February 22, 2010 and February 26, 2010

February 22, 2010

This morning Bigboy, our wheelchair expert, and his wife, Susan, came in to learn about the church. We ask him what had prompted him to ask us if he could come in and talk to us about the church. He said that he has decided he needs to attend a church and he has seen missionaries doing service work in the community and is interested in learning more. He told us that he used to drink a lot at nights and his wife and children were worried about him. He decided 6 months ago to quit. He called his wife and ask her to pray for him because he was not going to drink anymore. When he was late coming home she would call and ask if he was drinking but he never did take another drink after his initial decision.

Bigboy also told us that in 2004 he had a stroke and ended up in the hospital. He told us how he was/is in the business of helping people with wheelchairs after they have strokes, etc. and suddenly he was unable to move his left side. He prayed to God and told Him that his livelihood was helping people and he needed to be able to walk. The next day when he woke up he could move his arm and he could stand up. The Doctor couldn’t believe it. His one side is not quite perfect but he is able to carry on. He works with a wheelchair organization and assembles and fits chairs to all sort of disabled people. He goes around the African countries training technicians to be able to do the same.

We taught them the first discussion. It went well. We thought he lived in Harare but he lives about 60 Km. out but is not too far from Bindura and there are two branches there. He has a vehicle so that helps. We arranged to go to their place on Saturday and meet their children (2 teenagers) and we will review or teach them more.

Jim is busy typing up contracts for the projects that we are working on. Mostly it is fill in the blanks and of course, give some details but it is a bit frustrating. They have to be approved in SA by the church lawyer before they can be signed.

February 26, 2010

O man!! A lot of people here have some sad stories. Lawrence, our policeman investigator, came in to see us. His parents died when he was 14 yrs. old. From that time he has taken care of himself and his younger sister. He quit school and got a job gardening so he could support them and he paid school fees for her so she could stay in school. He managed to do his school at night. He got a job with the police about a year ago and because he has some accounting education they have him working in the office. He really wants to go to school and get a degree in accounting but.........how can he? He is now 27 and his sister is 21 and she is married with a baby boy. The husband is not working and they live with his parents. Lawrence was planning to get married (saving labola) in April, however, his girlfriend, Doreen, is 3 months pregnant. Her parents found out and ‘chased her away’ and she is now with Lawrence. The $200 he had saved towards the labola had to go to the clinic so that Doreen can have maternity care and delivery of the baby. He has a ‘stand’ (small plot of land) that he bought about 6 years ago. If he does not start to build on it by June he will lose it. He needs $240 so he can just even have water and meter run onto the land and that would be enough to keep it. As a policeman he is paid $150/month. His rent is $60 and utilities about $20. The rest goes for food, transport, etc. It just isn’t enough but the gov’t. is not paying more than that. Teachers here also get about $150/month. Some teachers are on strike right now, trying to get more money but unfortunately it is the children who suffer as they are not getting their schooling. It is hard to hear these sad stories AND there are a LOT of them. We wish we could fix things and help everyone but we just can’t. There are a lot of child-run families because of death (due to AIDS a good share of the time).

Mayfields had a wonderful young man come in and apply for a PEF loan for school. He is supporting 3 or 4 younger siblings and wants/needs to go to school so badly but has to work to feed the family. I don’t think they could make it work for him because to get a loan you have to be a returned missionary and he could not serve a mission because he has to support the family. Perhaps they can get an ‘exception’. I’m not sure what has happened with it.

Anyway – sorry, enough of the sadness of Zimbabwe! The auditor is back again this morning to finish off. The SA fellow from the church left this morning early. The audit is going well and they only had 3 or 4 questions for me and I was able to find what they needed. I’m relieved that it all seems in order!!

The electricity is off a lot lately but we are coping. They run the generator here at the mission office when it goes off so work carries on as usual here. At the flat we try not to run the generator too much as it is noisy and we don’t want to irritate the neighbours. We use it to pump the water from the tank for our shower (love having our tank!!!!) and we use it to quickly cook something and then we shut it down. We are doing fine!! Mayfields have moved into the flat next door as of yesterday. It will be nice having them there – nice and close for playing a card game or getting together for a movie night (if we have power!)

I must get back to work. We need to start preparations for our district training assignment a week from tomorrow in Gweru. The topic is ‘the temple’. Elder & Sister Taylor left a nice file of information so that will be very helpful. We just need to come up with a plan/presentation that will take approximately an hour.

Love to all, The Bullocks

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I have posted 2 other letters below as well! Kim

January 17, 2010 Sunday night

We are home at our flat and there has been no electricity here for more than 24 hours. We are hoping it comes on soon so we don’t lose any food in the fridge. We did turn on our generator for about 1 ½ hrs. this evening to cook supper and let the fridge cool off some. We do keep jugs of ice all the time and put them into the fridge when the power goes off. We went to Masvingo yesterday morning and just got back about 5 p.m. today. We had a nice time there today at their meetings. The branch president has shuffled people around in the branch and there are new Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary presidencies. My friend Elizabeth is the new R. S. President and will do a great job. Change is good!!

Saturday about 5 p.m. we decided to go for a drive up passed the Inn where we stay. There is a dam up there not far that we can see from the Inn. It is quite the sight but I left the camera behind and got no pictures. We drove over the dam and a fair ways up the road on the other side. It is beautiful up there. When we left Harare yesterday morning we put in several hygiene kits, T-shirts, a few stuffed animals and 1 soccer ball (a really nice soccer ball that Reeve Nield gave us to give away). As we drove along we stopped and gave Tshirts to some kids that looked like they could really use one. Some kids were scared of us and would just run away – too bad. We gave hygiene kits to the moms we saw working in their fields/gardens or walking along the road. They are all so appreciative. BUT the best give-away was the soccer ball!! We saw two boys about 12 yrs. old walking along the road and I asked Elder Bullock to stop and go back. We asked if they were brothers and they said they were so we handed them the soccer ball. Well, my goodness!! – you should have seen them!!! I have never seen anybody so excited. It was so fun! It made tears come to my eyes to see their joy and excitement. As we drove away they took off as fast as they could towards their home with their ball.

Some kids we gave T-shirts to on our way to the Inn on Great Zimbabwe

More of the group. They appear to really need the shirts, don't you think?

