being a Woman in Mozambique....

being a Woman in Mozambique…

A Mozambican woman is expected to work and serve all the time. Culturally it is their responsibility to do all the cooking, all the cleaning while taking care of their little children and husband.

Imagine everyday tasks taking twice as long as they should, for example:

No running water – means fetching 5-gallon buckets of water 10 times a day

No washing machine – means hand-washing everyone’s clothes

No dishwasher – means hand-washing dishes

No refrigerator – means cooking everyday with no left overs

No bathtub or shower – means bucket baths for all the kids, your husband and youself

No hot water – means boiling hot water just to have a hot shower or hot coffee or hot food

No electric stove/No Microwave – means starting a fire to cook or even survive

Imagine these simple utilities that make our everyday life more simple, especially for mothers.

Ever since I was young girl, I have always had the dream to get married and have children. The thought of being a stay at home mother has always been a dream of mine. When I was called to Mozambique, I was always scared that my dream would never come true.

Over the past few months God began to show me how my love for Mozambique and family began to connect. Recently we received two more boys into our permanent housing (Olivio and Cesar) and one boy in our temporary housing (Salvador). I am currently living with a total of 8 young men.  Yes I said 8 YOUNG MEN!!Being the only woman in the house is sometimes a handful. The boys all study at three different times of the day and they are also involved with various sports.

They all have different personalities:

Felix is the type of person that can make you smile even when your having a bad day

Paito is the talented guitarist, whose music fills the walls of Masana (its amazing)

Nedved is an intelligent, headstrong independent

Olivio is a wanna be gangster but a complete softy

Cesar is one of the strongest young men I have ever known

Salvador is a sweet, rambunctious little munchkin

Hilario is calm and mysterious

Mr Ian is the man of the house, the carpenter, the electrian, the overall handyman

And I am the ONLY WOMAN!!!

Sometimes the house isn’t as clean as I would like it to be, sometimes we don’t eat as healthy as we should and sometimes we watch way to MANY KUNGFU chinese fighting films (ughh) but I wouldn’t change the little family God has blessed me with for the world.