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

Hi to our family and friends,

This has been a REALLY busy week so far. Sunday we went to Kadoma. Two of our missionaries that have been serving here finished their missions and returned home to Kadoma this past Wednesday. The 2nd counsellor in the branch presidency was released and one of the newly returned missionaries was put in that position. It was fun for Elder Bullock to be able to call him. The elder certainly wasn't expecting that. He will do a good job. The other elder was put in as Young Men's President. We were really pleased to see that the Branch president is putting them to work right away. These young returned missionaries are such assets here and are the ones who will be the great leaders.

I gave my talk in church and the two elders both talked. That didn't leave time for Elder Bullock to give his talk so he just said a few words and will save his talk for another day. We heard back from the elders here in Harare that Lawrence, our investigator, was at church and they have an appointment with him for tonight to teach. He had no transport money so he walked to church.

Trying on white shirts and ties at Kadoma

Happy recipients of shirts and ties -- it was great to be able to help them out.

He's happy to get a white shirt and tie -- he looks pretty smart!

Monday we had a meeting with the committee at the Kadymadare Mill. We invited the MP to join us as we needed his help to solve a problem there. I think I told you about it before -- how one man, the chairman/also a village head, insisted on only charging $.50 instead of one dollar. At the beginning of the meeting Elder Bullock read 'their' original proposal to us requesting the mill and how they were planning to make the project work for them. He explained that they were not living up to what they had proposed and agreed upon.

The MP then took over and talked for quite a while, some in English and a lot in Shona. He explained to them how a business has to run in order to be successful and make some profit. He also explained very well how the committee should work and the role of the chairman. It was agreed that they would start charging the dollar. We then ask how soon they planned to do that. The Chairman wanted to wait until March 1st and one other agreed with him. I suggested starting in 1 week (this coming Monday) so that they could start making some profit sooner. A member of the committee agreed and we told him he needed to make the proposal and it was seconded. We then suggested that there were two proposals and as a committee they should vote on it. The outcome was 7 to 2 in favor of starting to charge sooner. It was really a good meeting and I think the members felt somewhat empowered when they realized they didn't have to feel intimidated by the chairman/village chief. They realized they all had an equal say
and vote on things. We were pleased how things came out and are grateful to Mr. Zhanda, the MP, for helping us. He is really a good man. One thing I keep meaning to tell you is that whenever we have these kind of meetings they always begin and end with prayer. Quite different than America.

Monday afternoon we went with Bigboy (a wheelchair contact that we have talked to a few times) and met with a lady who is over all of Zimbabwe and represents disabled people and groups. They are the ones who we can partner with and they can bring the chairs into the country duty-free. It was a good meeting and we are hoping to get the wheelchair project underway.

When we got back to the office, Pauline was waiting for us. She is the mom we helped several months ago with the tiny baby, Edson, who almost died. We took formula out for the baby and food for the family so that the mom could eat and be able to nurse the baby. Edson is now about 8 months old but looks like he is only 2 months. He apparently has some symptoms of Downs Syndrome (I could see it in his face) and he also has some heart problems. However, he is one lucky baby as he was leaving the next morning with a Doctor who is taking him to Italy for 3 months where he will get some heart surgery etc. free of charge. Pauline was needing help for her 8 yr. old who she said was very sick, had a rash, and was losing strength. She had him at the hospital the day before and they gave him some tablets and said to bring him back to get his temperature taken. However, the combie (transport) would not take him. We drove her home and put her and the boy in the back of the truck (just in case he had something we don't want to get) and took them to the hospital. The husband, Ed, came too. We had to wait for quite a while as the doctors decided to go for lunch just as we arrived. While we were waiting we gave some balloons to the children in the waiting room and that seemed to cheer them up! Anyway, the boy has measles and a problem in his chest and a high temperature. They gave him a couple of injections and sent him home with instructions to go to a different hospital in the morning that would admit measle patients and also he would get a chest x-ray. We haven't heard any more yet. That all took about 5 hrs. and we got home about 8:30 after returning them to their home.

Pediatrics waiting room at Harare Hospital - we gave out balloons to the kids while we were waiting with Paulene and Ed

At hospital -- we made a few kids happier

Tuesday we spent most of the day helping Reeve, CC and Lolly and a good group of youth, finish sorting the goods in the containers that arrived last Friday. It has been a big job but it is now organized. I went with Reeve to take a truckload of medical supplies to a Dr. who has helped us the other day with the boy that had terrible rashes all over his head. The dr. wasn't there but we left the things - She will be delighted to have them.

