And the days were accomplished...

We have been teaching Paula and Julio for a couple of months now and giving her a ride to church because of what we have thought for months was her eminent delivery.  Well, yesterday they called us in the evening and asked for a ride to the hospital (using the term "hospital" very loosely).

This is the front door to the maternity hospital.  I'm not certain that there is a doctor in attendance.  When we took them there, the staff asked us to go home bring back some hot water--so we did.  The place was simple but clean and it had mosquito netting over each hard bed.

And a healthy baby girl was delivered.  Coming in at about 9 lbs, which from the 100 lb Paula was an accomplishment.  It is interesting to note that her longish hair is wavy and smooth.  Mom and dad tell us that they will cut it so it will come in properly kinky.  The child, by the way, is named Debra.



Paula, Debra and Debra--we took them home from the hospital this afternoon.  Upon arrival, Paula scooped up her three year old in her arms and started carrying her.  This place reminds me a bit of Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth" as far as their no-nonsense and non-pampering childbirth model.

We had Quelimane's first young women's outing on Monday, taking our four young charges to Zalala beach.  We served them bbq chicken sandwiches and actually had a delightful time with them.  It was sort of cute, each quietly asked Debbie if she would mind if they shed a few of their street clothes to go in the water.  This is not something that the very very poor (and three of these girls are very very poor) have a chance to do many times in their lives here.

Happy 12/12/12 to you.

Two days ago, I was startled by the doorbell at about 1:00 in the morning.  It was our night guard informing me that we had had two masked and armed intruders on the property.  He scared them off.  A couple hours later I got a call from the young missionaries down the street, telling me that their locked porch had been broken into (crowbar making quick work of the lock) and two thugs had attempted to break into the house--but had finally been scared off by Elder Bradford beating on the door (which they were trying to force) with his baseball bat.  We did a security review the next day and have begun some remedial work (and we bought more baseball bats).  I spoke with a neighbor who is ex-military and associated with the police department here (in whom he is sorely disappointed).  He explained that there was a gang that he was sure felt like they "owned" this neighborhood and he was sure would return the next night--so he wanted to organize a neighborhood watch and sting.  I bought whistles for the effort (and was disappointed he did not want my physical presence).  I did contribute my day and night guards however.  To my surprise, when morning dawned today, six robbers, who had been patrolling the neighborhood with machetes and crowbars had been apprehended by our little taskforce and were in jail.  It really was quite impressive.  Had I known there would be so much action, I would have stayed outside to watch.  We are still putting a steel door on our personal space and concertina wire on the outside wall.

One last noteworthy event.

I received this letter yesterday from Pedro, who was recently baptized.  He is a young man of 23 and a couple of months ago was robbed and lost every single possession, including his clothes.  He came by the church and I gave him 500 meticais or about $20 to buy some clothes.  I thought no more about it.  But the letter above is a thank you note.  I have never even heard of such a thing being sent here (it is also articulate and sincere).  Sometimes, I lose a little faith in humankind here--but other times, I am full of hope for the future of this place.