Day 9

Day 9 - A day of beautiful weather, clear skies and soaring temperatures.

Today was the day of the concert that we were performing at, the one that we weren't able to practice properly for because of the lack of power.  The concert was being held at a place called Mawabeni, about 50Km south of Bulawayo (See the Google Maps link to the right).  However, for those of you bound by schedules, punctuality and run-sheets - today would have been nothing short of hell for you.  Let me start from the beginning.


The following was the proposed timeline for the day:-
7:45AM - Pick up the SJC school bus from SJC office
8:00AM - Leave YFC office and pick up girls from Willow Park

Giant Chongololo

9:00AM - Arrive at Mawabeni, setup band while counseling was done with some of the kids
10:00AM - Perform for 2 hours
12:00PM - Finish and packing up
12:30PM - Leave Mawabeni and drop off girls
2:00PM - Drop bus off at SJC office


The day started off with the biggest Chongololo we'd seen yet, at a length just shorter than my handspan and as fat as my index finger.  We just couldn't resist taking a photo of it.  It was discovered by one of the girls this morning on their way to the car.

The girls all dressed up

We needed to be at the SJC office at 7:45AM to pick up the SJC school bus and meet Abraham at the YFC office to leave by 8:00AM.  That was all well and good except for that the fact that the bus was 45min late and out of fuel - T.I.A. (This Is Africa).  Stopping at a petrol station on the way into town, we were second in line for the only diesel pump at the station and the guy in front was filling up every jerry can in Bulawayo (at least it felt like it...).  We had arrived at the YFC office at 9:00AM.

Leaving Bulawayo, and picking up the girls on the way, we arrived at Mawabeni at 10:30AM.  The other two vehicles arrived just over an hour later.

Dodgy wiring on Jonno's keyboard

We setup the band in a small undercover area.  The setup used was an Australian WHS minefield with several pieces of electrical equipment being wired up in a similar fashion to Jonno's keyboard - T.I.A.  Once we had finished setting up, the concert started at about 1:15PM, with the soundcheck happing on the fly.  It should be noted that due to the questionable wiring on the two power extension cables linked together, we lost power a couple of times throughout the performance.

My sister stealing the show

The concert started with introductions and revision from previous weeks, with the soundcheck happening in the background.  Once the formalities were out of the way the girls were asked, completely out of the blue, if they would perform a song before we played.  They obliged by singing Hakuna Wakita uJesu which resulted in us throwing the run-sheet out the window.  They stole the show and it was awesome!

There was a grey line between
'stage' and 'audience'

Following the girls' performance were a few testimonies and a message, most of which was in Ndebele.  Although I couldn't understand it, it seemed to be quite effective and quite a good message.

The concert had finished, we had packed up, left Mawabeni at 3:00PM and dropped the girls off a Willow Park.  It was at this point that we unexpectedly became a taxi service for the teachers needing a lift into town.  However the police officer at the road block didn't seem to like this idea.  As I didn't have a passenger list and the bus has 'School Bus' written on the side, I must therefore be carrying students and not teachers; even though the passengers were clearly too old to be students.  Go figure - T.I.A.

The bus never made it back to the SJC office this afternoon...

Today was an incredibly awesome day.  A day that can only be experienced in Africa.

Alex

Day 8 - The arrival of our foe, 'tiredness'

Hello blog readers
Apologies for my second delayed blog, I've now received 2 strikes from the boys and if i delay one more blog, then I'm on blog duty for the rest of the trip....

We woke to finally see a beautiful clear blue sky, however, we all limped out of bed due to ultimate frisbee yesterday arvo. The day started with us flexing our muscles helping remove furniture from a lady's estate to the Sandra Jones office that she had donated before she passed away. She was a massive canine fan thus, we smelt like dog when moving everything. Andrew's can of deodorant had a good work out afterwards. After a few hours of lifting, we headed straight to the Sandra Jones Children's Village.

