Monday, November 23, 2009

We took Elder and Sister Godfrey to the airport this morning so they are on their way back to Johannesburg. We sure enjoyed having them here. They gave us a lot of help and encouragement. We took them to see our projects got 3 projects written up and submitted and they should go to the area presidency on Wednesday and will hopefully be approved. We sent in our two clinic projects (transformers & boreholes) and also the project to repair the 4 boreholes out near Chegutu.

On Friday we went with Godfrey’s, Deppe’s and Mayfields to Masvingo and stayed at the Inn on the Great Zimbabwe. They thought it was beautiful there (Garden of Eden) and we enjoyed a relaxing time and had some good visits. It did rain most of the time but it let up for a while on Saturday morning so we took our umbrellas and headed to the “Great Zimbabwe” (interpreted means Great House of Stone). We had a guide named, Lovemore, who did a good job. Everyone enjoyed the hike (it does get a little steep at times) climbing up stone stairways and some of them are between rock walls. It really is interesting. The tour took about 3 – 4 hours including our stop at the curio shop. We got rained on a bit and got damp so we were glad to get back and warm up. After supper we sat and visited in the lodge area. I guess they wanted to go to bed so they gave us the key and told us to lock up when we left and take the key with us. I think we were the only guests that night.

Sunday we attended the church meetings there and afterwards they had their seminary and institute graduation so we stayed for that and Pres. Bullock was asked to give the closing remarks and did really well.

We met with Elizabeth and gave her our fabric and she will sew some wrap-around skirts for us ($5 each). She uses the money to pay for her daughters school fees (her daughter is very bright so she is determined to keep her in school).

We left Masvingo for home later than we planned and ran into several rain storms that slowed us down. We arrived back in Harare as it was getting dark. Harare hasn’t gotten as much rain as the places south of here but it is raining today. We see lots of people out working their fields and planting maize. They wait for the rains to soften up the dirt and then they go to work and they work hard. There is maize being planted in little yards, ditches along the streets & roads, and they seem to have sections for each family divided off in the fields. Maize is so important for the people here as it is their staple food.

We are back to having power cuts on a regular basis. We can usually count on no power on Tues., Thurs., and Saturday and sometimes some evenings. We are back to no municipal water as well but thankfully we have our tanks and pressure pumps hooked up to the flats so when we have power we can have water! Our geiser (hot water heater) in the attic is gravity fed so even without power we can get some water from it.

All is well. We are healthy and happy!!
Love, The Bullocks

Flamboyant tree

more Flamboyant tree

Lady planting maize out by Kadyamadare School (grinding mill location)

Elder Godfrey talking with her - she's planting ground nuts between the rows of maize

Jim singing song with kids

Field workers

Village where farm workers live

Collecting drinking & washing water. Will boil it for drinking. Near a borehole we will repair.

Carrying water home

Lizard -- snake got the end of his tail

Lake where some get water - repairing borehole nearby!

pathway from lake back to school

Desks at school

AT least they have desks!

More kids to play with

Passageway up to King's residence

Great Zimbabwe (House of Stone)

One of the King's rooms

Looking up towards the King's house

Monkey and baby

Looking up at Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe from Wive's enclosure

View from our room at the Inn

Gardens at the Inn on the Great Zimbabwe

More of the gardens

Godfrey's, Bullock's, Deppe's and Mayfield's at the Inn

Couples at the Inn on the Great Zimbabwe

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

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 30th

Hello family,

We have had a very eventful month. We finished teaching Masalina Mugadza the discussions, and held her baptism and confirmation. She is a lovely lady, and we have come to love her tremendously. They ask the new converts to share their testimonies follow baptism. She did a
wonderful job.

We continue to work on some clean water projects around Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. The municiple water is mostly shut off. The estimate that 50-60 percent of the water runs down the streets from broken water mains. That means there is not enough pressure to have the water reach the outlying areas. We have not had water for the most part of the last two months. We heat up borehole water on the stove, pour it into the bathroom sink, and clean up with a wash cloth.

Last week we had the opportunity to travel to Bulawayo for a service project. All of the Church units are asked to perform acts of service on the 22nd of August. This stake chose to work at two hospitals, cleaning the inside, and outside, of the buildings and grounds. We brought some new-born baby kits to give to all the new mothers in the maternity wards of the two hospitals. Unfortunately, one mother lost her child. We did not want her to feel left out, we we gave her a
hygiene kit. It did not ese the pain of losing her baby, but I think appreciated Sister Bullock's gesture.

