back to the little house with the mold and no running water. it's a jolt to the system. i am stepping in slowly. i've unpacked (mostly). i bought a new sewing machine in Cape Town for our sewing shop. i was stopped in Maputo and had to pay $50 in taxes.
i arrived back home to dear friends who were excited about my arrival and their presents.
i slept, despite the blaring music outside my window. i spent the morning organizing our etsy page and updating our items and descriptions and pining them to Pinterest in efforts to show our items and gain an audience. promotion and marketing. we may be in a local Atlanta coffee shop soon! more details on that to come. we also got our first custom order off etsy. i will have to venture into town in the morning to buy fabric for that order.
this afternoon, i had to meet with Twyla who has been so incredibly graciously letting us use her house. we have invaded her office/guest bedroom and overtaken her gazebo. we are very much in need of our own space. we met and talked it all over and came up with plans A, B and C.
meanwhile a visitor wants to come and teach at Galeria dos Sonhos how to work with glass and make art. he's coming Monday morning to our little gazebo.
as i am leaving Twyla's, my student Trago writes me. he is one of my most studious. brilliant. kind. gentle. articulate. he wants to be a doctor. but he can't afford medical school. his brother is very sick and has been for a long time. he needs an operation and Trago needs to take him to Nampula for surgery. Trago is 16. now he is coming to me to look for a job. i have nothing for him to do. i have Galeria dos Sonhos but we are already in the red. but he is willing to do anything and even though he has school and knows he can only make a drop in the bucket of what he needs for a surgery in Nampula, yet he is still trying. i admire that. i admire him. he's coming in the morning at 8:00 to talk about it.
and just now i sat down with one of my workers. she was asking for payment, which was technically due today and she could not wait until monday. she owes money to a shop owner where she is currently working and living. but the shop is falling apart and not a good place to live. she was wanting money to pay another shop owner but they wanted three months rent. we sat down with her and tried to tell her this was not a good idea while she tried to tell us she had no where else to go. the conversation was full of things like, "i'm afraid", "i have no where else to go", "there are already other women living in that house." she really doesn't have other options. if you don't have family here you really are on your own, as is she. she rely's on friends but those friends have relatives and houses are all full already. everything this girl owns could fit in a small bag. she is simply looking for a place to sleep at night. a safe space. we tried to reason with her and discuss how living in the shop was not the best situation in the past and how it would most likely not result in a good thing for her in the future. we don't want her to be tied to the owners of these shops, but rather one day, own her own place. i tried to tell her that. but there is no grid here for that. things like "be your own boss" and thoughts of you being in total control of your life and you being God's chosen are foreign to her. she needs to hear it every second to make up for all the days she has been so overlooked. i wanted to scoop her up and tell her she has everything going for her, that she is "fearfully and wonderfully made" and the apple of His eye. but i have no solution for her current situation. i had no solution for where she will sleep tonight or tomorrow. it's hard and it's frustrating. i have full faith that God will help her, i just haven't a clue how. it most likely won't look at all like i think it will. we left it at simply meeting again once the other bosses have been paid off and she is free to leave her current situation. we reasoned with her not to pay into another place but to look into finding a small house to rent. she estimates this to be about $30/month. $30!!! it would change her life. to have her own place to sleep. that is for a tiny house with no electricity or running water. just a room. it's all anyone has here. she is making beyond this with Galeria dos Sonhos. so we also left it with all sitting down together and looking at a budget to help her manage her finances. so now i, who just spent a month's rent in Pemba, on face powder at the airport, get to sit down and see the raw truth about living here. about what it really is to be Mozambican and to see her daily struggles in black and white. i, of course, want to encourage her to get her own place and be her own boss. i want to teach her how to manage her money so that she can put away and save at the end of every month. i want to show her how God provides and gives wisdom to those who see Him. i haven't a clue HOW to do this but trusting He will show me each step.
so this is my re-entry into my life in Mozambique. i can't escape the need or my responsibility to help. it's an honor and makes the luxury life in Cape Town seem a bit dull. it's good to be back where i belong.
No comments:
Post a Comment