I have had better wake up calls ...

Just imagine, you are sleeping in your warm comfy bed, dreaming about a nice layered latte from your favourite coffee shop when suddenly you are woken by your spouse announcing that there is someone rattling the front gates to get our attention. It is still dark as you look at the time … 5.00am … is this just a bad dream or are you really being woken up. Then you hear the rattling … no this is not a dream … this is real. As you stick your head out of the ensuite window to look at the gate you see a man in a police uniform. “Ahhh, morningbos … we hav had a rrepot that theeer hes been someone in yor yad”(Translation: Good Morning Sir, sorry to awaken you from your slumber but we have been advised by telephone that there has been someone loitering on your premises). You quickly stick your head back in the window, because of the cold cold weather outside. You scramble to get warm enough clothes on and as you go outside to open the gate, you find the police officer already in your yard. “Ahhh bos … ar you dooing any work on yor ca? (Translation: Excuse me, but may I enquire to whether you have been performing any mechanical labor on this automobile?). As you look at him with a vacant expression he is now alerting you to the fact that there is a bunch of leaves sticking out from the bonnet and the left hand side of the car is jacked up by bricks and your two left wheels are no longer anywhere to be seen. It is now that the police officer reveals “ahhh bos … it loooks like someone hes taken yor whels and mabe yor batrry (Translation: If you have not yet noticed it seems to appear that there is no longer any wheels on the left hand side of your car. If you could please take the time to look under the hood you will probably find that they have also taken your car battery and placed the leaves there so you didn’t wake from your slumber as they closed the hood). Yes … this is all true. Last night we forgot to put the little red bucky (ute) into the garage and someone has jumped the fence and taken both of the wheels on the left hand side of the car as well as cut the battery cords so they could relieve us of our battery as well. One of the things which sticks out to us is that the police officer admits that they probably would have got here in time to stop this theft if they had a police vehicle. Apparently, the officer had to walk for about 1.5 hours to get to our house because the one vehicle they do have was off somewhere else and even if it was at the station there probably wouldn’t have been enough fuel to drive it (we currently have NO petrol/diesel for sale in Zimbabwe). Ahh, life in Zimbabwe …

Technical Errors!!!

Hi everyone, unfortunately I have been experiencing technical errors in posting pictures to the blogsite. I am hoping that this will be rectified in the coming week because I have loads of pictures to show you all. Have a good one, Andrew.

Finally, some familiar voices!!!!!

Both Jodi and I have been extremely disturbed that we have been loosing our Aussie accents and sounding more and more like the local Zimbabweans … shame hey!!! But over the last 10 days we have had a bunch of Aussies come over to Zimbabwe and it has revived our Aussie twang … you little ripper!!!

As mentioned in the last blog, 14 young and not so young guys n gals came over to Bulawayo from the “other side” of the Brisbane river. They had an awesome time visiting so many different schools and groups; from the hosh posh private high schools to the rural townships all the groups enjoyed listening to them as they rocked their socks off up on stage. From all reports all the Aussie guys really enjoyed themselves as they witnessed to so many people and found out first hand some of the hardships the locals here are going through … it was s real eye opener

What a busy couple of weeks!!!!

To be honest I don’t know where to start … from the beginning is always good, but it is hard to find the beginning and the end???? Crazy times … but let me try to explain. Just to let you know ... this is a bit of a longer blog, so make sure you grab a coffee, get a comfortable chair and enjoy your reading experience ...

We currently have an Aussie team of 14 people visiting YFC from a church on the southside of Brisbane (please don’t hold the fact that they live of the southside against them). Debbie, our good and faithful leader arranged to have them collected from J’berg airport instead of them having to pay an extra amount to fly up to Bulawayo, this is where the problems start. Debbie had purchased a 7 seater car from a Japanese export company and tried to import the car into Zimbabwe the week before the team arrived; so Dereck (a good friend of Debbie), Daniel (his son), Mike (another friend) and I took the first 3 hour drive down to the border to try to collect the vehicle. It took Dereck and Daniel over 6 hours to clear the car on the South African side and then try to get it cleared on the Zimbabwean side … with no success. Dereck tried to pay the 115% duty with his credit card (which other people have done) only to have the customs clerk advise that they no longer have the facilities to accept credit card and we had to pay the duty in cash. Now came the task of trying to get the $50,000 rand from the bank in one transaction or over a 10 day period, not enough time on this trip.

