Divine Connections

We all love stories with happy endings. I have one to share with you today. As with so many stories, it is about triumph that overcame tragedy and about two people who connected despite all the odds being against them. 

Madalena and her siblings were the first children we ever brought home to our Sunshine Homes Project. Cecilia, 12, Madalena, 5, and Antonio, 3, lost both of their parents at such a young age. It is because of them that the Sunshine Homes Project ever began. When we heard about them, we felt they deserved to grow up together as a family, in a home, with a mother to care for them and love them best of all. Thus, the Sunshine Homes Project was birthed in 2014 when we paired them with Zelda and settled them into their home in Matola Santos. 

Oh how these children loved Zelda and thrived in her care. Madalena and Antonio loved her so much that they took turns sleeping in her room every night. I would always chuckle when I’d look in Zelda’s bedroom and see her bed littered with stuffed animals. I would tease Zelda about the “man” ( a stuffed Batman) with whom she shared her bed. 

Zelda was mother to these children for nine years until she unexpectedly died in December 2022. The children were devastated, and understandably so. It was the second time they had lost a mother. Since Zelda’s passing, we have moved forward with a new caretaker for them. They are no longer children but now Cecilia is a young adult at age 22, and Madalena and Antonio are teenagers, ages 15 and 13. 

It has been a very hard road to recover from losing someone as special as Zelda. Recently when we were taking apart the bunkbeds that Madalena slept in, I saw on the slats of the bunk above her that she had written Zelda’s name over and over. My heart broke for her. This why when Madalena asked me if she could take a cake baking and decorating course to honor Zelda, I could not say anything but “YES!” Zelda had taken a course a few years ago. She was really progressing in her talents and was selling her cakes to many people. Madalena wanted to follow in her footsteps. 

Madalena faithfully attended the courses that were held in the city every Saturday for three months, accompanied by her ever-protective older sister, Cecilia. Madalena passed her final baking test and received her certificate. She has begun baking cakes to sell, and we are walking alongside her helping her learn how to manage her money. 

Recently, I brought Madalena together with my neighbor,  Khumbu, who also bakes and sells cakes. She agreed to give Madalena some decorating advice. 

I shared a post about Madalena's lesson with Khumbu on Facebook that was seen by a wonderfully kind supporter of our foundation. Kelli lives in Vermont and also bakes. She sells her items to bakeries and gives the profits to our Sunshine Approach Foundation. When she saw the post, she decided to help Madalena out and sent a donation for her to get the supplies she needed to grow her business. She sent it along with the most beautiful letter to Madalena. 

Dear Madalena, 

I understand that you are continuing an endeavor from someone who you deeply cared for. Baking is so fun. It's such a joy to use your skills to show your love. Love is the key ingredient in baking. Isn't it so fun to see someone eating and enjoying what you've made for them. I am so privileged to be able to send some money for you to buy supplies for your baking. If you were near me, you can bet that we would share the techniques and recipes that we like to use. I understand that you took a class. How fun. I have not taken any classes. 

I would love to see the things that you do. If I can relay one piece of wisdom, it would be this....it doesn't have to be perfect...people you bake for will feel the love you've put into it, before they notice anything you may not think is perfect. 

Love in Jesus, 

Kelli 

Madalena thought long and hard about how to use Kelli’s donation, but in the end, the choice was easy. The oven in her house is broken. When she bakes her cakes, she must go bake at another house, so she decided to buy an oven! She also had money to buy a scale for weighing ingredients and a few other baking utensils. 

Today we tested out her oven by making banana bread. The oven worked great, and the banana bread came out golden brown and delicious. Next up, I am going to teach her to make cupcakes and brownies.

Let me end with the thank you note that Madalena wrote to send to Kelli. I think it sums up how someone can impact another person, half a world away, and whom they most likely will never meet. 

Good evening, 

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to help me so that I can achieve my goals and my dreams. I am very happy when I make cakes because I remember someone so special who marked my life despite everything, a mother incredible, a wonderful mother. Every time I make a cake, I remember her huge, contagious smile. I just wanted to thank you for everything good. As you said, if you had the opportunity, we would exchange experiences together. Above all, God is with us. How wonderful God is! He has a huge plan for me. I leave everything in His hands, and loving Jesus. Thank you very much for the opportunity to make my dreams come true as God is good and very good. 

With love, 

Madalena 

Who knows what will happen next in Madalena's journey to honor Zelda? Maybe Kelli will come and teach Madalena herself one day!

Training Teachers to Impact Future Generations

Don and I love hosting visitors and teams from the US. In fact, we ALL love hosting people - from our staff and employees at the factory - to our staff, children and mothers at the Sunshine Houses - and to the many, many people in the communities who are touched and impacted by those who come stay with us. I only wish that I had started a guestbook for people to sign when we began our time here 13 years ago. I cannot even make a guess of how many people have stayed with us! It is wonderful when they come, and it is so quiet and lonely when they leave. 

