More than a walk on the beach

Notwithstanding my claims that this week is the busiest of our mission and one that is leaving us exhausted at the close of every day--we did sneak out this morning with most of the young women of the branch for a little beach activity. It was a lot of fun. We arrived in a rain squall that dissipated and left us with a sunny and beautiful day.

Debbie always says that she isn't going to go swimming--but the ocean calls to her as it does to me (well, maybe just a little bit less).  She looks like their mother or older sister doesn't she?

To keep the girls from basking too much in the admiration of lots of single (fisher) men, I devised competitions worthy of a beautiful day on the beach. 

The girls started singing this song somewhat spontaneously.  They have never been to "camp" nor anything like it--but this song certainly has the feel of one that should have been learned over marshmallows.





I spent a bit of time this week doing car repairs--trying not to leave a wreck for whoever uses our little truck after us.  The body of the vehicle has actually torn from the stress of the canopy over the truck bed as we bounce and contort over the bumps and caverns in the roads here.  We got it welded up (again) and I did the painting myself.



Now here is a story for you.  This is a hippo tooth.  It was given to us by Elder Bradford, a fine missionary who went home on Friday.  He also took a larger one home.  I heard from the mission president that when departing, Elder Bradford's luggage was x-rayed and he was detained for trafficking in animal parts--and hippo teeth are specifically among the prohibited exports.  He spent hours and hours in custody with the mission president trying to secure his release.  In the end, he was not executed summarily but did have to pay a 110,000 meticais fine in order to get his passport back and obtain permission to leave the country.  That is about US$3,600.  I have decided to pack the hippo tooth in Debbie's luggage rather than my own (actually, I gifted it to Joyce, who is my favorite African eight year old).

Though our pre-mission life was filled with frequent dinner guests--we have not hosted to many Mozambican people for dinner in our home here.  However, before leaving Quelimane, we had wanted to have Amizade and his family over.  It turned out very nice (with our fashionable pick plastic cups).  We have eaten at Amizade's and Lurde's a number of times during our time here.