the church's money.  We both spoke in sacrament meeting.  I had written my talk in English, had it translated and worked on it for over a week.  Still, it was very challenging for me to read it, but I did it  I always make a face when I make a pronunciation error, just like when I make a mistake playing the piano  I am sure they didn't understand that.  I did say that I "sat" instead of "felt" something which was amusing.  I   spoke about tithing and Toby spoke about home and visiting teaching, which they are just starting.  He gave some good stories.  I was told late Saturday night how excited they were that I was going to teach Relief Society.  I just stared and thought "oh really?"  So I frantically found scriptures that related to the theme of "what kid of women does the Savior want us to be?"  I found a lady from Canada in church who translated for me and we had discussion and read the scriptures and it went very well.  After church Toby gathered the youth together and chatted about what it takes to prepare for a mission.  I trained the Primary leaders about Sharing Time.  I don't know how well that went, but I gave them good ideas. Toby also called a new Elders Q. president.  They seem very eager for training. One fun thing about Nampula is this restaurant in the hotel where we stayed.  They have fabulous fresh fish every day  We ate swordfish twice.  The manager is from Portugal, that is why the good meals.  There were 50 Peace Corp volunteers there, waiting for their bags to head out to their two year assignments.  They were all going to teach.  They had lived in Mozambiquan homes for 10 weeks to learn the language.  They all got new bike helmets and were very excited to go.  If you can imagine, at church, there was a Peace Corp. volunteer heading hoe the next day from HOMER, ALASKA.  What are the chances?  Another 7 hour drive and we were home again to big rain puddles.  Another day I will write about the new and exciting insects that come out of the ground during the rain, need I say more?