Nice clear view from the Inn on Great Zimbabwe

This past Tuesday the new school term started here for the kids. They go for about 3 months and then have one month off (3 terms per year). Zimbabwe really had a good school system in the past but with all the troubles here schools have suffered. A lot of kids don’t go to school because they can’t afford the fees. While we were driving yesterday there were 3 or 4 kids that came to the truck window asking for school fees because they really want to go to school badly. Anyway – Tuesday morning as we were driving down the road from the office to an appointment we saw Panashe (our 11 year old boy who was recently baptized). We pulled over and ask what he was doing and he said he was coming to see us. I ask why he was not at school and he said he couldn’t go because he didn’t have the school fees ($30). Big tears started running down his cheeks even though he was trying really hard not to cry. His mom had told us that his uncle was going to pay his fees but Panashe said that he wouldn’t but that he did agree to pay for his school uniform. Panashe had left home before day break and had walked to our office which had taken him about 5 hours (it takes us a good half hour to drive to his home). We had him stay and work in the garden by the office until we got back from our appointment and then we brought him some food and took him home. We paid the $30 school fees for him (my friend Ruth had ask before Christmas if she could send money to help someone). We explained to him where the money had come from. He was one happy boy!! He knows how important it is to stay in school and wants it so badly.

Wednesday we had Zone conference and we had Elder and Sister Renlund from the area presidency here. They are going on the zone tour with Pres. and Sister Dube as they tour the mission (as they do every six weeks). We had a great conference and supper with all the missionaries.14 Jan 2010 - Girl bringing maize to the new grinding mill at Kadyamadare School

14 Jan 2010 - Waiting for maize to get ground. 3 came with maize while we were there. That is great!

Then on Thursday night Pres. Dube took we three couples out to supper with the Renlunds. We had a really nice visit. Elder Renlund has had a lot to do with the young people (YSA) in the church and has done of thinking and research in that area. He said it seems like as these young people are dating and looking for a spouse that generally they know fairly quickly when they meet the ‘right’ one and so it is important to have activities and regional get-togethers so that they can mingle and meet. He talked about keeping them active and getting them back into activity. He referred to Moroni chapter 6 where it talks about how we need to 1) number them, 2) name them 3) know them, and 4) gather them. We need to realize that “It is NOT all about me” and teach that to our young people. We don’t go to church and to activities just for ourselves, but we should go to fellowship and help others. If we can teach this and assign these young people to go and friendship someone it will help those who are shy or reserved to reach out to others and have a purpose. It brings them out of their shells and suddenly we start seeing results.

On Friday we met with the sister missionaries as they gave a discussion to the Dzikamai. He has a baptismal date for Jan. 29^th. He is feeling a little unsure as he thinks he needs to know ‘everything’ before he is baptized but we explained that baptism is just a start and there is a lifetime of learning ahead. He is doing well and we can see him feeling more positive about life. He has been kind of depressed, knowing that he blew the chance of a lifetime when he didn’t finish school at MIT in Boston. He had a breakdown while there and had to come back. He lost both his parents when he was 17 and still grieves over that loss. He’s had a hard time. He is 25 yrs. old. I told him that he is still young and shouldn’t give up on his dreams. When he came to church two Sundays ago he showed up clean shaven and looking really sharp so we could tell he is feeling better about life. I don’t know if there is any way he could go back to school or how he managed to get to MIT in the first place or who sponsored and paid for him to go. He must be a pretty smart guy to have been given the opportunity.

Monday morning: Still no electricity at the flat!! We ran the generator again for a while this a.m. It usually isn’t off this long so hopefully it will come back on today. It did rain a little on the weekend in some places. The country is in desperate need of a lot of rain. Usually they get a lot in December and January but have not received much this year and there is a lot of concern. They need it for the wilting maize and to fill up the wells. One community member in Goromonzi said that the government should call for a day of prayer. We suggested that they could do that in their own community and fast at the same time and perhaps the Lord would send rain to their area.

I better get this sent off as I haven’t written for a week or so. Love to all. Elder and Sister Bullock

Wednesday

The day is about over and we got a few things done, which is good in Zimbabwe. Things don't always happen very fast here.

Firstly we just got a message that Mike and Janeal are at the hospital so we will wait for the good news that all went well.

Second, we got another project approved today. We must be on a roll!! It is another grinding mill project for a school. It is a school that had a grinding mill that ran successfully for 7 years until the second hand motor died. They had Zimbabwe money saved but of course that disappeared with inflation. We are replacing the motor and also giving them a dehuller to go with the mill. We are actually trying to get one more project submitted by Monday (deadline) for another complete grinding mill at the Danangwe Primary school out by Chegutu where they have absolutely no desks or chairs. We hope we are not pressing our luck with grinding mill projects but we do feel like that they are a good project to help the schools be more self-sustaining and a way for them to help themselves.

We paid a bill today so that ZESA will hook up the electicity for one of our grinding mills. There was an armed guard there to protect the money, I guess. The guy behind the cage had a good sized metal box that he dropped the cash into and there appeared to be a fair bit. He had to dig through to find bills to give us our change. Didn't seem like a very good system - perhaps that is why he needs an armed guard.

We then went to UNICEF to pick up an invoice so that we can go to College Publishers where we are to pick up some textbooks (mostly math, but some science) for Primary schools (gr. 1 - 7). Now we just have to figure out how we are going to pick them up -- make several trips I guess or solicite some help. There are 3880 books worth $10,739.00. Then we have to decide what schools to give them to as we are told that some school authorities might sell them to students or other schools and we don't want that to happen. And I suppose we have to figure out where we are going to put them in the meantime -- don't know that our container will hold them. Pres. Nield has a warehouse so we may need to use that.

Elder Mayfield just brought us in a copy of his journal entry of the trip he and Elder Bullock took yesterday out to Danangwe School for their prize giving day. I think I will add it on here as it is a good description of the day. I guess I missed a good one by being sick, but couldn't be helped.
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On December 1, Sister Bullock, the wife of one of our fellow missionary couples, was ill so Elder Bullock asked me if I would accompany him to the Danangwe Primary School, which is a 1 1/2 hr. drive south of Harare, where LDS Charities had provided funding for several wells along with basic school kits for the students. The school was holding an awards assembly at year-end, and the Bullocks were to be their guests of honor. It turned out to be a fascinating experience.

