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

Sunday morning

We spent yesterday going around with a couple of people dropping of 'helping hands' T-shirts to the branches. We would have been totally lost without them to direct us. The measles campaign starts on Monday and we have extra shirts in our truck that we will deliver to them if they need more.

A missionary serving here had a problem yesterday so we spent some time talking with him and arranged for him to talk to the mission dr. last night. Hopefully he will be okay. He and his companion spent the night here, just in case, but he was fine. They are off to their area this morning.

Late in the afternoon yesterday we went to find a squash court that is nearby. Ishmael had told us about it. We found it and ended up visiting with half dozen squash players that were sitting around drinking their beer. They bought us mineral water. We gave out some article of faith cards and one fellow was interested in discussing them. That squash court doesn't open until 8:00 a.m. and we need to go earlier than that so one fellow gave us directions to another court not far away. He said to give his name and we could get in for free and just pay the court fee of $2.00/hr. That was nice of him - we will give it a try in the morning. The guys were all very friendly and think we should come back and live in Zambia.

Zambia is not a lot different than Zimbabwe, from what we can see so far. We think some roads are better and they do have a nice shopping mall close by with a "subway" restaurant. We bought chicken and chips/fries for lunch and then bought a few groceries.

I need to download some pictures off my camera and send a few for the blog. I will do that later today. It is nice to have internet here at this house so we can do those things in the evenings. We should move to Zambia - this house is VERY nice!

We are heading off to church and it sounds like there are meetings afterwards to make sure that the branches are all organized with their volunteers for the week. Each branch is helping out at 2 or 3 clinics each.

Love, Sister Bullock

Zambia

We arrived in Zambia late in the afternoon yesterday. It took us about 8 hrs. to drive here but that includes the time at the border, which is always an experience. We had paid for a double entry visa last time so we thought it would go a lot faster but..... it didn't. It is winter here so things are dry and some of the trees lose their leaves. It looks like our autumn but not as many nice autumn colors here.

We are staying at the couple's house here in Lusaka, which by the way, is very modern and nice. It is kind of used as a mission home here in Zambia, if the need arises. They have gone north to what is called the 'Copper Belt' to be part of the measles campaign there and will be back Wednesday. We will do what they need us to do here. We are meeting someone at the church nearby at 9:00 a.m. and will help give out T-shirts that they had made up for the members who will help this next week. We don't know our way around here so someone will have to ride with us and show us where to go. We will also go with the District Pres. to see a possible water project that he wants to show us while we are here.

It is the mission zone conference here on Monday so we will go to that. Jim has been asked to take 20 minutes and talk about how the B of M answers questions of the soul.

The water specialists leave tomorrow morning to go back to Utah. They live in West Jordan and are taking back and suitcase of stuff for us and will call Pam to pick it up. I don't think they live far from her. We had to come up here so arranged for Johnsons to go overnight to a game park and do a safari etc. They should enjoy that. We did accomplish a lot with them but never got the projects written up so we will have to try and get that done when we get back. Hopefully we have enough information. We asked Locardia Murenza to be our hygiene supervisor and she accepted. She has been going out with us to the sites and has been a huge asset already. She will do a great job. She gets paid for doing the job and she does have quite a bit of responsibility. We also have our two borehole site monitors and they also will get paid. We were definitely guided by the spirit in our selection of help. Locardia left on Tues. evening as she had a temple trip to Jo'berg planned with her two sisters. She will be back when we get back and she can help us write up the projects, and she took a LOT of notes so that will be good. Elder Johnson and Elder Bullock were going to write up the project proposals on Thursday but Elder Bullock got called by Pres. Dube to help with some mission business. It was something that could not wait and it took most of the day. It was not pleasant mission business.

We have started packing already and will have to finish up most of it when we get back to Harare next week. We will get our things out of our flat so that when the Beans arrive they can move right in. We will live out of a small suitcase for a couple of weeks. We have been invited to stay at the "Sharp's" home during that time. (Nice place!!) They will be leaving as soon as school ends on Aug. 4th and have said that we are welcome to stay in their home. If by some chance that doesn't work as planned we will stay at the Holiday Inn and eat with the other couples.

Today we need to go exchange some money for the local currency so that we can go buy a few groceries. The exchange rate is 5000 to $1.00 USD. We have to do some quick figuring in our heads to see what we are actually paying for things. Prices are about the same as Zimbabwe, for the most part. We brought our squash rackets with us and there is suppose to be a court nearby so we will check that out and see if it is possible for us to play there and get our exercise.

I better go get showered and dress and ready for the day.
Love to all, Nancy

a couple of pictures

Just a couple of pictures from our weekend:

I went walking with the lions again, along with Elder & Sister Johnson, our water specialists.

