London

We are enjoying our time in London. We have done a LOT of walking and we have even sort of figured out the transit/train/tube transport. Yesterday morning we rode the train (about 50 minutes) to the London temple and attended a session there. It is a beautiful temple and beautiful grounds. It was nice to feel the peace and quiet that is there. The last time we were at a temple was over a year ago in Jo'berg. Reeve, CC and Lolly were at the London temple for a week just recently. When the workers there heard we were coming from Zimbabwe they told us how much they had enjoyed the girls and how great they are. We agreed, of course.

Last night we went to "Lion King" at the theatre. It was really good - wonderful singing and costumes! Today we will do the 'hop on, hop off' bus which will take us to all the main sites. Tomorrow we will go to church, of course. There is one that is within walking distance - a 15 to 20 min. walk. We had some good English fish and chips before the play but they were a little pricey. I guess almost everything is a little pricey here!! :)

We had some really hard goodbyes before we left Zimbabwe. We will miss the good people there. It is especially hard when we know that we may never see them again in this life but we hope that we have left them better than they were before we came.

1 Aug 2010 - Masvingo Branch (some of them)

1 Aug 2010 - Pres. Munaki Masvingo Branch

6 Aug 2010 - Elder Bullock and Panashe

8 Aug 2010 - Kadoma Branch

8 Aug 2010 - Kadoma Branch Presidency

8 Aug 2010 - Our wonderful Murenje family. It was hard to say goodbye!!

9 Aug 2010 - 002 Our favorite squash players - Shame, Ishmael, & Malvern

10 Aug 2010 - Elder Bullock and his new little friend

10 Aug 2010 - Pres. & Sister Dube

11 Aug 2010 - Our wonderful friend Merci. So many tears when we said goodbye!

11 Aug 2010 - Our replacement couple, Elder and Sister Bean, from Seattle

11 Aug 2010 - Mhike and Seka -- another hard goodbye!

11 Aug 2010 - Leaving Harare

See you all soon, Elder & Sister Bullock

Hi from London

We have arrived! It was a long flight and we are tired. They let us into our room here already though (9:00 a.m.) so we can shower and relax for a bit. It is a small room but very nice and a super comfortable bed!

What a different world than Zimbabwe.

Nancy

Open House

We will be having an Open House for Mom & Dad on Sunday, 22 August 2010 and are trying to get an invite list made up to let everyone know about it. I know there are a lot of people that read the blog that I wouldn't know how to contact otherwise, so thought this is a good place to reach you all. Sorry if this is impersonal, but I'm not sure how else to get the information to/from you. If you could send me an email at kim.hawryluk@gmail.com if you'd like an invite to the Open House, that would be fantastic!

As mentioned before, Mom & Dad will be speaking in their ward at 9:00 a.m. that same day, if you're interested in that. They are now located in the new chapel in Airdrie located at: 900 Reunion Gateway NW, Airdrie. Here's a map:


View Larger Map
(click on this link to get a full view of the map)

Thanks so much!
Kim

Thursday, 5 August 2010

Hi, We just stopped into the office on our way home tonight to check on an email. We were invited over to the Spencers for supper along with Bro. and Sister Nield. It was really an enjoyable evening. These families have been really good to us while we served here.

Elder and Sister Bean arrived Monday and are still trying to overcome the jet lag. We had a good day today with several appointments at the office and we accomplished a lot. Will do about the same tomorrow morning. The Beans are really great people and I have just been feeling that the Lord really knows what he is doing. They are going to be so perfect to take over the water projects and things that we have started here in Zimbabwe. We can leave knowing that it is all in good hands. Already the weight is shifting and we are feeling a bit more relaxed. :)

Yesterday we went to the handover ceremony at Danangwe School where we installed the grinding mill. It was a good day and the people there are so appreciative. It has been fun to be able to do these things for the people here in Zimbabwe.

Must go try making a phone call.
Love to all, Sister Bullock

Monday, 2 August 2010

We have moved out of our flat and picked up the Beans at the airport today. They seem really nice but were REALLY tired. We took them to the flat and they just wanted to bath and rest so we will pick them up in the morning. They liked the flat and said it was better than the one they had in Uganda.