First of all, this was way out in the country. We drove several miles on dirt roads with huge potholes. The assembly was held outdoors under a huge metal canopy with no walls. 200+ students from all 7 grades (ages 5-12) were sitting tightly together on the dirt ground in about twelve rows. Their teachers were sitting up front with the headmaster, the school development committee chairman, and other officials; off to the side about 40 parents had also gathered. Elder Bullock and I were also prominently seated up front.

At the outset, the children sang the Zimbabwe National Anthem and then reverently placed their hands over their faces and recited the Lord's Prayer. The headmaster warmly greeted Elder Bullock and me; then 20 young students performed a traditional tribal dance with singing and accompanying drums. this was followed by speeches, recitations, and further entertainment. Elder Bullock was then asked to present the awards, consisting mostly of paper notebooks, pencils, and cloth bags. (Note: that is from some of the school kits that we gave them - they divided them up). THAT IS WHEN THE FUN BEGAN!

Three students from each of the seven grades were individually honored for their achievements in 2009. Each time a student's name was announced, the child's mother jumped up with a huge smile, began dancing, made a type of Native American pow wow chant, ran and picked up her child, and literally carried him or her up front to receive the award. Sometimes relatives or friends joined the parent in the celebration. The mothers were as thrilled as if had their child won a million dollars. Additional children received awards for various achievements, and the same thing happened every time.

During the ceremony it began raining like it would in a tropical forest; it was like being under a water fall. The headmaster kept having us move our chairs closer and closer to the children to avoid getting wet. Eventually there was so much water that a small river began running through the area where the children were sitting on the ground, so they had to split up. None of this made any difference to the kids. Most of them had no shoes on, and when a parent ran to pick up a child, they both jumped gleefully through the little stream to get to the front. I can't adequately express how joyful they were.

Afterwards, we met with the headmaster and faculty to discuss the possibility of LDS Charities providing a large electric grinder for the local community to grind their maize. The community would have to provide a secure building for the grinder, hire a miller to operate it, save enough from the profits of this service to repair the equipment, pay the miller, and buy tables and chairs for the school's classrooms. Presently the school has none. This is an example of how LDS Charities operates. Rather than just donating the table and chairs to the school, they try to get the community to work together in a cooperative effort to obtain what they need, which will also help them appreciate what they have even more.

Unfortunately, Judy stayed at the office and work the whole morning. Neither of us knew in advance what I would be doing. Therefore, I didn't have a camera to record what I saw.
________________________
These school events are kind of fun to be at. When we do our borehole and grinding mill 'turn-over' ceremonies it will be more of the same. It is so great here because they always open and close with prayer and sing hymns of praise to God. (different than the way things are getting at home).

I am going to send this before I lose it.

The Bullocks

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Hi all,

I've been down for a couple of days with 'something' - maybe food poisoning, but not sure. It hit me about 5 hrs. after we had breakfast at the Holiday Inn in Mutare on Sunday. The only thing I ate different than Elder Bullock was some fruit and a couple of little sausages. It was a long drive home (3 hrs.) and I was ready to go straight to bed (well after a badly needed trip to the bathroom). I have made a LOT of trips to the bathroom since and hopefully it is getting better. I did come into the office late today. I am starting to feel better but not all the way there yet. Elder Bullock took Elder Mayfield with him this morning and went to the Danangwe school 'prize giving day' that I was suppose to be the guest of honor at. They said it was really good.

They have been changing all the locks on the mission office today because this morning the mission president and the AP's were robbed (smash and grab). On their way from the airport at a red light some guys smash the car window and demand whatever you have. They got his keys, computer, bag and whatever else. This has been happening a lot in South Africa but not so much here. I guess we will have to be much more alert. Scary! They suggest putting purses, computers, etc. in the trunk, out of sight -- however that is rather difficult when we drive a truck. We will have to figure out something.

Other than that, we are doing okay. I guess this email is a little on the dreary side! Sorry.

On Friday when we went to Mutare we paid for the motor for the grinding mill at the Old People's Home and arranged to have it installed. It should be done this week and then Friday the 11th we will go back for the "turn-over ceremony" where there will be the mayor and whoever Pres. Chadambuka can get there. I guess we need to figure out exactly what we have to do at it.

Anyway - I need to go home. I hope Mike and Janeal have a new baby soon. It is hard when it is over-due (well not that I ever had that problem as mine always managed to come early).

Love to all, Mom and dad/ Elder& Sister Bullock

Tuesday, October 28, 2009

Hi, We gave someone a ride to court in Marondera today and then ended up having to wait for a long time - basically spent the better part of our day there. I was sitting outside and this 9 yr. old girl, Takudzwa was sitting further down on the ledge. Soon I noticed that she had moved and sat close to me. She was waiting for her parents - her dad was on trial for rape (Jim told me that!) Don't know what happened with that as they were still there when we left. She couldn't speak English and I can't speak Shona so we did the best we could. I gave her a piece of gum and she chewed it for a minute or two and then swallowed it. I tried to teach her to play X & O's. We played probably about 50 games but she never really got the hang of it.

My friend Takudzwa

Takudzwa - waiting at court for her parents

I tried to get her to understand that she had to stop me from getting my X's lined up but.... She did smile when she got her's lined up and drew the line through them! She does know her English ABC's from school and knew a few simple words that I wrote down. Anyway, we entertained each other for a couple of hours. A couple of people walked by and one ask if I was a therapist and I said, No, we are both just waiting and playing a game.

Police stop at side of road

Police stop ahead of us

I think this guy might have thought he saw me take a picture (a no-no!). I slid the camera down by the seat and was holding something else on my lap. He did stop us and ask for Jim's license so I was a little worried that he had seen me but he found everything in order and let us go. Whew!! We usually don't get stopped. They normally just wave us by.

