snapshot of life II

I love this picture!  I snapped this picture of Debra and her mother Paula as we waited in the car for Dad/husband to emerge from the government office where he was seeking documentation to enable their marriage.  We have grown quite fond of little Debra who continues robust and cuter each day.  She smiles at me regularly now.  Despite the enormous difficulty we are having in getting documents, we still have hopes of having a wedding and baptism for this family this month.

This has been another week of enormous rains.  As I drove some back roads yesterday afternoon, I found my path blocked by the wall of a home that had just fallen into the street--knocked down by the rain.  On the return, I barely made it through a dirt road that was just minutes from having an impassible chasm eroded into the roadbed.  The kids love to come out and play in the heavy rains.  This one was clothed and thus was publishable.   Many are not. 
As shown below, our own street turned into a river with water backing up well into our driveway.  The missionaries often wear boots in the rain, but the flood waters were simply too high yesterday and most resorted to crocs and flip flops.

These are known as "traditionally built" African women (if you have read the popular #1 Ladies Detective Agency books).  Not everyone in Quelimane is skinny and malnourished.  It is not an insult here to call someone fat.  It is a state that many aspire to.  Great place for us.  These ladies are pounding their raw rice to remove the husks from the grain.  The blue tarp is what they had laid it out on to dry in the sun.

This is Samo Goncalves.  He is in the presidency of the mission and came and visited this last weekend, doing some training for the members and speaking in our Sacrament service.  It is the first time that our local members were able to hear and see a black African leader of the church.  It was great for them for that reason alone--dispelling for them the notion that they might need us white guys to lead (which is an all too real a thought among some).

These are most of the youth of the Quelimane Branch.  We love this group of kids.  We sent this picture in to the New Era (church magazine).  Almost all of these kids were taught  the gospel on this veranda.  You can see that the male/female ratio is running about 2 to 1.  We have many more interested young men than women here.