I'm In Seattle

I found a great way to meet chicks in airports. Practice juggling. They will flock to you. Unfortunately, all these women will be around the age of 35 and ask you if you do birthday parties for their kids.

If the title wasn't a giveaway, I've made it through the long trek back to Seattle. The three months I had in Mozambique flew by incredibly fast, and it definitely sucks to have left. The kids left a huge impression me and they will in no way be forgotten nor will it be the last time that I see them, that's for sure. The last day I was there it felt like somebody had died. The whole day folks were just kind of moping around and shuffling their feet when they walked. And then leaving, I think Christina described it best by saying my final day in Nampula was like a "sad wedding". My mom said it sounded more like a funeral as I felt like the head of a reception line to everybody paying their last respects.

While it does suck to have left Mozambique, I'm trying to focus on the positives. I had a hot shower last night that was pretty dang sweet. I'm able to do some hard core brainstorming and planning for the orphanage uninterrupted.

It is very hard to sum up a take-away from my experience, or to boil it down to answer something like "So, what was it like?" or even "what was the best part?" because there were so many different experiences that it is hard to boil it down to just a snapshot. The best snapshot I can give you is that it was absolutely amazing and the best part was knowing in full confidence that for the whole time I was loving the kids and serving Jesus.

Mozambique's Really Not That Different - UPDATE

I'll give you an example. The other day I'm in the market getting some produce with Victor. Victors out doing his thing and I'm hanging back guarding the car. I'm guarding the car because 1) People will smash the windows, slash the tires, or steal the mirrors and 2) because if people see Victor with a white guy he gets a bad rate on groceries.

While I'm hanging around the car, I of course get mobbed by people (because I'm so good looking). After I beat them all away one kid sticks around. He's about 10 years old and wearing super tight sweat pants and a t-shirt with the neck so stretched out he looks like he could be a high school girl circa 1988. This is how then conversation went happened (in Portuguese). Mets is the unit of currency, not a defunct New York baseball team.

An Open Letter to T-Pain

*Disclaimer: To all my readers who may not be in touch with the current state of popular culture, and more specifically popular music, in America you can ignore the clever and more wittier references in this update.

**Disclaimer to the Disclaimer: Given that I've been officially out of touch with popular culture for 3 months (and unofficially for pretty much my whole life) the aforementioned clever and witty culture references may no longer, in fact, be clever and witty. If so, please just ignore.

Dear T-Pain,

I would like to take this opportunity to officially thank you for having ruined the future of music in TWO countries, not just one. Thanks to you, hundreds, nay, thousands of people who realized they couldn't carry a tune in a bucket of water realized that they too can moonlight as somebody who actually has talent. I'll give you an example:

Yesterday I was hanging out after dark shooting the breeze with the night guards. They had a radio on, and the song that started playing was Carrie Underwood's "I Told You So" ft. Randy Travis. They listened with eager intent as I translated the song for them and went back and forth with emotion as if they were watching this poignant story of lost love unfold before their very eyes. Afterwords, they asked me if the song was sung by an angel because it was the most beautiful thing they'd ever heard (OK, they didn't really ask me, but I could tell they wanted to).