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 

Wednesday, November 2

Apparently it LOOKS like the rainy season but it isn’t. Temperature is down to 60F and it rained most of the day. But it is probably a false start. So don’t plant the maize quite yet. Sometimes they have these short rainy periods and then it dries up and heats up and before you know it you have to replant your fields. In case the weather really fascinates you here is a link for weather in our immediate area: http://foreca.com/Zimbabwe/Penhalonga

We started the morning by attending the chapel service. The congregational song this week was "It is the son of God" in Xitsula – a language from southern Mozambique. The AU choir sang "Soon and very soon" ... WOW!! Then we had a short memorial for Bishop Duecker. And then the new AU Drama Group presented a drama titled "True Worship" – which everyone enjoyed. A very nice weekly worship with lots of involvement.

Back to the university this morning for our penultimate work day. The Jerrys went back to the farm ... Jerry Jerry fixed some electrical wiring that the pigs rooted up (no electrical tape but strips of plastic bag apparently work just as well) and finished working on the chicken cages. Jerry Jo washed more eggs and then watched them load 272 dozen eggs onto a flat bed truck. She is sure they will be delivering scrambled eggs – the roads to and from the farm are not exactly smooth. By the way, the wholesale price for a flat of eggs (2 ½ dozen) is $4.50 USD.

Jeanie went back to Hartzell to do another art lesson – she showed them how to use "found" items as a drawing medium ... flowers, charcoal, sticks, stones and so on. The teacher has really appreciated these crafts that she will be able to replicate without cost. Jeanie also delivered the remaining beads and pipe cleaners from the candy cane project that she used with the kids earlier (check out the photo!). The teacher, Catherine, is going to take them to her UMW/RRW meeting on Friday so that the ladies (150 women in her local unit at Old Mutare UMC!!) can make the candy canes for the children at the Fairfield Children Cottages.

La Donna and Mary went back to the library for more DVD cataloging (8 today!! – personal best) and spreadsheet typing. Ron started out with them in the library and then hung out at the student union watching NASCAR on the TV in there! He just loves connecting with the kids!

Gene and Bonnie went with Hazvinei to visit her family in a high density area of Mutare. They met her mother, sister, aunt, 2 nephews and 1 niece. They enjoyed visiting, seeing the house and garden (complete with chickens), and her mother fixed them a really nice lunch (chicken, coleslaw, greens, rice with a vegetable curry sauce).

James went into Mutare to visit the Museum and get a feel for the city. He even managed to get a haircut! Mary Beth spent an hour and a half with the Dean of Students talking about the counseling that takes place o the campus. And Patricia visited with students and put the finishing touches on her project tomorrow with the class at Hartzell.

After lunch we meet at the agriculture building for a meeting with the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and the head of the Dream Farm project (also known as the Small Farm Resource Center). This is a project that has been ten years in the making and has had strong support from Indiana. The university has set aside 10 hectares (look it up!) to develop a model farm with the emphasis on practical demonstrations of farming techniques for a small holding. They have built the house, drilled the wells (12 meters ... and one is dry already),

and are about to embark on the fencing. Once the site is fully established they will install a resident farmer/caretaker and start the farming.

We drove to the farm in the rain ... and only needed a little push to get unstuck!!

We had dinner guests this evening ... Shirley and Ted DeWolf. She teaches at AU in the Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance ... and leads a class called "The church and social transformation." He is deputy headmaster at a local private school. Her parents and grandparents were missionaries at Old Mutare, and Shirley and Ted have lived in Zimbabwe their entire married life. Turns out she went to college with Jerry Jo! We had a fascinating conversation before, during and after dinner all about Africa University and what they see as the needs for the future. It has been interesting to get all these sorts of perspectives!
The rain has stopped but it is still cool. Our time is running down and we’re beginning to worry about getting our photos labeled, our belongings packed, and our university work done. But we have indeed been blessed yet again!

Just to give you an idea of the scale of Africa ....

Monday, October 31

Todays’ assignment was to visit the Mutambara Mission Station which is about an hour and a half drive south from Mutare. [Check out some videos of the mission there by searching Mutambara on both GodTube.com and YouTube.com.] We all loaded into the bus (along with packed lunches for everyone) and away we went for what we all agree was the hottest day so far (officially over 100F). And water just doesn’t stay cool very long ....

Anyway, we were met by Dr. Tongai Chitsamanta who gave us a tour of the hospital. He and his wife (who is also a doctor) came to the hospital to serve for a year – and that was five years ago. The hospital has quite an elaborate maternity ward – they do an average of 10 caesareans each week. Those patients stay for four days. The mothers who don’t need the caesarean only stay 24 hours. There is also a hostel for at-risk pregnant women – the women can come to the mission early in their pregnancy so that they are sure of getting the help they need when it comes time to deliver. There is also a "Kangaroo Unit" for premature babies. The hospital has no incubators so the babies are placed on their mother’s stomach, right next to the skin and then wrapped tight – hence the kangaroo image.

They have a men’s unit, a women’s unit, a pediatric unit with a wing for children suffering from malnutrition. The units have wards with four to six beds. There are also a variety of outpatient clinics – eye, dental and so on.

The mission station also has a large school complex with 900 kids in the high school and about 500 kids in the primary school. They have a program for deaf and for blind children. School starts in January so we are coming to the end of the school year. The national exams are taking place right now – "O" levels and "A" levels – and the local or school exams will start in two weeks. We had the opportunity to visit several classes where the students were revising for their exams – unsupervised and exhibiting enormous self-discipline. And we met several teachers who are AU graduates.

After lunch we headed back to LaRochelle. One of the gardeners was scheduled to take us on a tour of the grounds. The Courtaulds collected seeds from trees all over the world and then propagated and planted them at LaRochelle. There is one place where you can stand and be surrounded by trees from all of the continents! They originally had 36 gardeners and now the National Trust only employs 6. But what amazing work they do. Bougainvillea, jacarunda, frangipangi, Brazillian rain tree, and many others are currently in bloom. There are these wonderful storm lilies that only bloom after a rain – and we had just enough of a rain on Saturday to bring them up (sort of like the resurrection lilies). This area is classified as "moist savanna" so it rarely gets cold enough for the trees we are used to seeing in Indiana. But there was a sweet gum and a couple of maples. We ran out of daylight before we ran out of things the see. The gardener is dividing and repotting orchids so we will look in the orchid house later this week.

Dinner was great fun tonight. That long drive in the heat had everyone just a little silly. Not sure about this but Patricia loaned Jerry some ice cream and then took it back?? Well, let’s just say is was hysterical at the time ....

After dinner we had an opportunity to learn about the work that Hazvinei is doing in Darfur. She was an Indiana scholarship student at AU back in 2000 and has corresponded with Bonnie over the years (they had not met until this weekend). She received a degree in public health from AU is working in Darfur for the UN doing AIDS/HIV and gender issues education – as a volunteer! She is working as a sort of case worker in the camps for internally displaced persons and also leading education classes for the UN troops who serve in the area. The volunteers receive a stipend and housing (a converted shipping container) in return for their work, and are contracted for 6 months at a time. And, yes, she admits that sometimes it is a scary place to be!

We have covered a lot of ground today. Learned a lot and stand in awe of what is being done by AU graduates in Africa!  And here us picture of Hazvinei with Gene and Bonnie.