Um Momento, Por Favor (Just a Minute, Please)

I must appease the Blog Monster. I have great photos from Judah's birthday and an impressive video of Shawn's masterpiece of an entrance gate being erected by a team of Mozambicans, some visitors, and Shawn, but I pretty much blacked out after Shawn had been gone for 12 days stuck in South Africa and I was here taking care of 3 kids, running a Visitors' Center, and living in Moz. And then, just as I was about to come out of it, the phone rang and told Shawn to hop back on a plane. This time there's a pretty good chance he'll be back in 2 days, but I told him I would be leaving for America March 2 with or without him. Naturally, I sang that part because Bono and I could be best friends, but Shawn understood the gravity of the situation because I only sang it - I didn't dance expressively.

So, my offering tonight is a prize-winning photo from when Shawn was gone. Some of our friends and fellow volunteers took Judah & Luci to a birthday party so I could run man-to-man coverage with Asher. Apparently, a frosting fight broke out and, well, that's the only way to party, I guess.

Judah & Carlito post-frosting fight

Feliz Natal e Fim do Ano e Mais. Claro. (Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and More. Of Course.)

Here's a merry montage. Some photo credit goes to a recent visitor, Paul Smith, who downloaded all his photos on to the Hospitality computer. Obrigada.

Action shot of Christmas lunch preparation for 6,000 people.

We ushered in groups of kids about 30 at a time to get Christmas lunch.  Always on the edge of chaos :)

When they were done, they were supposed to dip their thumb in ginseng-violet so we knww who had eaten and who hadn't. Some kids were more purple than others and a couple lovely Norwegians who were manning that post had completely purple hands. I told them they were lucky to be going back to where it was winter and they could wear mittens until the purple wore off.

That, there, is a construction paper tree with seashell decorations and LED camping lights.

So far, so good!

We had the most wonderful group of South Africans staying with us over the holidays and they (including American photographer and chef extraordinaire, Paul Smith) invited us to join them for the best New Year's breakfast ever. Party Animal Asher is sucking down some Coke before I can stop him.

What a cute couple! Asher is sharing his Happy New Year melted ice cream with Mario who works with us in the Visitors' Center. If you happen to find yourself in Pemba come get dance lessons from Mario - that boy can move!

If you are facebook friends with Shawn, you've already seen this instant classic.  But I had to share it here, too. This is Raposo who also works with us in the Visitors' Center. For his birthday we helped him get his motorcycle license and when his photo came back instead of seeing the t-shirt he was photographed in they had put him in a suit with Photoshop. We call him President Raposo now.

Asher playing at the park by the Toddler House.

Luci got Princess outfits from Grandma for Christmas. She and Natalia spent the better part of an afternoon playing dress-up.

At first glance, this looks like a fun playground, but take a closer look at at that yellow slide.  Safety first, kids!