Sorting containers that Reeve, CC and Lolly brought to Zimbabwe

We were tired at the end of the day. Reeve, CC and Lolly left this morning for Australia for some golf tournaments etc. They will be back in a month. We will miss them. They are fun to have around. We will continue our squash playing though and we now have President and Sister Dube joining us in the mornings and learning squash. Fun!

President Bullock has gone right now to a meeting with President Dube to meet with some government minister to explain what the church and LDS Charities does.

Today we are hoping to work on our training session that we are to do in Masvingo on Saturday. We have an hour allotted to us to train on lesson preparation as they feel that too many just read the lessons from the books when they teach (& they do that a lot here). We are
feeling a little nervous about this as we don't feel like we have a lot of expertise in the area, however, we do have "Teaching No Greater Call" and I have printed off some talks from church leaders. We will make a plan and pray a lot!! I better get busy working on it.

One more picture:

AIDS sign

We are grateful to you all for your love and support. We have a great family that we are proud of and also wonderful friends! Thank you!!

Love, The Bullocks

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Good morning,

We have had a good week so far. Today we are stuck in the office because our truck is getting serviced. That is okay though as we set up appointment with people who want to talk to us.
Some ladies want to come in and talk about a 'sewing' project they would like us to look at. Pastor Mhike wants to come in and talk about 'doctrine'. He was in yesterday with some paperwork and a map for the water project we are looking at up in Muzarabani.

We are lining up some possible areas that need boreholes and we will get a visit from a 'water specialist' from USA to come and assess them with us and help us develop the projects. We are looking forward to that. It will really help us a lot. The specialists will visit Zimbabwe and also the humanitarian couple in South Africa. We will likely have them for a couple of weeks and then they can also assist us via email afterwards.

1 Feb 2010 - On wall of ZESA office in Kadoma

1 Feb 2010 - Another one

5 Feb 2010 - Elder Bullock picking an avocado

We took Bruce, our borehole guy, out to look at a place where we want to replace a 5000 lts. water tank and he gave us a price on what that will cost. On our way back we stopped at the school 'head master's' house and he wanted to give us some mangos and some green mealies.
Green mealies are cobs of maize that haven't had a chance to dry on the cob yet. We were given instructions on how to cook and eat it. So we tried it. It didn't have much flavor (not like the sweet corn). It was rather chewy too but ok, I guess. I don't think I will care if I have it again or not though. We gave away a lot of the mangos - they were the smaller ones that have a more stringy fruit. Everyone loves the mangos and we lots of people eating them right now. They are very good!!

Pastor Sikyani's wife passed away - she had a stroke 2 or 3 weeks ago. We went to the funeral. He told us to come at 2 p.m. and when we got there they were filling the grave with dirt. I guess he wanted us to miss whatever happened before that. There was lots of singing and clapping as the young men took turns shoveling the dirt back in. Then everyone was fed a meal of sadza, meat with a little sauce and some shredded cooked cabbage. We ate too. That is the first time we have done that. We ate it with our fingers like everyone else. They take a bit of sadza, roll it into a ball and make a little indent in it and then dip it into the sauce. *Before you begin eating they come around with a bowl and some water so people can wash their hands and then do the same thing afterwards as our hands are dirty from eating. The sadza has no flavor and the sauce and vegetables are a bit on the salty side but it tasted good. These people LOVE sadza!!
Afterwards we went and thanked the ladies who had prepared the food and got a surprise!! Check out the pictures to see 'what we saw'! YIKES!! I guess it is a good thing we had already eaten or ............. we might have declined the offer.

10 Feb 2010 - Ladies who prepared food for the funeral

10 Feb 2010 - YIKES! This was on the ground by the pot (goat's head and feet)

10 Feb 2010 - Ladies with Elder Bullock

10 Feb 2010 - Shredding cabbage

10 Feb 2010 - Lady eating a mango

10 Feb 2010 - Two little girls wanting their picture taken

We had a pregnant lady waiting for us at the gate when we came in a couple of days ago. We stopped and she came to my window (the ladies usually want to talk to me and the men choose to talk to Elder Bullock). The lady said, "Madam, I have a problem". We hear that a lot. I ask what she needed and she pulled out her papers from the doctor and they did say that the baby was breach. She told me she was 12 months pregnant because the baby was breach and couldn't come out. I told her that I have had 7 babies and that it doesn't work that way -- that she is NOT 12 months pregnant. She wanted money from us and we don't give money so she went on her way.