We arrived to the sound of guitars strumming, which was awesome. It was another great day of Alex and Andrew teaching guitar while I was playing games with the kids. Andrew and Alex soon joined in and the whole village was now playing the 'tap the brick' game (the game where  its a cross between 'piggy in the middle' and 'dodgeball')

Here's a story for you. It was Andrew's first time playing the game so all the kids were really excited for andrew to be 'it'. His goal; to avoid the ball and tap the brick as many times as possible. After dodging the ball a few times, Andrew mustered all his might to jump over the next incoming ball. To his dismay, Lisa had thrown the ball quite high, hitting Andrew square in his pride and joy. It seems to be universal comedy when someone gets hit there, because every single child was laughing their heads off. The only person who was not laughing was Andrew who was in quite a lot of pain at this moment. Footage of this will be uploaded to Facebook real soon

We then left Sandra jones Centre and headed off to meet Abraham to have a music practice for this gig/rally we have tomorrow. We met him and his 2 musical mates and started practicing at a church. Luck would have it that the power cuts out so none of the guitars work. We didn't have a practice, so we are hoping and praying that we can play the songs well, in front of 200 people.
Thanks again for reading our blog and please leave comments as we love to read them.

jonno

Day 7 - A whole week has passed

Day 7 - Yet again overcast with spots of rain here and there.

It's crazy to think that a full week has now passed since arriving in Bulawayo.

A typical intersection..good luck working it out 

We began our day by skyping our YABS (Young Adults Bible Study) crew during their end of year break up. It was awesome seeing and speaking to an amazing bunch of people who we miss a lot. Thanks for the call guys! After our chat with the homeland we headed into the YFC office in town where we caught up with Abraham to organise the youth rally, which we thought was on Friday. To our surprise we were told today that the event was actually on Wednesday...the day which we all thought was our practise day. But that's Africa. Things change all the time and you just need to be ready to roll with it otherwise you'll be left behind. We are still getting use to that! After our meet up with Abes we attempted to get to the Children's village. I say attempted because our driver somehow got us REALLY lost and we ended up passing the Bulawayo Army barracks, which was an incredibly scary but exciting experience and definitely worth getting lost for.

Some young and enthusiastic guitarists

We eventually found our way to the village thanks to Alex's handy GPS and spent a good 4 hours with the girls. Our guitar class grew by two today giving us 5 girls who are super keen to learn and play guitar. Samantha, Shameso and Lisa can now play 'Blessed Be Your Name' the whole way through while Alex is teaching Divine and Amanda the basic chords, which they are enjoying. Jonno is the games expert and seems to know pretty much all the games the girls throw at us now, which is handy because Alex and I still have no idea on how some of these games work.

Pictionary is a big hit with the girls

We left the village and yet again struggled to find our next destination. This time we were meeting up with the Bulawayo Baptist crew for some ultimate frisby. After a couple of calls to Debbie and asking some locals we somehow made it to the right place for an intense Zimbabwean game of ultimate frisby. We played for a good hour and were completely exhausted by the time we got home, but it was definitely worth it. There was an American girl, Alice, who played on Jonno and Alex's team...or so Jonno thought. He called out to 'Alice' many times to pass the frisby to him and it wasn't until we were at home talking around the table when Alex and I had to break it to Jonno that her name was actually Aleece, not Alice.

Outside playing one of those games only Jonno can work out

We have a very busy week ahead of us but are looking forward to the unknown ahead. Thanks so much for being a part of our journey by reading and commenting on the blog and praying for us! It means a lot to us.

Andy

Day 6

Day 6 - Rain (again...) and really quite cold.

Woke up early to no power.  For those who don't know, the question, "Is there any power?" is a very common question in Bulawayo.  In a typical week one will have several power-outs each lasting for a few hours at a minimum.

The service at Bulawayo Baptist Church in town started at 10am; and was very quick and very cool.  B.B.C. is located on the edge of town, has a seating capacity of approximately 400 people and they have three services on a Sunday - at 8am, 10am and 6pm.  At 70 minutes long, this service was very short and to the point.  Senior Pastor Jeff Scorziell spoke on the Passage from Ephesians 5:21-6:9.  Needless to say, he made it a very entertaining message.

Had lunch with the Scorziell's, Pope's and Adision's.  It was a great time to get to know these people.

Church (AGAAAIN - according to Christy).  This time it was a youth service - which went for 45 minutes.  This church is quite possibly the most hospitable and welcoming church ever.  Was invited to ultimate frisbee tomorrow, coffee during the week, a christmas gathering on Wednesday and Andrew was invited to preach next Sunday evening (his eyes almost popped out of his head when Jeff asked him).

Today was just a great day for relaxation, fellowship and meeting new people.


