Good Times Minus One

We apologize for such a long delay in posting. We have had computer trouble which is now resolved and we were away on vacation with Jenni’s parents. We had a wonderful time with them and we are so grateful that they could come. God definitely had His hand on all of their travel. They never lost any luggage, they made all of their flight connections, and the only sickness suffered was a cold…which they gave to us! It was fun to see things through a new set of eyes. Everything was so new to them and so foreign. We have grown so accustom to everything here which is totally a God thing! Their experience here will be one that will always be remembered and definitely leave a permanent imprint on their lives.

Their first week in Nampula was spent adapting to the wonderful heat and humidity along with a new language and culture. The first day they suffered from complete sleep depravation and heat exhaustion! So we let them rest and take it easy. This day was also like Christmas for us….we got to open their suitcases filled with stuff for us! It was so wonderful! We will be enjoying American goodies until our term ends next March! The next day we showed them around the city of Nampula and familiarized them with our every day tasks.

On Tuesday, one of our favorite days with them, we took them to our friend Choveque’s house. Choveque had prepared a wonderful African meal in his hut for them to experience. The food was delicious…ok we are used to the food and we really like it, but my mom and dad did a really great job with trying something so different!We ate nshima, covi (cabbage in a peanut sauce),butter beans, and biscottis (cookies).
This was a humbling and wonderful experience for us all. Everyone lives such simple lives here. People have practically nothing but are willing to give all that they have! My parents had brought gifts for all of Choveque’s family and they were so excited to receive these special things (the kids' sunglasses made us all laugh). All in all, it was a very special day!

The next days we took them to the beautiful beaches of Mozambique. One night we spent in our own personal hut on a private beach and then the next night we made our way to an air conditioned room! We returned Friday afternoon wishing to relax, but instead, we took shifts of making 100 tortillas for our next adventure! Saturday morning we headed to the orphanage, the highlight of the trip, where we played games with the orphans all morning.


My parents had brought tons of games and coloring books from the States for the kids and they absolutely LOVED them! After a fun filled morning of playing game after game, we introduced TACOS to the kids for lunch. They loved them! The director of the orphanage, Victor, had spent 5 years in the US, and he has told the kids about tacos for years. We wanted to give them the opportunity to try them. It was such a fun day. Before we left the kids got on a stage and thanked and prayed for my parents. The orphans have so much love in their hearts for people they hardly know. Even arriving at the orphanage that morning they had decorated with signs welcoming us and saying they loved us. We all learned from their beautiful example of love. This day will always be in our hearts! It blessed us to see how happy the kids were and my parents were.

The next days were a bit trying as we were without water…which meant we were without our relief of a cold shower! Thank goodness we were due for vacation! We were off to South Africa where we went to Kruger National Park and took my parents on a safari. We saw so many animals in the 2 days we were there. Unfortuantely the lions, leopards, and cheetahs were shy and didn’t want to be seen. We did get very close to zebras, giraffes, rhinos, and elephants…in fact it was a bit freaky! After this neat experience, we went to Cape Town where we stayed in a place called Fish Hoek.
















It was one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited! We had so much fun. We did most of the main tourist attractions Cape Point, Table Mountain, Boulders Beach (where we got to see penguins on the beach) and VA Waterfront. Corey also had his first encounter with a great white shark. One of my favorite things we did was we surprised my mom with a 50th birthday present.
She has always wanted to go horseback riding on the beach. We actually pulled off surprising her, which is a very hard thing to do if you know my mom. It was a wonderful time!

We absolutely loved our time with my parents. We felt so loved that they would come to a foreign land and overcome such great fears to spend time with us. We treasured our time with them and we are truly grateful for all they did to make us feel so special! Thanks to all who prayed for our trip. It was blessed in so many ways!

This next part might seem out of place from what is written above, but it goes together so bare with us! We want to especially thank those of you who have prayed for us during our travel. During our travel back to Nampula we were in a plane accident. It was raining really hard and the pilot could not see the runway. The pilot ran INTO the runway upon landing and all 4 tires burst which sent us swirving off of the runway and spinning around. The wing drug on the ground and at this point we thought we were going to roll. When the plane finally came to a stop and level ground, everyone on the plane panicked. We had to use the emergency doors to evacuate…which meant we used the slide which you only see in movies. Once off the plane, we had to walk about a mile in the pouring rain down the runway to the airport. We spent the night in the city of Beira and arrived in Nampula the next afternoon. We have never been so scared in our whole lives and at the same time so grateful to be alive. It is truly a miracle that our plane did not blow up. Some people were injured, but we walked away without a scratch…just emotional scarring for the rest of our lives! So we want to thank all of you for prayers on our behalf. God showed us His mercy and kept us alive and we are so grateful! Here’s a picture to show that the Duncans are alive and well!

That’s all for now! Oh and did anyone notice that we had TONS of pictures this time??? We have recently been blessed with a DSL connection so be expecting updates more often with more pictures!!