Monday June 28, 2010

We have been busy the past three weeks while we had Bronte here with us. We enjoyed our time with her and almost hated to see her go home on Saturday morning. We did however head off to Marondera right after dropping her off as we had some training to do there with Mayfields and Pres. & Sister Dube for the branch conference. I was assigned to do training about the Young Women’s program. As they were not doing the Personal Progress yet that is what I mostly talked about. They have 20 active young women in the branch which is pretty impressive.

Elder Bullock and Pres. Dube interviewed all the Melch. Priesthood holders (only 10 of them) as they were looking for a new branch president. They found a good man to fill the spot – Bro. KepeKepe. Pres. Banda was released. He was the branch president for the past 10 years. He was made branch pres. when he was 25 and single (a returned missionary). He married a lovely girl, Mary, and they have a little girl. There were only a few members then and now they have an average church attendance of about 80. They have 170 on the records but some people left when things got bad over the past few years and went to find work elsewhere. Pres. Dube paid a nice tribute to Pres. Banda and told how the branch is what it is today because of him and said he is a ‘pillar’ there. They have no full time missionaries there and so the branch missionaries do the work. Last year they had 16 baptisms and 3 so far this year. It is a good branch and they will be getting a chapel sometime soon – they presently meet in a house that has become too small for what they need. After the meetings Elder Bullock had to do an audit of the records before the new Presidency takes over and Pres. Dube did the setting apart.

We went to the office and checked emails and then headed home and warmed up a couple of meat pies in the microwave for our supper. Shortly after that the power went out AGAIN but at least we had eaten. We made a fire in the fireplace and read our scriptures by candlelight. It was a good day!

Today we are out at Pastor Sikiyani’s orphanage/preschool. (I have the computer with me to type this). Geo Pumps (Bruce Vera) got here this morning and is putting a new electric pump into the borehole. That is done and they are now checking the water lines to the two taps and putting in a tap beside the wash station. Elder Bullock is right in there with them working on the trench etc. As usual the people are excited to have this project – Thanks to LDS Charities and the donations made to the humanitarian fund of the church. We also brought out about 60 blankets (the last of our striped ones) for him to give to a new group of orphans that he is looking after – he will take them out to them by ox-cart. This is the same pastor who took us on the donkey cart ride a few months ago.

28 June 2010 - Elder Bullock cleaning out drain on wash station & his helpers right in there watching

More helpers

Cute helpers

Getting the water line in a little deeper

Pastor Sikiyani came a few minutes ago to tell us they had sadza ready for our lunch. It was served with green vegetables fried in a bit of oil and salt. We ate with our fingers and it tasted okay.

My lunch

Lunch with Bruce and his guys at Sikiyani's Preschool

Now even bigger helpers

AND there's water!!!!

Water to the wash station

They love it!!

They love their picture to be taken

The borehole shed - fixing the electrical

Pastor Sikiyani, Bruce Vera and Elder Bullock

Lots of giggles and smiles

Tomorrow we have a meeting with the assistant DA in Goromonzi growth point to get permission to do a water project there. The water specialists, The Johnsons, will be here next Tuesday and will spend almost 2 weeks with us and then we head back to Zambia for the measles campaign.

We are doing well and staying healthy. We are still playing squash most mornings. We were able to give bicycles to the 3 squash players and they were VERY appreciative. Their bikes were always falling apart and breaking down. They do well to keep them going as long as they do but ..... The bikes here are mostly bought in China and they are very poor quality. We got the same ones that the church buys for the young missionaries and got the church discounted price. Those bikes come from Taiwan and are nice bikes. Ishmael calls them ‘machines’. He said that someone stopped them and ask what company they work for that bought them such nice bikes.  We have enough money that was donated to buy at least 2 more bikes and so we are giving it some thought and prayer about who should be the recipients. See the rest of this story HERE.

Ishmael makes me run!

Elder Bullock chasing the squash ball

Tuesday: The email wasn’t working last evening so I didn’t get this sent off. We spent most of our day running around. We had to go to Marondera to visit the PA (provincial administrator) and get a letter giving us permission to do water projects in the Goromonzi area. The PA was sure a friendly, down to earth guy. They had no electricity so he had the girl hand write the letter for us and ‘stamp’ it. (They love to stamp things here!) We dropped it off to the District Administrator on our way home. Too bad we don’t have time to get to know that PA better.
Friday we have a ‘hand-over’ ceremony at Kowoyo Clinic where we did the transformer and water. That should be good. In the afternoon is the 4th of July celebration that the US consulate puts on each year. If we get back in time we will try and go with the other couples. We went last year and it was fun.

