Day 59 - Quiz Time!

So here's a little quiz for all those who've been following the blog for quite some time

Q1: Who wakes up first out of us 3?
Q2: What do we always eat for breakfast?
Q3: What did we watch on tv today?


Answers at the bottom of the blog


'Our last Thursday in Zimbabwe', We all thought it, but none of us wanted to utter the phrase.
We awoke and greeted the slightly cold morning in the usual fashion, Alex awake first, then Andy then me. We had brekkie and were ready to start the day. Unfortunately, we didn't have episode 11 of 'Fringe' so we were still left on a cliffhanger. Luckily we had some important errands to do in the morning, or else it would have been another slow and boring morning.

We headed to the Sandra Jones Centre office and met Debbie where she gave us our important mission should we choose to accept it. We chose to accept it and our mission was to find school uniforms for Sam and Shamiso, two girls from the SJC village who were starting public schooling at Townsend School (where Lisa Taylor goes) for the first time next week. Our 3 hour shopping endeavour was about to begin.

We picked up the girls from their abode and drove into the city to find their school uniforms. The cool thing about public schooling is that there are quite a few shops that sell their uniforms so we decided to head to a place called ESATS, where we purchased the numerous amounts of plates and cups some time ago. The girls received their uniforms and after trying it on were getting quite excited for public schooling, I'm sure. Alex purchased their matching hats, socks and a few backpacks and we were ready to buy the next item on the shopping list, shoes. But before we did that, we needed to extend our Visas for another 5 days so we wouldn't be classed as illegal immigrants.

After having our passports extended to the 29th Jan when we clearly stated we fly out on the 25th, we hopped into the van to hunt down some school shoes. Getting new shoes and clothing is a rare thing for the girls and seeing the looks and excitement on their faces when they received new shoes and uniforms, well, you can tell they really appreciate it. Lastly, we needed to buy some book covers for their massive amount of exercise books they use at school. I found a lolly shop nearby and to my amazement they sold blocks of Milo chocolate for 15 rand, just under $2USD. I snatched up 5 packs and handed it to everyone once they finished purchasing the school supplies. Andy, and Alex especially, were shocked and infatuated when I gave them their chocolates. I'm pretty sure Alex finished his before I was halfway through mine.

It was around 12pm and we had a bit of time to kill before we departed for SJC at 1pm. There was an idea floating around that we should have some Chinese for dinner at the only chinese restaurant in Bulawayo (I'm pretty sure) with our American friend Elyse and our good mate Shakes. The text was sent and a few minutes later we had confirmation. Dinner was on like donkey kong.

1pm rolled around and we headed out to SJC. It's been a few days since we last visited so it was really exciting to see the girls again. We just caught them when they had finished school so majority of them were still in their school uniform. The really great thing about SJC is not only do they provide a safe environment for girls who have been in abusive and neglected situations, but SJC also provides education for the girls. SJC hires teachers for most grades, teaching a range of subjects, so the girls can receive quality education and not miss out due to their isolation and the closest school being ages away. We were greeted with many hugs and we were given a tour of their classrooms with much excitement.

We purchased a deck of cards from the shops for 50c so we thought we'd bring it along and show some games to the girls. We introduced them to the game 'Cheat' where the winner is the one who discards all their cards by any means necessary, even if that means lying/cheating. The older girls loved the game as they got to test their lying and cheating skills on each other. We also played a few games of 'Snap' before we had to go and pick up Debbie's kids from school.

Dinner time arrived and we drove into town, met up with Shakes and Elyse and headed to the Chinese restaurant called 'Shangri La'. The restaurant had some authentic ornaments like lanterns and artwork and really brought about an oriental atmosphere. Well done guys. The waiter came over and asked us what we wanted to drink. I asked for chinese tea, the waiter said they didn't have it. To me, that's the equivalent of a video store saying they don't have movies. We each ordered our mains and heaps of rice, enough to supply a chinese family for a week. We ate and talked and talked and talked. So much so that the waiters had to turn off the fans and lights to give us the sign that we needed to go. The time was 9:45pm. It was brilliant hanging out and talking to 2 young adult Christians who are both passionate about and serving for the Lord.

