Our family here at the orphanage just a little bit smaller, but in a very good way. Yesterday we sent five of our kids off to higher education. They will all five be going a long days trip south to the city of Beira (second largest city in Mozambique) where they're off to start the next chapter of their lives. Most of them are going to a trade school called Young Africa. Its run by missionaries, all our kids are entering into programs that will last just under a year and then be prepared to tackle the real world! The academic year starts in Jan/Feb here, so they'll be gone till around November, save for spring break and a couple other school breaks when we'll see them.
Claudia
Claudia is going be be at the trade school to learn business and business administration. The trade school is actually a big umbrella and provides lots of training that isn't offered/accessible in the universities. Claudia's master plan is secretly open up a beauty salon. The rest of the girls here also have a secret plan to all go and work for her.
Carlitos, among being freaky smart at mathematics, is also extremely elusive. What I mean by that is that of all the pictures I have of the children here I have NONE of Carlitos. But thankfully there's this great stock photo of him to use. Around here, if you've got the equivalent of and A++ you can waive the standardized exams at the end of every year. Carlitos boasts that he's never taken the math exam. So, with that big shiny head full of numbers, he's going off to the trade school to become an accountant. Couldn't be a better fit.
Felex, unlike Carlitos, is always in front of the camera. Unfortunately that's because it often take 20 tries to get a good picture of him. I've got tons of pictures like the one above, where he's just being goofy. I showed it to the kids a while back in a slide show full of pictures of the orphanage and they laughed for about 5 minutes. Fortunately, he also has a stock photo that's slightly better.
Felex is going to Young Africa academy to study computer science. Its a skill that is more based on using computers that doing programming or hardware stuff, but its a skill that will put him heads above the millions of Mozambicans who have never seen a laptop.
Few people in life know what they were born to do. Helder was born to cook, and he knows it. Hopefully, he'll come back and leave us with tons of awesome recipes after he finishes culinary school at the trade school. The big downside for us is that we loose one of our best cooks. Helder can always be found making cake, donuts, grilling things, whatever we have around he'll find a way to cook it.
Clara, seen here on the left, is also going to Beira, but she's not going to the trade school. Instead, she'll be starting a two year program at Bible College. Its the same one that Daniel, another kid of ours, is in the middle of. She's super excited and says her passion is to study music. She wants to use that as a way to evangelize and minister to other people.
Health Update: Unrelated to our kids leaving for training, I thought I'd let you guys know it looks like I kicked the malaria on out of my system. I was feeling pretty crappy, but as soon as I finished the medication it was like night and day difference on how I was feeling. I used the expression night and day, because thats also how malaria works. During the day, other than being exhausted, I felt fine. Then at night the fever returns and I spent most evenings with a temperature of around 102. Thanks for every that had been praying and sent me emails/messages of encouragement.
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