Tuesday, October 25

Work began in earnest today. We had folks working at the farm, some at the library, others went to the Intensive English class, and another group went over to the Hartzell Primary School.

The group that helped at the farm had a look at the cattle trough that John Huie's family built a few years ago – it still holds water!! They also watched a couple of women winnowing beans (watched by seven men ... hmmm) just like you’ve seen in the movies (both the winnowing and the watching). At the dairy they watched the souring and packing of milk that is sold for yogurt making. Their main task was to fix some of the cages for the laying hens. Jerry Jo helped Mary (one of the farm workers) count, pack and wash eggs – Mary processes 96 dozen eggs each day!

Don was able to have a conversation with the new Dean of Agriculture. The Dean will be in Indiana December 9 through 18, primarily to coordinate research between the two universities but also to speak at local churches (he will be at Scott UMC in Indy on December 11 at 5 p.m.).

The library crew had a wonderful tour of the library and the archives. The archives have a great collection of photos and historical documents from the founding and early years of the Old Mutare mission, the Methodist church in Zimbabwe and southern Africa, and Africa University. And the library looks just like any other academic library – the security guard at the gate in case you "forget" to check your books out, the reading area around the periodicals, the study carrels and tables for groups, the shelves of books, and the students navigating through all the resources. After the tour they were sent to the technical services department to begin work. The cataloger in the group was given two books to catalogue – she will know tomorrow whether she has passed this "test"! The others in the group were given some book processing to do.

The group that helped in the Intensive English class presented the department with the infamous overhead projector that caused so many packing problems! They were able to do some small group conversations with the students. Students who don’t know English spend their first year taking these Intensive or ESL classes. Of course they have to learn to speak, listen to, read, and think in English quickly!!

Two of our teacher-types went over to the Hartzell Primary School at the Old Mutare Mission Station across the valley. Fifty kids in the same class room!! They taught the kids some English songs and then this afternoon drafted the rest of us into remembering the words to songs they wanted to use later this week!! We’ve all had a memory exercise!

After lunch at the dining hall (same menu ...) we headed back to LaRochelle. Webster, a friend of Bonnie and Gene’s ran some errands with James (he was looking for a preaching shirt – he is preaching at the chapel service in the morning) and then came back to show and sell. His wife and daughters make beautiful batiks – tablecloths, skirts, and wall hangings. Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas!!

Simon, our host, showed us some of the stars after dark. Beetlejuice and the scorpion, the Milky Way but no Southern Cross ... wrong time of year. Then another magnificent dinner and coffee and tea and team meeting in the lounge. We’re starting to get a pattern established. Don and Eleanor leave us in the morning headed for Victoria Falls, a visit with Ken Vance in Zambia, and then on to Kenya. We will miss them!!

Another warm day – didn’t hit the 107 degrees that was predicted but the 91 or so was plenty warm. But in spite of the heat it was a great day. Our love and blessings to all who are following our adventure.