Alex the billionaire with our 10 billion Zim dollars

Road markings are hand painted

Alex, Andrew and Sam

Our card game

Alex and Moussa

Food prices at local bakery 

L-R: Alex, Jon, Shakes, Elyse, Andy

Answers
1: Alex
2:Toffee syrup on toast
3:nothing, we don't have episode 11 of Fringe

Day 58 - My own little world

Our day began in typical style. Alex sprung out of bed at some ridiculous hour of the morning, while Jonno and I crawled out of bed a little later.

Jonno and Alex in their matching outfits

After breakfast we continued watching our new favourite show "Fringe", which we got for around $3 a season. Episode 10 was a cliffhanger so we were all too keen for the next episode...but after some searching it turns out we were missing that episode (maybe that's why it was so cheap). Jonno wasn't happy. Actually none of us were...But Jonno was motivated enough to grab the car keys and head back to videoworld and demand our missing episode. Alex went with him to bolster the attack, while I stayed home and did some work on my sermon for Sunday. They left telling me they would be back soon but I knew that wouldn't be the case. Nothing in Zim is as simple as going down to the video shop to pick up a missing episode from a TV series. Turns out I was right. They were gone for a good hour and things didn't plan out the way they intended. They went to the video shop and told them the situation. The video shop made a few calls and sent Jonno and Alex to some guys house. This guy does all the downloading of the TV series for the video shop. When Alex and Jonno got home they spoke as if they were lucky to escape this guys house. Unfortunately for them their trip to the video guys house was a pointless one because his hard drive was in for repair and he was expecting it back later this afternoon.

The water supply

The typical house in this community

Once the boys had finally gotten home and we had debriefed on their experience we headed to the church where we were meeting up with a crew of people who were taking us out to Trenance. We had made a deal with our American friend Elyse that we would go to the area where she worked if she came with us to Willow Park. Trenance is an area about 20mins outside of Bulawayo where around 350 families live. This was a real eye opening experience. Everyone living there are essentially squatters. It is government land and they could be pushed out at any time. Their living conditions are nothing short of heartbreaking. They have one source of water (see picture) that this whole community relies on. It is a broken mains pipe that flows a continuous supply of water. This water is not clean and if it makes one person sick in generally spreads like wildfire throughout the community. People do their washing in this water as well as walk a long distance to access it. Their housing conditions were no better. Corrugated iron and asbestos sheets was the extent of the four walled shacks that were spread across kilometres of land. These houses are far from watertight and are often being blown over in storms and heavy wind because they have no solid foundation. We had the privilege of meeting some of the locals at their homes. One woman who we met was still smiling despite losing her son last week to HIV aids. These people are also incredibly poor meaning that a lot of the children in this community don't attend school. We played some games with the kids while some others held a church service for the mothers in the community hall. There is a committed crew from the Baptist church who go out and minister to these people every week and they do a great job.

Playing with the kids

Once home we had to head back to the video guy. Alex refused so I went with Jonno to see if it was as bad as they were making it out to be. We were stuck there for a good 2 hours but don't worry, we survived.

After seeing what I saw today at Trenance built on everything else from the trip I couldn't help but feel incredibly selfish and ungrateful for the life that I have been given. I don't want to waste the life I've been given and I don't want to take it for granted. Most importantly I don't want to live in my own little world living for myself. These lyrics from Matthew West's song 'My Own Little World' seemed pretty relevant for me after today.

"Father, break my heart for what breaks yours. Give me open hands and open doors. Put your light in my eyes and let me see, that my own little world is not about me."

Thanks for reading!

Andy

Day 57

This morning was the first morning that we had our car back - and what a wonderful feeling it was.  Once the other two had finally risen from their slumber and broken their fast, we headed into town.