One of our friends in Airdrie sponsors a child in a village about 80 kilometers North and 50 kilometers East of Bulawayo. We spent an extra day down there and drove out to her village. We took blankets, toys for the kids, hygiene kits, and quilts. We started out with the little girls family, and ended up with lots more. That's the way it is. When someone gets something, they all think they need it, too. Luckily we had enough for everyone to get something.

This weekend, we had Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in Harare. He conducted a special devotional Friday night in Harare. We had about 2,500 people at the devotional. Before that, he spoke to all the full-time missionaries for about an hour.
Following the devotional, the senior couples and been asked to prepare a meal for him, Elder Kollicker (Area President and his wife). We all got to sit down with him, and enjoy the evening. The next morning, we all drove to Mutare, for their district conference. We were there while they instructed the Priesthood, then the adults for two sessions Saturday. We all had dinner with them at the Holiday Inn. While we were waiting for dinner, Elder Holland invited Sister Bullock and I, and a couple of others to sit in his room and just chat. He is a very kind man.

Sunday morning, as we were eating breakfast, he came to our table and chatted for a minute. Following breakfast, we all drove to the chapel where the Sunday General Session was to be held. The building was full, the choir rivaled anything we had seen, and the messages were
wonderful. Elder Holland said that the scripture the first shall be last and the last shall be first had particular meaning for Africa, as they are some of the last to have the gospel preached to them, but they will be among the first in the munbr of baptisms that will be the result of the Gospel coming to them. They are a very receptive people, a god loving people. It is not every day you can sit with and eat eith an Apostle for three days.

We have driven many miles in the last few weeks, and we are happy to be able to be at home, if only for the week. We love the people of Africa! We encourage all who are at that point in their lives where they can go serve to go and do it!

Love to all.
Elder 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

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Hi, We got back from Mutare a little while ago. Apparently there is a baptism for two people from Epworth and our family from Epworth is coming as they are to be baptized in two weeks, except for the dad he will be a couple of weeks after that. He has stopped smoking for 3 days now. So we will stay here at the church and attend the baptism as well. We were going to go out to Epworth and visit but we can visit with them here instead.

Thursday we arrived in Mutare and met up with Pres. Chadambuka and he had a group of young single adults with him. We went to the orphanage and set out the clothes and shoes and waited for the kids to come from school. They were excited to get some clothes (about 3 + pieces each) and a pair of shoes. There were only two girls so they got a few more things. They were pretty excited. The one little girl tried on a couple of different outfits and wanted her picture taken. We also gave them some hygiene kits for the nuns to give out as needed and we gave each child a school kit. They loved the school kits - you would think it was Christmas morning as they pulled each item out of their bag. It was fun to watch them. We also left a few toys, balls, and a couple of dolls. The nuns also got a pair of shoes each -- I hadn't really planned on that but it worked out great and they loved it. They insisted on giving us some sweet potatoes to bring home - but we gave them to someone else that we met on our ride home.

On our way to the orphanage - following Pres. Chadambuka and crew.

At orphanage.

Bedroom at orphanage.

President Chadambuka and young single adult men.

Orphanage kitchen - opening for fire is outside under pots.

Some of the orphans.

Her favourite new outfit.

Orphans with Pres. Chadambuka.

The kids loved the school kits.

Sister Bullock with the two Nun Sisters.

Elder Bullock with _________, a girl he met when we were there in March so we found her again.

The making of bricks - drying in sun. Men in background laying bricks.

Heading back to Mutara from orphanage.

Thursday afternoon we went to the Zororai Old People's Home in Mutare and were able to meet with the board members as they happened to be having a meeting. We were impressed with their board and the things they are doing to be more self-sufficient. We talked about what they need to do in order for us to put in the request for the motor for their grinding mill - the most important thing is to have a committee formed to take care of it and put aside a little money so that they can repair it is it breaks down. They seem to have that all figured out. Neighboring people will come there to grind and will pay $1 for a 20 ltr. pail. They have an organization called 'Environment Africa' that is helping the with their gardens and they are giving them inputs (seed and fertilizer, etc) for the first year. The Justice of the Peace gives some people food and in return those people come and work in the gardens at the old people's home. The water in Mutare isn't too bad (better than Harare it seems). We left them with some hygiene kits as well and they were most appreciative.

