Hunger Games

Debbie and I have a couple of investigator families who love the message of the restored gospel, who love to have us over to their humble homes, who love to come to church, who love to read the scriptures--but these people actually do not have enough to eat.  They often simply cannot eat on a given day for lack of food.  This is normal life for them, they often simply have nothing to eat.  One of these families felt the need to explain to us this week what was going on in their life--we had shown some surprise that they had no children.  They do have children they told us, four or five of them between them, but those children have been sent away to live with relatives that can provide food for them--not clothes, bikes, toys, or education--just food enough to live.  The parents, simply go hungry for days at a time.  They don't mourn or put on a particularly sad face--it is something to which they are accustomed.  I really had no idea about this until we started asking some specific questions.  We have other investigators that have other children in their homes ("children of the house", they are called) for this same reason; they are able to feed them while their parents are not.  So what do you do?  We cannot change the economy which has no industrial development and therefore no related employment opportunities.  As we visited people in preparation to leave for the states yesterday, we loaded up on rice and beans and took a week's supply to a a few people in particular need.  We are so very aware and afraid of creating dependency--but sometimes, you just have to give a starving person a piece of bread. 

On the other hand, there is no shortage of professional beggars here--one very pathetic woman came by the other day and explained that she hadn't eaten for a long time and just wanted some food.  I went to the bakery across the street and bought some bread and brought it back to her.  It turns out that she didn't want the bread but asked if we would just give her money instead.

A productive thing that we are doing, aside from saving their souls, is encouraging them to think of education as a way to step out of starvation. Some are interested, and we help them get into schools and other training courses. Others really are not enamored of the idea of effort as a path out of poverty. It is a fascinating place we live.

We discovered this yesterday and were fascinated.  Kids carve a little "top" out of wood (or perhaps it is a type of nut or seed).  Then with a stick with string attached to the top, the whip the little top.  The string catches it and gets it spinning and by continued whipping the top continues to spin.

Here is newly arrived Elder Maynez for Arizona (background) with his companion Elder Petersen.  He does not look as shell shocked as some new missionaries do upon stepping off the plane in Quelimane.  He is already fluent in Spanish so I suspect is transition to Portuguese will proceed quickly.

Debbie and I have now left Quelimane (we left after church today where we had a record breaking 107 people in attendance, 27 of which could not fit in the chapel).  We are spending the night with our mission president in Maputo (adult English conversation--very nice for Debbie) and will get out tomorrow afternoon on a flight to Johannesburg and then the states.  It felt funny today to get on a plane for the first time in six months--after decades of very frequent airline travel.  Strangely, we are looking forward to a little interaction with family back in the states at my mother's funeral, but we are not feeling comfortable nor excited to be leaving Mozambique.  Miserable place though it may be in some ways, it is now home, we feel needed here and are having a great time.