Getting together

We've managed to pull together parts of the team for two recent events.  In August we descended upon Gene and Bonnie's home for a meal and to welcome Hazvinei to America.  She has now settled in to her doctoral studies at University of Kentucky and is busy with class work and working for two of the professors in the faculty of Health Sciences.  Bonnie helped her settle into her little (literally) apartment and Bill and Dona Lou visited a week or so ago and report that all is well. 

We also gathered for dinner in Lafayette to hear from Larry and Jane Kies.  They talked about the agriculture program (Larry) and the intensive English program (Jane) which were part of our work at AU.  It was great to get an update on what is going on! Here is a photo of half of the team with the Kies. Larry is on the far left and Jane on the far right. Between them Don and Eleanor, Jerry and Jerry Jo, and Gene and Bonnie. A good looking set of people!!

In other news: The computer that Pat Dickerson arranged for Eva (her student at the Indiana Scholars party) is on its way back to Zimbabwe thanks to a bit of connecting in Nashville. At last word Eva was able to enroll in school so the computer that was designated for her will soon be delivered. What a blessing.

Eric Mundula (a student from AU) has settled in at Garrett and stays connected with the Jerry's.

Team members continue to make presentations and raise awareness for Africa University.  La Donna has made three presentations so far and has two more scheduled.  One is on October 6th at Anderson First UMC.  People are amazed at how modern the campus looks ... "you could plop any American college student down there and they would be at home" said one listener!  But then that listener didn't know about the sudza and covu!!

AU grads to US?

Borrowed from the Valparaiso 1st UMC mission blog http://valpofumcomissions.blogspot.com/  (thanks Bonnie!):   "Africa University graduates Christian Zigbou and Hazvinei Jongi go to the American Embassy on Wednesday, July 11 in hopes of being granted a visa to enter our country temporarily. Christian will be applying in Liberia and Hazvinei will apply in Zimbabwe.

Christian's visa was denied when he applied while still in Zimbabwe. He only needs to come to the US for a 3 week training program before becoming a mission intern with the mission arm of our connectional church. (refer to the previous post regarding his story)

Hazinvei participated as a team member...craft time at school.

Hazvinei is seeking a study visa (I20) to begin her doctoral studies at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Providing this visa is granted, Hazvinei will arrive in Chicago on August 4 and will worship with us on August 5. (Refer to blog from May 23 for her story.) After leaving Sudan at the end of June, she has been lecturing at Africa University about her experiences in Darfur, Sudan relating to women's health.

Please keep these two wonderful young people in your prayers tomorrow (7/11). I will update this post when I hear whether or not the visas were granted."

You can read a bit more about Christian in this United Methodist News Service article: http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=2789393&ct=11974619&notoc=1 

Time passes ... an update

We've all settled into the routines of life in Indiana but frequently remember our time at AU.  And our efforts occasionally show up in various places.  This was in the February 13th Indiana Conference Mission e-news:

Africa University students give thanks to Hoosiers for their support

As the new semester is underway at Africa University, the recipients of scholarship help from Indiana Conference continue to celebrate this support. They expressed their thanks directly to the team, led by Bonnie Albert, who visited the campus last fall while sharing a meal together. Many of the churches in the conference together provide five direct scholarships this year for Christian Wuo Zigbuo of Liberia (4th Year in Faculty of Management), Kita Mutwale Jean of Democratic Republic of Congo (4th year also in the FMA), Kasongo Ngoy Sebastien from the DRC (4th year in FMA), Collins Mamaisku Namangolwa of Zambia (1st Year in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science), and Mukendi Nyama Ngombe Jean Marie of the DRC (1st year in the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources). Some students also are funded by Endowed Scholarships of the Indiana Conference or by individual churches through the Ushawira program. Please encourage your church to continue sending scholarship funds for these students through the usual means, clearly marked Africa University Student Direct Scholarship. You help change the lives of the students, their families and the communities where they will work after graduation. Your support is greatly appreciated. Thank you! For more information about AU scholarships, visit http://www.support-africauniversity.org/ .

Monday, November 7

Well this morning started with great excitement.  Some guests at the resort left their door open and a troop (is that the right collective noun?) of baboons came in and started to rearrange things!!  (and, no, it wasn't one of us leaving the door open!).  Just shows you that even on your worst day THAT wasn't something you had to deal with!!

We spent the morning packing up and getting ready for the trip back to Harare.  Time for a short shopping trip in Victoria Falls to buy a few more trinkets ... although judging from the size of the trinkets that Dona Lou and Patricia had to carry all the way back on the plane, trinket may not be the word we are looking for.

The trip back to Harare was without incident ... Air Zimbabwe has really good cabin service.  The flight takes just an hour.  Once we got on the ground again, however, we ran into trouble.  No bus from AU to ferry us back to the Holiday Inn.  Turns out there was a schedule mix up.  So after a number of phone calls we hopped into three taxis and tore out of the airport.  And away we went.  The shocks in at least one of the taxis probably haven't worked since independence in 1980.

