The one where TJ gets some action...

...shots. The one where TJ gets some ACTION SHOTS. I think there's a character limit on the title. How misleading.

Anyways, its a day late and a couple of dollars short due to internet outages (I warned you) but here the latest happenings around here. When it gets too hot (8am-4pm) to play soccer in the field, the boys will move under the trees in the back to play a little two-on-two in the shade. They use trees as the goal, run and kick the ball as hard as they can at eachother from about 20 feet away. Here are the boys watching the action. I thought I'd throw this in only because for some reason this gives a really funny angle for Canito (front) and his pants. I'm not sure why...

These two are Merecido and Manuel. They never lose. The object of the game is to outscore the other team by two. Most of their games end 2-0.

Here, Celso is about to make a valiant effort to save a goal.

And Francisco follows it up with this jem.

Martinho ended up blocking this one with his face. His partner Isaque was ecstatic because it preserved their lead.

Eventually, the ball always gets knocked over the wall. The kids try to get the neighbors attention any way they can. Normally they climb the tree.

The smarter ones just jump on top of an empty water barrel.

And then there's Francisco...

Eventually, we got the ball back. After another five minutes the game ended after Jeremiah blocked the ball with the one part of his body he should never use to block the ball with.

In other happenings, this week turned out to be fairly intellectual.. On Monday. I had a conversation with Lazarus. He is in 12^th grade and one of the smartest kids here. He came out of his room talking about his Philosophy homework (yes, that is a subject in school here). Upon learning that he too enjoys philosophy, I found something we both enjoyed and could talk about. Unfortunately, the next hour was spent discussing the philosophy of philosophy and, after finding zero common ground we abandoned the conversation.

On Wednesday I spent well over two hours lecturing some of the older boys about foreign trade, currency trading, international lending, and international monetary policy. It started when one of them asked my why the news said China is hiding money from the US (this the quality of the reporting here). The most profound question asked that night was “What would happen if China needed money and wanted all their money back?” Yes, America. What would happen?

On Friday, Victor and Christina left for a week to visit down in Beira. That makes me, as I told some American friends of mine here, the captain of a sinking ship. Friday stayed intellectual when around 9pm some of the boys started screaming. Mainly, it was Isaty screaming. He's the one next to Jeremiah (soccerball to the stones Jeremiah) in the picture above. It turns out he found a cobra crawling through the dorm and then killed it by stomping on it. Stomping a lot. He then grabbed a stick and took it outside so we could observe it.

It was only about 3ft (1m) long, but that didn't make it any more unsettling. After describing it to my missionary friends the next day, they shrugged it off. It was probably just a spitting cobra or a viper. All the kids gathered around for a photo op.

Literally 3 seconds after the picture the snake started twitching and wriggling around and every scattered faster than I've ever seen. We then properly disposed of the snake (yes, with fire and gasoline). Obviously, being right before bedtime, most of the boys under the age of 12 (and myself) were pretty scared and unsettled. Isaty tried to assure me that I was safe in my bed and the cobra couldn't climb up into it. When I asked just how he acquired that knowledge he told me, "I watched one once. It tried for about 10 minutes but couldn't make it up. So you'll be safe."

Lastly, with the school year ending and exams coming up there’s been lots of cramming going on around here. Here, I’m using cookies to illustrate valence electrons to Zacceu. Dorca thought the electrons were tasty, and thus we went from Oxygen to Nitrogen to Carbon.

And for the people that think I keep using her as a prop to stage photos, I don’t. She follows me around most places. Its fun.

And if Victor and Christina happen to read this while they're on their vacation, the orphanage's kitchen might have accidently caught fire in the middle of the night and I might have been able to put it out before it consumed most of the firewood. See you when you get back.