Ox-cart Ride

We met up with Pastor Sikyani and drove out to his place. We had to wait for a bit while they got the donkeys yoked to the cart. I had thought we would be using ox and a bigger cart. We could only put half of our humanitarian goods onto the cart at one time because the donkeys would not be able to pull the weight. We got loaded up and off we went. One young man led the donkeys, pulling a rope at times to help steer them, and the times we were on a roadway he just walked ahead of them and they followed. Another young man walked between the donkeys and the cart and was constantly urging them on and smacking them with a switch. If he wanted them to go left he smacked them each on the right rump and vice versa. These young men walked/ran the whole way along with the donkeys. Our trip was two hours each way.

It got a little tough going and the donkeys were working really hard and were really panting at one point. We got off and walked through the rough uphill areas. When we came to the river (more like a stream during the dry season) Pastor Sikyani said, ‘time to take off our shoes’. We waded across but it was very sandy and only about 8 or 12 inches deep. We walked through the sand on the other side until our feet were somewhat dry and then brushed them off and put our shoes and socks back on.

We passed a few people along the way – there were huts/villages here and there. Some children ran along behind and a couple of times we gave them a ride for a bit. Some children are just plain scared of us and run away or keep their distance. Little ones will sometimes cry when they see us white folk – that makes the older kids and parents laugh. Everyone was friendly and waved at us.

We arrived at the village and there were about 200 or more people there waiting for us. Most of them were sitting under a huge Mulberry tree in the shade. There were some teenage girls that were cooking sadza (corn maize) in a big pot and some vegetables in another pot and they were feeding everyone (in shifts). Most of the people there didn’t know English so people translated for us. We unloaded the cart into a kitchen hut and then we were introduced and a couple of speeches were made (one by Elder Bullock). I am not sure how they were going to distribute the goods but they seemed to have that all figured out. We took out 2 bales of Youth/children’s clothing, 70 hygiene kits, 5 cases of blue bar soap – 1 kg. bars (they use that for laundry and bathing) and about 50 school kits. Everyone should have got something. Pastor Sikyani had to go back and get a second load. The people were prepared to wait. It would take about 4 hrs. for him to return. They said they would use different donkeys for the second trip and let these two rest. I was pretty impressed with the young men who walked a good share of the way. They worked really hard. They do so much walking/running here that they are is very good physical shape. We talked with one a fair bit on the way back as he rode some of the way on the front part of the cart. He wondered how big of a garden we have in Canada and wanted to know if he could go home and take care of it for us. They think we all have people that do those jobs for us. I think the majority of whites here do have domestic help and gardeners. People are surprised when I say that I do my own house cleaning/laundry etc. at home. The blacks who do work for whites are lucky as they have a place to stay, meals and clothes and the children’s school fees are paid. They are also paid a monthly wage which would seem very ‘low’ to us but it is enough. When we told him how many kids and grandkids we have he thought we must have a big farm/garden. They have no idea that our lives are so different than theirs and we don’t tell them. They have no idea!

The trip back was a little quicker but not much. There wasn’t all the weight in the cart so we went more cross-country. It was pretty bumpy at times so we have sore behinds and a few sore muscles from hanging on but it was an interesting experience. We decided it must have been similar to what the pioneers did crossing the plains – only they did it for weeks on end!! The landscape was similar to what it looks like going through the hills at Mountain View.

Monday, October 19th

We had a good weekend doing our Kadoma Branch conference. All went well but glad it is done. We stayed overnight in Kadoma as it is 2 hours away. We were not really too sure about the hotel but we decided to try it. It was mostly okay except that we didn't have a drop of water in the morning to take a shower or anything. They wouldn't give us a discount on the room and we had prepaid (as that was the requirement and now we know why!).

Sat. evening when we were having supper in the dining room - a movement caught my eye and I told Jim that perhaps a geiko was under a table as I thought I had seen a tail disappear. There was one other table of people and suddenly two of the ladies were jumping up on their chairs to get away from something. I didn't think such things bothered Africans. Anyway the next thing we knew they were standing ON the table and having a fit about something. We thought it was a geiko but I guess it was some other critter (maybe it is good I didn't get a good look or I might have been on the table too). They described it at kind of 'cat' looking with a face like a rat, a weird tail, and stripes like a leopard. No one seemed to know what it was but apparently it had been seen around the place for the past week or so. We never did see it - don't know where it disappeared to. Weird!! The ladies wouldn't come back into the dining room and finished their meal somewhere else. As we were leaving one of the men ask about our name tags and we explained what we are doing here. He said that one of the ladies at the table would probably like to talk to us. It turned out that she is the Director of nursing for Zimbabwe (she wasn't one that jumped on to the table). Anyway, it was arranged that we would meet her at breakfast, which we did. We chatted and exchanged phone numbers etc. They would be interested in working with us if we do a Neo-natal project next year.

We have been looking at two clinics in the rural areas where both have had their electicity transformers stolen so they have had no power for several months and consequently no water as they need power to run the borehole pump. We were there today with a meeting with some community members. It might be a project that we could do - it would help a lot of people. They got a quote on replacing the transformer etc. and it is just over $4000. We don't know if that is a decent price or not. We also have to take our borehole guy out and see what he thinks about fixing that up and what it would cost.

Tomorrow is our trip out into the boondocks to take some humanitarian supplies to a village by 'oxcart'. We are just deciding what we should take. We just talked to the Pastor and he says there will be 300 people (we thought there was 150). We can't take enough to do for all of them but I guess we will do what we can. Should be an interesting day. I'm sure we will be exausted by the end of it. We will take pictures.

We taught Seka a discussion last night and played Elder Holland's conference talk for him. Yesterday was his first time at a church service and he liked it all. He is doing great. His baptism date is set for November 14th. Merci has gone to Uganda to visit her sister for 3 weeks and Seka is holding down the fort for her. She has closed things up but has domestic help that live on the premises. Seka is living there too now and it seems to be working okay. He gets 'tea' (breakfast) and lunch provided at his work so he is fed on weekdays. He is staying in a garage type building and has no way to cook. I ask Sunday night if he had eaten all day and he said, "No, but I'm alright as it is only one day". The other lady brought him something though. A lot of people here only eat 1 or 2 meals a day and I guess they are used to going without when there is nothing.

Emanuel called us this morning saying that they had no food and could he come and do some work. We have no work for him. It is really hard here sometimes to know what is best to do. We can't give them money and we don't have food. We have given Emmanuel some work in the pat and let him earn a little and we've given him some vegetables from the garden but we can't let him get dependent upon us as it cannot be an ongoing thing. We did get him an interview with Bishop Spencer to work at his store but he has no place for him right now.