Next, the task of trying to transport the 14 Aussies from J’berg airport with only one 7 seater car and a bukki (ute/tray back) … good news came only 1 day later with a volunteer saying he could drive his sisters 7 seater vehicle as well … yay we now have enough seats and it should be easy from this point onwards. The day before we left (last Thursday) I had to get a police check done on the bukki (the car I was allocated to drive) to get it cleared to cross the border. This involves driving the car to an inspection yard in Bulawayo where a police office checks the chassi number against the registration papers, he signs the piece of paper and then gives it into the office where I collect it the following morning stamped and ready to go. Not this time … when the police officer checked the chassi number he noticed a discrepancy and advised that I should take the car over to the holding yard … what is going on??? No one told me of any possibility of a discrepancy. I was taken into police custody until I could prove that the car wasn’t stolen. I called my good friend Dereck (who I was borrowing the car from) to ask what was happening … it was then that I found out that the car was stolen over 5 years ago but had apparently already been cleared by the police back then. After waiting over hour in the C.I.D. office the papers arrived and I was released. To be honest the investigating officer was a good man and enjoyed trying to get me to say words in their language and laugh when I said them with a weird Aussie inflection (my self esteem was definitely being deflated after each word I said … one has to please the police officers over here).

The next day we set off on our journey … 3 hour drive to the border and then another 3 hours to Peitersburg, stop for the night and then another 3 hours to J’berg by Friday morning with very few problems. I think the only problem faced was the fact that we found out that team was arriving on Saturday morning instead of Sunday morning ... it was a good thing that that small detail was checked.

After collecting the team we set off to drive back to Bulawayo … we spent one night in Loise Trickard and then the next morning we set off for the border. Dereck’s car and my car cleared through all the security checks with absolutely no hitches … Tulani (the third driver) had the problems. The police decided to do a random security check on this vehicle and it was while doing this check that they found out that the car was stolen back in 2001 and was never recovered. Now Tulani, being in possession of a stolen vehicle was taken to prison and the 7 Aussies were set free and had to walk across the border. What was only expecting to be a two hour task to pass though both borders instead took close to 5 hours. With the help of a friend of Dereck’s (which he just happened to stumble across in Customs) we were able to get everyone back up to Bulawayo.

Now comes to task of trying to clear Tulani. Basically we had to prove that the car was purchased and Tulani had no idea that the car was actually stolen. That night at about 10:30pm, Peter, Duram (a board member of YFC) and I (I was the only one now that had a vehicle that was cleared to cross the border) started the journey to go back down to South Africa to clear our friend. It wasn’t until about 3:30am what we actually cleared both borders and started the task of trying to find the police station in Messina (the border town on the South African side). Of course, the police station was being refurbished and they had no signs on how to get into the station … so 1.5 hours later we finally got in and found out that we needed to head back to the border to speak with the police there … good game … good game. It was after traveling back to the border we found out that the VIS (Vehicle Inspection S????) team did not actually start until 7.30am in the morning and the police on duty could do absolutely nothing to help us. It was now 5.30am and about 24 hours since we had all woken up; we had to find somewhere to get a coffee and for one of us to catch a bit of shut eye (sleep). This task in itself was difficult, being a country town nowhere was open for a good coffee (we had to drink instant coffee) and no-one could really sleep (we were all over tied and could not get comfortable).

Finally 7.30am on Monday morning came about and we headed eagerly over to the VIS office to reveal all our paperwork to the investigating officer. We all expected a pat on the back for being top notch investigators and where expecting to go straight to the prison to get our mate out … not this time through. There was a court hearting scheduled for that morning and the evidence which we bought forward was not enough to satisfy the investigation team … they now needed to search their files for the original paperwork and we needed to give them more paperwork from Interpol to prove his innocents. Basically to cut a long story short, Tulani is remanded in custody pending further investigation or until we can get the Interpol paperwork down to the investigator. So by 12.30pm on Monday afternoon we started our journey back up to Bulawayo sadly disappointed because our main objective of setting Tulani free was not achieved.

NEWS JUST IN .... Tulani has just been released after one week ... he is now on his way back upto Bulawayo ... I wonder if he will help take the Aussies back to J'berg airport on Thursday????

