Victoria's News at the End of november

Hi,

November started well! My cast came off – my arm is still painful at times and I can’t lift anything too heavy but at least it is useable again! I didn’t realise how much I needed both arms until I couldn’t use one!!!

I was also allowed to open a bank account in Beira – so hopefully when I get the card for my account, and now the English cards have arrived I have more back up should I be in the unfortunate situation of losing one again!!

Then on 6th November we took the boys to the beach! Berenice and I went shopping in the morning to buy a snack for them all while we were at the beach; we had a quick lunch and then set off to collect the boys! Oliveira drove – it took two journeys to get everyone there, but it was so worthwhile, if I could have bottled up all their enthusiasm and excitement I would have done, it was so lovely to see them all having so much fun, if I am honest I was a little concerned at times because the waves are so strong and some of them are so little I was praying all the time, Please God keep all the boys safe, and let us get everyone home in once peace – thankfully we did! The boys also had great fun catching crabs to take home and cook! I am hoping we can maybe do a trip to the beach every 4-6 weeks.

Beach

We also had a new child join us at Inhamizua, Mingo, he is nearly four years old and has moved from Dondo to join us, he is such a sweetie with a mischievous side too! Whenever he sees me he says “fala Ingles”! So I do and he is picking it up really quickly!

To be honest all the children are picking up English quickly and even if they can’t speak, they understand more of what I say; I am ashamed to say unfortunately I don’t appear to be picking Portuguese up as quickly as they are English but I am trying.

You may remember me telling you about Nelito, and how he was now living with his cousins, the other week he came to where I am living to tell me news, “Mum, I have sad news, on Saturday I am going to Inhambane to live with my Uncle, I am so sad because I wanted to be near you” it was really hard for me to hear that, and I felt such sadness, we spoke a bit and Oliveira did too and we said how although it is scary and makes you nervous moving to a new place, it is also exciting and a new chapter in your life, we assured him that we would never forget him, he is a special boy and I hope and pray he will settle and have a happy life.

There are also a growing number of boys who call me ‘Mum’ and I know some of them too are going to leave soon to go back to their families, I am finding it hard to see them go, some are staying local so hopefully will see them from time to time. Culewa has been funny since Mingo arrived, Mingo obviously needs a bit more attention than some of the others, and when Mingo is near me Culewa is there too, and has started telling him and some of the other boys “Minha Mae” My Mum!!! So it’s all about giving them some individual time too and making sure they all feel special and loved!

The weather is getting hotter by the day, I can hear you all say “but you like the heat Victoria” and I do, however when you get out of the shower in the morning and within 5 minutes feel like you need another one, and when you can’t sleep at night, for all of 2 minutes I wish I had some of the English cold weather but it doesn’t last long! We also have a new addition in our bedroom......a FAN!!! This has proved to be so good at night in helping us get to sleep and staying asleep!!!

I have just been to Lichinga with Oliveira, Pedro (one of the older boys) and Roberto a friend of Oliveira, Oliveira had some meetings and we also bought some food for Inhamizua. Lichinga is around 1300 Kilometres away so it took us a long time to get there! You certainly get to know people better when you are in the car that long!! Lichinga is beautiful, it has lots of mountains and is very green, the temperature while we were there was around 19/20 degrees, I was freezing!! Jan and Bonnie (YWAM Mozambique director) said I had obviously acclimatised well to the Beira heat!

While in Lichinga we saw a YWAM school which was just beautiful, we drove through a village where YWAM are doing work with widows, the villagers were lovely and as we drove through all waved and some came to hold my hand, we also visited the IRIS ministries orphanage which was just so lovely, and has given me many ideas for our centre at Inhamizua, they have lots of materials for art activities, and toys and an outside play area, which made me feel sad because our boys do not have any of that, but I am determined to make a difference and to give our children a better life at Inhamizua with more opportunities. I missed the boys so much while we were away as did Pedro, we phoned them every day!! The questions I was asked were “mum is Lichinga good?” “how many days til you come home”!!

I had to face some fears while I was away too, I think I did ok, although at times was annoyed with myself for being so pathetic! It was nice to come back home!! Back into the heat and humidity and no water!! Sometimes I cannot believe this is my home and I am doing some of these things, but on the other hand I also can’t believe I am a quarter of the way through my year here.

It is sad for me as 1st of December looms and Berenice leaves to go home to Brazil, she has been here for a year, and for the last three months has been such a blessing to me, I will miss her so much, my fear is I will at times feel lonely without her here especially at weekends and in the evenings.

So December is almost here, and with that Christmas, I am so not organised about what we are doing with the boys, but I have some ideas, I also have some ideas for December 31st and the New Year, it will be strange to be hot this Christmas!! Although I do have one tradition to do here in Beira, a friend posted me an advent calendar Christmas Card – I was so excited!! Thank you!!

Thank you for all your emails, texts, it is so lovely to get them!

Love,

Victoria

Victoria Saxby, 28/11/2010