Alex

Day 5

Hair Update

*************

Leg hair regrowth : Alex - legs itching due to regrowth

Andrew - legs itching due to regrowth

Jonno - nil

Hair regrowth: Jonno - noticeable

Moustache growth: Jonno - growing quite nicely
                                   Andrew - just noticeable with the naked eye
                                   Alex - did not want to participate

Hey guys!

just continuing with day 5's adventures. I should mention that on day 4 we visited a dam, Hillside Dam, in the afternoon. It's a very nice parkland and we could see a few people having a bbq enjoying the rare sunset.

So day 5 started with us heading to the Sandra Jones Centre to visit the kids again. We arrived to a very tranquil centre, not a single child in sight playing outside. To our amazement and surprise we found the kids inside making paper butterflies with the help of a christian South African group. We suggested to the kids that they sing a few songs to the visitors before they departed and show off their newly learnt guitar skills that Andrew and Alex had taught them. The older girls (Lisa, Sam, Sameso) led the chorus of voices, reverberating the room with a heartwarming and moving atmosphere, which I'm sure moved the SA visitors, because it still moved me even though I heard them sing previously.

We handed out 30 AAA batteries to the girls for their MP3 player (which Alex bought for a steal at $8USD), more balls to play with and gifts from their sponsors. Andrew continued to teach the girls guitar while Alex, Debbie's kids Stef, Madi, Beky and I played games with the others. Can I just say that the girls at the centre really know how to dance (they just seem to have a natural rhythm and moves in their genes) and laughed at every moment I tried to replicate their moves.

After leaving the girls centre, we drove further down to greet the little ones. It was meant to be their bed time, but when they caught sight of us, they poured out of their rooms wanting hugs, love and playmates. It's a very moving feeling, having kids running and grabbing you, trying to get prime position in your lap.

Leaving the centre, we headed into town to grab a bite to eat at a place called 'Chicken Inn'. Can i just say that Colonel Sanders might be turning in his grave because someone has cracked his 11 herbs and spices recipe. Andrew bought this double chicken burger which came with 2 of the thickest chicken fillets I've ever seen on a burger. Alex bought their equivalent of popcorn chicken. Funny story. They didn't have 50 cents in change, so they offered to give him a piece of cheese as substitute. Since Alex didn't order a burger to put the cheese in, they just gave him a slice of cheese to eat.

After lunch we headed to Bendover Boutique, pretty much a massive market selling second hand clothing at an incredibly cheap price. When i say 'massive' i mean that if all the clothes were piled together, it would compete with Mt Everest. This is something you definitely need to see as no picture can even capture a glimpse of what it's like.

We headed back home in a tired state and that's where we are at this point in time. There's nothing much planned for tonight so Debbie has bought us a few dvds to watch. I think with the spare time i have tonight, i can kind of catch up and reflect with everything going through my head since i've been bombarded with so much eye opening experiences in so little time. To hear and understand what situations these kids have come from and what scars these kids have had to bear physically and emotionally is intense. You definitely feel a deep sense of sorrow, injustice and disbelief but on the flip side of the coin, to see what the Sandra Jones centre is doing to support these kids during these traumatic ordeals and putting a genuine smile on their face through the love of Christ, well, that's why Andrew Alex and I wake up every morning wanting to visit them.

Stay tuned for Alex's blog about our next adventures.

Jonno

P.S. please leave feedback as we love to hear from you

pic1- andrew's massive chicken burger
pic2 - 50c cheese
pic 3 - kids playing
pic 4 - stef, andrew and becky asleep in the car
pic 5 - Bendover Boutique with Alex and Madi

Day 4

Day 4 weather report - Rainy and overcast for most of the day.

Standing outside the entrance to the Childrens Village

The day began at 6:30am with the family breakfast around the table where Madi and I (Andrew) argue and tell each other the devious plans we have in store for the other during their next nights sleep. After breakfast we all went our separate ways. Deb dropped the girls off to school while Alex, Jonno and myself headed out to the village for our second visit. On our way to the village Alex needed a recharge card for his phone, so at the next set of traffic lights I called over a guy in a bright yellow vest and traded him $5 for a recharge card. Making a cash transaction at a set of traffic lights while sitting in the car is an abnormal feeling. I felt like I had just committed a crime and told the guys that I felt dirty!! It's just a day to day thing in Zim but for me it just felt weird and wrong...but somewhat cool at the same time.

