Sunday, October 4th

We got up early and came over to the office as email and pictures send so much better on a weekend morning. Because of conference we don't have to travel anywhere today to attend our branches. They don't get conference out there so they do still have their regular meetings.

Covo (rape) plant - vegetable they use in their relish

Just a note about the Covo plant that is widely used for making their relish. They don't need seeds to grow it. They just break of a small branch of it and stick it into the ground. Thank goodness for that as it makes it possible for everyone to have it in their gardens at no cost. They chop it up and cook it with with a little oil and tomatoes and onions if they have any and that is what they eat with their sadza (corn maize - thick porridge). They eat it with their hands by taking a chunk of sadza and dipping it into the relish. If they are lucky they can get a little meat and make a stew to dip into as well. They eat this day in and day out and they love it!

Gardens by Highland Chapel

Trees by gardens

Tomatoes in greenhouse

School girls polishing the floors

One of our gardeners growing tomatoes

Little kids waiting to go home after school

We were at this school talking about the borehole we hope to do for them. They are working really hard at getting the water committee set up and making a plan to collect and save a little money so that they can sustain the project. They do have a great garden area at this school that they currently work at but water will help them do it so much better.

Grinding mill attendant practising his guitar - he plays and sings pretty good

This is the school that has had a grinding mill but the motor has worn out. The school invited a nearby farmer to put his mill there for now so that the community won't have to walk so far to do their grinding. It costs them $1/pail to grind and this young man gets paid $50 a month to mind the mill and do the grinding. We will look into doing a project to get the school a new motor as their mill is still fine and the proceeds of having it really help the school. Right now they just get $50/month rent from the person who is renting the shed for his mill.

Rutope Secondary School classrooms

Entertainment at Merci's restaurant Friday night

We went here for supper and the entertainment Friday night for our 35th Anniversary celebration. It was an enjoyable evening but it was outside and it got a little cool before we were done. The meal started with mushroom soup and rolls and then they served some rice with a beef dish, goat stew, oxtail, chicken (that was good) and a little lettuce salad. At least they didn't serve their caterpillar delicacy that the natives love so much!!

These trees are all over the place and they are so pretty with their purple blossoms.

Yesterday we went out to attend a community meeting regarding the borehole we want to do for them, however, no one showed up. The meeting was to be help on a 'city plot' where we plan to put the borehole and we learned that people don't want to come because they are afraid. At one point last year the ZANU-PF party took over this plot and there were some bad things that happened there. Cloud, the man who is working to help this water project happen, was pretty discouraged, but we talked about holding the meeting somewhere else. After we left and drove around for a few minutes we stopped and talked to a couple of men that were a block or so away and told them that we were trying to put a borehole on the plot for the community. They told us how much the community needs the water. We told them that we need their help to make this happen and they said they would talk to community members and let them know that we are LDS Charities and not affiliated with any political party.

I think the Lord was on our side to help us stop and talk to these particular men as one of the men ask us "How is Reg Nield doing?" Several years ago he was acquainted with Reg and knew him well. That helped him to know that we are okay and he will help us get this project going. We got a text message later in the day that he had gone and talked with Cloud at the city plot and they will set up a community meeting at a hall. This project might happen after all. This is the area where we took a picture of the boy getting water out of the hole in the street (drainage hole).

Yesterday afternoon we stopped at a flea market (I should have taken some pictures). I have been there once before. They have some nice things there but they sure are persistent and everyone wants us to come into their little 'space' and look at their things. They are all so desperate to sell something. I bought a necklace, bracelet, and ear rings for $5.00 for the set - that was a good deal. Also a wrap around skirt for $18. At one booth we got a beautiful carved ebony bowl with a lid, candle sticks (with giraffes on them) and a carved bracelet - all for $20. I got a couple other fun wood things for $5 each. I have to be careful as we can only bring home so much weight but these things were small. We are watching for a beautiful walking stick but haven't found anything special yet. I think when we go to Victoria Falls there are suppose to be really nice things there. The ebony things that we bought come out of Malawi.

