Arrival in Mozambique.

From Katie (5/27/14).

Hello all,
I am on the other side of the world. In Mozambique. Can you believe it? I still can't. In some ways it looked like Bolivia--familiarity--for the first shirt bit of the drive. However the mud huts with grass thatched roofs, the people and the noises all remind me that this is indeed very unfamiliar. I am able to understand some Portuguese but will need to work pretty diligently to make any sense when I speak. 
I have never had someone waiting for me at the airport with my name on a sign. I arrived in South Africa exhausted and beginning to feel nervous about this last leg of the trip, a woman named Elzabe was there with a beautiful smile and a sign with my name on it. She took me to get coffee and loved me. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to have a friend I had never met care for me and bless me like that. God loves me just that much to show himself in the little details. There was also the trip through customs in South Africa and then Mozambique with not so much as a question or look at my baggage claim receipts. And the window seat I prayed for so I could sleep.
Eric Dry (along with two Mozambican men--Monsiour and Mario) fetched me from the airport and we made the three and a half hour drive back to Balama. En route we passed a smashed minibus with all the windows broken out of it, Eric said that the minibus had crashed that morning and ten people were killed. When we arrived I met Brenda and George(he will be volunteering here for three more weeks). It was Brenda's birthday and she had even cooked goat goulash, home fries and salad. We talked for a bit but it was late so them we all went to bed. Bedtime around here is 8 or so and everyone gets up at 5 or earlier. I am staying in he house where teams usually stay I am the only one here as of now but Hannah will arrive tomorrow. The houses all have cement floors, brick walls and tin roofs with no insulation- I imagine that will be hot in the summer and they said it is loud in the rainy season with the torrential downpours. 
Today Nilza took me with her to inspect the homes. There are 26 homes in the program with orphan children cared for by their own grandmothers and then three homes of orphan children with Mozambican houseparents. She wasn't feeling too well though and later went to the hospital where they started treating her for malaria. She is only 24 and came here three years ago to run the child development--probably the equivalent of a caseworker.
I am grateful to be here and hoping to fit right into things here very soon. Please continue to pray for the transition.

Much love!

Katie