Keeping up with the Times

Jodi and I are now keeping up with the modern times and have updated our blogsite so everyone can see where people are logging in all around the world. If you want to have a look, just click on the world map under the “Archive” section on the right hand side of the screen. Thank you to our friends in Florida, UK and Brisbane who logged in yesterday.

OOOOPS … I forgot to tell you all something!!!!

Ahh, it was about 3 weeks ago we had a missionary from GB come to visit. Ann used to minister here in Bulawayo for a few years and left to pastor a church at Clapham (London) at the end of last year. Ann was heavily involved in Willow Park camps and started the ball rolling with getting schools back in to use the facilities. Ann and her friend Jenny used to facilitate a lot of programs for prefix (high school seniors) and from all reports made a HUGE impact. It was great to have her back and to see her “do her thing” at Willow Park with a group of prefix from Matobo High School (Matobo is a rural area about 1 hour from Bulawayo). Seeing first hand the impact these studies can have on these young adults is amazing and has really pumped me full of enthusiasm to start running these programs again … it is just a waiting process. Both Jodi and I feel that we need to get Willow Park into running order first and then with the major renovations/clearing/cleaning up finished we can then concentrate fully on teaching and encouraging the youth from Bulawayo and in time to come youth from all around Zimbabwe … hey why stop here … we could have youth from all around Africa to come to Willow Park … nothing is impossible.

Time to do a little bragging!!!!

It only occurred to me after the event, but last week an astonishing thing happened … Willow Park Camps successfully purchased its first product (for many years) from revenue created from camps. This is a momentous occasion. I know the items don’t seem that great, but as small as they may seem, it is still quite the achievement for Willow Park. Ohhh, I have just realized, I have not told you what we purchased … a 5 litre tin of gloss paint, two paint brushes and an industrial bin … things are a happening here at Willow Park … I have some more exciting news to share in weeks to come … so stay tuned.

Time to Renew our Visas

I have a confession to make … it is hard to admit, but I think I am becoming more and more zimbabean each day I am here … the true test was when we went over to Botswana last week. On the way over we had to queue for at least an hour to get through the Botswana immigration, then on the way back we had to queue in the Zimbabwean immigration for more than 2 hours … all this was done without complaining and just standing patiently … You see, queuing is the national past time for the average Zimbabwean. Zimbabweans have to queue for money at the ATM, queue for bread, queue for mealie, queue for cheap petrol (when it is available) and when there is no queue people just queue for the sake of queuing. Now for people who know me well, I was never one to queue patiently, I didn’t care much for queues and definitely didn’t like just standing around … times are a changin’. Jodi on the other hand has not quite adapted to the Zimbabwean culture … “little miss impatient” is most likened to an over fizzed over shaken coke bottle … you don’t really know what is going to happen until the lid is taken off and then out comes a HUGE explosion … Jodi had to have a little “time out” when queuing at the Zimbabwean border (and that’s all that needs to be said).

The reason for our trip over to Botswana was for a little bit of RNR, to purchase some products for our new house (things are getting VERY VERY expensive here in Zim) and most importantly to renew our visas for another 3 months. All of the above was done with success. I have to admit, in the 3 months we have been in Zim I had almost forgotten what a “real” shop looks like, having fully stocked shelves with a wide variety of brands to choose from …WOW. I think one of the highlights was seeing packets of Tim Tams on the shop shelves, but the price was astronomical … $10 AUD wowza.

Our New Fridge

Well … with a new house comes a new fridge … well maybe not a BRAND new fridge but new to us. Just to give you an idea of how ZAINY the prices are here in Zimbabwe, the fridge cost $15,000,000.00 (zim). I have included a couple of photos of the money I used to purchase the fridge … when piled up it was higher than a 300ml coke bottle and my wallet for the day was a box. Only in Zim … only in Zim.

Take a look at this!!!!!

Well, Jodi and I have finally found a house of our own … well not really ours, but we have found a house to rent. Rentals are a very rare commodity here in Bulawayo and we are soooo glad we have found this one. It is not too large and has all the things which we need (and want). The inside is a little worn and tired with HUGE cracks in the walls and VERY dirty walls, but the gardens and pool have been very well taken care of and it makes up for the inside. We have a nice sized main bedroom with ensuite, a room for Gabi and a room for any guests that may just pop in (this is a hint to any of our friends and family in OZ … just imagine a week or two in the Muller Manor Zimbabwe with most expenditures covered … one can only dream). The most bizarre feature of this house is that it has servants quarters on site; apparently this is the norm here in Zim … basically anyone who can afford to live in a house is expected to also afford a maid and gardener … all we need now is a person to blow a bugle and announce our names when ever we enter a room and we will be set.