Seka will meet us today and go to conference this afternoon. He did go to the meeting when Elder Holland was here but he hasn't been to a sacrament meeting yet as he just moved here. If there is time between sessions we will try and give him another discussion. He is staying at a friend's place across town until he starts to get a pay check and can rent a place closer. He does get some transport money from his employer up front, but the month will be tight for him - they get paid at the end of the month. He will stay at a room behind Merci's restaurant and may be able to move their earlier and help her in her yard/gardens. You all know how we feel about this guy and the sacrifice he has/is making so that he can be taught this gospel that he has been searching for. We will have to have him write his story. We need to ask Merci to write her story for us too as it was not just by chance that we met and taught her.

Time to head back to the flat and get ready for our day. We are looking forward to listening to conference. We enjoyed the Sat. morning session - it was so good. The people here are so happy to have the broadcast here. This is only the second time. One of the sister missionaries watched it for the first time last evening and thought it was so-o-o great! We take so much for granted.

We love these people here and are so glad to be serving amongst them. Everyone should put in their mission papers and ask for Africa!! The mission president is putting in a request for another couple here in Zimbabwe. hint-hint!!

Love to all our family and friends, The Bullocks

Hi, We were able to watch conference Sat. night and Sunday afternoon. The priesthood session didn't work for some reason in Southern Africa but they resolved the problem and we did get the others. We did not see the Sunday afternoon session as it was shown here at 10 p.m. and we weren't up for that. They had a fairly good turnout of people Sunday afternoon - for the Sat. afternoon session. I think a lot of people hadn't been told about it as the satellite had only been
installed the previous week. Next time I think there will be better attendance. This is all new to the people here.

Pres. Nield's daughter, Reeve, is a professional golfer and coach. She coaches two women - both have joined the church because of her and just went to the temple recently. Anyway - they ask if we golfed and if we would like lessons. So, they arranged to meet us this a.m. for an hour. They showed up with golf shirts for us, a glove, clubs, balls and tees and took us to the driving range. They liked that I had never golfed before because I have no bad habits to break. They said I did good - but they probably say that to all their beginners. They taught us the techniques and we practiced for a little while. Pretty soon the guy who runs the golf course came and presented us each with a pass to the course so we can golf anytime we want for free - Reeve had talked to him and told him what we are doing here. The girls left us with some clubs and balls to practise with - so I guess we are all set. They said if we want more help to just give them a call. They are around for about a month and then they leave for the European Masters tour and won't be back until Christmas. Reeve coaches the other two ladies. They are all a lot of fun and very nice.

Our container is not coming in until this Friday now. We have a couple of appointments this week to meet with more people and take a tour of their facilities. We didn't have anything booked today as we were expecting to be helping with the container stuff - but that isn't going to happen. We are thinking we will go back to our flat and go through paperwork and study that and see what we can learn.

Take care and write to us.
Love, Elder & Sister Bullock

April 4th, Saturday Happy Birthday to Joshua today!!!

We got up this a.m. and actually had some hot water & water pressure so Jim had a shower and I had a nice soak in the tub. It was great! The tubs here are kind of nice – they are longer than ours at home – the inside must measure about 5 ft. Because when I lay back I barely touch the end with my toes.

At 8:30 we went with Taylors to the “Cheeseman” a good place to buy cheese, yogurt and a few other groceries and meat/fish. If you want yogurt you must take your own container and they will fill it for you. Taylors bought some raspberry and mixed fruit flavours and she gave me a taste – it isn’t bad at all. Perhaps we will try some next time – if we remember to take a container! We bought some fish to fry – Tilapia (good), cheddar cheese, and a couple other things. There was a Rhodesian lady (white-Zimbabwean) there and we ask her about a couple of things and she was quite helpful. She recommended a couple of things to try. After that Jim and I went to Favco, a store for fruit and vegetables – kind of a hole in the wall place, but their stuff is a good price. They supply to some of the stores. There was no power on there – Taylors had warned us (as they went at 7:30 a.m.) so we took our flashlight as it is rather dark in there. Our splurge there was some macadamia nuts that were $.50/pkgs – so we bought 8 of them. We also bought some fresh green beans ($.80/pint), Cabbage ($.50), lettuce ($.90), really nice tasting apples ($1.00/kg.), 2 lemons ($.19) and some Naatijies (like Japanese mandarins – quite good) ($.70/kg). Our total bill was $9.00 (including the macadamia nuts). Not bad really. We eat a lot of cabbage salads here (coleslaw) as cabbage is cheap – it is a staple food here. Lettuce is not very good – I did plant some in my little garden spot so I will see how it does.

