The rainy season is here!!!

We thought it was time for an update!!!

We’ve had a chance to get away for 2 nights over a weekend in October – to Nyanga – a mountainous area of Zimbabwe. It was such a welcome break from the heat of where we are living and working. We went with new friends, just made at our church (who happen to be from the UK on contract here). We have kids the same age, so lots of fun! We stayed in a remote cottage at the foot of some mountains, with a river in our garden – family walks, swims in rock pools, evenings spent sitting round the fire in candle light, drives to beautiful view points etc. We loved it (and the company)!!!!


Our stuff arrived from the UK three weeks ago. Woo hoo! It was an amazingly painless process getting it through customs – just took 6 weeks to get from J’burg to Harare!!! It really does feel like our cottage is home now with stuff from our lives in England. It was also sad unpacking things as it was a real reality check that this is for real, our lives in England are over – so shed a few tears! We’ve had to leave a lot of stuff still in boxes as we don’t have much room for it all!

We’ve had endless tummy bugs, coughs and colds this month!! Been a bit tough but hopefully coming to the end of it!! The kids continue to enjoy bush life!! Zoe is at the delightful age where she points to parts of her body when asked where something is, blows raspberries on us and dances on demand, is learning new words and gestures for things, has a little sense of humour emerging, oh and loves anything girly! Mark has managed to produce two little teasers – I wonder where they get that from!! Matt is thrilled to be reunited with his wooden train set – he has played with it nonstop and is also thrilled with all the outside toys – bikes, trampoline etc. What a blessing it is to have their bits out here with us – makes the days pass so much faster for me. I can really plan activities and have fun with the kids!!! Thank you Lord!!! My parents got a new puppy (the day our stuff arrived from England), Matt wasn’t sure what was more exciting!!! He loves the puppy and as it’s a girl has named her Lexy – after his best girl friend in England!
Matt sings the whole time to himself – sometimes with real words sometimes without!!

General life in the Bush is getting easier, and electricity is still a problem – we’ve had 6hrs of power the last 6 days in two 3hr patches – one rain storm has wreaked havoc with faults in our area!!! Still only put the kids to bed with electric light a handful of times, which we always celebrate!! Friends from England sent out a fantastic light that has become invaluable since Rich and Oli brought it out – thank you! We’re getting used to cold baths, early to bed and early to rise!! House invaders continue to catch us unawares!! I’ve had my first scorpion sting – glad it was me and not the kids – it was on my bath towel and when I was making Matt’s bed one morning a scorpion crawled out from under his pillow (was very grateful that was all that happened)!!!
We found a python the other night outside, thankfully rather sluggish as he had a rat in his tummy!

Yip the rains have arrived! They took a little longer in coming out here than in Harare but we had our first proper thunderstorm on Wednesday night last week. I had forgotten the power of Zimbabwean storms and to be honest was quite terrified but played it very cool with two terrified toddlers, who were clinging to their mummy for dear life. The force of the wind, thunder and lightening were amazing but what I had forgotten was the amount of rain that falls from the sky in a 30min storm. In England I’m sure it rains about 4 days for the equivalent of what we get in a torrential storm. We literally had rivers running either side of our house and poor little Matt was asking Jesus to stop the wind but in the same breath saying thank you for the rain – we’ve been waiting for it to come!!! This rain has brought transformation to the bush around us!!!! The leaves are appearing on all the trees and a beautiful thing in Africa – certain trees new leaves are Autumn colours – so experiencing Autumn colours here while those in England do but such different weather! Everything is alive and green and lush! With the rains come chongololos – millipedes. Matt loves these creatures and collects them in his motor bike trailer. He can’t quite understand how they manage to escape!! He experienced his first grief this week – he managed to pull one in two and it died. The little guy was devastated, especially that he was the one who had damaged it. I was trying not to laugh but at the same time felt sad for him. This particular one was called ‘Wormy the Chongololo’. He prayed for him last night and assured me this morning when he woke up that it was now in Heaven – fixed!

If you refer to the pictures of our bush life and compare these two pics you will see how the bush has transformed in a short space of time!!!

Three days after the first rains - kind of Autumn colours - notice Mr Buffallo

Two weeks after the first rains - it's even greener now but don't have a pic!!!

Here is something I wrote a few weeks ago:

