a little fall of rain...

Mozambique is in the throes of its rainy season--which may yet last for a couple or three more months.  We have had some heavy downpours here in Quelimane which have inconvenienced and caused a little bit of damage--but the southern part of the country has had some major flooding.  Maputo, we heard had three feet of water on the ground in some areas and widespread power outages.  We are planning to go to Marromeu this weekend and then on to Beira for a day.  We understand that the Zambezi river is flooding so we will check out road reports before we get stranded in the jungle some where.  The dirt road to Marromeu can get downright nasty after significant rain.
The mood changes here in Quelimane when it rains heavily.  The main roads become traffic free.--pedestrians and bicyclists hole up for a while.  People do not venture out much.  But in the rural areas kids especially come out and frolic in the rain--and often use the water to wash themselves and clothes.  Herewith a few pictures:

Boys using roof water to take their shower.  When we leave the city, we often find people on the road following heavy rains, washing their laundry on the pavement and making use of the free clean water in various states of undress.

Some homes becomes islands in the flooding.  Unfortunately, as all these mud homes have outdoor toilets at ground level, these lakes are never clean.  In addition, a mud home deluged by rain water from above and below, quickly washes away.

  

We came across these cutest of children today as we were approaching a house to teach.  They were hiding a bit in their doorway from the rain.

Nofre on the right is the son of our investigator couple Paula and Julio.  He has warmed up to us in recent weeks and is seen here in one of the numerous puddles in front of his house.

Mafalda and Nantingue above are our newest investigators.  Both are teachers.  Both can read and think pretty clearly (that is just a little bit unusual among the rural folk where Debbie and I usually spend out time.  He is the brother of Julio and when I gave him a ride the other day with Julio (he had just purchased a TV), he insisted that I make an appointment to come and teach him and his wife.  Our first and second visits were very good.

We had a gathering over to the church last night to teach investigator families of the Family Home Evening program.  We taught them songs and games and taught with fun object lessons and we had carrot cake and all enjoyed it.  Debbie and I took the role as parents for the evening.

This is Nurse Debbie practicing a little unlicensed medicine on Tinoca who had an infected abscess  on the sole of her foot.  A couple of days later, she was walking again and amputation was averted--though I had sterilized my Leatherman to be ready.  It is my personal opinion that Neosporin is one of the great inventions of the modern medical era. We brought plenty and have used quite a bit here.