Last Saturday we were invited to Nield's for a birthday party for CeeCee. Her request was for Mexican food and it was wonderful. One of the best meals we have had since being here. They have a great family and we enjoyed our afternoon with them. We bought a couple of bouquets of flowers off the street to take with us. One cost $10 and one cost $5 -- too bad I paid the $10 first because I probably could have gotten them both for $5 as they were desperate to make a sale. O well -- they were beautiful arrangements.

6 Feb 2010 - Bouquets of flowers for $10 and $5. Nice!

6 Feb 2010 - Nield's yard -- gorgeous!

6 Feb 2010 - Bullocks, Reeve, Deppes, Lolly, Mayfields, CeeCee at Nield home

6 Feb 2010 - Nield clan and friends

Tomorrow morning we are going for a golf lesson (after we play squash at 5:30 a.m.) so that we can meet a couple that our golf friends know. They are hoping that perhaps we can get to know these people and friendship them. He is a retired Dr. and does some humanitarian work here too.

Our first appointment of the day has arrived so .... back to work.

~Later~

Hi, We had a good day today. This afternoon two young men came in. One said we had met him at the grocery store a while ago and talked to him and he came to find us because he wanted to learn more about the church. He is a police officer and his friend is looking for work. They were both about 27 yrs. old. One is married with a baby girl and the policeman is working on saving up the lobola so that he can get traditionally married about April, he hopes.

We taught them about the Book of Mormon etc. (1st discussion) and gave them a restoration pamphlet and a B of M each. The police officer had very good English and really understood everything well. It was good!

The lady came in to discuss her possible 'sewing' project and we will go out and meet her group of ladies tomorrow morning and talk with them.

They have a problem at one of the grinding mills. One person wants to only charge $.50 to grind a bucket of maize instead of the normal price of $1.00. They cannot make any money at that rate and possibly not even have enough to pay the electricity bill and the $50 they pay to the miller. This particular person is trying to get points with the people there as he wanted to be re-elected as the SDC chairman (School Development Committee). He did get re-elected yesterday! So, we have a problem. There is a grinding mill committee and they should all be making these decisions but...... The head master came and discussed it all this with us. We were all hoping the chairman would not get voted back. Anyway today Elder Bullock phoned the MP (Mr. Zhanda) that we really like and he really likes us and told him of the problem. He will meet us at the mill on Monday morning, hopefully along with the committee, and talk to them. He is well respected and they will listen to him (we just need the one man to listen, really). I think he will be able to solve the problem for us and set things straight. We are doing several projects in his jurisdiction so he will do whatever he can to help and he really appreciates all we are doing.

We talked to him about the problem the church had recently with getting items cleared through ZIMRA (tax people) - and he knows the head guy and is going to set up a lunch with him and the mission president and ourselves and see if things can't be simplified for us. That will be great it he can help us. Pres. Dube says he will be happy to buy the lunch if we can get these people together.

Elder Bullock has gone to pick up the truck from being serviced. All is well. We were hoping to get our talks written for Sunday but our day just fills up (with good things though, like discussions of the gospel).

Love to all, E/S Bullock

Friday, February 5th

Hi Everyone, We have had a somewhat busy week. I have been organizing financial records in preparation for the audit later this month.

We spent yesterday morning out at a clinic (where we are replacing the transformers and fixing the borehole). We met with the committee there and had a good meeting. They seem to be doing pretty good. The transformers will likely be finished this next week and they say they
can take them out and install them at both clinics on the same day. The MP (Mr. Zhanda) was at the meeting. We really like him and he is really good with the people. He is thrilled with us for doing projects in his area!

