The past couple of days

Hi, It is Saturday and we just came from an open house for Pres. and Sister Bester, as they are getting ready to head home at the end of the month, to South Africa. It was a lovely pool-side lunch on this mid winter day!! There were about 50 people there.

Thursday Olivia came here to go with us to Guruve (suppose to be 120 km. but turned out to be more like 200 km) to take some clothes, blankets, soap etc. to some orphans there. We had suggested that it wasn't a good idea to do it at the school with other children around - but they didn't listen to us. Anyway - there were suppose to be about 100 kids but of course, there were more like 250 plus some mothers and babies. We cut the soap into thirds so more could get something.

Kids waiting for the distribution

more people waiting

and more still

Olivia and _____ and Maddy

They told us the children were younger ones so we took Youth bales of clothes so there were a lot of young teenage ones who we had nothing for at all. I felt bad because there were kids that really could have used something but.....

Mothers with babies came in at the end because we did have a fair bit of baby clothing -- it did get a little out of hand for a bit as they all kind of crowded in on us and there was some grabbing going on.

There wasn't much left at that point anyway so it didn't last long. We just didn't have enough for the amount that were there and they were needy. They were happy for what they did get but it is hard to see those children's hopeful faces that never got anything. (We did take a truckful.)

We dropped Maddy and Olivia off at their house and they gave us a bag of sugar beans to take home. (sugar beans are just dry beans that they grow here). I'm not sure we will use them but we can always give them to someone here who will be glad to have them. We arrived home at about dusk.

Must be moving day
We saw this on our way back from Guruve. There was a man in front leading the cattle with a rope tied to the harness.

Yesterday, Friday, we loaded up again and went with Bishop Chris (Born Again Christian, I think) to his area. It went fairly well other than we had to get after Bishop Chris and his family because they were helping us sort clothes and wanted more than their share. Armfuls were going into his house. (Imagine if we had just given the stuff to him to take home - we wonder how much would have actually gone to the needy people and not just to his family). We told him they could each have 2 things and that they needed to bring things back and that no one was to be taking things away - we can't watch that and be distributing at the same time. Frustrating!!

Getting ready at Bishop Chris'

people starting to come

Distribution at Bishop Chris'

At Bishop Chris'

The people were fairly orderly although some started coming back for a second time. I only recognized this because of some distinctive clothes that they were wearing. I told Bishop Chris and he did yell at some people and told them to leave. We felt bad because we opened the one Youth clothing bale and it was all denim pants and shorts - no shirts. Usually they are mixed. That created a bit of a problem so we pulled smaller shirts out of the adult bales and used those as best
we could.

We took this picture to show a dr. to see if they can help this woman

We learned a couple of things yesterday though. Some people will not wear red - not sure why. One theory is that it is the ZANU PH party color and the other theory is that they believe that red will attract lightening. The other thing we learned is that women and girls in the rural areas WILL NOT wear pants, only dresses or skirts. We had only a very few of those so most women only got a couple of shirts. The real young female children will wear pants which is good as that is all we had for them. In the city here we see women in pants (some looking quite stylish) but mostly they all wear skirts. I suppose if I were to make a suggestion to SLC - it would be to have people sew some wrap-around, one size fits all skirts to put into their Africa clothing bales.

On the way out with Bishop Chris we did have a really good gospel discussion and I think we gave him a few things to think about and gave him some pamphlets and a book of mormon to read.

After we got back yesterday we stopped at a 'restaurant/art gallery' to check it out so we could decide if we might want to go there sometime. We met Mercy, who is black and from Australia. She was a really nice lady with two young children. Her menu was small but looked good and the prices were good, however, she is presently just serving cakes and coffee because her chef went 'home' to somewhere and hadn't come back. He was due back last Tuesday and she said he usually
has some story that he is late due to rain etc. but she says it hasn't been raining... so.... Anyway, we ended up having a good talk with her and giving her a pamplet which she was eager to 'devour', as she put it. She was an impressive girl. She will call us when her chef gets back and we will keep in touch with her. We really like her and felt good about our visit. We had seen the place a few weeks ago and Jim felt like he wanted to go and check it out!!