We took our suitcases that are mostly packed to Mayfields flat and took the clothes we need over to Sharp's place where we are staying. Wow!! They are so nice and the place is VERY nice. She expected we would be there for supper tonight, along with 4 others -- so we will. When we took a few things over this afternoon she has the table all set - it is GORGEOUS!!! and the house smelled really good with whatever is being cooked. They have several gardeners and house helpers. I guess we will see what it is like to live the 'high' life for a bit. They leave in a couple of days though for a vacation since it is school break for August. She said," you are family and you can just do whatever you want and make yourselves at home. She said her help can do our laundry if we need it done etc. etc. We might REALLY our enjoy our last week worth of accommodation here in Zimbabwe!!! (not that the previous 17 months have been bad). Anyway, they are sure treating us great.

Tomorrow we will sit with the Beans and make a plan for the week we have together before we leave them. We are saying our goodbyes to people. People are so kind to us and we will miss them a lot. We said goodbye to our Masvingo Branch yesterday -- good, good people!

See you soon! Love, Mom/Dad, Elder & Sister Bullock

Danangwe mill/dehuller

This project has taken longer than we had planned. Firstly, because we had to upgrade the transformer so that it would be big enough to run the mill. We had to apply for extra funds for the project, which was no problem. They like the project in South Africa. The community contributed and built a building for the mill and it has been ready for a few weeks.

ZESA said all along that they had a transformer for us but as soon as we transferred the money then they told us there wasn't one in stock. It took some persistence but they finally found us one and managed to get the other things they needed to install it and while we were in Zambia last week it was installed. Hurray!! We were so glad to hear that when we got back.

Monday Precision Grinders were going to take the mill/dehuller out and install them but something wasn't ready so it was postponed to yesterday morning. We were told to be there by 10 and they would be ready to go (We had to take them out as it is in the middle of nowhere). We were there before 10 and signed the paperwork and then we waited for 2 1/4 hours before they were loaded and ready to go. Sigh!!!!

When we arrived at Danangwe people cheered. They were really excited to see the mill finally arrive.

27 July 2010 - The maize mill and dehuller for Danangwe School and Quinton our sales rep at Precision Grinders

There was lots of manpower to help unload it into the building.

Unloading the dehuller -- they are heavy

The guys from Precision Grinders started to hook things up and we realized WE hadn't bought some cables etc. that we were to supply. We drove back into Chegutu with Bro. Murenje and ran around to 3 different little electrical shops and were REALLY lucky to find everything we needed. We rushed back to the mill and they got it all hooked up BUT the electricity went off about 10 minutes before they were done so we couldn't test the equipment. :(

Bro. Murenje and Elder Bullock

Elder Bullock at Danangwe School standing in the one and only spot where they can get cell phone network

The handover ceremony is scheduled at the school for this next Wednesday and Quinton, from Precision will go with us and he can check it out then. Elder and Sister Bean will be here on Monday so they can also go the the ceremony with us.

We had a busy day today talking to a borehole drilling company. They were quite helpful and we learned a lot. We will likely use them up in Lower Muzarabani (at least Beans will if they like them). We also had several other people come in today as well so we were busy.

We have been advised by our people in South Africa that we should wait for Beans to start writing up the water projects and that has taken a lot of stress off our shoulders. When they arrive we will review everything with them and go from there.

We have packed a couple of suitcases. We will move out of our flat on Friday and will stay at Bro. & Sis. Sharp's home until we leave so that Beans can move into the flat as soon as they arrive. We are going to Masvingo on Saturday and return Sunday - our last Sunday to
be at that branch. :( Lots of goodbyes coming up soon!! :(:(

Love, Elder & Sister Bullock

Pictures

21 July 2010 - Out for supper with President Dube and some of the missionaries

We went to 9 clinics today to check on things. Most of them are close to the target number of children that they were hoping to do. They need to vaccinate 1.7 million kids to make it a successful campaign and make a difference to measles in the country. It is looking like it will be successful!! Glad we could help out with our little efforts. The 'helping hands' volunteers have done a great job and have really been appreciated. Tomorrow we head back to Harare.