Are you ready for the HUGE blog????

Well believe it or not, Jodi and I now have a little one running around our house … Just the other week Jodi and I were blessed with little Gabriella … let me tell you the story. About three Thursday mornings ago, Debbie (the YFC Director) came into our office, shut the door, and then asked if she could ask us something. “Remember a couple of weeks ago when I asked you to pray about a little girl who is having problems at home with her grandmother” she began; “Well things are getting worse and the little girl is really sick and the grandmother doesn’t want anything more to do with her. Will you consider looking after her?” Well this definitely shocked us as we were told only the week before that the grandmother didn’t want to give her up. Both Jodi and I knew it wasn’t something to take lightly and we started some hardcore praying … Well as to be expected He took control and later that afternoon (after taking her to the doctors for a check up) we started looking after “Pinky” (the name that she was being called; it is a common name for abandoned babies, even though she wasn’t abandoned). This name didn’t gel for us, as she was no longer abandoned, so we have named her Gabriella (Gabi for short).

Gabi is about 20 months old and was born in the Crisis Pregnancy Centre (a YFC ministry) by a 13 year old. Unfortunately the mother was too young to look after the baby so the Grandmother took it upon herself. My goodness it is a good thing that YFC followed up when they did. Gabriella was extremely dehydrated, malnourished and has a fungal infection on her lips, in her mouth and down her throat. She has been very poorly looked after in very poor conditions with little to no personal contact. She was so malnourished and had absolutely no energy … even being fed a bowl of porridge would make her puff and pant.

It has been amazing to see that each day Gabi has been improving dramatically. On the first day (a Thursday), she didn’t want to do anything except sleep while being held and didn’t want anything near her mouth. We were able to get a small amount of water in her mouth by syringe. On Friday we were able to get more water into her little mouth and she built up her confidence with us and began to eat yoghurt and small amounts of mealie meal with porridge. She was so badly dehydrated that it wasn’t until Friday evening that she did a number onesies (wee wee). Things are progressing really well, by Sunday Gabi was fully hydrated (I don’t think that Vic falls would pass this much water during the wet season) and she enjoys a good feed. We didn’t see any smiles or emotion on her face for the first three or four days but now it is hard to stop her from running around the house laughing and acting like an 20 month old should. Things are starting to improve for little Gabi, we are thrilled with God’s healing hand and being able to see her grow more and more confident with us both. Her infection has fully cleared up and she now only shows small signs of malnutrition.

Now is the time to show Gabi off to you all … the photo’s are in order from when we first started looking after her to just the other day … Happy viewing.

What a week for Willow Park ....

YWAM are a comin'

A lot has happened over the month of March in relation to Willow Park, it has been such a confidence builder. Firstly I was contacted by Matt Jenkins (the son Colin and Roslyn Jenkins … they used to come to South Pine Community Church) who is currently in South Africa with YWAM; he and his team will be coming into Zimbabwe (Bulawayo and Harare) to do some ministry training and Matt was wanting to know if they could do anything … My goodness, the amount of work that needs to be done around Willow Park is HUGE, the best thing is that they are all eager to do manual labour. They will be joining us for the last two weekends of May, they will be cleaning up and repainting the scullery (wash room for the crockery and cutlery) as well as dig up all the dirt on the tennis court (the court hasn’t been used for about 5 years and there is about 2 inches of dirt compacted onto the old surface). This has been a HUGE answer to prayer as we had only just begun to look at doing work around the campsite and we were wondering who could help us.

