Our adventure

Hi everyone, We went to Muzarabani this morning and were planning to stay overnight there, however, we decided to come back to Harare. It has been raining there for 2 weeks straight and things were rather wet and muddy. Just before we got to Muzarabani, Seka took us off the main road to check out the place that we were suppose to stay overnight. We got part way up that road only to find that a bridge was half washed out. We went back and a little further down the road was the 2nd choice for our overnight stay. We left the main road again and went past a place that didn't look too inviting. Seka said to drive a little further. We went down a bit of a hill and there was a white lady camping out in sort of a campground area.

We stopped and talked to her and she told us not to go any further and she said that she hoped we had a 'four wheel drive' so we could get back out of where we were. Well -- we don't have a four wheel drive!!!!!!

She was about my age. They are from South Africa and her husband has a contract to build a road nearby there and he was gone somewhere to buy diesel to bring back for the machinery. Anyway, she suggested that we try and back out rather than turn around. We tried but......
Jim went forward into a small stream where he could get some grip from the rocks and made a run for it ..... several times. There was mud spraying up the sides of the truck.

The lady suggested that he wouldn't get out unless we pushed so between me, Seka and the lady pushing we slowly managed to get out of there. We got up the incline and were able to turn around and drove out ok after that. I managed to stay mostly out of the line of flying mud but got splattered a bit on my shoes and legs.

We decided after that we didn't want to stay and go out into the rurals looking at borehole sites when things were that muddy and wet. Not a good idea!!! Besides, we didn't know that we can't buy diesel there for our truck and didn't have enough to go tour the borehole sites AND get back to Harare. So - we have arranged to go back on March 30 and 31st and try again if it is dry. We will take some jerry cans of diesel with us next time too.

We took some clothing up and gave it to Pastor Mhike to distribute (a lot of loose stuff that we had that needed to be cleaned up). Also took a bit of soap and also some clothes for Seka's mother and some stuff called "nutrition for children" that Reeve and the girls brought in their container. It is a rice/lentil mix with some seasoning. People up in that area are hungry due to the fact that their maize crop is a write-off since the rain came too late. We didn't see his mother as she was out working in the field somewhere but he did see his sister. We tried to put the things into her hut quickly before neighbors started gathering and would see what we had. It worked, I think. We just didn't have enough to give to others.

Seka says he is going to give us an acre of land there so we can build ourselves a hut and move in!!!!! It is a beautiful area but.................. lot of buts......

We did give the kids candy (sweeties) and Jim juggled his tennis balls for them and tried to teach them how to do it. They like that. The kids were also making a high jump standard out of twigs. I took a few pictures and will have to send them tomorrow. I didn't get any pictures of us trying to get out of the mud though. My camera is doing weird things suddenly and I don't know how to fix it. I borrowed Mayfield's camera today. I think we may have to email Reeve and ask if she can buy us a camera in Australia or SA on their way back from the golf tour. They will be back about the middle of March.

Anyway - it is getting late so I better run. Love to all, Elder & Sister Bullock

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Happy New Year to all! We hope it is a good year for Zimbabwe and things can get better here for the people. There is concern about the lack of enough rain. They say that a lot of rain should have come in December and it didn’t. The rivers should be flowing by now and they aren’t. Some wells are low.

The zone leaders in Mutare put together a good meeting at the Holiday Inn for the ministers and pastors of other churches. There were over 30 in attendance plus about 10 of us. We explained about LDS Charities and what we do and have done in Mutare and of course, that brought a lot of enquiries afterwards. Pres. Chadambuka, the District President, the elders, and Pres. Dube, the mission president all gave short speeches about the church and that we are family oriented and want to serve and work together with them to help people. They said that if they have service projects that they would like help with that we are ready and willing with a lot or a few people that can help. Afterwards a wonderful lunch was served and they all enjoyed that. There were some really good and positive comments from them. Most didn’t understand much about us and were glad to know more. We were pleased with the outcome and Pres. Dube is thinking that perhaps we should do the same type of meeting in Zambia.