On Thursday Bishop McMullin, from the presiding bishopric, and our Area Authority, Elder Koelliker, are coming to visit and we are to show them some projects we are working on. However, it doesn't sound like they will be here long so I don't know how much we can show them. At least perhaps we can get some ideas from them as to what they will approve. We think we have some good projects in the works so we can discuss those with them. OH YES, I don't think I told you that we got our school grinding mill project approved. The school was thrilled when we told them and they are already working on getting their building secured. We told them we would be back in 2 weeks to see how they were coming along. We don't want to order the mill until we know that they are doing their part.

We must get going and load up some things to take tomorrow. It is getting late.

Love to all, E/S Bullock

Wednesday Aug. 9th -- 09/09/09

Hi everyone, Just a quick update. We are selling some vegetables from the garden now - 2 cabbages/$1.00, Tomatoes $.80/kg., 8 onions/$1.00. The restaurant down the street buys all the spinach and now a place called "Hamburger Hut" buys a lot of the tomatoes. (Note: the hamburgers are gross but they have some other things that look tasty).

Last evening we went with Wellington to the Celebration Center to a meeting of different church leaders and some others as well I think. They talked about uniting in the cause for Zimbabwe. They talked about what we can do for the destiny of the nation and feel that men
of God can change things. It was mentioned that if people would pay their tithes the Lord would bless them. One speaker said, "Zimbabwe used to be the bread basket of Africa but now it is the basket case of Africa". Their goal to to try and feed the nation in 2009 & 2010 regardless of the President and ministers of the country. The main focus is on "Farming God's Way" which basically means to teach the people to stop burning their fields etc. and compost instead. Instead of digging/plowing the fields they dig holes, put in some compost material, put a little dirt on top and then plant their seeds. All this is generally done by hand and this new method would be less back-breaking work as well. The yield from this method increases dramatically. They don't seem to know much about composting here and think they need someone to give them fertilizer all the time.

They showed us a movie they had made about it. It was in Shona with English subtitles but it was hard to read the words as the background was too light. We got the idea though. I think it would be good to try and teach it to some of our rural pastors who are going to be planting corn maize next month.

Today we went out and checked on Emmanuel's little family. We took them some rubber gloves (that mom sent with us) and 4 candles. She is going to have the baby any minute!! He is staying close to home. The wife doesn't know a lot of English but Emmanuel's is really good. We hope they may want to hear the gospel one day.

The weather feels warm today - almost hot. We decided it is time to take the flannel sheets off the bed and go back to regular ones. Beauty is at the flat today doing that. She even irons our sheets (we told her she didn't need to but she still does). She does a good job. We did get a hose pipe (garden hose) for her as neighbors were not letting her always use the communal one so now she can fill the washing machine with that instead of having to haul the water in buckets. (The washer and dryer are outside, on the side of our flats, enclosed in locked cage. The water comes from the borehole (well) since we have no municipal water still (well we did get enough for 2 toilet flushes this week). We aren't complaining though because we have not had any power cuts for 8 days now and that is really great!!!

Yesterday we took some school kits out to two primary schools that don't have a lot of kids (as we don't have enough school kits to hand out at a large school). Pastor Sikyani took us. He is one of our favorite pastors as he is so humble and honest. He asked if we wanted to arrange to go with him by ox-cart one day to take some things to some of his people that cannot be reached by vehicle. I think I want to more than Elder Bullock but we are going to do that. :) He said
it is about 45 - 60 minutes one way. There are 60 children there that could use some clothes and school kits or whatever we can take. We will try and do that late in the month after our Marondera Branch conference is done. Should be an interesting experience!!!

Sikyani's primary school by his house

I better get back to work. Hope everyone is fine.
Love, Elder and Sister Bullock

Saturday

Hi, We came into the office early this a.m. after our walk and managed to send a lot of pictures finally. It has been so hard to send them the past couple of weeks. I guess we will have to try Sat. mornings more often - less people on the internet.

This rock is kind of neat - the colors and all. This was at Motopos Park near Bulawayo that we drove out to on Sat. afternoon and we saw baboons and lots of cool rocks.

Baboons -- there were a lot of them

New mothers receiving 'new-born kits' as they were getting ready to leave hospital

Brand new baby (on right)

At hospital in Bulawayo when we gave out 'new-born' kits. There were so many premature babies.

On wall of hospital office

Zimbabwe flag

Kids taking water home - we gave them some candy

Kids making lunch (sadza and relish). Notice the 2 balls in his hands.

Ali, the gate guard at the mission office

Some kids outside Zvikomborero's house

Elder Nell, Panashe and Elder Mabhena
We went with the elders to teach Panashe and his mother Zvikomborero. The elders do a really good job to teaching in a plain and simple way.

We are going grocery shopping today and taking it easy. This afternoon I am teaching some music - piano/conducting etc. to a group of young people at Highlands ward. Sis. Deppe and I are taking turns and doing that every other Saturday for a couple of moonths or so. It is only for 30 minutes so I should be able to handle that. It is pretty basic.

We go to Marondera tomorrow for meetings and to make preparations for their branch conference in two weeks. President Bullock will be presiding and speaking. We will go down on the Sat. and do branch training so we need to set that up and figure out what we will be
doing for the training. I am a little nervous about that.

The weather is getting warmer now. The nights aren't so cold anymore, although we still are using our flannel sheets - not ready to give those up just yet. I can wear just a T-shirt for our morning walks now. We still have absolutely no water in the taps at our flat.

Pres. Dube is having us get prices on installing a 2500 ltr. tank outside our flats with a pressure pump. We can fill the tank with a hose from the borehole and then the tank is hooked up to our water pipes and we can have water from that. It will cost somewhere around $800 plus or minus for everything but we could have water to bath and flush toilets etc. The geiser (hot water heater) would fill and we could have hot water for a change. The mission is looking at paying for it to make life easier for the couples! It would be a real treat!! Hopefully it will get approved. The electricity seems to be a little better lately - not off quite as much as it was. I guess we are lucky though - a couple serving in Ethiopia got an electricity bill for 13 cents because that is as much power as they received last month!!! Sorry Esplins.

