What did I do to deserve my life?

I want to update all those who have been following the Isaque story.  He got a new job a couple months ago but with an awful boss that has been treating him pretty poorly so he has been looking for a way out.  We finally finished our chicken coup last week and we received 800 chicks on thursday and the young man that we had originally found to help us backed out last minute.  I had to take his spot for the first couple days as we looked for another young man to work for us.  It was a ton of work and I got zero sleep those few nights.  Finally it dawned on me that I should go make Isaque an offer to come work for us.  I went there and made him an offer of 7 dollars more a month then he was currently making to work for us.  He had to take a beating from his boss before he could finally leave but he got out and last night I went and picked him up with all of his clothes (that he could fit into two small grocery bags) to come work for us.  He will make a little less than $40 dollars a month with free room and food.  We are setting up a savings program for him so that when he is done he can do something with his life.  He is so excited for this new opportunity. I have attached a couple I took about an hour ago of him at the coup.
So this week I have had several experiences that have made me realize how blessed I am.  I don't know why I was given so much opportunity in life.  What did I do to deserve my easy life?  As americans we live very naive lives and we don't realize how blessed we truly are.  More than half of the people in the world sleep on the ground and only dream of having a bed or a mattress to sleep on one day however most die before seeing that dream come true.  What did I do to deserve such an awesome family?  Mozambique has a population of 22 million people and an estimated 1.6 million of those are orphans!  That is 16 percent of the child population in Mozambique.  1.6 million kids here currently have to endure life by themselves in a country that is ranked #2 in the world on the worlds suffering index.  Obviously I did nothing to deserve the amazing life that I have been given but I am grateful for the blessings I have.  I just wish that I could trade spots with some of these people sometimes because they deserve to live a life of "luxury".  They deserve to have a bed, they deserve to have a family, they deserve to have food on their table, they deserve to have a roof covering their heads but many don't have these blessings.  I have just come to the conclusion that they are the elect of Gods children because there is no way I could endure some the trails that they have to endure while still being as happy and as faithful as these great people.  Fighting poverty is a very exhausting experience and it is impossible to pull an entire nation out of poverty.  However I am trying my best to help a few individuals and few families gain a new vision for their life and their potential to leave the bands of poverty.  I have been way more blessed than I deserve in this life and where much is given much is expected in return.  I hope that all of us can open our eyes to the reality of the conditions of what more than 3 billion people in the world live in day by day.  Our brothers and sisters need our help so hopefully we can all find a way to extend our hand.
-Josh

Im still alive!!!

Elections for the new President of Mozambique were Wednesday and well......I haven't died......yet.  Things have been a little crazy over here.  In Mozambique there is two main parties.  Frelimo is the ruling party which has been in power since Mozambique took its independence from the portuguese and is insanely corrupt.  Then there is Renamo which is the rebel army that lives in the forest and starts war every few years.  There is a third party that I love over here called MDM which is picking up momentum and will have success in future elections but is still too young to compete with the big dogs.  The corrupt party keeps all the money in the country to themselves and they are filthy rich and the rest of the country suffers in poverty.  Renamo (the rebels) don't like this and always try to put an end to it but they are just a bunch of crazy fighters of the jungle so they wouldn't do a much better job in running the country so mozambicans are without a good option to choose.  Most of the people from where I am currently am living have joined the party of the Renamo and voted for them on Wednesday.  However the corrupt government cheated and more or less won the elections by bringing in boxes and boxes of "prevotes" that were in favor of them from people in the jungle that"voted".  The few people in the opposition party that tried to stop it and not allow them to cheat got shot.  So long story short life has been a little crazy the last few days but I am still alive and things are calming down now.
Other than all this political madness I have had a great couple weeks here.  I am having a ton of success in training people on their small businesses.  It is amazing how far someone can go with a little knowledge.  Although this country is suffering from political corruption it is amazing me how much it is growing right now.  The investment company that I have created called MircroMoz Investments on the side of my Care for Life work has now focused in on three main projects for our first phase.  We are doing a chicken coup, buying a small transportation bus and doing a potato business.  All three are businesses can bring high returns to the investor while also helping the people who will run them.  We have finished building the chicken coup and we will be receiving our first batch of 1,000 baby chicks on Thursday.  People who will be the operators of these businesses have a percentage of the company and the profit.  They are incentive based businesses designed to make the people who work them extremely well to do in African terms if they work hard and are smart.  We believe that the impoverished do not lack intelligence, honesty or potential but we believe they lack  opportunity.  My companies goal is to invest in these great people and help mentor them on their journey of breaking the bands of poverty.  It is an exciting time to be here in Mozambique and so fun to watch these people change their lives.  I LOVE the african people!
I hope you all have a great week!  I will share some cool life stories of some of the people here throughout this next week so I hope you will enjoy them.  Here are some pictures!  
#1 A 7 year old given the responsibility to babysit her baby sister every day as her parents go to work.
#2 The African Stroller.
#3  Top five greatest moms in the entire world!
#4  They haven't really caught on to the idea of the selfie yet.
#5  Two of my friends from the village.  Both suffer from malnutrition issues.
#6  Neighbors of the chicken coup......they cant wait for the neighbor discount!
#7  The coup a couple days before finished
 

