It's Break!

Woohoo! I hope everyone had an awesome summer break! After finishing our end-terms we got a three-week break! Okay, I know three weeks isn't that much compared to about two to three months, but hey, I'll take what I can get. It's not really summer break though. Let me explain.

The school year here goes by the English school year, which is from January to December. Yep, year-long school. But I guess it's not THAT bad. There are three terms, and within each term there are midterm and end-term exams. After every midterm exam we get one week of break. We just finished our second term end-terms and then had a three-week break. Anywho, I'm going to skip the boring statistics about how kids in year-long school benefit from it. Besides, this is break. I may only have until the 26th, but that's not stopping me from trying to avoid math and overall memorizing things at ALL costs! :)

Anywho, during the first week of break, we pretty much just sat home and played Minecraft. PlayStations anyone? We met up with our friends and had sleepovers a couple of times as well. Then, on the ninth, we headed to Nampula for a camp called Encounter Camp, where we reunited with our Nacala friends! We talked about God as the Creator, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was kind of crammed together, into two half-days and one full one to be exact, but it was still a very encouraging experience. We were split into six teams and my team, the Three B's (don't ask what that stands for), ended in third place. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about deepening my relationship with God.

That Sunday, after camp ended, we drove to Nacala. If you guys remember, that was where we spent almost a year learning the language Portuguese. I was reunited with my best friends Joy, Faith, and another girl I'll call Hope. I love them sooooo much! If you guys ever read this, I love ya'll! Yes, those are still their "code names". Maybe sometime in the future I will get to say their real names. It's not really that big of a deal, I just did it for safety, I guess.

After a couple of days in Nacala where we went on an AWESOME adventure to a blue hole, we drove back to Pemba. A blue hole is a hole that is connected to the ocean and it's not disturbed, so it's really beautiful. We had to be very careful not to "stir up" the silt at the bottom of it. There are places you can dive down because it's so deep. It's just a really good reminder of God's beautiful creation and power. I had such a great time with Joy and Faith there. We got SOAKED!! My mom didn't take any pictures of the blue hole specifically, but I do have some of the ocean close by where we were.

Pemba is a five and a half hour drive from Nacala, so we got here on the same day we left. Ever since then, we've pretty much just stayed home. Recently though, I got to go to this small house in a village where my mom and two other ladies from another organization met some local girls. We drank tea, ate cookies, and played a couple of games. It was just an amazing experience and these girls are so lucky to have a place to come and learn about health (healthy relationships, mental health, and bodily health) and Jesus.

One more thing I want to add is there are these amazing people here with an organization called the Liberty Project. They work with women who have been abused and teach them how to cook and sew in order to make a living for themselves. The place we went to see the girls is actually something that the Liberty Project is working on. They recently opened a cafe called the Liberty Cafe. Some of their women work there. The profits fund the project and the women. The cafe is seriously my favorite place to go in Pemba. It's so cute and pretty! I'm attaching a few pictures for you guys. You guys should totally check out their website here!

I hope you all are having/had an amazing break. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for our family and the beautiful people of Mozambique. This is tschau for now, Gracie :)