Yay ... A new program for Willow Park

The other answer to prayer was the provision of a computerised Property Management System for Willow Park. Currently we are recording all the reservations on slips of paper and then placing them on a large wall calendar, it is quite a large amount of work keeping track of deposits and keeping accurate accounts of future reservations and occupancy. The bonus of having a PMS is that it will do a lot of the hard work for us, such as keeping track of reservations as well as prepayments and deposits, it will help with occupancy and revenue forecasting, working out average room rates, yield management and setting up special rate packages (sorry for all the hospitality jargon), it will make our bookkeepers job a whole lot easier. Let me tell you how we got this PMS. I have worked with roomMaster (the name of the PMS) before at various hotels/motels in Brisbane and it is quite a good system; I tried my contacts in roomMaster Australia but unfortunately they were not licensed to provide the program to Zimbabwe, so he gave me the email address for the US roomMaster. I was a little unsure if anything would come of this request, but it only took one day and I got a reply. Chuck is the Sales Director for roomMaster US and he is also a brother in Christ … what a HUGE answer to prayer when he said that even though roomMaster could not donate the program, he would however pay for the program for us. God has definitely been showing Himself in many different ways and giving us further confirmation that this is where He wants us to be.

MAKE SURE YOU STAY TUNED TO THIS BLOG … THE NEXT ENTRY WILL BE HUGE!!!!!!!

Our First Visitors

Well we have said good bye to Steve, Kristy & Maddy, & I am so homesick. I wish they could stay with us. We had a fantastic week with them, we started off by showing them around town & it was great to see their reactions to the crazy things of Zim that we have gotten use to. Things like rusty cars with no wheels abandoned in the middle of the road in the city, or a furniture removalist pulling along a cart load of lounge chairs.
Wednesday
The next day we were off to Chipengali, an animal orphanage which is used as a zoo. You could see that back in the day it would have been a top of the line place to visit, but now it is just so overgrown & fences were rusty & the research institution is derelict. We saw a couple of Rhino & one was at the fence, it was so close that if we were game enough we could have reached out & touched it. Same with the Lions, the cages are nothing like the safety at zoos in OZ, here they were just rusty chain wire; Steve was about a foot away from a huge Lion & loved it. I must admit we all were a bit worried as we walked around & were finding gates open.
After spending so much time looking at the monkies, & the monkies spending so much time checking Maddy out (they seemed to be fixed on her) we went to Willow Park to show Steve & Kristy the purpose of us being here. They seemed to share our vision for the place & agreed that with time, money & patience Willow Park will be a most beautiful camp ground used for all sorts of outreaches.
Thursday
We set off to Antelope Game Park. We had such a fantastic time there last year that we couldn’t let them miss it. The first of our activities for the day was an elephant ride for Kristy & Andrew, next Steve joined them & they all went for a play with the lion cubs, while Maddy & I stayed at main camp & played together. The cubs were only three months old & it was the first time they had been introduced to the public. They came back with huge grins on their faces & soooo so many photos, & poor Steve- cat allergies.
After a massive lunch we decided to lay out on the grass under the shady trees to admire the beautiful lake, well it didn’t take long before we were all dozing off. For a short while it reminded me of being back in Brissy going for picnics by the river at New Farm Park with Steve & Kristy (one of my most favorite past times). We woke up to our guide telling us it was time for our safari, so we all jumped onto the back of the van & headed off for 1 ½ hours. I was a bit worried at first that Steve & Kristy had come all this way & not seen any animals in the wild, but just after the guide had finished telling us that there were only 8 Giraffe in the area so we would have to be lucky to see them, there they were – 7 of them. Also Zebra in the same place, they however were not too friendly & ran off pretty quickly, but the Giraffe hung around & we were able to stay & watch for quite a while.
Friday
We went to spend the morning with the kids in the Baptist Babies home. They loved having new people to jump all over, & it was interesting to see the differences in Maddy & the two girls there. They are all the same age & defiantly not the same in development. In the afternoon we went to Mustard Seed Babies Home. They have so many more children there, but also a lot more carers. I was hoping to introduce Steve & Kristy to Daniel (the little boy we fell in love with last year), but he slept the whole time we were there. At hearing some of the stories of how these babies were found, we were all in wonder of how any mother could do these things to their new born children.
Saturday
We went to visit Father Charles at a rural hospital. It was such a hot day & we struggled to keep up with him, but he was so proud to be showing us around the hospital grounds. The one thing I wanted Steve & Kristy to see the most (but was scared of how they would react, knowing how we had felt last year when we saw it) came in the afternoon. Father Charles took us to the Malnutrition ward. There were only three babies there this time, their mothers lying with them. It is a big shock to the system to see them & I know it touched Steve & Kristy & it will be a vision they will never forget.
Saturday night dinner was a real treat; the four of us went to the Nesbitt Castle. It is a castle that a man built for his wife, & later down the tract they split up & he became a recluse & the place became very run down. Year’s later two business men bought it & did it up & it is now the finest place to visit in Bulawayo. We got ushered from the car to the bar & served drinks & snacks. We were then read the menu & they took our orders. When the meal was ready we were taken up stairs, only to find out that we were the only ones there. We were served the finest three course meals & then had a look around the grounds. This place is superb, even by Western standards.
Sunday
Was a visit to show them the church we are attending & they loved the songs that were sung in the native tongue. After church we took them to our favorite coffee shop, they got to experience the layered latte & doughnuts. Kristy was quick to pick up that they are not like the ones at home, but when you don’t have any other option it soon becomes a fantastic treat.
So the week was over so fast, but it was so great to have them out to see us, we wish they didn’t have to leave so soon.

