Day 17 - we climbed a mountain

Inside the chapel on the hill

Alex said 'Come on! Let's go climb that mountain'. So we did.

On the summit 

Welcome to day 17, another extremely hot day packed with fun and adventure with the girls from the Sandra Jones Centre. It started with another big breakfast amassing heaps of energy for the day and then driving 30mins to see the girls. We met the girls and started hiking midway up a mountain to an isolated chapel. It is a picturesque chapel made of stone with thatched roofing with views of the Sandra Jones Centre (SJC) in the distance. The chapel made a great location to escape the blazing sun, however, we still needed to do something to quench our adventure cravings. So Alex said 'Come on! Let's go climb that mountain'. So we did.

The chapel and the mountain

Walking up a constantly steep angle with loose rocks for grounding, Alex, Andrew and I (wearing our sneakers) looked like amateurs as the girls walked briskly up the mountain either in their thongs or bare footed on the searing hot rocks. We reached the top of the mountain and were greeted to a very satisfying view after enduring all that heat and potential snake threats. Staring back down to earth we could see the surrounding fields, bushland and a tiny SJC. It was all very inspiring yet really hot. If all goes to plan, we're hoping to see the African sunset as it falls below the horizon tomorrow or on the weekend while having a picnic with the girls. We left the mountaintop but first had to face the steep descent. Loose rocks and gravity aren't cool. Still on an adrenaline high, a few of us started climbing trees while the others cooled down in the shade. Of course another water fight broke out of nowhere, girls vs the Aussies. We were drenched with no change of clothing, but it was a great relief from the unrelenting heat.

Alex and Stef serving lunch. Andy supervising?

Like clockwork, Sadza and beans were ready to be dished out for lunch at 1pm with Alex and Stef doing the dishing. Afterwards, Alex continued to teach guitar, I continued playing games with the kids, while Andrew was getting his hair done again. The girls took charge of my camera and created some amazing photos.

Skipping. White man can jump

It's kind of hard to top the mountain climb as the highlight of the day, however, Ando, Aldo and I finally got to do something we always wanted to do, learn Ndebele. And the girls were more than happy to teach us, I actually feel they enjoyed teaching us as much as we enjoyed learning their local language. At first it started with learning their phonetic alphabet then with simple words. It then turned into Andy and I learning insulting words so we could use them against each other and on Alex. The girls were great at helping in this area. We are eager for lesson 2 in Ndebele tomorrow.

Eunice showing her photo skills using us in this photo

We headed back to the city to Bulawayo Baptist Church as Alex was invited to help with the sound as the music team practiced for the Sunday service. Driving into town, the city was again guarded by a large presence of police and soldiers like Andy blogged about yesterday. I'm pretty sure this was because President Mugabe was in Bulawayo, or his political party was at least anyways. The building where the conference was being held was surrounded by buses, cars and trucks full of supporters and advocates. Police bikes, police BMW and Merc cars also lined the building. I would have taken a photo but didn't want to risk being arrested/shot.

Thanks for reading the blog! hope your enjoying it!

Jonno