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