We were in search for lollypops (a.k.a. suckers) and 1L bottles of Coke.  You see, the Zimbabweans 1L bottle of Coke is in no ordinary bottle - it's glass!  We'd seen them before is the shops when we weren't looking for them and now that we are, they don't seem to exist.  Needless to say, the search will continue…

After shopping we picked the girls up from school dropped them home and went straight out to Willow Park for a very short trip.  We needed to take two girls out and drop them off, and then bring a third back into town.  Because of timing, we only had a very short amount of time there - just enough to organise the girls' choir for Sunday night.  

With only a week left in the country, I began to think about the various differences between Australia and Zimbabwe - things that you wouldn't find at home.  The following is not a complete list…

• You wouldn't find people riding in the back of utes
• You wouldn't find two different currencies being used
• You wouldn't find cattle standing in the middle of the highway
• You wouldn't find kids walking home from school along the side of the highway
• You wouldn't find  police road-blocks, simply for the sake of having a road-block
• You wouldn't find people being arrested for driving without a shirt
• You wouldn't find people bribing the police to get out a ticket
• You wouldn't find cars, that are far from being road-worthy, being driven on the road
• You wouldn't find as many hitchhikers
• You wouldn't find Coke in a 1L glass bottle
• You wouldn't find 7 or 8 people crammed in a small 5 seater sedan
• You wouldn't find cashiers forcing customers to buy something small because they are out of change
• You wouldn't go though the number of power cuts in a week in Zim, in a year in Aust
• You wouldn't find people that are as happy, friendly and sociable

Alex

Day 56 - Curtain Wondervan lives on!!

Sight of the day 

Seeing a forklift driven on the busy main road

Quote of the day 

Mechanic talking about fixing our van: The car will be ready between 1 hour and 2 days

As the days quickly trickle and disappear, we awoke to another beautiful Bulawayo morning. The plan for today was to go to the video store and buy some more tv series/movies, then head out to Sandra Jones Centre for a few hours and lastly get some exercise by playing our ritual game of Ultimate Frisbee. Unfortunately that was all thrown out the window due to Curtain Wondervan being out of action. 

With no wheels we stayed at home and just sat there. Aldo researched more about the sound system we are hoping to buy for SJC in South Africa as well as sorting out the 30GB worth of footage that we have accumulated, Ando Skyped his family and friends back home, while I just was on Facebook and listening to my iPod. It was a very slow and boring morning, so we decided to watch our new favourite tv show, Fringe. After finishing the 1st episode, we realised there was nothing else to do so we continued watching another 2 episodes. 

The blog gets better, I promise!

And that's when we got the phone call from Deb that our beloved van had been fixed for $35!!!!

Turns out the only thing wrong with the gearbox was a dirty connection. What we thought would cost $1000+ only cost $35! Praise the Lord. Yusaf turned up, we jumped into the back of his ute and drove to the mechanics to pick up the van. We saw the glorious van parked and ready to be driven. Alex test drove it and we felt the great feeling of the car changing into gear 3. Satisfied, we walked through the car yard to pay for the repairs. Walking through the yard, a few cars caught our eyes; 2x BMW 318i but more importantly a Dodge hot rod, something you would see in some Hollywood early 1900s American gangster movie. You could tell it was the mechanics' favourite car as well when we saw their big smiles as we stared in awe of the car. 

Finally with some wheels, the last part of our plan was still on track, Ultimate Frisbee. It was 4pm and we picked up Lisa and Senzo from school. We dropped Senzo home and to our surprise Shamiso and Samantha from SJC were at Tina's home, where Senzo stays. The girls told us that they were starting at Townsend school as well, the same one that Lisa goes to. This made Lisa very happy, hopefully having her good friends from SJC in her class. 

5pm rolled around and it was time for some vigorous exercise. It's been maybe 2 weeks since we last played due to being on holidays so we were keen to see how fit we were. A lot of people turned up for this session, and I mean a lot. There was 12 on each team on a small field. We found out that one girl was actually from Teneriffe in Brisbane, Australia. What a small world. After a gruelling 2 hours, we left the game and headed home to crash. And now here we are counting down the final days we have in Bulawayo and trying to shove as many things into each day as possible before we have to leave this brilliant city.

