MozamWeek

My guard for two years came from the countryside where he farmed and herded goats since he was a boy. He wasn’t interested in school. His dad was happy that he was home to farm. Why should he study? Now he’s married with a wife and son of a year. He lives in town to make a living and go to school. Adult literacy is free for everyone who lives near enough to a class. He’s been in the Portuguese class for two years. When he came to Tete he didn’t speak much Portuguese, but that didn’t stop him from starting literacy classes. He struggled through the years with naming letters and learning vowels. Last June when Mikael’s mom was here, Querino showed her his books and what he could do. As a Special Education teacher, she was amazed at his difficulty at putting two letters together to make a simple syllable. After over a year in Literacy class! Querino’s brother Ilidio works on the Nyungwe Bible translation with us. He’s the big brother in the family. At 28 years old, he is the only one ...

Today the 3 Bister Kids started a new school year. In our small school there are 2 grades per class. This year was "move up" year for the Bisters! Katie is up to MP3, the oldest group in the school. She's started 5 th grade, if you can believe that! There are about 13 kids in her class. She's excited about starting guitar this year. She and Dumi both declared their teacher to be great. Jakob is in MP2. He's starting 3 rd grade in a class of about 8 kids. He was very pleased that his new teacher isn't as strict as he'd imagined he'd be. He also finally kept up with Kelly on the morning run. They are the two fastest in the age group, but she's managed to beat him every time! This might be his year to pull ahead at least sometimes. John has entered the 1 st grade. He's finally in PE and gets to run with the big kids… and swim after the run… and play all the sports. Finally! He has a new teacher (Katie had the same teacher in first grade) and th...

My new computer is great. It is faster and more reliable than the other one that got hung up on the simplest tasks. I love my new broadband with a wireless router... except that it doesn't like Mikael's computer, so he's still bound to the cable and it nearly defeats the purpose of our upgrade. NEARLY. I still like working faster myself. There are a few things that aren't working out in my transfer of stuff to the new machine. These are annoying and concern me a bit. Anyone with ideas can send me an email and I'll try it out. 1. Transferring files from an old crippled XP computer to the new one with Windows 7 is proving slow. I wanted to network the two through the wireless connection, but I'm not managing to get it straight. So I'm using a 2gig flash drive and 10 years of digital photos 2 gig at a time will take forever. I have my files for work... but my pictures are still on the old one. I'm working on uploading everything to Picasa where I'll...

Some things are just more special here than at home in America or Sweden. I came home just before Christmas with a BIG can of pickles. They cheered! We haven't had pickles for months... almost a year, I guess. I just don't want to pay $4 for a tiny jar of yucky pickles. BUT I will pay $10 for a huge can of pretty good pickles! So, one of our holiday treats in Tete this year was unlimited pickle pleasure. Any meal... as much as you want! They are really sour, so the pickle gobbling didn't last long. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade! If Tete gives you pickles, eat 'em!

Unedited family photo... at least we are all smiling! We are looking forward to 2011. There's lots ahead to look forward to! The kids are settled and happy and doing really well in school. (They got some pretty awesome awards at year end ceremony!) Translation is more organized and locally led than ever. There are several publication goals for this year plus trips for testing and training. Interest in literacy training and materials development is increasing in several schools. Our house is renovated and feels like home! Thanks for continued prayer and support for our family and work. We wouldn't be here if there weren't people home in USA and Sweden making an effort to keep us here! You are a blessing! Have a great 2011!