Must run and get to the grocery store and get on with our day.
Love you, Elder & Sister Bullock

Sunday, August 30, 2009

It has been a busy 10 days or so since I last reported our happenings. I will start with this weekend and then go back.

We had Elder Holland here and it was a great experience for everyone. He arrived Friday. The area president, Elder Kolliker and his wife were also travelling with Elder Holland. They had a meeting with all the missionaries for about 45 minutes before the devotional started. Elder Bullock was there for that meeting and I wanted to be but I needed to also be with the choir as they were doing sound tests with the organ and choir to get ready. They did have to make some microphone changes etc. to make it all work. There were about 200 in the choir and they sounded great. I played the keyboard (organ) and I guess I did okay – not perfect but, okay. I did get several good comments afterwards. (I was all they had – no one here really plays). It was a good meeting and Elder Holland gave a good talk and an apostolic blessing on everyone in the congregation. Merci was there and loved the whole thing. Zvikomberero (our investigator from Epworth) was there too – also the X-boyfriend, Gift (but not together). They both loved it. Our x-pastor, Seka came to town for the meeting too. We were so glad that they were all there.

Seka told us that his wife’s parents are elders in the church that he just quit recently and they are not at all happy with his decision so consequently they have taken their daughter (his wife) back and left him with the two children until he comes to his senses. He feels really bad but he says he plans to ‘press on’. He still wants to move to Harare so he can get baptized and be close to our church. He is studying the material that we gave him. We are just waiting for someone to get back to town this week that may give him a job. He is a really good man.

Gift, the guy who beat Zvikomberero, asked to talk to us last week so we went to see him. He did admit to beating her but said, “I’ve only beat her three times since 2006”. YIKES – what an answer! Elder Bullock explained the church’s stand on such behaviour and told him it was unacceptable and that he has some repenting to do. He is still coming to church and wants to continue with the discussions. It will take some time before he could be baptized. Zvikomberero is doing okay. She is staying at her brother’s father’s place for now and looking for a way to make some money. She will likely do some type of street vending.

Back to Elder Holland - After the devotional we hurried over to the mission home where we had supper pretty much ready beforehand. We served a potato bar, garlic loaf, jello salad and apple crumble with ice cream. They really liked the meal and thanked us for making “American” food. It turned out well. After the meal I got a ‘big’ hug from Elder Holland and a thank you for what we are doing here! Nice! He was really tired so they took him to the hotel and we stayed and cleaned up and were all done by 8:00. We had to get up early Saturday to head down to Mutare. I rode with Elder and Sister Deppe and we left about 7:00 a.m. and took food down so that we could have a light lunch set up and ready for them at the church when they arrived. We served chicken salad, a bun, carrot sticks, tomato wedge and pumpkin pie for dessert. At the last minute they decided they needed a bag lunch to eat on their way back to Harare on Sunday after the district conference – so Sat. we got the stuff and we made tuna sandwiches on left over buns, cookies, apple and a drink for them. It worked out good. The conference in Mutare was really good. There was training and an adult meeting on Saturday afternoon and the district conference this morning (Sunday). Elder Holland seemed relaxed and gave an excellent talk and again gave a blessing to the congregation. He said it was if he was laying his hands on each person’s head and giving each a blessing. It was really special. The people here in Zimbabwe were so thrilled to have a visit by an apostle and went to a lot of effort to make everything ready for him. It was wonderful to be part of it and to spend 3 days close to him. Saturday evening we had supper in a private room at the hotel with the missionaries from Mutare, Pres. Chadembuka (district pres.) & his wife. It was nice. While we were waiting to go down to the supper, we were in the hallway and Elder Holland invited us to come into his room for a visit (Elder Bullock and myself, his security fellow, Clint, and Pres. Dube). We just visited for 10 minutes or so. He had been to Cameroon on this tour and said that they stood on a hill and dedicated it for missionary work as no one seemed to think that had ever been done before. I told him that my parents were the first missionaries sent into Cameroon back in 1991 to get things going there. He was interested in that. (Hint for mom: He might be phoning you! I gave him your number ;)).

Elder & Sister Kolliker and Elder Holland wtih Dube children

Elder Holland with President Chadembuka and President Dube

Mutare missionaries with Elder Holland

Some Mutare Elders (Elder Knudsen is Elaine Edmonds' nephew)

Elder Holland with Clint, his security man

Remember the fellow we found out at the Refugee Camp a few weeks ago? Well he was at the conference. Apparently he has been into Mutare 3 times since we found him – once to church, and then helped with the service project last weekend and then again this weekend. It was good to see him and he sure seems happy to be involved in church again. I think he just didn’t know where to find it before we met him and told him.

Last weekend we went to Bulawayo to help them with their service project at the two hospitals. They did a lot of work and really made a difference with their cleaning inside and also on the grounds outside. We gave out ‘new-born’ kits to the new mothers at both hospitals. (about 130 kits) There were a lot of premature babies and there were several sets of twins. The babies were so tiny but only 2 were in an incubator. One mother had lost her baby so I went back and gave her a hygiene kit. I felt so bad for her. There was another girl who was crying because her baby had just been born and it was premature and they weren’t sure if it was going to live. It seems weird that they would let us wander around among all this but they do. Quite a bit different than at home.

Monday we met the World Vision people in Bulawayo and they took us north on the Victoria Falls road about 80 km. and then about 45 km. on a dust road. We went to the home of the little 4 yr. old girl that my friend, Florence, sponsors through World Vision. They were expecting us and there was singing and dancing as we drove up. The little girl was shy and seemed to know she was the center of attention, but she seemed to relax and smile after a little while. Her mother, father, brother and grandmother were there along with a few other relatives. Other people showed up as well. We had some blankets, soap, a few hygiene kits and some toys and balls that we took with us. Luckily there was enough for everyone to get something and they were thrilled. We were there for an hour or so and someone had to translate as they didn’t speak much English. We enjoyed our visit and I took lots of pictures for Florence. There is no work for them out there and they mostly just work in their gardens/fields to grow enough food for themselves. There were boreholes along the way for their water. We saw no vehicles out there except for carts pulled by donkeys or cattle/oxen. It was dry and dusty. Their little homestead/yard area was clean and looked nice.