Thanks for reading!

Jonno

Below are some more pictures throughout our time here

Fishing trip. Aldo in his singlet, Andy in his American Flag shirt

Warthogs right outside the accommodation

Girls at the SJC christmas party

Andy posing

Lisa hanging her Justin Beiber poster on the wall

Aldo 

Aldo and us in the back of the ute

Day 55 - The Countdown begins

After a hectic and eventful few days today was a well needed break. We had a good sleep in and headed off for church at 10am. Pastor Jeff kicked off a new series called 'Designing a life that works'. Todays sermon focused on the fact that we were designed and created to be in a perfect relationship with God, which our own sin has destroyed. Because of that we run, we hide and we blame others for our sin in an attempt to adapt to life separated from God. As hard as it is we thrive best when we are transparent with God. When we are open and honest instead of attempting to hide or shame and sin. God sets us free and we thrive when we are closest to Him.

After church we headed home for lunch. I cooked the only way I know how and can...on a BBQ. We had a very large amount of lamb and pork, which was devoured in no time. For the first time in a while ALL of us hung out and watched a movie together. We've been here nearly two months now and I reckon I can count the amount of times we've all been together on one hand. It's a rare occurrence so it was super good being all together this afternoon.

6:00pm came around all too quickly and we were off to church again. Turns out Pastor Jeff wasn't feeling the best, so his lucky wife Tammy got the call up to preach tonight. Her sermon was titled "Cooking with God", a sermon no one will ever see me try and attempt seeing as I lack any kind of cooking knowledge and ability. Tammy smashed it and did a good job especially considering the short time she had to prepare. We caught up with some familiar faces that we hadn't seen since we left for Hwange and told as many people as we could about how we nearly got arrested for indecent exposure.

With every trip comes the inevitable...the countdown to the return home. With only 9 days left before we begin our incredibly long and painful journey home I think we are each experiencing a big mix of emotions. On one hand there is a heart for the people and opportunities here in Zim. We have achieved and done a lot during our time here but each feel like there is so much more to do. On the other hand there are our family and friends at home that we can't wait to see and share our adventures and billions of photos with. There's something about this country that you need to know....The longer you stay here the harder it is to leave. None of us are looking forward to the goodbyes that have to take place in 9 days time.

We didn't take any photos today so I thought I'd just put photos of my favourite moments from the trip so far, that I hope haven't been in previous blogs.

Andy

Thando and me. We are each others favourite.

Collecting firewood with the girls

SJC Christmas party

Jonno with Prisca in a legit skirt

Jumping into the Zambezi

The crew at the Matopos

Day 54

Today started off at Willow Park, as we had stayed the night camping downstairs, with a call from Auntie Deb.  She was looking for the keys to the van so that it could be taken to the mechanic to be fixed.  We had them…  This meant a quick trip back into town to drop off the keys, then shoot back out to Willow Park to pick up Andrew, Jonno and LIsa and come back home.  However it was on the way back out to Willow Park that things quickly spiralled out of control.  I was puled up by the cops at the road block (again), accused of stealing a car (again) and almost arrested and thrown into jail (again).

As far as offences go in Zimbabwe, stealing a car is quite a serious offence (not as bad as murder but significantly more serious than indecent exposure).  This consequentially led to a folder of paper work containing photocopies and licenses, letters and rego documents which all had to be sighted and signed and stamped and checked by various people.  It was a long morning…

I eventually made it back to Willow Park three hours later to find that the other three had had a great morning with the girls and the babies.  They'd had breakfast and morning tea, Lisa had her hair re-platted and Andrew spoke at length to our favourite groundsmen, Chris.

