Variety is the Spice of Life

Hi, We are at the mission home checking emails. We have had a busy day that started with a meeting with the area authority from South Africa and all the stake and district presidents, mission president and welfare humanitarian couples (that is us). It was very positive and we were so impressed with those men and what they are trying to do.

This afternoon we met with the Turners for a few hours and are trying to learn some of what we need to learn.

Things are actually getting better here for the people. There is food back on the shelves at the stores if they can afford to buy it. The unemployment rate is 95% so they are trying to do whatever they can to exist and make a few dollars. There is hope that things are starting to improve. The U.S. dollar is being used now and the Zim dollar will no longer be accepted after June. It seems that will help a lot as one zillion Zim dollars equals less than a U.S. dollar. Maybe I can get some zillion dollar bills to bring home.

Tomorrow we are going to a branch about 1 1/2 hr. away. On Thursday we are going to another town to deliver some blankets and soap to a couple of orphanages and a senior's home. We will stay overnight as we have 4 appointments and we cannot drive home after dark. It is suppose to be a beautiful place. We will be with the Turners. They leave on March 16th so we are trying to get a grasp on how to do some of these things before they leave us. We are rather overwelmed but it will come.

Dad is talking to Kim and Brianne on skype so I better go get in on it. We will have to figue out a regular time to skype so family can plan to be online.

Love to all, Mom/Nancy/Sis. Bullock

(P.S. The time-stamp is MST - they are 9 hours ahead. Kim)

Comments

Hi all,

Kim here. Please feel free to comment on the posts here if you would like. You're still welcome to send Mom & Dad notes to their email address, but this might be a good place for little comments, as it will be a quicker to view them all in one place (good old dial-up internet makes life a little slow...er...challenging!).

Thanks for stopping by and don't hesitate to check back often for updates!

Thanks!
Kim

We're here!

Hi all,

We have arrived safe and sound - yesterday.  It was a long trip,  It is beautiful here and nice and warm.  Our flat is nice enough.  We will move into the Turner's flat when they leave on the 16th.   The yards are lovely with a variety of beautiful plants and flowers. There is an avacado tree in the yard.  I heard a rooster crowing this a.m. and some strange bird sounds.

No water when we arrived.  We had our first sponge bath with a gallon of water.  We got a dribble of water last night and filled up the tub to use for bathing and toilet flushing.  Turners brought us a couple of 2 ltr. bottles of filtered water for drinking.  We have a filter but no water pressure to get the water to us.  They say there is a bit of pressure early in the mornings and to keep our tub filled.  The Turners flat has more pressure so it will be a bit better for us when we move there.

The Turners and Taylors fed us Chinese food for supper.  It was good. We had our bowl of oatmeal for breakfast with a banana. They are showing us around.  We will check out the grocery store later and pick up a few things.  They say there is a little more food on the shelves since they started using the U.S. dollars recently. There is lots to try and learn in the next week.

Our flat is safe -- in a compound.   They haven't had any problems. We slept good last night -  Jim better than me.   We feel safe and had no problems with safety on the trip here.  We got our 30 day visitor visa at the airport and hopefully our Temporary Employment Permit will be granted soon.   They don't seem too worried about misquitos (malaria isn't much of a problem because of the elevation of Zimbabwe).  We can open our windows (some have netting on them).   We will take our anti-malaria medication just to be safe.

Love to all,  Elder and Sis. Bullock

We're finally going!!

Hi,  Just a quick note to let you know that we are leaving for Zimbabwe tomorrow @ 1:25 p.m.   We got the go-ahead today and they didn't waste any time getting the flights arranged.
 
We are excited and nervous.  We arrive there on Thurs. about noon.   I guess we will find out soon what is what!!!
 
Thanks to all our friends and family for your support.
 
Jim and Nancy