Love to all, Elder & Sister Bullock

Our report

We have been sooo busy so I will try and write a quick report. We have been working hard on doing some more ground work on water projects. We have been to Bulawayo twice, Masvingo, and Lower Muzarabani all in about 8 days. We met some good people in high places as we have now learned that we don't work from the bottom up but we need to go to the top first and get permission to work in their province. We have to get some official letters them that state we have permission to work in the country but we have that. On the last trip to Bulawayo (5 hrs. away + another 1 1/2 hrs. to the meeting place) we found that the meeting had been postponed at the last minute. We did meet with the Provincial governor though and she was a nice lady and explained some proper protocol to us, but would be happy to have us do boreholes in the province. They all would love boreholes as the whole country needs them. We just have to determine where we should do them. The water specialists are now emailing with us and will be here in early July. We hope to be ready for them.

The weekend with Sister Julie Beck was wonderful. The training she did on Saturday was great and I took lots of notes so that I can pass the information on to our branches that we shepherd. She also did a fireside on Sunday afternoon and that was good as well. Elder Watson from the Area presidency also spoke and that was great.

Monday morning we picked them all up at the hotel and took them to see the Kowoyo Clinic and the grinding mill we did. Sis. Beck was so nice and took her time to talk to the nurses at the clinic and thank them for all they do. She also did the same at the mill. Behind the mill is a little preschool and we stopped there briefly. The little children sang a couple of songs to us and were so cute. I think she enjoyed it all. She is on the board that approved the humanitarian aid that is given throughout the world so it is nice that she can see some of what is being done.

We had to hurry back to Harare and take them to the airport so they could fly back to Jo'berg and then on to a couple of other countries.

We then rushed to a hotel to pick up our wheelchair specialists and food production specialists and their wives that we picked up at the airport Sunday at noon. We have been in meetings with them since then. One of the men, Bro. Cullimore, is Luella Payne's brother. He is a very nice man and we had a great conversation with him this afternoon and he helped us a lot with ideas for preparation for our water specialists along with other things.

We have met with people that will be possible partners in a wheelchair project. Things look good but the the partner does have to still prove that they can do what we need them to do.

We are meeting with the STS (short term specialists) and Bro. Elks in a few minutes as they are taking us out for supper so I must run. We are well and can't believe how fast the month has gone as we are so very busy with a lot of things.

Love to all, The Bullocks

Sister Beck and Elder Watson at Kowoyo Clinic where we have put in the new transformer and repaired the borehole

Patients waiting at Kowoyo Clinic (doing measles shots this week)

Nurses showing Sister Beck that they now have water at Kowoyo Clinic

Sister Beck saying thank you and goodbye to the nurses at Kowoyo Clinic

Joel, Sister Beck & Elder Bullock discussing the grinding mill

Sister Beck & Joel Musoro at Kadyamadare grinding mill

Sister Beck at Kadyamadare Preschool

Little preschool kids singing a song for us

Sister Julie Beck & me in Harare

Sunset as we drove into Harare

More sunset

More sunset (it was beautiful)

Nice sunset

Sunset looks like a fire is burning

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

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Good morning,

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

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

1 Feb 2010 - On wall of ZESA office in Kadoma

1 Feb 2010 - Another one

5 Feb 2010 - Elder Bullock picking an avocado

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

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

10 Feb 2010 - Ladies who prepared food for the funeral

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

10 Feb 2010 - Ladies with Elder Bullock

10 Feb 2010 - Shredding cabbage

10 Feb 2010 - Lady eating a mango

10 Feb 2010 - Two little girls wanting their picture taken

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

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

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

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

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

6 Feb 2010 - Nield clan and friends

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

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

~Later~

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love to all, E/S Bullock

Friday, February 5th

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Hi,

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

Beautiful drive to Muzarabani through the mountains

More landscape

On our way to Muzarabani

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

Down in the valley

Tools for patching the road

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

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

More attendees at the meeting

Students at Muzarabani Primary School

Elder Bullock teaching them a song

Nice Flamboyant Tree (huge!)

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

Mom and baby waiting outside clinic in a cart.

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

Sign at school office

Pastor Mhike, Seka, and Elder Bullock in Muzarabani

Beautiful landscape of upper Muzarabani

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

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

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

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

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