Happiness

My parents visited for the past couple weeks. They brought books to initiate an English resource library, gave guest speaker presentations to our classes, and got to meet our friends and see exactly where we are and what our days are like.
Then right before they left, we went for an amazing safari for a couple of days in Swaziland. Here´s the elephant - 3 feet from the Land Rover, just sniffing us. And here´s the rhino - who we approached by foot to admire and click photos from 6 feet away. We were practically the only guests at the camp and felt privileged to be there to appreciate the hippos who hung out at the waterhole right outside the window of the house. The animals made a hippo/rhino parade for this photo.

And here are the amazing lions that were laying in the road because the grass was wet so the Land Rover just drove up to them and we watched the cubs play under their father´s watchful eye for an hour!It was the best vacation ever!

JOMA and REDES conferences

We´ve had a full month! First, Jesse brought 2 students to the JOMA conference where they focused on communication skills through journalism. This photo shows students interviewing the community on Mozambican Women´s Day. His journalism club at school is a big and dedicated group.

Then I switched places with Jesse and brought 2 women to the REDES conference the following week. It was awesome to see the confidence of the women grow over the week together. One of my favorite memories was everyday when our large group of women sang in strong voices, dancing, sometimes with fists in the air, lyrics like "We want equality and strength!"