23 July 2010 - They just had their shots - can you tell?

School kids waiting in line

Look at his face

Still big crowds waiting at the clinics for their shots

A funny picture - at least I thought it was! :)

This was being put up outside one of the clinics today.
Actually this procedure is being recommended as they say it helps to not pass AIDS -- not quite sure why though. There are billboards promoting it recently though.

Some of our 'helping hands' volunteers

Cute little patient

Kids playing&working in their yard

The moms and girls getting water at the community tap

Wanna go to a movie?

Selling charcoal on side of street

Zambia

We have spent the week in Zambia. I don't know how much help we have been but we did try to a bit. They had volunteers all arranged for the clinics each day and as we have checked they have always been there and the clinics seem to be happy to have the help. The children from ages 6 months to 5 years are getting the measles shot, polio, vitamin A and a deworming pill. There are so many people lined up with their kids. It is really great to see.

The only problem that we have heard about with the volunteers is that one young man was charging people to let them go to the front of the line and then later in the day is was reported to be very drunk!! YIKES!! That isn't very good publicity for the church. I'm sure he will be having an interview very soon with the District President.

The church does struggle somewhat here in Zambia as leaders of other churches have told people that we are Satanists. We hope that by doing all this volunteering and being visible at the clinics it will help people realize that we are Christians and trying to be good people.

Zambia is really dusty these days - dry season and a bit windy. A lot of the kids look so dirty because of the dust -- well and because they are. When there isn't water readily available and you have to haul it quite a distance then......

We went with the district Pres. yesterday to look at an area that needs water. We will pass on what we saw to the Beans and they can hopefully do something here, perhaps on next year's water budget, as the projects we have started will pretty much use up the $300,000 allotted for 2010. It sounds like they will get even more next year.

It is now Friday morning and we are heading out to see if we can get some numbers from the clinics of how many have been immunized so far.

We will head back to Zimbabwe tomorrow morning. It has been nice to be here with the Esplins (they got back on Wed.). They are easy people to be around and we enjoy them.

Much love, The Bullocks

Pictures

7 July 2010 - The Bullocks with Mike & Kathy Johnson, our water specialists

Witching or Divining a well - I could do it when holding his hand and the stick

Elder Bullock can do it!

Locardia trying it - she had to hold his hand to be able to do it

Measuring how deep the water is underground

8 July 2010 - 044 Cute kids

9 July 2010 - Handover ceremony at Henry John Reimer Clinic (aka Chifumbi Clinic)

Two MP's - he just received the hat as a gift.

Receiving our gifts

Locardia Murenza, Bullocks & Sis. Johnson

Bullocks with Sister Munyati, head nurse at Henry John Reimer Clinic

10 July 2010 - The Murenji family's baptism

Sunrise on a cool morning at antelope park

Sunrise reflected on water at Antelope Park

12 July 2010 - Our water project 'team'. We spent a lot of time working on our water projects with Johnsons, the water specialists. This is us and Johnsons and Locardia (hygiene supervisor), Bro. Seka and Mhike (borehole site monitors).

12 July 2010 - Seka isn't comfortable being hugged so.... o well!! I had to tease Seka a little!!

Having lunch on top of the mountain before going down to Lower Muzarabani

15 July 2010 - We gave him the "Gap" hat that Pam sent over with Bronte. He was so cute and had such a great smile. He loved it!!

17 July 2010 - How do you like the scaffolding on this building -- made out of poles and seems rather unsafe. This is in Lusaka, Zambia.

More of the scaffolding YIKES!

19 July 2010 - Measles campaign in Lusaka, Zambia. So many people came to the clinics on the first day. Members waiting for their volunteer assignments.

Mothers waiting with babies and small children (0 - 5 years)

Elder Bullock in his Helping Hands shirt

Our guide, Bro. Chansa, Bro. Chichinga and Elder Bullock discussing plan

People lined up for Measles shots, deworming pill and vitamin A