The Mustard Seed

Last week we were able to go to a place called “The Mustard Seed”, which is an organisation / ministry which has been running in Bulawayo for about 5 years after Brother Garvin was invited from Jamaica (where the program originated) to setup here. This is a well setup ministry helping in so many ways

The Abandoned Babies Home has been set up on the outskirts of Bulawayo on the drive to the airport. They have only been in this house for a short time but are well recognised with Child Welfare and the police; even though they are not registered as an orphanage the local authorities are still bringing in abandoned babies to be cared for. The house is currently full having 13 infants to care for. It is so sad to hear how some of the infants are found. On Sunday night a young girl who was only 4 hours old was delivered to the home by the police; they had found her in a park (this is good story compared to other cases). It is also unfortunate to see that a majority of the young ones orphaned also have HIV and need medication to keep them healthy. This home is well staffed with young volunteers from the community coming to help look after the infants on a rostered basis. These volunteers are encouraged to help by getting provided with a certificate for child care after also doing some formal training. Much to our amazement when we went to visit this orphanage we found Daniel; the baby which Jodi and I fell in love with last year in the abandoned babies ward. He is doing very well, but he has turned out to be quite a moody little thing. Jodi just thinks he needs a couple of BIG smacks to get him into line.

The School, orphanage, medical centre and church has been set up in one of the semi rural areas about 20 min out of Bulawayo; the Mustard Seed ministry has set up an awesome facility for the surrounding community. They are providing young children with free education as well as meals during the day. They are also housing young school aged orphans and also providing them with education as well. Currently the children’s classroom is a section of field, but they are in the process of getting a classroom build which as been donated by one of the overseas consulates. One amazing story we heard from Brother Garvin was about the Christmas parties for the children in the rural area which have been run over the last three years. On the first year they had the party about 300 children came; the next year 500 and this last year ... 800 children; all the kids got a present (donated by locals) and had a fantastic time on jumping castles and being involved in a whole lot of other activities. This ministry also provides the older teenagers with work experience; as they build more buildings on their ground they have the teenagers help and get trained in manual labour (such as building, painting, plumbing). It is great to see the vision of Brother Garvin and all the ways in which this ministry can expand and help even more people.

Patience .....

Finally we get to blog ... we have been trying all week to log on and blog but we could do absolutely nothing ... the locals just say "only in Zim ...". Something Jodi and I will have to get used to.

Happy reading ....

What a week ...

Well I have experience the frustrations of Zim this week. I was happy to go to the baby’s home again this week but after arriving at 9.00am none of the children had been bathed yet and they were still in their old frayed pajamas. So, after a bath and a smearing of Vaseline the two boys were clothed in old tattered clothes and training undies that were stretched and did not fit; the two baby girls were layered in old hand knitted outfits, then with wrapped in blankets and then accessorised with old shabby beanies (it wasn’t even cold). The major frustration came from the fact that we had bought a large amount of donated clothing over from Australia (which they had asked specifically for) and instead of using the new pajama’s and undies (that would have fitted the boys) and the clean and well fitted jumpsuits for the girls they were packed neatly in a cupboard not being used at all.