But we made it back, retrieved the luggage that we had left behind in the storeroom at the hotel and started the process of rearranging and repacking.  Many of us left our big suitcases behind at AU for students to use so now we have to share out the space.  And, of course, there seems to have been a lot of economic support of local industry that happened while we were here!! (i.e., shopping).

We have had a wonderful trip. The wheels are already starting to spin about what comes next ... presentations to various churches and groups, articles to write, contacts to maintain, people to nag and so on.  And the joking, teasing and laughter continues -- we've really gotten to know each other well in these weeks together.  But now it is time to go home.  We've accomplished what we set out to do and then some.  We will leave a bit of ourselves in this place (to say nothing of several suitcase of stuff!!).

Blessings to all and to all a good night!

Sunday, November 6

Sometimes you have no words to describe the beauty and wonder of God’s creation!  The morning started with 7 or 8 warthogs gamboling across the lawn beside the open-air dining room while we were eating breakfast!! And then we spent  the day at Chobe National Park in Botswana.  http://www.chobe-national-park.com/

The difference between the landscape on the eastern side of Zimbabwe and the western side of Zimbabwe is rather startling.  After two weeks we had gotten used to seeing mountains and green foliage. The soil was very red – not clay but a very arable, rich red soil. It was dry, yes, but you couldn’t imagine things looking any more alive.  Over here on the west side of the country it is very flat and brown.  Most of the trees are without leaves – the rainy season is about a month late here and they are anxiously awaiting spring.  As we said yesterday the Zambezi River is low so the falls are not so dramatic (but dramatic enough!!).  The contrast between the two sides of the country is very noticeable.

Victoria Falls is very near where four countries come together – Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia.  We had to drive into Botswana to go to Chobe.  And right there at the border crossing we saw the first evidence of how very different things can be.  The Zimbabwe border post is older and run down.  We went through the departure process there (the first form to be filled out) and then had to walk through the gate into Botswana where we had to disinfect our shoes (against foot and mouth disease) and then present our papers to the officials there (second form of the morning).  Everything was cleaner and brighter from there on – roads were vastly improved, road signs were newer, vehicles were newer, buildings in better repair.

Botswana was never a colony the way Zimbabwe was – it was a protectorate so it has always had majority rule.  And it is still part of the British Commonwealth of Nations.  Zimbabwe, on the other hand, was a British colony and remained with minority rule until 1980 when it gained independence.  Botswana is a republic with a pretty stable immediate history.  Zimbabwe is a socialist country struggling with a multitude of problems.

Anyway, we drove on to the Chobe Safari Lodge where we boarded another pontoon-y river cruise boat.   Those warthogs at breakfast were only the start of the catalogue of animals that we saw today!  Chobe National Park is a vast place that sits on the Botswana side of the Chobe River.  Namibia is on the other side. In the middle of the river is a very long island – nice and green and full of wonderful grass for grazing.  The elephants are able to swim across the river to get to the island.  And we saw hundreds of elephants of all sizes (the park has the largest concentration of elephants in the world).  Did you know that elephants are either right or left “handed”??  We noticed that many of them had shorter tusks on one side of their trunk than the other side.  Our guide told us that they have a dominant side – thus being right or left “handed” – and that they tend to wear out or break the tusk on the dominant side.  We saw them in bachelor groups and in maternal groups, taking mud baths, drinking water, swimming and dusting off.

And lots and lots of birds – Egyptian geese, storks, ibis (sacred and not), bee-eaters, plovers, snake birds, and herons.

And hippos, warthogs, a variety of antelope, and a several crocodile.  The animals roam free in the park and on the island.  Poaching is rare but it does occur.

The three hour cruise brought us back to the Chobe Safari Lodge where we cleaned up and enjoyed a buffet lunch – with pitchers of iced tea and lemonade on the tables!  After the meal we boarded two Safari Land Rovers – open-sided, covered, 4 wheel drive SUVs with four rows of seats behind the driver.  This area is sandy so you have to have something that can negotiate not only the ruts but the sand as well.  This time we saw the wildlife from the land side – up close and personal.  More elephants, warthogs and antelope but now add giraffes, sables, bush bucks, cobu with their corkscrew horns, and even more birds including a pair of African Fish Hawks.  No cats or wild dogs or zebra – wrong time of the day.

We were all pretty worn out by the time we got back to the lodge (two more forms -- one to leave Botswana and one to enter Zimbabwe) – it had rain at some point and there was a rainbow over the Falls.  We had a quiet dinner and retired to our rooms for a good nights rest.   The day was absolutely amazing. God is good – all the time!!

Saturday, November 5

We were up and running by 5:30 this morning – already to get going and then things screeched to a halt.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7 so we dutifully got up and ready, grabbed the packed breakfasts that they had ready for us, and boarded the AU bus so that Douglas could get us to the airport on time.  Airport is some way out of Harare (so the smog isn’t quite as heavy!). So we get to the domestic terminal, unload people and belongings and scurry into an empty terminal.  Hmm.  Seven o’clock flight? Oh no, there is no seven o’clock flight!!

