Hello all, i hope you're well.

We finally managed to get out to Manga this week, we had to wade a bit, but what's life without a bit of wading through deep, warm, murky puddles?

Summary: We did Pastor Manuel's on Thursday, with only 40 kids instead of the 100 we were expecting (which was a blessing, not a disappointment, we were worried how we'd be able to deal with 100 kids!) which went v well. We also managed to get out to Manga for English lessons, church and community visits, so this week was much more interesting. On Sunday we met some lovely American girls who are on a YWAM team, in Beira for another week, so we're hanging out with them a lot, which is lovely.
Best bit: Pastor Manuel's, or meeting the lovely Americans
Worst bit: doing nothing all day on Sat.

Not so summary: Tues and Wed were pretty uneventful.
Thursday was Pastor Manuel's. We decided to use the six sessions we have there (weather permitting!) doing an over view of Jesus' life, so on Thursday we were very seasonal and did the Nativity Story! Which involved us all acting it out in one big group, which was very funny. And then all acting being different animals whilst trying to teach them the names in English. I don't think they learnt that much (English, at least) but we all had a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to going back there this Thurs.

Friday we finally managed to get to Manga! Which was nice, just to see our friends again! We did English, it was rather uneventful. Fewer and fewer people are turning up for our lessons, i wonder if it's a reflection on us... Friday night we went to Marina's and got takeaway pizza and watched a film! It was quite the treat.

Saturday we hang around town all day because it CHUCKED it down on Friday night.

Sunday we managed to get out to Church. Nothing particularly noteworthy happened, but we really enjoyed it. Their singing is one of the things i know i'm going to miss a lot. Sunday night we went to Batista Renovada again, which we enjoyed, it makes a nice change from English Fellowship. The most exciting thing to happen on Sunday was meeting the Americans! We were sitting in Riv, and there was this huge group of white people, and we figured there were here with YWAM, so we went up and introduced ourselves. It's so good to get to know some new people and we're showing them around Beira a bit. And having them over tonight to make pancakes for them and our family. They've already been here for 3 weeks, so it's a shame that we only met them now, when they only have a week left. But still, they're lovely.

Yesterday we did community visits. From what i could gather (Mae Pastora (tr. Mother Pastor) was the only woman there who could speak any portuguese. And she really doesn't speak much!) we went to the Provincial Pastor's house. It was quite the trek away and we all forgot to put suncream on, so we perfected our mish tans that little bit more. (A mish(ionary) tan is tan lines round your arms, neck and bottom of your legs - ie because you can only wear moderate clothing all the time, you get tan lines there!).

It's 6 weeks left, which sometimes feels like ages, and other times feels like no time at all. I keep doing stuff/seeing stuff and thinking "i know i'm going to miss this SO much" so i'm trying to make the most of everything.

I hope you're all well, please pray for the usual stuff - team relationships, health, portuguese, and that we'll get to Manga!

Lots of love, Sar xx