We came back home and ate a bite of lunch before heading out to the S.O.S Village for a couple of hours.  This particular trip is a weekly trip by Tammie Scorziell who runs some worship and Bible studies, as well as various games and activities.  As there was no power (a.k.a. 'Zesa') Tammie was unable to run the worship which meant that we simply played games for the afternoon and got to know some of the kids.  Andrew, Jonno and I took all of the older boys to play soccer while Tammie and her crew stayed behind to work with the younger kids and the older girls.

Following the S.O.S. Village we went to the Scorziell's for dinner and a viewing for Knight and Day on the big screen.

Day 53 - Disco Night!!!!!!

Wassup?

Sorry for the delayed blog. Rest assured there's a good reason for this.

So the morning started with a downer having to take our mate Damien 'Dazza' Hickey to Bulawayo Airport to fly back to icey Ireland. But before we could do this we had another blow to our wheels, Curtain Wondervan. The van would only change gears up to gear 2 and that was it. It reduced our driving speed to 50km/h therefore meaning we couldn't drive on the main roads and any more driving would put serious strain on the car. It's not looking good for the van and Andy and Alex's morose looks summed it up.

So after swapping cars with Deb and driving and saying our goodbyes to Dazza, the next plan was to organise the Disco Night at Sandra Jones Centre. Since the girls love dancing and Alex had bought 200 glowsticks, it was only fitting that we have one before we leave in 11 days. With the van out of action however, our plans of having a disco night were slowly fading. Another blow to the plan was there was a massive storm rolling in and any chance of driving through Willow Park with Debbie's Honda is low. We also had planned to camp the night as well, so a storm would not be good at all. Our mood was low no thanks to the overcast weather, so we decided to watch 'Real Steel' which Andy purchased for $3.50. After watching the movie, the miracle of the storm   not occurring brightened our day and we decided to go out to Willow Park no matter what. The Honda Jazz was packed to the brim with speakers, projector, laptops, tents, luggage and glow sticks. Everything needed for a good night.

We made it Willow Park with no problems, except for lack of light. We erected our tent at 8pm, in the pitch blackness of night. We marched up the hill with our gear ready to set up the best disco at Willow Park. We reached the summit and we could hear the girls singing some songs in the hall. We knocked on the door and were bowled over with hugs from the welcoming party. It was a brilliant sight to see. I guess no one has ever come this late to SJC before so it was quite a shock and surprise to see us. We setup the equipment but first we gave them the choice; to watch a movie or to dance. The majority voted for dance. It was time to get the party started.

Andrew showing his photography skills

Theresa with the new DVD player

Kids with their glow sticks

Alex AKA DJ Awesome with his followers

Girls dancing

Girls modelling

Andrew and Alex jumped behind the mixing desk and put on their alter egos, DJ Trance and DJ Awesome. We handed out the glow sticks making bracelets and necklaces for all the girls. They were loving it already. the DJs set up the visuals and music and we were ready to party. The lights were flicked off and the aurora from the glow sticks and projector lit up the room, it was our very own disco. The older girls jumped straight into the dance floor showing off their amazing moves with Akon, Usher, Dj Havana Brown, Black Eyed Peas etc pumping in the background. I joined in showing them my awesome Australian dance moves such as the 'Sprinkler', 'The shopping trolley' and the 'Robot from the 1980s'. I thought they were good, but all I got was laughter from the girls in the return. Dj Trance AKA Andy would also make a guest appearance on the dance floor impressing the ladies with his moves. The night was getting along just fine and everyone was having lots of fun. Soon the girls turned the dance floor into a catwalk and started modelling down the run way. 2 hours had past and we had to call it quits, everyone was tired and lucky for the DJs cause they were beginning to run out music.

 All in all, for a terrible start to the day, it finished with an awesome night.

I should also mention, thanks again to the People's Donation, we bought a DVD player for the girls to replace their old one that stopped working. The DVD player had cost $60.

Thanks for reading and commenting

Jonno

P.S. To the Hickey clan, it was fantastic to hang with you guys. Catch up in the future for sure!