Mozambique - Days 1 and 2: At Home

We landed in Pemba, Mozambique on Sunday afternoon and were greeted by Alan and Ellie at the airport.  Fortunately for us, customs took the day off (what?!?)... so we just got to grab our luggage and head on.  Alan and Rachel and the girls (I'll refer to them as the Africa Howells) live in Montepuez, which is a town about 2.5-3 hours west of Pemba. 

Sunday night is movie night in the Africa Howell home, so after lots of hugs and kisses, the girls started their movie while Aaron and I enjoyed hot dogs, coke in glass bottles, and chatting with Alan and Rachel.  

Monday is a stay at home/cooking/baking/family day which was so great for us.  We loved being able to spend the entire day with our sweet nieces, just playing and getting to know them and their home.

Here are a few highlights/memories from our first 2 days.

*Katie loves to suck on 2 of her fingers... a lot.  (Even when they are very dirty.) 

*We had pancakes for breakfast! 

*Monday is cooking/baking day.  We spent a lot of time in the kitchen (Rachel spent most of the day in there!) making all sorts of stuff, including Abby's carrot cake birthday cake.  I thought it was funny that an 8 year old requested carrot cake, but it was fabulous.  

 

 

 
*Abby has grand visions of her birthday cake and even provided a drawing.  Rachel went to her cupboard, pulled out 2 heart shape pans.. looked at them for a minute and decided she could make a dog shaped cake.  I'm still not sure how she did it.  She's amazing.

*The girls love swinging in the backyard.

*The girls love playing in the backyard. 

*The girls also love climbing on top of the truck.

*Katie is too small to climb on top of the truck, so she just gets in the back.

*Abby made a homemade kite with a grocery bag, some string, and a stick.

*We transported lots of goodies to Moz and the girls loved all of them. Clothes, shoes, books, candy, bubble gum, gold fish, etc.  Some from Papa B and Nettie, some from Nannie, some from Aunt Carol and Aunt Susan, and some from us.

*Aaron and I went with Alan, Ellie, and Katie Joy to the land where they are building a house.  It was really neat to see the layout and hear about all their plans.

*When we got back to the house, Rachel had completely decorated Abby's birthday cake.  Like I said, amazing.

*The girls love bedtime stories.

*We also transported a bike over for Abby's birthday, so after the girls went to bed, Alan and Aaron put it together for a surprise the next morning.  (We do not wake up as early as the girls.. so the surprise is not documented via photos)

*We taught Alan and Rachel how to play Monopoly Deal.  Fun fun. :0

More to come!