Our First Few Days: Maputo and Inhambane

HELLO EVERYONE!
Here we are in Mozambique! It's been absolutely amazing and there's so much to tell after only 5 days, but we'll try our best to be brief.

Our first day here, we set out on the streets on Maputo, after dropping off our stuff at our guest house. Within an hour, we had acquired 5 little followers. They started by asking for money, but within half an hour we were all just laughing together and they were showing us around the city. One of them spoke English. They were our translators, tour guide, and friends. As we came up from the beach, heading towards the information centre, they stopped at a booth and bought us candy. They wouldn't even let us pay for it! They went from asking for money from us to refusing to let us pay for a little bit of candy. They were so sweet. And strangely enough, we felt safer walking through the streets with our little entourage.
All the pictures here are from the first day. Unfortunately we were unable to upload later photos. Our second day, we met up with the same boys and spent most of the day at the beach. They just stripped down and went swimming. It was so fun. Making sand castles with them and playing soccer with this makeshift ball made out of a bag of styrofoam. They even shooed away the vendors that continually accosted us (it is quite evident that we're not from around here. In Maputo especially, which isn't too touristic, we certainly invite a lot of stares). But in general, people have been so friendly and helpful. We feel very safe. And the people of Mozambique have made such a good impression on us.

The next day, we met up with a friend of a friend who lives here, Ana. She and her husband took us on a day trip to an all boy's orphanage, Casa de Gayato. It was so amazing. It is such a functional orphanage. It's on a farm. We had an amazing meal of rice, chicken, cheese, bread and soup and everything we ate was produced there. They make all their furniture. They sell soy milk. And they equip the boys with practical skills that they can use later in life. It was soooo neat! We're planning on heading back there to work for a week in July.

The next day we sat in a crowded bus for 7 hours careening through the countryside up to Inhambane, where we are now. The rural areas are filled with mud and straw structures, as well as makeshift houses made out of advertising billboards. You can see women carrying big loads on their heads and kids running around everywhere.
Inhambane is very beautiful. The beach is gorgeous. At nighttime, along the shore, you can see sparkly blue phosphoresence in the ebbing water. It's so magical. This is a popular tourist spot for South Africans, so we don't quite attract as much attention here as in Maputo.

So in short, we're having a wonderful time. We love it here and so far everything has gone very smoothly.
Thank you for your prayers,
Love, Mindy and Elise