On Wednesday we went to Kadoma to get some quotes for the transformer that we need to upgrade at the Danangwe School so that it is big enough to run the grinding mill. While we were meeting with the fellow he ask about the church and said he would like to attend. We
took his phone number and told him we would call him before we go to Kadoma next Sunday (that is one of our branches). It will be nice if he comes. I have been ask to speak that Sunday as well -- topic: teaching/learning/living the gospel at home. I am also speaking the next Sunday in Masvingo and I think I will likely just give the same talk. Anyway, after our meeting with the transformer guy, we went out to our vehicle and found that they had put a clamp on the wheel. We learned that we had to have a parking disk (paper) that costs $1 to park there. It was just under a tree on a dirt area. A guy took us across the grassway to pay our $20 so we could get the clamp off. We ask to talk to someone in charge and were directed around back. We had to wait for a bit but found the guy and told him we didn't know we had to pay to park there. He walked back to the lot with us and showed us the sign. However, when we got back to the lot I noticed that the clamp was no longer on our truck tire. I guess someone else had paid to have a clamp removed and they thought it was us. The NICE man let us go!!! The employee went on his way to take the clamp off the correct vehicle. :)

Today we went and met Pastor Wonder out in the rurals of Goromonzi and he had arranged a meeting to discuss a possible water project. It was a good meeting with over 30 people there. The Village Head was there (he is the head over the 31 villages in the Ward) and there were 19
village chiefs there or representatives). We explained how LDSC works with water projects and what they need to do to. It was good.

After that we came back to Harare and went for lunch with Bro. and Sister Sharp, members of Highlands ward. They are an awesome couple who have been members for about 2 1/2 yrs. We had a really nice visit with them. She is from Russia and he is from Zimbabwe. They have a
14 yr. old daughter that does ballroom dancing with the son of another family in the ward. These two are really good and won everything at a competition in South Africa and they are now going to a big competition in ?? They are really good people!!

Dzikamai just came to the office to ask Elder Bullock if he would ordain him (Priest) on Sunday and of course, he would be delighted to do that.

There has been some rain this past week or so and that is making everyone happy. They still need lots more but at least the crops are getting some moisture.

Things are good here. Elder Bullock was assigned by President Dube to make arrangements for a couple's conference on April 6 - 9th and we will be going to Victoria Falls. We are looking forward to that. We will do a day trip (1 night) into Botswana. Reeve's friend, Cornelia lives there and she is arranging an early morning cruise, and an animal drive in the afternoon, etc. It will be great. The animals in Botswana are suppose to be really great! We will spend 2 nights at Victoria Falls and have some meetings and also tour the falls and the flea markets etc. We will stay on the Zimbabwe side of the Falls.

Tomorrow we are going with the Elders again to teach Answer and Mary a discussion. We enjoy going to their humble little home and they are so thrilled to have us come. Maybe that is why we like going!! After that we are going to a birthday party for CeeCee at the Nield's home. She is one of our 'golfing' girls. We play squash with them almost every morning and they make sure we get a 'good' workout. Merci has been coming to squash a bit too -- since Uncle Phil told us that the only things she has that fits anymore are her shoes!!! :) Nice guy!

We are happy and doing fine. Love to all, Elder & Sister Bullock

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Hi,

We went to Muzarabani on Wednesday and took Seka with us as that is the area that he lived. Upper Muzarabani is quite lush and green and gets more rain than Lower Muzarabani (on the other side of the mountain). We found once we crossed to the other side it was dry and the crops were not doing well at all. The maize was small and wilted and they are afraid that it is too late, even if rain starts to come now. We had a great day yesterday on our trip and really hope we can do a water project up there. They could sure use it.

Beautiful drive to Muzarabani through the mountains

More landscape

On our way to Muzarabani

At the top of the mountain pass. This was absolutely beautiful from up here.

Down in the valley

Tools for patching the road

Roasting ground nuts (peanuts) for peanut butter. This lady gave me handful of nuts - they were hot and yummy. Her husband was shelling them and she was roasting. She said they were for making peanut butter. They love their peanut butter here.
Muzarabani Primary School

SDC (School Development Committee) Meeting. There was a meeting going on when we arrived.

More attendees at the meeting

Students at Muzarabani Primary School

Elder Bullock teaching them a song

Nice Flamboyant Tree (huge!)

Members of community we met with at Lower Muzarabani
Pastor Mhike had arranged a meeting with the village council, police, etc. etc. We talked about possibly doing boreholes for them. They had a list of 70 spots where they need them - with 32 locations that would be priorities (schools and clinics). It is a dry area about 210 km. north of here. We did see more poverty there and lots of children and adults dressed in rags. We took some T-shirts and gave them all out and could have given dozens more. This area is away from the church's centre of strength but I hope they will consider doing boreholes for them. I think they will - at least I sure hope so. I feel really good about helping these people and we were impressed with them.

