Mozambique

We just returned from Mozambique and our six days were very unique on many levels and we were very busy every minute. We had a great time and there are images in my mind that I'll never forget. The first day we did auxiliary training with all three organizations represented. It was great to watch our General RS President, Bonnie Parkin, teach and do her thing. She is very good at what she does and is very entertaining as well. I trained with her part of the time which was fun also. We went to church in the chicken coop on Sunday and it was great even when everything was in Portuguese. A darling little black boy gave at talk....luckily we had missionaries behind us translating. We then went to a missionary meeting, a fireside, and then dinner at the Mission Home and then back to the hotel to bed. From then on our schedul with the Red Cross was crazy. They had us on a bus going many places and it was great. We got to know some wonderful people who spend their lives serving others.Those Red Cross people are smart, compassionate and loads of fun. They also are very impressive professionally. We went to an orphanage with children whos parents have died of Aids. It was not clean. It was poor and those 80 children were very subdued as they sang to us. I think because there just isn't much stimulation there. They at least get gruel 2 times a day that is cooked over an open fire outside. They mash the soy beans with a long pole and add mashed peanuts when they have them for protein. They made something for us to eat that was deep fried in the back pot of grease that was on an open fire in the dirt. We graciously gave it to the children!!! All preparations were outside in the dirt with water from a well and all prepared in the open air as they don't have a kitchen. As least the children get some food and a roof over their head at night. We did use disinfectant afterwards as we had high fived the kids and shook hands and squeezed the children. I was hoping not to get scabies or ring worm or some such thing...but the interaction was worth it. We attended the measles campaign in several different locations and it was one of the most touching things I've ever seen. Up to a million children in Africa are dying of measles every year. Many that don't die have brain damage from the high fever, including many cases of cerebral palsy. This project is slowly eradicating the deadly disease. To us it is an incredible miracle and I'm proud that President Hinckley wants money spent this way. We saw lines and lines of children waiting to get their polio medicine and measles's shot. Some of the children were crying but most were stoic. At one place it was mothers with their babies on their backs and holding the hands of their other children. The mothers and children were clean and dressed in their best for the occasion. It was a sight I'll never forget. They were coming on trust as at first many though the needles might be tainted with the HIV virus and much education with radio and TV spots were used. There were posters every where. The church member spent 20,000 hours going door to door to teach about the event. They did a tremendous service as many don't have the media in their homes and the turn out was wonderful....93-94% of all children were inoculated. It is a modern day miracle to eradicate that deadly disease. At another location it was just children without their moms. Many children including 5-6 year olds were carrying a baby on their back. We sang with them...high fived, shook hands and touched heads again. They are too darling not to touch and they love the attention. We saw a school where HIV training was going on. It was being taught by the students WHO had been trained....with our interpreters it was fabulous. We went to a place where a well had been dug by the church and the Red Cross. It of course is a life changing project and we saw the five women who are in charge of the well take it apart and service it and then put it back together. It was quite a sight. Leave it to women!!!! It was a great experience to be part of life changing events. We are blessed to be in Africa.