Tuesday, November 1

Back to work this morning – but at least the weather has cooled down and there is a breeze. It was nice all day!

Interesting tidbit about the weather and the wildfires. Several stories about the fires. One is that the older, traditional people burn off the grass believing it will build up or seed the clouds – the more fires the longer the rainy season will last. Another is that the fires are started to flush out the small animals so that they can be hunted for food. And of course if there are lots of small fires the brush doesn’t build up and they don’t have one huge fire that covers the entire country. The answer is probably "all of the above".

Anyway. Back to AU this morning to report to our work assignments. We started by dropping Pat, Jeanie and Bonnie at the Hartzell School. Pat distributed photographs to each of the kids in the class that she has been working with, and Jeanie continued with the art projects for her class. Today they made candy canes out of pipecleaners and beads (and gave the kids real candy canes so they knew what it was they were making!). And Bonnie was there to take pictures of the school.

Mary and La Donna were back in Technical Services in the Library. La Donna cataloged more DVDs and Mary completed a spreadsheet for books to be sent for rebinding. And Gene, Mary Beth, and James returned to their painting at the faculty duplex. Ron was back at the peace pole holding court and talking with the students – he saw most of the kids that were at the Indiana Scholar Party on Saturday. Dona Lou was back to work in the Intensive English program.

Jerry and Jerry Jo put together a tractor. They thought they were going to help with the harvesting of the wheat. The AU farm has to take turns to rent a combine (hint, hint ... anyone know where they can get one of their own?? Real cheap ... free?) and their turn came sooner than expected. By the time we got to campus this morning the wheat had been combined and they were baling the straw (square bales in case you are wondering). So instead the Jerrys repaired a tractor – had to put the radiator on and a few other bits. Even used the heavy metal clamps that we ferried over here in Dona Lou’s weirdly shaped suitcase (long story – it was sort of shaped like a bag for a sousaphone). Several of the tractors on the campus are from the Tractors for Our Daily Bread ministry out of Manhattan, Kansas – http://tractors4bread.org/_wsn/page4.html – cute little grey and red tractors.

After lunch we returned to LaRochelle. Mary Beth, La Donna, Dona Lou, and Jerry Jo had another appointment with the gardener – this time to go through the greenhouses. There are LOTS of orchids ... not many in bloom ... and Nicholas is repotting them right now so that they can sell them as a fundraiser for the National Trust. He also has lots of bromeliads, ferns (including some HUGE staghorn ferns), a very large shrimp plant, a gorgeous amaryllis with a half dozen large (LARGE) blooms, and lots of other bits and pieces. There are 6 or 8 greenhouses. He also showed us a big stand of Indian bamboo – stalks are probably six inches diameter. Nicholas is just a delight – so knowledgeable ... Latin names, common names, colors, blooming times, and just loves what he does!!

And tonight at dinner time the rain started. Lots of lightning and thunder in the distance and a gentle rain here. The wind died down and the temperature cooled off enough that some of us put on long sleeves and even jeans!

Another day of blessings.

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.

Saturday, October 29

No work today – we had the morning and early afternoon free to sleep in, to walk the grounds, and to catch up on e-mail and such like.

The pictures of LaRochelle that are linked to this blog aren’t necessarily current. The house and grounds are now owned by the National Trust for Zimbabwe (in fact, it may be the only property that they own ...) and like so many other historic preservation groups money is hard to come by. There has been a woman from the National Trust in the UK staying to take a survey of needs and to offer advice for grants and other sources of funding. The grounds are still gorgeous and many of us took the opportunity this morning for a walk around while it was still cool. There is an orchid house, lots of "intentionally naturalized" landscaping, and trees from all over the world.

Of course it quickly became too warm (read HOT) to wander around so we retreated to the lounge and the veranda to drink oceans of iced water and to rest. Cedric (one of the AU workers – he’s an electrician) was here for a bit to show us the soapstone carvings that he makes. One of the other guests brought out a sculpture that he had purchased from someone else and Cedric quickly identified exactly where the stone came from!! The soapstone is found in all sorts of different colors but apparently different colors come from different locations.

Mary Beth and Dona Lou returned just before lunch. They had a wonderful time with Lovemore and Julie and their family (including Dona Lou’s namesake Dona Lou!) at the Murehwa Mission. There is a school there with 1300+ students – they even have a class for special needs children. The station also has a hospital and a nursing school.

And then it was time for the party. We had sent invitations to all of the AU students who are attending with the help of scholarships from Indiana Conference UMC or from Indiana UMC churches. They arrived in one of the mini-buses driven by Douglas and accompanied by Sharai and Susan from the AU Information Office. Moses (AU alumnus) and his wife Pamela, and Hazvinei (another AU alumnus) were also on-board. Simon and his posse set up a barbeque out on the lawns and we had a Braai – a picnic or barbeque. We started by pairing each of the nine students with a team member for individual conversation and then gathered everyone together for introductions. There are actually 11 students with connections to Indiana but two of them are on attachment (internship) and were unable to come. Then we descended upon the buffet and the conversation continued – between bites and later between raindrops! We finished our meal on the verandah and in the lounge when we started getting seriously wet. Then before dessert we continued with the introductions and had a chance to hear from each of the students why they chose Africa University.

It was interesting that they all mentioned in some way that one of the things that they have appreciated is the cross-cultural environment. So many of them said something about how they had never met someone from a different country until they arrived at AU; that they were glad to learn about all of the diversity in Africa – not just the languages (remember many arrive speaking neither English nor Shona) but the customs of their fellow students. Of the nine students we met tonight we had kids from Zambia, Liberia, Mozambique, DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Nigeria, and Angola.

They were also very eloquent about why they wanted the education from Africa University. Some planned to join an NGO to help their country, others plan to teach, some to contribute through public health initiatives, and others through the church. All of them were appreciative for the VIM (Volunteers in Mission) teams that they see at AU, across the valley at Old Mutare Mission, and in the various mission stations where many of them grew up or attended school. Some amazing stories.

We had a wonderful time. The students were pretty tentative at first but once the conversation started flowing it was hard to shut it off – even when the lights went off (electricity is fairly reliable but every now and then it just shuts off!). But part of the party favors were glow stick bracelets so when the lights failed you could still see Moses gesturing with his hands while he continued what he was saying. Just a wonderful chance to get to know a few students a little bit closer. A true blessing for all of us.