The Murenji family's baptism

Friday morning July 9th

Hi, A quick update.

We have our water specialists here (Elder & Sis. Johnson from West Jordan, Ut). We have been busy and are getting lots done. We have been out with a couple from a borehole drilling company and have been 'divining' wells/boreholes with Y shaped tree limbs. It has been pretty fun and interesting. They can tell how deep the water is and whether it should be a drilled borehole or a hand-dug well. Elder Bullock and do it but it wouldn't work for me - except when I held one side of the limb and the borehole guy held the other side and then we held hands -- then Whoa -- it worked like crazy. I will have to keep trying I guess. Another method is to balance a 500 mil bottle of water (full or partly full) on your hand and walk around -- when the bottle starts to wobble and tip - there is water and the direction the bottle tips tells which direction it is flowing!! Amazing.

We have Locardia, who is going to be the LDSC supervisor for hygiene/sanitation training and overseeing the committees at the different borehole sites. She has been spending the past 2 days with us and will do really great at this job. She has to recommend a couple of names for 'trainers' who will help her. She will also be a huge asset to E/S Bean when they arrive. We feel like we made an excellent choice when we picked Locardia for the job - she is going to be good!!

We are on our way to a 'hand-over' ceremony at Chifumbi Clinic where we bought new transformes and fixed the borehole. Lots of speeches, etc. but it will be fun.

Tomorrow we head to Kadoma for the 5 baptisms -- our headmaster at Danangwe School and his family. We are thrilled about that. After the baptisms we will continue on to Antelope Park with the Johnsons so they can enjoy an evening there and take a walk with the Lions. (That was Bronte's favorite activity while here). We will stay overnight and go back to Kadoma Sunday morning for church - confirmations and priesthood ordinations.

Monday we go to Muzarabani for talk about boreholes there. We are enjoying our time with Johnsons and appreciate their help/expertise with the water projects. We will get enough done that when Beans come they will be able to take off with these projects.

Love to all, Elder/Sister Bullock

Private

Mom and Dad are sorry to make their blog private so close to the end of their mission, but something came up (I don't even know what - they said it would be another story for when they return home) that they wanted to be cautious who could see what. So, just like you're looking forward to knowing more, I am too!!!

Just a little more than a month until they will be home! :)

After spending 5 days in London, England for some relaxation time, they will fly into Calgary on August 17th in the evening. They will be speaking in their ward that following Sunday, August 22nd at 9:00 a.m. at the new chapel in Airdrie. Here is a map:

View Larger Map

Love, Kim

Monday, July 5th

Hi everyone,

We had a busy weekend at Masvingo finishing off the audit there at the branch. There are good people there and we hope to get back down there one more time before we go home.

One of our elders from this mission who returned home a few months ago is in Masvingo. He told us Saturday that he has met the girl of his dreams and they are planning a temple marriage. He said he would introduce us on Sunday. I was kind of hoping it was one particular girl named Elizabeth and it was!!! Yeah!! Anyway - this young man is staying at Pres. Munaki's house, renting a room. Elizabeth also stays there. We gave Pres. Munaki a ride home and I told him that I heard he has been doing some matchmaking. He didn't know what that term so between me and a young man who was with us we explained it. Then Pres. Munaki looked at me strange -- and I realized he didn't know these two had been dating (not really dating here). I told him that they didn't say I couldn't tell. He was pretty taken back by the idea. After a bit he started to smile and said, 'now it all makes sense'. They have been asking me questions about how to go about temple marriage etc. etc. He said that he would tell them and then they would both giggle. He had been totally clueless, however, the young man with us knew about it and so does Pres. Munaki's wife. It was quite funny and I am sure he had some fun with it when he got home.

We got a call today from Mr. Musoro, the head master from Danangwe School where we are doing a project. He is the one who has been to church and wanted to get baptized but we informed him that he had to have the missionary discussions first. It took a while to get the branch missionaries to do their job and finally Pres. Dube had the full time missionaries in KweKwe travel to Chegutu and teach with the branch missionaries. We really wanted to see this man and his family taught because they are just really super people. He will be a branch president. Anyway - he called today to tell us that he and his family (wife and 3 teenage children) are having baptismal interviews and planning on being baptised on July 17th. We really want to be there for the baptism so will do whatever we can to arrange that. We are really excited about this family. This is so awesome!!!

The water specialists come tomorrow about noon so we will have a busy couple of weeks. I hope we are at least a little prepared for them. I know we aren't as prepared as we should be and part of the reason is because we really don't know all that we should do. Hopefully we have done enough to make their time here worth while.

Our personal computer has a problem and won't turn on today. I hope we can at least retrieve everything off of it when we get home - pictures, etc.

Must head home - it is dark out. Love to all, The Bullocks