We then went with Taylors to downtown Harare to check out some fabric stores. We were the only white people to be seen but it really didn’t bother us. The fabric stores were quite busy really and there were quite a few of them. We went to 5 or 6 as Sis. Taylor was looking for a particular type for a project. We went to a shirt store – the guy makes them and does nice embroidery work on the front around the neck and part way down the front. I bought one for myself for $10. If I wash it and it shrinks – then I guess I will have to lose weight!! Sis. Taylor was looking for fabric so she could tell the fellow what she wanted – and he would go buy it and make shirts for her to take home to her family.

We will watch general conference here, starting tonight. The first satellite dish was just installed this past week – the first ever in a stake centre here in Zimbabwe. Tonight at 6:00 we get the Saturday morning session. Sunday at 11:00 a.m. is the priesthood session, 2:00 p.m. is the Sat afternoon session, 6:00 – Sunday a.m. session, and 10:00 p.m. – Sunday p.m. session. I don’t think we will see the last one as we don’t really want to be driving the streets here at midnight to get home. It will be interesting to see the turnout – it wasn’t advertised well as wards/branches were not notified about it until a couple of days ago. I suspect the ones that know will want to be there – some of these people walk up to 22 km to come to church. We are usually the only car in the parking lot when we attend the branches that we are assigned to work with (Kadoma & Marondera). People here just don’t have cars for the most part. We aren’t allowed to give rides in our mission vehicles – for insurance purposes. When we have a pastor take us to his orphanage, etc then he has to sign a release form. If we did give rides we would be doing nothing else. People are always along the roads waving their hand – asking for a ride. The combies (small white vans that are like a bus/taxi) drive around and pick people up – I think it costs $1.00) – they just keep packing people in. Today we saw one where the front passenger had someone on his lap and there were 3 guys hanging out the side door; just holding on for dear life. A 7 passenger van holds about 20 plus people. If they have a truck (usually a small one) they just pack the people into the back of it and it can get pretty full too – rain or shine. Beauty, our housekeeper said that sometimes she and her husband can pay only 2/$100. Of course, people are not usually on time for things because of the transportation problem.

Zimbabwe is adapting to using the U.S. dollar but cash isn’t plentiful. Some people who have jobs might get paid by voucher as there is no cash and then they can’t cash the voucher anyway. We hear of lot who are working and not getting paid anything – just hoping to get it sometime. There is no coin used – it just isn’t available - so we have to try and get our order to come as close to an even dollar as we can. Two of the grocery stores we go to give a voucher with the amount of the change on it and we can use it next time at their store. It is time-consuming for the clerks to write out vouchers. At the store this morning they just keep a couple of apples or onions, etc. by the register and if you need to even off the dollar you can buy one or two more things.

We are heading over to the mission office to check emails before conference and Taylors want to Skype their family. We will try and Skype too but no one is hardly ever on. We are now 8 hours ahead of you. Our kids need to get signed up for it!!!!!! We often get to chat on gmail with Pam, Kim and my friend, Ruth – that is always nice. Sign up for gmail and we can chat with you too!!! We are trying to upgrade our skype – it is suppose to give us a better picture and sound but it takes forever to download it here. We will leave it overnight soon and that should work for us.

Have a great weekend watching conference – I hear that Mike and Janeal are at Pam and Jared’s. Have a good time!!

Love, The Bullocks