wiil be Away for a few days

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April 11, 2007 Wednesday

The visit out to Khayelihle was cancelled today so we got a few other things done. Khayelihlle (Kye-leet-lee) is a place where they help orphans and street children. They help them with rehabilitation, finding out why they are on the streets and try and get them to go back to their families. Some of them are orphans and that is why they are on the street. They are taken care of there. So this morning we were able to meet with Lovemore to finalize out trip to Livingstone and on to Namibia. We will be traveling through Hwange National Park and visiting Victoria Falls then on to Livingstone to catch the 16 hour bus ride to visit with the Knightly family in Namibia who are also from Kamloops, BC (our home town). It is important to get things finalized and paid for ASAP because prices , for accommodation and supplies, continue to rise every day. Lovemore is even buying fuel now so that he won’t have to pay higher prices later. Then Cilla (Gogo), Dakotah and I went for a walk to the store. I treated everyone with Cokes and Potato Chips, (Pototo Crisps here) The salt and vinegar chips were neither salty or vinegary. But they hit the spot.

If times were better here we would have used this cancellation to travel around Bulawayo and see sights, or go out to the rurals for the day. But right now Pastor Temba, Pator Bonnani and Jenni all have mufflers that need fixing, Jenni’s brakes are gone and Pastor Bonnani is looking for a new CV joint for his truck and Jenni and Pastor Bonnani both need new batteries. It used to be that these things would be fixed before the major repair is due but people simply can’t afford these things. Fewer and fewer cars are on the roads not only because of the price of petrol but because people can’t afford to fix things that go wrong. Pastor Bonnani and his family are walking for now until they can find a CV joint and the money to buy it to put his truck back on the road.

We got some bad news today. As Pastor T was taking us to our meeting he got a message that his father had passed away. Pastor Temba’s dad has been sick for some time now. He suffered a stroke about four months ago and recently Pastor T’s brother had taken him out to their rural home. He died there and now Pastor T must go there right away. This is made more complicated because Pastor T’s daughter is expected to arrive from South Africa this evening with their brand new grandson. This will be Pastor Temba and Julie’s first time meeting their grandson and they have to deal with this tragedy along with the wonder of a new grandchild. As well, Pastor Temba has to leave for the UK in four days. I feel bad for his family but pray strength over all of them. I had so many encouraging words for Pastor T for his journey to the UK but we left each other for the last time in Zimbabwe on this sad note so I wasn’t able to say them. Realizing that he had to leave town after dropping us off at our meeting we said goodbye with a hug. Encouragement on SMS (cell phone texting) will have to do.

We took an ET from the meeting back to Jenni’s house with the help of Phillip. Jenni and Cilla were surprised to see us at the gate alone. ET stands for Emergency Taxi. When the bus system fell apart in Zimbabwe it was replaced by a series of privately owned minivans of which most are modified to have 5 rows of seats. They pack as many people in as they can and they leave the ET Station when the van is full. They pick up and drop off people along the roadsides. It costs $5000 per person. I paid for Phillip to come with us and for his return; he made sure that we arrived home safe.

We are heading out to Masiye teen camp tomorrow afternoon for the next four days so you won’t hear from or be able to contact us until Monday or Tuesday.

Masiye Camp is like summer camps back home. But it is charity run. The parents or organization who sends the child have to pay a nominal fee that partly covers food. The kids are sent here from all over Zimbabwe and they are children with troubled lives. They will be taught life skills regarding gaining self-esteem, feeling valued, career counseling, and HIV/Aids. I will fill you all in when we get back.

Take care everyone and have a good weekend.

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