And the wait began.  Domestic terminal is pretty bleak so we wondered over to the international terminal where we found a café (oh good – tea, coffee and hot chocolate) and numerous shops with handicrafts and such like.  So we sort of spread out and morphed from one grouping to another.  Some in one terminal, some in the other.  Watched videos on computers, read, shopped, and THEN FINALLY we discovered that we were booked on the 11:30 flight. Yippee!!

We were ushered through a rather cursory security check and then given complimentary drinks.  Things were looking up.  Then they called our flight and out the door we go – past the nice shiny 767 that was parked RIGHT THERE and to the 737 out beyond.  But once we were on the plane and in the air we had really good service … sandwich lunch, plenty of tea and coffee and soft drinks. Needless to say we were slightly awash by the time we got to Victoria Falls.

Now the problem was that we were scheduled to check in to the hotel and be at the Falls themselves at 11 and then back to the hotel for a sundown cruise on the Zambezi River at 4. You will remember that we were on the 11:30 flight which arrived in Vic Falls at 12:30.  But our ever resourceful tour guide, Andrew, had a plan B.  Go straight to the Falls.  Do not pass go, do not collect your breath.

The Falls are amazing.  Think Niagara Falls only more so.  We are not yet in the rainy season so they weren’t as overwhelming as they can be but trust us they whelmed!!  Rather than starting at the top and working our way down, Andrew had us start at the bottom – the bridge that crosses into Zambia (which is where the bungee jumping takes place.  Dona Lou spun us this story about the jump being free if you do it naked.  None of us was willing to strip or shell out $100 so we continued on our way).  We slowly wound our way along the path on the rim that is across from the actual falls.  There are 16 overlook spots but we only stopped at 6.  Learned that the Rainbow Falls are the tallest.  And tried not to get the cameras wet in the spots where the spray was especially heavy.  At the top of the falls was a bigger than life statue of David Livingstone who “discovered” them (like no one knew they were there before that).

After all that oohing and aahing we headed for the resort – the A’Zambezi River Lodge http://azambeziriverlodge.com/ .  This place has been recently renovated and reopened and is winning all sorts of travel awards.  We were greeted at check-in with a cool glass of mango juice and then escorted to our luxurious rooms.  But no time to dally – we needed to be onboard the boat at 4:30.  These pontoon boats (slightly bigger than what we would normally see) headed north towards the Falls (but not close enough to make one nervous in anyway) around a long island and then back south to the other end of the island and then north again ending up back at the resort (which is a good thing since that was where we wanted to end up).  The cruise takes place an hour or more before sunset – and you see all sorts of animals and birds.  We saw crocodiles (one really big and two cute little young ones), ten or more elephants, hippos (a mother with a couple of babies), a bush buck or two, and a large quantity of birds … cormorants, bee-eaters, lilac breasted rollers, egrets and so on. And a beautiful sunset.

After all of that we cleaned up a little and loaded onto the bus again to go to dinner at the Boma Restaurant http://www.thebomarestaurant.com/ .  This is a restaurant that provides a cultural evening – African food, music, and décor.  Dinner started with a wonderful butternut squash soup served in a little cast iron pot.  And the rest was on either a hot or cold buffet.  The cold buffet included salads, breads, crocodile tail, impala terrine, and smoked guinea fowl.  At the hot buffet you could have things grilled to order – stir-fry, warthog, oxtail, eland, ostrich, chicken, and beef.  And you finished the dinner at the dessert buffet – chocolate cake and pudding, cream puffs, fruit salad, and cheesecake.  Wonderful!!

Throughout the meal there was entertainment -- singers, dancers, drummers, and a fortune teller.  And then they passed out drums – one to each diner – and we had a drumming lesson.  Lots of fun.

Today had its challenges but we had plenty of opportunity to share more details about our work at AU and our time in the Mutare area.  We are drawing this trip to close on a high note!

Friday, November 4

Travel day today.  We packed it up and moved it out down the highway to Harare.  Picked up the sleepover girls, Dona Lou and Margaret Tagwira, at the Tagwira Farm and then drove to the Halfway Inn, had a quick lunch, and then completed the trip to the Holiday Inn at Harare.  We did have a quick restroom break at a casino -- but since Dona Lou thought we were stopping at a girls school we're going to go with that story!!

Checked in to the hotel and then spent a couple of hours recuperating, repacking and getting ready for dinner.  Dr. Tagwira met us at the hotel and then we went out to dinner at The Fishmonger Restaurant in the Avondale section of Harare.  We were joined by the Tagwira's daughter and son-in-law (both doctors) and another former student and her son.  Had a lovely dinner and then back to the hotel for bed. (Photo is the view from one of the hotel rooms).

We are off to Victoria Falls in the morning -- 7 a.m. flight so we are to report to the lobby at 5:30 a.m.  Not sure what sort of internet access we will have ... so we may not have a blog entry for a couple of days.  Don't worry -- we sort of move as a large, loud herd so anything untoward will probably make international headlines!!  And if we don't tell you about the naked bungee jumping you won't have to worry, right??