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

----

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

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

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

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