Road to village

Going to bore hole to fill water jugs

On our way to visit Florence's World Vision child, Sithatshisiwe

Welcoming us

Sithatshisiwe's home

Singing and dancing as we arrived

There she is!!!

Mom with Sithatshisiwe and her brother

With her mom, brother and grandmother

Me with the family in front of their hut

Their yard with kitchen (left) and grandmothers hut (right)

Child with quilt we gave her and her brother with a ball

Sithatshisiwe and family

Sithatshisiwe with doll

Grandmother in her hut -- showing me her supply of maize corn

Elder Bullock wtih Sithatshisiwe (holding a doll we gave her)

Waving Good-bye

Monday afternoon we went with Pres. Makasi (Bulawayo stake pres.) to a center for handicapped children of all ages. Children come there for the day to give parents a chance to go to work or have a break. A lot of the children have cerebral palsy. They had a lot of needs at the centre – soft foods, mattresses, toys, hygiene needs, etc. etc. We had a case of soap and case of school kits in the truck and we left that with them. We also had a couple of balls that we gave the kids and they were thrilled. They would like $200,000 so that they can build a new center on some land that the city donated to them – however, we can’t do that. The people running the place are doing a good work with what they have. There are a lot of good people in this country trying to help the less fortunate in whatever way they can but they rely almost completely on ‘well-wishers’ for donations.

We are back in Harare now and will get back into our regular routine. Our garden is now producing tomatoes, cabbages, spinach and onions. We sell 20 big bundles of spinach to a near-by restaurant (50 cents/bunch) every Tuesday. We will sell onions and cabbages to Bishop Spencer who owns a SPAR (grocery) store hopefully (he gets back this week from his U.S. vacation). The gardens look good. I will go take a picture to send you. Huseni takes care of the gardens and also several members and non-members have plots where they can grow produce for themselves for their family or to sell if they want. We will likely be turning the whole garden project over to the ward to be directed by the priesthood leaders once this crop is finished and before the maize is planted in a couple of months. Zvkomberero is working in the garden for a couple of days helping with the weeding so that she can earn a little money and hopefully it will help her start her vending business. She needs $30 to start. We pay about 75 cents an hour for garden work.

Must run. We are doing fine. I have had a cold but it is better now – other than a bit of sniffles.

Love you all. Sister Bullock

Wednesday

Hi again, We went with the Elders today and met up with the 'bishop' of the apostalic church. He had his wife with him. Their names are Jeffrey and Tambudzai Muzondo. He said he was hoping he could persuade us to go to their home (which of course, that is what we want). The Elders taught them part of the 1st discussion. He has read all of 1 Nephi and did a good job of telling us about what he had read. He is doing well and wants to keep learning. We will meet with them again next Wednesday.

After that we went to check on Sis. Kureva in Epworth as we hadn't heard from her yesterday. Her neighbor informed us that she did leave yesterday with her things in a cart and that she said she would come here to the office to see us. So we were relieved to know that she managed to get away okay. The neighbor said that Gift was angry when he came home and found that she had left. We will wait to hear from her.

Everything is arranged for us to go to the home of Florence's "World Vision" child on Monday when we are in Bulawayo. The World Vision people will meet us at the hotel and take us there. We are excited to do that even though it is about a 2 hr. drive over dust roads to get to their village. Hopefully there will be room in their vehicle to take a few things to give to the family.

All is well here. We are getting accustomed to having no water in our taps again. We did have a brief period (about a week) when we had some and managed to actually have a bath in the tub but we are back to none, not even a trickle so that we can flush the toilets. We flush with a bucket of water. Thanks goodness for the borehole tap outside. We run a hose through the window and fill up the tub and Jim keeps the two buckets full for washing ourselves and dishes etc. The borehole motor does not work if the power is off so we have to make sure we fill everything up when we can. We have actually had a little more consistent power lately. When we drove into the complex last night the gate guard told us the power was on but by the time we got in the door it was gone! We fired up the generator and cooked supper and then we made a fire in the fireplace because it was rather chilly and had another candle light dinner. This is life in Africa!!

At least we sometimes have water and power - a lot of people here never have either one. They haul water long distances from the nearest source. As we drove home out of Epworth the other evening - it was getting dark and there were 'little' fires all over the place as people were starting to cook their sadza for supper. A lot of Zimbabwe is just like a dirty campground. That is just the way they live.

Time to head home.
Love to all, The Bullocks

Hi, We went to see Sis. Kureva yesterday afternoon. She had asked the missionaries to have us come. She is one of our family that was suppose to be baptized last Saturday.

She told us the truth about what has been going on. Gift, the so-called husband, who is not really her husband, had told her to lie and threatened to beat her if she didn't. He has beaten her badly at least 3 times - one time he knocked 3 teeth out on the upper side. She wants to get away from there as she is afraid for her life. She has made plans to move tomorrow and wanted to let us know. We think her plans sound like they will work. She took us to meet her 'father' (actually her brother's father, but her father since her's is late (late means that someone has died here)). Her father has been telling her for a long time to get away from Gift. We were impressed with him - he wants to help her. She can take her things to his place but he doesn't think she will be safe there as he works nights and can't be there all the time. He said, "She needs to just disappear for a while." She will go stay with an aunt in a different town - not far from Harare. She says Gift doesn't know where this aunt lives. Panashe, her son is there at the aunt's now.

She cried while she told us her story (people don't cry here very often). She said Gift does not want her children there as they are not his - so the two younger ones are with an aunt some distance away and since school was out for 4 weeks vacation Panashe has been with another aunt in Ruwa. She got upset when talking about how he is keeping her children from her as well as her family and she wants her children back with her.

We are glad she finally told us the truth - we knew something wasn't right. I had tried to get her to tell me before but she wouldn't. I had told her that we were afraid that it wasn't robbers that had beat her - that it was Gift that had done it, but she denied it (as he had threatened more beatings if she told). When we went out one day she had a bad cut on her arm and her arm was swollen where he had hit her with a chain. She also had knicks on her shoulder and face. We took our a bandage and some antibiotic cream and cleaned her up and she is healing okay now. She now tells us that Gift was threatening her with a knife that night but a couple of neighbors broke down the door and helped her. Gift had been drinking.