Going to Old People's Home.

I didn't get any pictures at the Old People's Home.

Early Friday morning we left for the refugee camp with Pres. Chadambuka, Fortune, the public affairs rep. and another fellow who lives at the camp and gave us directions to get there. We never would have got there without him. He has his passport now so he is free to come and go from the camp. Nice fellow. Fortune gave him the first discussion on the way there and he wants the missionaries to teach him more.

We found the member we went to the refugee camp to find. He was surprised, of course, but happy to see us. He says there are two other members there but they have been going to a different church there at the camp. There were two other members before but they have left and gone to South Africa. We talked with him and his wife, a lady that he met there. There are no children. She is not a member but maybe he can teach her. We all squeezed into their small 1 room house and we all sang "Love at Home" with them. (kind of teary for me). That song will have new meaning to me now! Pres. Chadambuka then gave him a blessing. We left him with several Liahonas and Ensign magazines as well as the new Gospel Essentials book and a set of new scriptures. It was a neat experience. Hopefully now he won't feel like no one cares about him. Maybe he will stop sending his letters to church headquarters. He is from D.R. Congo and he spoke mostly french (some English) and Elder Bullock got a chance to use his French.

Friday - Refugee camp pics

Refugee camp.

Refugee camp.

Our Refugee church member.

Church member and his wife at refugee camp - checking return address on letter he sent to Russell M. Nelson that was sent back to mission.

Two little kids at the refugee camp - they wanted their picture taken.

More kids at the camp - they seemed to be dressed okay.

On the way to the camp we saw a lot of Baobab trees - the ones we saw in Malawi - the ones that kind of look like they are upside down. I will send a picture or two. Apparently these trees survive well because they store a lot of water and use little as they have small leaves. People cut the bark off in long pieces and use it to make rugs. The trees repair themselves but you can see the scars where the bark has been taken. The terrain we drive through was large hills and then it got really dry and dusty as we got closer to the camp.

Baobab tree - see the marks on trunk where they have peeled the bark.

Elder Bullock standing by Baobab tree.

Rugs made from bank of baobab tree.

There were a lot of goats roaming around and a few pigs. Where there was some irrigation there were some green fields but otherwise it was pretty barren. The people in the camp had garden spots that were surrounded by thorny bushes that they had cut - to keep out the chickens and goats etc.

Goats wandering across the road.

We need to head home so I will send this and then send Kim some pictures for the blog tomorrow and she can post it all then.

O yeah - we went to World Vision and found out where a little girl is that my friend, Florence Davidson, sends money for. She is down by Bulawayo. We are going down there next month and we are trying to arrange to see the girl, hopefully. I think that would be fun to see where she lives and to see how donations help these children. We are going to Bulawayo on Aug. 22nd to help with a service project the stake is doing at a hospital and we will take down some 'new-born kits' for them to give out.

Must run. Love to all, Jim and Nancy

I forgot about this yesterday -
On our way back to Harare on Sat. we stopped on the roadside to buy some wood for our fireplace. Wood is cheaper out in the rural areas. Anyway, we stopped and honked our horn and a lady came running from her hut - with her little boy. They looked rather needy so I pulled out a few clothes and shoes we had left over from the orphanage and gave them some. An older boy came out too (about 8 or 9) and we found a pair of shoes that fit him - also a pair of heavy duty sandals that fit the mother and left a pair for the husband (hopefully they will fit). I didn't have a pair for the little guy but gave her a pair that are too big and she can save them or trade them or whatever. They were pretty excited. She fell on her knees to say thank-you and we told her she didn't need to do that. We also gave her the sweet potatoes that the nuns had given us and a hygiene kit. I think they really needed it all.

We stopped to buy firewood and gave them some clothes, shoes and hygiene kit. She fell on her knees to say thank you

We bought the wood from her too so that should have made her day. When we were in Mutare we bought a big, good axe from Pres. Chadambuka's hardware store and we will need it. We did enjoy a nice fire last night - as we had no power. What's new? We seem to lose power a lot these days and seldom have water. O well - it will just make us appreciate it a lot more when we get home to Canada.
Pres. Chadambuka wanted to stop and buy tomatoes for his wife - they all hope he will buy theirs.

Love, E/S Bullock