In Chimoio we saw lots of old friends. (Larry, Victor, Christina, Sunny with Lisa, Peter, and Faith with Leslie.)
Sunny immediately dove into every conceivable cooking situation. (Silvia, Alfina, Sunny, and Dora making fried chicken.)
We got to spend (not nearly enough) time with Courage.
When it was time to drive back to Nampula Victor shook as much gas into the car as possible (very normal for filling up cars here).
Our trip went smoothly.
But we found an accident where a truck overloaded with people and goods had turned over. Peter got out his first aid kit and he and Victor tended to wounds. Some people needed stitches but refused to go to the hospital because they were scared since they had no I.D. Many rural people never get I.D. because of poverty and bureaucracy.
Back at the orfanato . . . (Graça and Dorcas, the new baby.)

We watched Mozambique lose to Tunisia in soccer (sad – it was the last chance to earn a spot in the World Cup)!
HUGE cooking began, starting with Janete showing us how to make cassava with red sauce. (Janete and Sunny peeling the bark off the cassava roots.)
Yum! It was SO good!!!
Next Janete taught us how to cook this delicious pumpkin thing with coconut chicken and rice!
Victor's favorite drink in the whole world (which is actually just fizzy grape juice) can't be found here so whenever he goes somewhere he searches for it. He was so happy to find some in Chimoio!
Sunny led the whole orfanato in a tae bo leson. The kids could NOT get enough of it!!!
June 25th was Mozambican Independence Day. Everyone ate good food and then had a very relaxing day. (Tercia, Minoca, and Gizela.)
New little Jose is still mesmerized by cameras.

Some serious conversations happened. (Peter and Estefano.)
The conversations did not stop.
Which landed him at the vet (AMAZINGLY there IS a vet here!!!) After roaming the bairro Simba got really really sick and couldn’t eat or walk or anything. We had to take him to the vet four days in a row for antibiotic injections and we found out that he is the biggest cry baby ever! Every time Simba would sit on the examining table waiting for the doctor he would start thinking about what was going to happen (a shot) and cry and moan so loudly that even people passing by would peer in and then laugh when they found out it was a dog thinking about getting a shot. Simba had to be comforted by at least three people the whole time!
Sunny and Peter did a health survey focus group with some of the kids. We learned a LOT from this!
The whole visit ended with an ENORMOUS egg roll samosa production and eating! Sunny made HUNDREDS of egg rolls (a Mozambican version of them)
which the kids folded into samosa shapes! They were like nothing anyone has ever had before! And they were delicious!!!
The drive from Nampula to Chimoio was about 1100 kilometers and took us 14½ hours to drive.
Easter Dinner was extra special this year because it was a gift from Alzira and Santos, our two young teachers from the orphanage. Alzira and Santos were kids in the orphanage who grew up, finished school, and were then accepted into a teachers training college. They graduated at the end of last year and then both got jobs as fifth grade teachers in a school about 70 kilometers from Nampula. This week they returned to tell Victor that they had received their first paychecks and wanted to pay for Easter dinner for the kids. They also asked Victor to pray with them and continue mentoring them. It was really touching to see how they expressed their gratitude towards the orphanage and how they feel such a sense of responsibility for using what they now have in the right way (helping their families, saving for the future, and giving back to the kids who are in the same place where they were just a few short years ago). It is really wonderful to see a dream being realized - to remember a child in a seemingly hopeless situation who has now made it further than almost anyone they had ever seen go before them.