While every person who has visited has left their mark in Mozambique, I must give a shout out to the teachers who have come since 2017 from the Landmark School north of Boston. This teacher training program was the idea of our daughter, Cassie, who taught at Landmark School for five years. This school services children with learning language disabilities. The teachers are well trained and are continually being updated with training. Cassie had the idea of bringing a team of teachers during their two-week March break in 2017. The goal was to share their knowledge and training with the teachers here in Mozambique and to also learn from the Mozambican teachers. 

The program has continued each year, except for those dreadful COVID years when we were all locked down. We love this program because of the high impact it has on the schools. This year, we completed trainings to 177 teachers in six schools. Considering the fact that these teachers have average classroom sizes of 50 students and teach morning and afternoon classes because students only go to school half days, this equals out to 17,700 students being impacted by the trainings this year alone! Multiply this number by 5 years and the total result is 88,500 students benefitting from these trainings! 

Escola Maria Ana Mogas

Escola Sao Gabriel 

Externato 20 de Outubro

Escola Primaria Completa Muchenguentava

Escola Primaria Completa Tamwana

Christian Academy of Mozambique

The US teachers prepare PowerPoint presentations on a topic of their choosing in advance. These slides are then translated into Portuguese for the presentations, and we make copies of the slides so each teacher can refer back to the content that was taught. Topics over the years have included classroom management, creating a routine, outlining and notetaking, how to manage large classes, grouping students, challenging students to high-level thinking and creativity, and the ever popular- using games to enhance your content.

 

Some schools are able to give the students a day off so that we can work with the teachers. Other schools are not able to do this, so we work in the classrooms directly with as many teachers as possible and then do a teacher training after the students go home at the end of the day. Our teachers teach in their native English language while our Delcio, always at our side, translates into Portuguese for the teachers. 

At each and every school, each and every year, the participating Mozambican teachers are effusive in their appreciation of having received the training. The most frequent comment we hear is that after their initial college studies, they never receive any further inservice training to help them grow. The second most frequent comment we get….Can you come back next year? 

 

This teacher came up to Michelle 

at the end of of the training to show her that he had already prepared the questions for a game she taught that he would use in his class the next day!

These Landmark teachers come at their own cost, and believe me, a plane ticket to Mozambique is a hefty price. They give up their precious two-week Spring Break vacation. They raise funds to provide the Mozambican teachers with goodie bags, lunch and drinks, copies of the training slides, and certificates. They leave their cold, still wintry Boston weather and arrive in our hot, humid Mozambican climate and must immediately adjust. While here, they deal with trainings at the schools in this hot climate, usually without air conditioning. At our home, they deal with lack of water and power a lot of the time. We do try to make it fun for them with a beach trip, safari in Kruger Park, day out at the artisan market in Maputo, and of course playing and dancing with our Sunshine children. But even with all of this fun, it is a lot of work, and they are usually quite tuckered out by the time we put them on the plane back home. Which isn’t much fun either as they fly 9 hours to Doha, Qatar, endure a 9 hour lay over there, and then sit for a long 14 hour flight to Boston. They arrive back home late Saturday afternoon and are back in their classrooms on Monday morning. Phew…just writing this makes me tired! 

So please join me in thanking these amazing people for their service to our teachers...

Our first team in 2017- Cassie, Lauren, Kyleigh, Kyle, and Kate

Our 2018 Team- Nathan, Victoria, Brigid, Chelsey, and Rachael

Our 2019 Team- Scott, Michelle, and Jamal

Our 2020 Team- Doug, Michelle, and Doug

2023- Michelle teaching solo 

Our 2024 Team- Michelle, Kathleen, Maria (and Me)

Finally, I have to give the biggest ever shout-out to the one constant these past years, Michelle Boucher. After my daughter got this program running, it was Michelle who took it under her wing and kept it going. This past trip was Michelle’s fourth time to come to Mozambique. She says she won’t be coming again (because there are other places in the world to see), but we do not believe her. Michelle has helped prepare teams to come and has expertly guided them through their time here. She has been the main person to raise the funds that were used to bless the teachers. During the years of COVID lockdown, she raised funds to provide uniforms and bookbags to school children, funds to provide for our Beacons of Light community children’s projects, and funds to rebuild the caniso classrooms that were falling down in the village of Muchengeuntava where our foundation has a cashew farming and processing project happening. For me, it was a joy to see Michelle and this year’s team working with the teachers and students in these classrooms that exist because of her. Michelle came on her own last year in March 2023 to see if it was time to again go back to bringing teams from Landmark. While here last year, she did a solo training session at Escola Ana Mogas on her own…so I guess that we now technically have done this program for six years and not just five! 

(Please excuse the mess on the floor. We just got done watercolor painting and had to dry these treasures somehere!

I will end by saying thank you to my daughter, Cassie for getting this amazing program started. And thank you to Michelle for keeping it going. And thank you to all the teachers who have come and invested in Mozambique. 

Michelle…we will see you soon!