Our power came back on last evening so we watched a video with the Taylors (Pride and Prejudice). Then we lost power again early this a.m. The power has been off at the mission offices for 3 days but they just turn on the generator. :)

Yesterday a white lady, named Pam, came to see us. A member of the Highlands ward and his family live at her house (probably in a back building on the property). They are black. She used to employ him and then her brother did for a while to help them out. Then she took them back in when they had no place to go. At some point - through this member asking, she got a wheelchair from LDSC for herself. She no longer needs it but her elderly mother is using it. She has been
asking this fellow to please move out of her place (they have 4 children and are expecting another any day). He is not working for her but does have a job. He pays her no rent. He won't leave.
Anyway - he has told her to give him the wheelchair (that he says is his) and then he will leave - she wondered if she needed to give it to him. We told her No, that it is not his and that if her mother is using it she can keep it as long as she needs to. We talked to his bishop this morning about the situation and he will talk to the fellow. Hopefully he can get him to move and leave this
poor woman alone. It is really quite incredible.

Love you all and love to get your emails!!! Elder and Sister Bullock

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!

Hi all,

Well we had our first experience of distributing clothes, shoes, blankets, soap and a few newborn kits today. It was organized by the Enterprise Branch and they had helpers there as well. We asked Rachael, Pres. Neild's daughter, if she would help us and Sis. Neild also came. Thank good for them!!!! They have the experience of doing this. We were suppose to give to 108 people, however, there were a lot more than that. Giving the shoes was one of the hard parts - trying to
find a pair that would fit. They didn't try on - we just put it up to the bottom of their foot and measured and hope it worked. We tried to make sure the neediest looking got to come in first.

We set up inside the church and the people came in one door, went around our circuit and left out another door. We had someone at the door only letting in a few at a time so that we could try and keep some order. We gave at least two clothing items, a pair of shoes, a blanket and a bar of soap that can be used for laundry or body.

For the most part it went well and we did help a lot of people. We gave out 140 blankets and not everyone got one. We ran out of shoes for school age kids - we have more shoes here but we weren't expecting that many.

In the beginning there were two younger ladies that came through and they were dressed rather well so we told them that there were others that needed things worse than they did. Thank goodness for Rachel who is good at telling people such things. Rachel then went outside and
handpicked the first ones to come through so that the neediest got what they needed. Anyway -- as we about finished Elder Bullock told me that he saw one of the nice dressed ladies going out with an armful of stuff. I told Rachel and we went to where they were on the grass and confronted them. Rachel told them if they didn't want us to embarrass them that they needed to take their stuff around the corner and dump it out and that I would let them pick a couple of things. She got quite upset with them - which they deserved. Anyway they dumped their bags and, o my gosh!! They had a lot and it was some of the better stuff. They must have somehow had kids getting extra things. I don't know how they did it - but they are so deceitful and greedy --. We can't judge though because under the same circumstances we would probably be the same way!!!!
Rachel kind of lost it with them. I was mad too. We said that since they were doing that and it was outright theft that we were taking it all -- And we did! There were 3 large armfuls of clothes (mostly children - which we ran out of). We put them in the backseat of the truck and brought them home - since we were done by then. I'm sure they still got away with some things but at least not all of it!!!!

O well -- we are tired but we did help a lot that really needed it. There are some very poor people in that area. I will send a few pics on the blog.

Our crew from Enterprise Branch

Our shoe department

Blankets and soap ready to give

Sister Neild helping give blankets & soap

People watching from outside hoping for something

It is sad to see all the people outside the fence watching. We had some extra things still so we went out and had them line up and chose the worse looking ones and let them come in and get a little of something. Mostly it was children that had gotten out of school.

Children outside fence hoping for something

Leaving with their things

A lady and her granddaughter taking their goods. I had to help this lady lift this onto her head. She had a hard time walking with her stick and all.

People leaving at end of distribution

One other thing: I talked to Estere this morning because we had a dr. appointment for her 6 yr. old son on Tues. However, I guess the son is 150 km. away with his grandmother. Estere will go get him and be back on Sat. I called the dr. and he will see the boy next Monday at 1:00 p.m. It will be so great to help him. It sounds like if the dr. can help him he will put the boy in the hospital and do surgery on Tues. That is good news.

Must run. Love to all, Elder and Sister Bullock