Sign above a toilet at Kwe Kwe church

We stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn as it was too late to drive home – we don’t drive on rural roads after dark. It was New Year’s Eve so there was a fair bit of noise outside most of the night. It seems like the people here like to celebrate New Years!!!

We had a young man about 13 or 14 yrs. old come to the gate on Wed. and ask if there was any work he could do so that he could earn money for his school fees. I was impressed with him for trying to earn his own money so let him work in the garden area for 2 days. He earned $6 a day plus I gave him a school kit. (I think he needs $65 for his fees for this next term starting Jan. 12^th.

On Tues. we took ZESA, the electrical people, out to the school to connect the power to the building where the mill will go. It was suppose to take a couple of hours but it took our whole day by the time we waited for them to get organized, do the job, and return them to their office. If we don’t take them out we could wait indefinitely for them to do the job as they have very little diesel for their vehicles. On Wed. we led the way out to the school with the Precision Grinder people to install the mill and dehuller. That also took the whole day. We were to be at their business at 9:30 but didn’t leave until 11:30 when they were finally loaded and ready to go. It got hooked up but couldn’t be tested as the power was out due to a lightning strike. (Note: Zimbabwe has more people killed by lightning strikes than any other country in the world).

Unlaoding grinding mill at Kadayamadare School on December 30th

Getting mill and dehuller set up

Can't flip the switch and test it because the power is not working today!

On Friday afternoon we stopped in to see our investigators, Carol, Ellison, and Dzikamai. They are doing well, especially, Dzikamai. He hadn’t been to church until last Sunday because he had no proper clothes to wear so we gave him a white shirt and tie and I found some pants from our humanitarian clothing. He has attended church in the past when he was in Boston. He said he had forgotten how good it felt and he wants to keep coming and learning. We are going to Highlands ward today so we can be there with them. Hopefully Carol will come – she plays the keyboard at her other church and feels needed there. We could really use her to play the piano too! Later: Only Dzikamai came but he had a good day and we spent a couple of hours after church with him as he had some questions. We also spent time with Seka, as well.

Reeve, Lolly, and Cecilia are back from their golf tour now so they have us back playing ‘squash’ again. My body was a little stiff but is getting used to it again. It is good exercise. Jim isn’t playing as he doesn’t want to put his back out. I have a good trainer – the #1 guy in Zimbabwe on the squash court. Reeve, Lolly and CC help he and his brother a lot and occasionally send them to tournaments and for training in other countries. Needless to say, they are really good. They are gentle with me and let me get a point once in a while. Mayfields are learning to play too and the girls are teaching them. Deppe’s also have played too but Sis. Deppe hurt her hand (doing something else) and can’t play right now. We meet at the court at 5:30 a.m.

The girls (Reeve, Lollie and CC) brought us a nice gift bag of goodies for Christmas. They are too good to us. It included a tie for Jim, scarf for me, Hilary Weeks Christmas CD, chocolate, an Ipod (16 GB) filled with church music, videos and talks. Nice!!

Yesterday we took a Preparation day and went grocery shopping and then we went with Mayfields to the ‘Lion and Cheetah’ Park that is only about 30 minutes away. We took lunch with us, had a little picnic, and saw the animals there – lots of lions, but not the kind we would want to walk with. It was a nice afternoon.

Kids sitting in a Banana tree - more joined in when we pulled out the camera.

At the Lion and Cheetah Park - these guys were big!

We were in the car - not walking with them!!

Nice bush

Big turtle at park - he is 300 years old!

Sister Mayfield and me

Cubs (3 and 4 months old) getting their dinner

Tomorrow we are back to work again – hopefully getting another grinding mill motor installed. We have 4 grinding mill projects that were approved – a new kind of project for here and our people in South Africa are watching to see the success of them. We think they will be good but will also monitor to see how they work out and report back after a few months.

There are some ladies that want to talk about a ‘sewing’ project that they are hoping we might help them develop. We will look into that shortly too. Some ladies in Mutare at the meeting we just had also approached me about a sewing project. I suggested we could talk more in a couple of months as I want to see about this one here first and see if it is something we should look at or not.

We are off to church (Highlands ward) right now and I will send this letter off after.

Love, The Bullock's

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