The girls beating Jonno and Alex in their weird game

The girls at SJCV seemed more comfortable with us three smooth legged white guys today. Alex and Jonno took the younger girls out where they played some crazy game that involved a stick and a brick. Alex and I spent some time teaching a few of the older girls guitar, which they are really enjoying and are catching onto really quickly! We are hoping to record them playing a song before we leave in January. We stuck around for morning tea, which consisted of a butter sandwich and tea.

I could write about this forever but these kids have experienced some horrible things. Some have been abandoned, literally left for dead and it's all too common to find girls that have been raped by members of their own family. From a western perspective they have little, if anything. When you see their facilities and what they eat day to day you will understand this. To see these young women smile, to hear them laugh and to hear them sing songs praising Jesus blows me away every time. While the scars of their past may still be very real, even more evident is the love and saving power of Jesus in their lives.

This is Tando. He has the most amazing smile you will ever see!

On our way home we met up with Abraham (YFC Director for Bulawayo) and PJ (a pastor at Bulawayo Baptist). They are both very keen to get us involved in a whole number of different ministries over the next two months in youth camps, rallies and concerts.

Thank you all for your continuing prayer and support. We are having a blast and I'm sure the people here will end up changing our lives more than we could ever hope to change theirs.




Andrew

Day 3

Day three started with rain - with no sign of easing.

Since we weren't sure how to get to Willow Park, we were chaperoned out to the site by Buke.  We loaded up the van with five guitars, a bag of clothes, Pictionary, cards for some of the kids, a few gifts, guitar strings, picks and tuners.

Once the guitars were tuned, we played some songs for the girls, all of which were completely unprepared and improvised on the spot.  This was followed immediately by the girls singing an playing us some songs.

Lunch consisted of sudza and beans - which Jonno experienced for the first time.  The result?  The other two enjoyed it - although Jonno's sudza-to-bean ratio was out slightly, something that only time can fix.

After lunch we swung by the babies house at the bottom of the hill.  Walking through the door we were swamped by a sea of little kids all wanting to be picked up and played with.  One notable kid was the little on who jumped on Andrew's lap and didn't stop smiling the whole time!

On tomorrows agenda is heading out to the village again and starting guitar and keyboard lessons.

Over and out,


Alex

P.S. To the one that asked Andrew for a picture of a monkey, please find your photo attached.

Day two's adventure

hey guys! how

is

everyone? I can speak on behalf of all 3 of us that we have overcome jet lag thanks to a goodnight's rest. Im still confused with dates and times, however.

We woke up to no electricity in the household (which is a common situation according to Alex) so Debbie has entrusted us with her car to road trip it into town to get some petrol for the generator. Since there's no power, the local petrol station can't pump fuel lol. Alex played the role of tour guide, driving us into town and stopping off to look at the local sites. Driving in Zim is quite an experience; don't need to wear seat belts if your in the back, traffic lights rarely work, massive potholes on the roads, venders trying to sell stuff at almost every traffic light, passengers riding in the back of utes etc.

The city centre to my amazement is buzzing with life, many cars and people fill the streets. We stopped off at a local bakery to grab some morning tea, at an unbelievably cheap price. A pie and a massive donut for under $2USD. We then walked around and check out the souvenir shops and local street vendors, we were pretty popular, maybe because we stand out as tourists (well i definitely do).

Petrol is still the same price over here as i found out as we pulled into the petrol station. While he was filling up our jerry can, the sales attendant knew a lot about Queensland and Australia, like 'gday mate' and kangaroos, which i thought was really cool.

Feeling pretty exhausted we left the city and drove around the suburbs, just checking out the views and listening to Zimbabwean radio. I noticed there's a lot of massive houses just standing there, incomplete, almost like a ghost estate. There's just not enough money to finish them, so they are just abandoned and left for squatters i guess.

We'll, we've returned home, to an electrified house and its only 1pm local time. I swear, it feels like 6pm. maybe we haven't gotten over jet lag yet.

Stay tuned for Alex's blog tomorrow

Jonno

One flight down, one very long one to go

Well, we made it to Perth! The 5 hour flight seemed a lot longer than first anticipated...which has made Alex, Jonno and myself pretty depressed about the 11 hour flight ahead of us after a 5 hour stopover at Perth. I've attached a photo of Alex waiting at the bus stop for our transit to the international terminal and the lunch we had on the plane. I'll leave you to guess what it is!

That's it for now. I'll hopefully update you once we arrive in Jo'Burg.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Andy