Back in Africa
Sorry it has been like a month since I updated my blog!  Two weeks ago I flew home to Boise to see my sisters wedding.  It was great being home for a few days and awesome to see so many of you guys.  My sister was the most beautiful bride that there has ever been.  She looked gorgeous.  Her husband is one lucky dude!
I arrived back in Mozambique on Thursday.  It is so great to be back again.
Just a few updates on a few projects that I have been doing on the side.  First the Chaganuas (Amudi and Fatima) new latrine is now finished.  I have attached some before and after photos of what their bathroom looked like before and what it looks like now.  In Mozambique 1-5 children die before the age of five due to many health issues.  One of the main causes of their health issues is how unsanitary their bathrooms are.  The Chaganua family is extremely poor and goes several days at times without food do to the lack in income so building a latrine has not been a priority.  The dad is a great/ talented man but has been unemployed for several years now and does not have the money to bribe someone for a job.  They have three beautiful kids!  There little boy Felipe was named after me.  They are one of the greatest families I have ever met.  Building a quality latrine here is not very cheap but luckily I had great support in America and many people kicked in to helping this amazing family.  Today their bathroom is one of the best in the entire village because of your support.  They said to tell all of those who pitched in a very special thank you.  Amudi just got a job and things are really starting to look up as this family makes an effort to leave extreme poverty.
The other update is about Isaque.  He was the young man that I talked about in the first blog.  I invited him to hang out with me and some of my families on Friday night.  It was so fun to see his interaction with some of the families that I baptized.  Having been an orphan most of his life he just latches on to and loves any time of family atmosphere he can get ahold of.  It was pretty late by the time we were leaving so instead of taking him all the way home I just let him sleep at my house for the night.  It was his first night ever sleeping on a bed.  He is 17 years old and Friday night was his first time not sleeping on the ground.  To make things better I gave him a letter from Laurie Abraham (who heard his story) informing him that she would cover his school expenses so that he could go back to school again.  It will not be very expensive at all but for him it meant the entire world to have that chance to go back and study again.  He is a brilliant kid so he will do amazing in school.  It was one of the funnest nights of my life because it was so fun to watch him be so excited.  The only problem is the kid likes to talk!  We ended up talking till 3:30 in the morning.  He told me his entire life story.  His real parents died when he was five years old and then he went to live with his grandma who died when he was 7.  He lived on his own on the streets for a year but was able to stay in school.  His professor liked him so much and felt bad for him so he adopted him when he was 8.  He lived with his professor for four years until he was twelve.  The professor then took a job in the capital and couldn't take Isaque with him.  That is when he moved to the city where I am at now and he has been living on his own ever since.  If I was in his shoes I would be super depressed and hopeless but he is one of the happiest/most delightful people I have ever met in my life.  He gave me so many good insights on how to overcome major trails and still be happy.  Right before we fell asleep he said "Felipe, one more thing...Thank you! This has been the greatest night of my entire life!"  Something as simple as sleeping on a crappy bed and getting the chance to go back to school made this kids life.  It has been a special couple days back in this beautiful country.  Life here is so precious.  You never know how long some of these great people will be around for but I can only pray that they have a long life span so they can continue to touch peoples lives as they have mine.  I love you all!  Thanks for the support!
-Josh