Mom and baby waiting outside clinic in a cart.

Seka and his mother at her place.
Seka took us to meet his mother and sister. He hadn't seen her since August and when he met her he shook her hand. I ask him if he wasn't going to give her a hug and he said that is not done in their culture. I ask if I could take a picture of him with his mother and so he went and stood beside her. I suggested he put his arm around her but..... - not done in their culture. I suggested he ask her if it would be okay. He did and I could tell from the look on her face that it was not. She didn't speak any English.
At Seka's mother's roundeval (hut) - We gave out shirts, hygiene kits, coloring books and crayons. We started giving out a few things to a few people and pretty soon we had quite a few. They all got something and were pretty happy. We gave Seka 2 quilts - one for his mother and one for his sister. We didn't have enough for everyone.

Sign at school office

Pastor Mhike, Seka, and Elder Bullock in Muzarabani

Beautiful landscape of upper Muzarabani

Today we went a different direction to Danangwe School to talk to them about the grinding mill that was approved for them. We went into Chegutu and met with the ZESA (electricity) people and took them out to see the site, only to find out that the transformer there is not big enough to support the grinding mill. So now...???

Tomorrow afternoon for a couple of hours we will take Elder and Sister Renlund, from the area presidency, out and show them a couple of our projects. That will be good for them to see some of the things they approved for us and we can talk to them about the problem we discovered today.

We do have a couple of ideas but we may need to apply for some more budget for the project to make it happen.

Must run as Jim is waiting for me. Sounds like there is some thunder out there so perhaps someone is getting a little rain. I hope so. Everyone is so concerned about drought here. The rivers are low and some we saw yesterday in Muzarabani are bone dry and they should be flowing!!

Love to everyone. We would love to get some emails. Elder and Sister Bullock

Saturday Jan. 9th

We went out with the Precision Grinding people to finish off the mills yesterday. They did get one fixed and then we had to sit and wait for about an hour for the power to come on so that they could test it. Luckily the power did come on without waiting too long. We then went back to the other mill and tested it but there is a problem so they took a part back to the shop and we will take them out again on Monday and with any luck that mill will be running as well. I took an armful of T-shirts with me and handed some out along the dirt road between the mills. That was fun to do – I think the guys in the back seat were enjoying it as much as the recipients. I gave some more out to some kids that live near the mill and they were thrilled. We had Seka with us for the day and he seemed to enjoy it. (we didn’t know we were going to be gone all day – thought we’d be done by noon). During the day, as we had some ‘waiting’ time, Jim (& Seka) taught the guy from Precision Grinders the first discussion and he seemed to be pretty keen about it. He is the same one I talked about in Thursday's letter who is getting married in April.

Today we also spent time with Seka and met his very good friend, January Williams, from Bindura. He is a policeman there. Seka has been talking to him about the church and he is eager to learn more as he has been to church there twice now. He was asking for literature. He had some things to do but may be calling and coming by our office today to talk. We were just talking and saying that perhaps we will drive to Bindura (about an hr. away) and meet up with him and introduce him to a branch missionary couple there. January came to Harare to talk to Seka as he is worried about him. Seka needs a job and was considering taking one that is 350 km. away where there is no LDS church. January told Seka that he should not do that after the progress that he has made with being baptized and all and he wants Seka to stay here where he can learn more and help his friends learn. Seka has 3 friends that are trying to move here so that they can be taught and they are all asking him not to go. We also suggested that it was a better idea to stay here so that he can progress. Seka did say that he thinks the job is just a temptation from the adversary to take him away from where the church is. Seka will be a great leader one day and he is going to bring a lot of people to the gospel. He really has become like a son to us!

We stopped by and saw Merci today and she is doing great. She is definitely like a daughter to us, as well, and Malayka like a granddaughter. This is the nice part of being here – the great people we are meeting! It is just too bad that it is so far from home!

Maize grinder at Rutope School that we refurbished and put new motor on.

New Dehuller at Rutope School

Elder Bullock with Rutope School Development Committee Chairman

Kids in their new t-shirts

Working on mill at Kadyamadare School (the guy in the center of photo is Isaac

Cute kids

This little guy was afraid of us 'white' people

Gave mom and little guy a t-shirt (no the one she has one).

Tomorrow we are off to Kadoma for church meetings. All is well.
Love from The Bullocks