Econ 102 and misc.

Some of you may remember Ines, the church member here who impressed me so much with her large scale lumber venture.  She was abandoned by her husband and has many children, including a deaf son, so she is always worried about where she will get the next scrap of food for the table.  She is one for whom we have occasionally brought food or charcoal when we have sensed the wolf at her door.  We visited Ines this afternoon and heard of a couple of recent ventures.  There was a television in her home for the first time, so we knew there must have been some change in fortunes (I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was a satanic tool and she should throw it into the sea immediately). 
Two things: 1) she has planted manioc on her little garden acreage out of town and manioc is a cash crop, and in substantial demand--so she has done well since harvesting some last week--she sells it in a local market.. and 2) she has bought a bicycle and leased it to a man who uses it as a taxi.  If you have any idea about desirable returns on investment, you must take note of this.  She purchased a used bike for 1500 mts (about 65 dollars).  She leases it to the taxi driver (who by the way, does all the work) for 1200 mts per month.  That is somewhere around a 1000% annual return (I didn't actually compute it).  I want to go buy bicycles after my mission.  Ines is a fascinating woman--driven to provide for her family and always seeming to find a way to make things work. 

We are back in the swing of things here following our absence of last week.  Jet lag has been a problem.  I couldn't get to sleep until 5 AM this morning and awoke at 9:30 to the sound of the young missionaries banging on my window.  Church starts at ten and I had promised a ride to an investigator at 9:30.  Things got a little bit hectic for a few moments.  In the end it worked out ok.  I will take drugs tonight in hopes if making some progress against this demon.  By the way, I can't possibly explain jet lag to a poor Mozambican who has never seen an airplane nor traveled nor seen a map of the world.  So I just had to apologize for being lazy and sleeping late.

Here with are some pictures that are somewhat unrelated to my narrative.

An area where Debbie and I spend a lot of time is a neighborhood called Floresta which is among the poorest of Quelimane.  Though poor, its pathways (we can't fit the truck in here so we walk) are wide and clean and lined and dotted with beautiful trees and kids are invariably playing in them.  People usually greet us as we pass and there is a generally comfortable feeling to it.  It is a ways from the city and difficult for the young missionaries to make it there--so it makes sense that we who are more mobile call it "our area". 

We never arrive in Floresta without gathering a large retinue of followers  (I felt much like a pied piper of Hamlin today).

This is a well, complete with a very efficient hand pump--only problem is that it ceased to function long ago and was never fixed.  It is characteristic of so much that his been done in Africa--feel good projects without any real thought as to the long term outcome and benefits.  People are getting smarter now I believe.

Here is Debbie standing beside our investigator Hortencia (who incidentally had a boil on her breast and so remained topless for an entire lesson this week-debbie had to tell me about it afterward as I hadn't noticed) and her daughters and neighbor friends who have also begun to be taught.

As I said, we cannot doi anything here without a crowd of kids gathering.  They are generally pleasant and well behaved and friendly but a bit persistent in their attention.  (I seem to remember girls in my youth saying that about me).

Speaking of girls from my youth, this is Marta Aparicida de Oliveira Bailey who was the first inidvidual who I taught and baptized on my first mission to Brazil.  I visited her in Salt Lake City and she claims to have not forgotten me yet.  It was fun to see her--happilty married with two children and twin grandsons.

I confess to being a weak man.  This comes as no surprise for those who know me.