Communist Dictators and Going to Church

I haven't updated since I haven't been taking any pictures--mostly been doing meetings and writing documents from the confines of the missionary guesthouse. But perhaps I could describe a little about my current surroundings without the aid of interesting visuals.

All the streets in Maputo are named for prominent communists, Mozambican heroes, or African countries. I live near the intersection of Kim Il Sung and Mao Tse Tung. Sometimes I run on Frederich Engels.

It's really interesting staying at the missionary guesthouse. There are a lot of people coming through here to do some wonderful work. The two ladies who run the guesthouse have lived through an authoritarian government and civil war. We sing hymns before every meal (unless people have breakfast at different times). Often, though, the hymns are a little bit newer...so I kind of have to hum along...

On Sunday, I went with two of the younger girls I met here last week to a church nearby. It was called "Igreja Reformada", a Dutch Reformed church. We met in a kind of gymnasium where they had a piano and a guitar they used to accompany hymns. They put the hymns up on a screen in front with a transparency projector. Most of the hymns were in Portuguese, so I could follow along, but some were also in Changana, the local dialect, which was nice to hear.