I asked her why he wanted to be baptized and she said because he thought after he was that we would give him money etc. (Don't know why he got that idea - we have told him that we cannot give money, etc.). She and Panashe still want to be baptized (for the right reasons) but we will wait for a while until all this is settled. There is a branch in Ruwa where she is going so we will see if she and Panashe continue to attend church. Wellington (who helps here at the office a lot) is the branch president there and he is a really good guy.

We went out this morning to see her - Gift was suppose to be gone to work - but he wasn't. He was leaving soon. She whispered to me that she was still planning to rent a cart and move her things to her father's place. We told her we can't help her as we don't want to be in the middle of this and the neighbors would tell Gift if we did and then he would be showing up here at our office furious and we don't want that!!! She will call us when it is all done. We will pray that all goes well and she gets away from there safely.

We had an experience yesterday where we know the 'spirit' was speaking to us. A man came in and wanted some blankets, etc. etc. We talked with him and decided to give him a couple of blankets. I ask him to wait in the entry and as I turned to come into the office I had this impression or picture in my mind telling me that he is a man we already helped about a month ago - & I knew exactly what we had given him. I ask Jim if he was the same man we had given to at the gate recently but he didn't remember him so he just outright ask him. Yes, we had, but of course he wanted more. We said , no. It is nice to know that the Lord is watching out for us and helping us!!!! It was a -"wow"- experience!

Must get on with our day. Love to all.
Love, Elder & Sister Bullock

Monday, August 10, 2009

Hi, We had Zone conference this a.m. and it was really good, as usual. They fed us a great lunch - we won't need to make supper. We will just have a home evening snack.

This afternoon Pastor Seka came to see us as he is in town. He has resigned being a Pastor and had to move out of the house that they lived in and moved to an apartment. As they were moving, taking the bigger stuff to the apt., he hired someone to watch the other stuff but they fell asleep and someone stole a lot of it, including all his money ($500). We gave him a few clothes and some blankets to take home. He is really wanting a job in Harare so he can move here and be part of the church and get taught and baptized. What an amazing guy to do what he is doing. He has no job, no nothing. Things will work out for him though. When he gets here and gets baptized he is a man who will make a great bishop or branch president.

Must run. Will write more tomorrow and send some pictures.

Love, The Bullocks

Friday

Hi,

We had an interesting day. We sorted clothes this morning that we are going to take to the rurals tomorrow. Deppes will go with us - it will be an 'experience' for them! We were here early waiting for a fellow who was suppose to come and do some work in the garden so he could earn some money that he needed badly. (He had come in yesterday and we agreed to this). He didn't arrive until noon as he walked here (from miles away) as he had no money for transport. His wife is almost 8 months pregnant with very high blood pressure. They won't treat her at the clinic until they pay $50. Once they pay the money they will take care of her, deliver her baby etc. and give her a 6 week checkup. She supposedly has fainted a couple of times in the past couple of days.

When he got here to go to work and we talked to him we felt concerned for his wife and told him we would take him home and wanted to see his place and go to the clinic with them. They live in an area that isn't very nice (worse than Epworth, I think). We got the wife and 3 yr. old child and went to the clinic. They deliver the babies right there. We paid the $50 for her so she could get care --- with the husband, Emanuel's promise that he would come and work it off. He is
a good guy and he has done a little work here at the garden in the past so we feel like it will be okay.

Emanuel saw some cardboard boxes that we have here and ask if we needed them. He said that he hasn't been able to pay his $30/month rent and his landlord has ask him to move out but said he could erect something in the yard to live in and pay $10/month. He wants to put up some poles and use cardboard for walls. I wanted to just cry for the little family. The landlord has someone else that wants the room who has money. Anyway, we paid the $30 and he will work it off. We feel okay about it so I think it was the right thing to do. I lay in bed last night and thought that he can clean up the weeds, etc. around the edges of the garden area and in the trees so that it will look nice when Elder Holland visits. I also gave him $5.00 of our own money and told him to use it for transport. His reply was that he would spend $1 for transport
tomorrow to come and start doing the job, $1 for some cooking oil (they have some maize and vegetables but no oil) and $1 for some firewood to cook on.

I thought I was getting used to seeing things here and not be too effected but today I shed a few tears after we left this family. So sad and yet there are thousands in the same circumstances.

This afternoon we met with a couple of people from "Prisoner Fellowship of Zimbabwe". They will make arrangements for us to visit a couple of prisons in September and invited us to their Children's Day on Oct. 31st (children of prisoners). There are 17000 prisoners in 64 prisons and 29 satellite prisons in the country. A lot are there because they have no money to pay bribes or to pay a lawyer and they don't even understand enough to help themselves. There are some children there because mothers are pregnant when they go in or have small children and no one to care for them at home. Earlier in the year a lot died due to lack of food but the Red Cross got involved and things have improved. Anyway - I guess we will get a first hand look.
I don't know what we can do but perhaps we can look at doing an initiate that might help a little.

The 2 security fellows are here from SLC checking things out. They wanted to see our flats today as there is concern about safety in Africa after Elder Nelson's experience. Apparently they have had to pull missionaries out of Nigeria and close the Temple there about a month ago because of a lot of kidnappings. They seemed to think our flats were pretty much okay and made a couple of suggestions - one that we should perhaps lock our bedroom doors at night. There is a bathroom in the bedrooms so that wouldn't be a problem.

Tonight we are going to Merci's restaurant with Deppes and Taylors and we also invited the security men to come along. Merci is having a 3 course meal and some music entertainment on an African instrument. We think it will be interesting and hopefully the food will be good. The
meal is $10 each and $2 for entertainment - sounds like a pretty good deal!

Yesterday we went with Wellington to the Celebration Centre, where Elder Holland will be speaking when he come to Harare on the 28th. They have a 'lovely' keyboard hooked into the sound system that I will use for the music for the choir and congregation. I must admit I am
rather nervous but will continue to practice and just pretend that I am playing for church in Airdrie and not for over 3000. Can you believe this? I wish my talented son-in-law, Andrew was here to do it!!!!! I was hoping Sis. Deppe would be a better pianist than me and could do it but..... I guess I will just pray a lot and, of course, practice, practice, practice.

Love to all.