On a happier note, Andrew & I are working well together on the Willow Park venture. Andrew had to get use to the idea of sharing his project with someone. I had not intended to get involved with Willow Park, but felt that God had been putting in my mind the excitement & vision that Andrew has for the camps. I had not shared with Andrew my feelings before we left home & still didn’t tell him until it became evident that the babies home was not going to work out in the capacity that I had hoped. I feel that this has been Gods way of telling us to stick together & work together. I still regularly go to the baby’s house, but as there are problems with the application process to get the house open the house is just simply being – it is stagnant in its works & not at all what they had hoped it would be. So God has given me a new passion & vision & luckily for us we work really well together (when we are not being stubborn).

(Andrew’s Turn now … it’s about time too; gee Jodi can go on …..) This week has been a very productive week … Jodi has re-organised my office … oops I mean our office so we can both fit in. We have been able to sort through all the camps that are coming up and put them into a completely new filing system; we have even produced a budget with profit and loss statements and projected earnings and expenditures … things are definitely on the move (in the office anyway). We went back out to Willow Park on Tuesday to have a detailed look into all the buildings … last week we mentioned repainting the dining hall, that is no longer on the agenda … the whole building has to go. On closer inspection we noticed that most of the walls have massive holes in them and the ceiling is missing mass portions of k-lite … it will be easier and less expensive to start from scratch. We have decided to go with a traditional feel and get a hut thing made around the existing cement slab, it will not be cheap, but it will definitely be more effective than trying to fix what is already there. The dorms also need a thorough re-vamp … don’t worry we won’t be demolishing those … after a good clean up and a lick of paint they will be as good as new. Furnishing is also needed; new tables and chairs for the dining hall and fixing the current bunk beds in each of the dorms (they are extremely bowed). None of this will happen over night, but we know that God will move things a long … at His pace not ours.

Life in Zim has been treating us well; I was able to have my first game of golf last Friday. I have to admit, I didn’t do too bad … the course is definitely different to the ones back in OZ with the fairway grass being about waist height on a majority of the holes and a lot of the water hazards being just dried dirt … and surprisingly enough I only lost 2 balls, my best statistic yet I think. On the home front we still have not found a place to rent yet but we are certain that something will come up very shortly … we have smooth talked a real estate agent and she is on the mission of finding us a house … bless her little white cotton socks. Power cuts have been getting more regular throughout Bulawayo, just in the last week we had more that one each day lasting at least an hour on each cut (no one knows why … it is just put down to being a way of life). There are rumors that water restrictions will be getting tighter with a limit being reduced from 300 lts per day to only 250 lts per day … this is not so tight for a small household, but for places like the Crisis Pregnancy Centre who house 8 – 12 girls at a time it makes it very difficult.

Look forward to sharing again soon.

Cheers,

Jodi and Andrew

What happend last week in Zim???

This week we have mainly been in the office looking over the coming events at Willow Park and prioritising all the things that need to be done in getting the park into a more reasonable state of affairs. The main thing to get cracking on at the moment is the dining hall … all the walls are stained with mold and out of the 30 odd chairs that are in the hall about half of them actually resemble a proper working chair; all the others have no backs, not bottoms, wonky legs etc… and the tables are all chipped and looking very old and run down. We are hoping to get out again to Willow Park again this week to choose a new colour and organise the grounds men to repaint the dining hall. In reference to new dining chairs and tables, that is another story. I went to price new tables and chairs the other day and to purchase 10 tables and 60 chairs it will cost around $2,000 USD, and considering the price per person per night works out to be around $0.19 USD, it will take a lot of saving … there just has to be a cheaper way.

(Jodi’s Turn) Most of my week this week has been spent in the office with Andrew trying to work out pricing structures for Willow Park. I did manage to get out to the abandoned babies house. The way that the house has been set up is fantastic for the children with very happy and cheerful cartoons on the walls of the playroom. I spent a few hours there playing with the two little boys; they are both three years old. They were quite well behaved; they just loved having someone play with them. I barely made it in the front door when I heard “who are you? Let’s play!” I was saddened to see that the two boys were in one room on their own & the two baby girls (about 6months old) sitting in rockers were in another room on their own, while the four women in the house just sat around. After a bit of colouring in, reading & an adventure outside exploring the yard we came back inside only to discover the babies were still sitting in the same spot. I took the boys into play with the babies & the girls had a great time just watching the boys play. I noticed very quickly that for six months old these girls did not reach for anything you put in front of them, let alone put stuff straight in their mouths. It is a better environment for them to be in than the hospital, but they are still not getting the attention given to them that they need.