Ahhh Mozambique. We meet again.

Its been the opposite of a whirlwind the last few days. Yes, being back at the orphanage has been exciting and there are tons of things going on and theres never a dull moment. But there’ve been lots of dull moments because I’ve been sleeping of jetlag for the last several day. When I arrived back at the orphanage Wednesday night there was pretty much a party that lasted till midnight (very late for around here). You can read Christina’s account of it here. Thursday I woke up and Christina’s mom made me breakfast. Super nice of her. Christina’s parents were here visiting the last couple of weeks while she and Victor are arriving back and adjusting to life in Mozambique with their new baby Yohani.

Anyways, after breakfast I was enjoying chatting with her parents and some of the kids. I was enjoying it so much I was falling asleep in fact. I did some quick math and figure that I was awake traveling for about 40 hours save a few moments of sleep while changing flights. It’s very hard when you’re 6’3” to get comfortable in an airplane seat. So just before lunch I decided to take a quick nap.

That quick nap lasted for 6 hours! I was so tired that apparently some visitors from UNICEF came by and Victor showed them to where I was staying in hopes of talking loud enough to wake me up. It didn’t work. When Victor did wake me up it was 6pm to tell me that we were leaving in three minutes to have dinner with Dr. Charles. He and his family live a couple klicks up the road from us. He’s a doctor/church planter from America and they’ve been here for the last 20 years or so. I’ve had dinner over there twice now and so far awesome food and his awesomer family are par for the course.

So what’s it been like here at the orphanage the last several days? Well, for the few moments I’ve been awake its been pretty casual. Last night during and after dinner there was lots of talk about the World Cup. Some of the older boys wanted to know if I saw it and who my favorite team was and who the best player is and how much Cristiano Ronaldo whines about every call and then arguments break out and I get lost in the shouting. My language is still pretty rusty. I do okay if there’s not a lot of background noise and I can focus on what people are saying to me, but when they get excited and talk fast I’m pretty much useless.

Other than sleeping a lot I’m pretty much jumping right back into the thick of things. Yesterday Victor, Christina and her parents went to town with me to get a fancy breakfast before her parents left town. Breakfast was great, and afterwards the four of them left to go to Pemba (coastal city, 6hrs away) for several days and left me to take the chapa (minibus) back into town. As always, there are lots of stares when a white person gets on the minibus, and when I get of on the edge of town by the orphanage people ask me if I’m lost.

Today the boys all got up to go play soccer at 4am in the jungle. Why, who knows Being as I was sleepy and at least an hour till sun was up I stayed back to catch up on some sleep and emails. In the meanwhile, here are a few shots of what’s been going on.

The boys in their soccer uniforms relaxing after playing this morning.

Martinho and Marinho talking about how they didn't get passed the ball enough and its probably because everybody gets confused because their names are only one letter apart.

A couple truckloads of sand being used for construction.

This is where I'm staying in the short term. I've just got a bunk in the dormitory with all the other boys. I haven't figured out who's in my room yet because I'm always asleep and can't figure out who's coming and going.

This is the biggest pile of rocks I have ever seen. It's gonna be used to make the girls dorm.