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Sunday, February 9, 2020
Update 25
The hair!! I did not know those darling little braids & artistically arranged ladies' braid we have seen so many Mozambicans wearing are mostly fake!! They buy extensions which are black as coal & perfectly matches their hair. Their own hair is usually very short & they braid the extension right onto their hair. It can take hours to do a whole head of those tiny, tiny braids. There are so many styles and so many tiny beads added in many ways.
It's a real time consumer for them. Every day I see girls with their head in someone's lap who is braiding or unbraiding their hair. I even worked on unbraiding today. I could hang pretty darn hard while holding the part closet to the head & the girl didn't flinch...I was pulling the fake part. After about 30 minutes, I'd taken out may 7 or 8 of the 100 or more she had.
Imagine about 60 girls needing this done about once a week!! Lots of girls pitch in...you'll see a 6 -7 year old doing a 4 -5 year old or a 12-13 yr old doing one of the caregivers. You even see the girls braiding extensions into their Barbie dolls' hair. Yup...white Barbies with blonde & black braids. They tried to do mine but the extensions slipped right out of my fine hair.
The things I never knew or thought about while admiring the Mozambicans' hair styles!
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It's a real time consumer for them. Every day I see girls with their head in someone's lap who is braiding or unbraiding their hair. I even worked on unbraiding today. I could hang pretty darn hard while holding the part closet to the head & the girl didn't flinch...I was pulling the fake part. After about 30 minutes, I'd taken out may 7 or 8 of the 100 or more she had.
Imagine about 60 girls needing this done about once a week!! Lots of girls pitch in...you'll see a 6 -7 year old doing a 4 -5 year old or a 12-13 yr old doing one of the caregivers. You even see the girls braiding extensions into their Barbie dolls' hair. Yup...white Barbies with blonde & black braids. They tried to do mine but the extensions slipped right out of my fine hair.
The things I never knew or thought about while admiring the Mozambicans' hair styles!
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Update 24
Iris has provided us with a variety of opportunities. One afternoon we again headed to Maputo along with another young minister to pray over patients who requested it. As we went from bed to bed, I tried hard to focus only on the patients & their visitor...but my eyes wandered to the torn mattresses, peeling paint, broken tables, holes in screens and general dismal & disrepair of the room.
Visitors are there as patients must have someone come to bring them food, feed them, bathe them & wash their clothes & bedding.
Almost everyone asked for prayers and few spoke any English so I could pretty much just say my thoughts. I could hear Roger telling them to remember to lean on God cause He is with them. The minister spoke with a voice full of compassion...much louder & longer.
One patient did speak English and her name was Jane! We chatted for quite a while & I was delighted to see her smile as she took my hand & squeezed it. I'd like to say I made each patient feel cared for...but I know Jane did!
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Visitors are there as patients must have someone come to bring them food, feed them, bathe them & wash their clothes & bedding.
Almost everyone asked for prayers and few spoke any English so I could pretty much just say my thoughts. I could hear Roger telling them to remember to lean on God cause He is with them. The minister spoke with a voice full of compassion...much louder & longer.
One patient did speak English and her name was Jane! We chatted for quite a while & I was delighted to see her smile as she took my hand & squeezed it. I'd like to say I made each patient feel cared for...but I know Jane did!
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Update 23
I've got an issue with Mozambican dress code for women! In almost 100 degree weather with high humidity...when turning on a fan feels like a furnace blast...women are expected to keep their knees & shoulders completely cover at all times. And for church, long skirts are required...and men must wear pants. Most local woman wear a long gorgeous cloth wrapped around their waist (called a capulanas) and under that they wear pants that cover their knees. It looks good but really??
Sweat dripping down my front & back is not a feeling I enjoy! On the plus side, I seldom have to use the bathroom where the mosquitoes hang out!
No wonder people often sit and just seem to be melting. Rog has been taking a shower in the middle of the day with all his clothes on so he stays cooler as the clothes dry on him.
Fortunately, we heard in South America the opposite is common. Lots of skin showing and it will be cooler. Kinda seems backwards but lots of things here do!!
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Sweat dripping down my front & back is not a feeling I enjoy! On the plus side, I seldom have to use the bathroom where the mosquitoes hang out!
No wonder people often sit and just seem to be melting. Rog has been taking a shower in the middle of the day with all his clothes on so he stays cooler as the clothes dry on him.
Fortunately, we heard in South America the opposite is common. Lots of skin showing and it will be cooler. Kinda seems backwards but lots of things here do!!
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Update 22
By Roger
To our surprise, Johnathon, told us that he thought the earth was flat. He is on the staff at Zimpeto and was driving us to a ministry outreach program.
We talked about the earth traveling around the sun and he disagreed, saying that the sun goes around the earth.
He also asked me, "What is truth?"
I said that you must be able to prove something for it to be true.
Then we got into a discussion about whether or not truth is the same for each person.
If you believe something to be true, correct or not, that belief will impact your perception of the world.
This seems to get to the issue of why people come to very different conclusions when given the same information.
The split in the US is coming from the different beliefs that individuals hold.
We need to find common truths that will bring us together.
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To our surprise, Johnathon, told us that he thought the earth was flat. He is on the staff at Zimpeto and was driving us to a ministry outreach program.
We talked about the earth traveling around the sun and he disagreed, saying that the sun goes around the earth.
He also asked me, "What is truth?"
I said that you must be able to prove something for it to be true.
Then we got into a discussion about whether or not truth is the same for each person.
If you believe something to be true, correct or not, that belief will impact your perception of the world.
This seems to get to the issue of why people come to very different conclusions when given the same information.
The split in the US is coming from the different beliefs that individuals hold.
We need to find common truths that will bring us together.
Sent from my iPhone
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