There is something beautiful about African mornings. The cool breeze before it gets really hot, the fresh air (there is a smell about it), watching animals come to the waterhole from the vantage point of our verandah and watching my children wander around in the dirt, enjoying the freedom of open space is something so beautiful, it is hard to put into words but I do feel so blessed to be able to expose them to this life – even if it’s just for a short season!! Mark and I have been woken a few times at night by the giraffe eating leaves from the tree outside our bedroom window – to sneak open the curtain and to see a giraffe at eye level – wow – they are such graceful, gentle animals – Mark’s favourite!!! We have also had the rain spider appear as the rainy season tries to start – they are not such welcome visitors and freak Mark and I out a little! Especially when found crawling in Zoe’s cot with her in it!!! We have to admit we are not very good about letting these spiders survive!!! They move at lightning speed and they have met the sole of our shoes at lightning speed too!!! Rain has been threatening for days and the air is so thick with coming rain it makes the days quite unbearable. Being back in Africa I understand why the rain never bothered me so much in the UK – an African can’t forget that rain is so life giving and refreshing – it was the grey days that got me!!! So trusting the rainy season will be here soon and we can enjoy the torrential showers that come with it!! The land is parched and crying out for rain!! I look forward to the smell of our first few showers – experienced once so far – can’t wait for more!!! Driving around this rural area is so beautiful. Plains of dry grass, little villages with their clusters of huts, children walking to school on the road, little bottle stores that sell cold coke – it is all a reminder of the basics of life! I feel so blessed to have met a few people who live out here over these last few weeks, it has given me a deeper love for my country and its people. We’ve spent more time with Marcus and I even said to him this time that he has to write a book – so will keep working on him but hoping to do a blog entry on him at some stage as his life is such a testimony of devotion to God and the bigger picture of life!! It hasn’t been an easy life, but one where he looks back and sees the hand of God.

Now for some work news! My time with the Primary School doing the Grade 0 has been amazing!!! I’m learning so much and enjoying the challenge of engaging 150 kids. I come away with no voice! Matthew and Zoe are loving all the attention and being a part of it all – I’ve been so proud of them as it is soooooo hot out there and a very long day for them! I’m mainly focussing on the same songs each week (with lots of actions), a few games and a craft session twice a month. The songs are to encourage their English along! I have to have a translator, as they don’t understand me! They are all so well behaved. I’ve been able to provide resources each week for the teaching themes that week – been donated stuff and bought stuff with grant money from Makomborero. I’ve also been able to provide them with break on the day I’m with them – biscuits! The mine arriving in the area has caused such a problem at both the senior and junior school. They have forced these schools to grow beyond what they can handle (originally village schools of 100 kids – now both over 1000 – with terrible over crowding, running lessons under trees and running two schools a day). It has also created a social problem in the schools – you have the kids whose parents work in the mine – so though very poor can bring in a snack at breaktime and then those that live in the village who probably only get one meal a day if they are lucky! They are delighted with the biscuits as you can imagine!!!! I have based myself at a local ladies house for the kids lunch and then drive home for their sleep. Amazing being in a home so much poorer than us – very humbling!! Her name is Blessing and she is a real blessing!! Over the next two weeks I’m doing a banner for their graduation up to Grade 1 (the kids will decorate), lots of games and songs and a lucky dip to celebrate the end of term!

Mark has only been able to run one film day. This is because we have no way of amplifying the sound – we managed to find some very little speakers in our shipping but Mark had to cancel the viewing as even those did not help. The Form 1’s are the only ones to have watched so far, and they loved the experience!

We are now in a position to be able to update you on our plans for next year. With KST (the trust we work with in Zimbabwe), Mark will be starting a scholarship scheme for children in the surrounding areas of Turf and some of the Harare townships. This scheme will be run in Harare, as a boarding scholarship. Mark and I will be house parents to 15 pupils, these pupils will attend a local Independent School for their lessons (using all their facilities) and Mark will be teaching the scholarship students Maths and Physics at this school. This decision came about because of a number of reasons. If Mark stayed to run the Sixth Form at Wanganui, he would only be able to teach two classes of A-level Mathematics. The subjects that we had hoped to offer this coming year cannot be studied due to the lack of facilities at Wanganui and this has arisen through the funding crisis we have found ourselves in. The A-level centre at Wanganui will continue to be run by Marcus, with the Science and Maths students attending the scholarship scheme in Harare, joined by a selected few from the surrounding townships in Harare. The hope is that once facilities are built at Wanganui, (labs, boarding facilities for pupils who walk tremendous distances etc) we will be running two scholarship programs – one at Turf and one in Harare. The one in Turf will be for students in the surrounding schools and villages to do their A-levels and the one in Harare will be for selected students from the surrounding township areas to do their A-levels.

So this is what we have been working on for the last couple of weeks. Marcus will still run the A-level centre at Turf and Mark will travel out to Turf to teach his two A-level Maths classes (those who are doing arts with just Maths attached) and Laura will continue to work with the Grade 0 children at the primary school, coming out once a week too. As you can imagine we are excited about this and even though we have had to change direction a little we believe that this is what we are meant to do in the meantime. We will need to raise significant amounts of money over the next couple of months to support the scheme, but less than we need to stay out at Turf. We are writing to local businesses to see if they can sponsor kids for two years. Mark, Dave and Marcus have been recruiting pupils – having produced a prospectus for them and all the necessary forms. What a humbling experience. Mark and Marcus have been visiting the local senior schools surrounding Turf. My goodness what an eye opener. You realise that these kids are working against all odds! This is the kind of school that Peter (in previous blog) was attending. They have been identifying pupils for Wanganui A-level Centre and for the scholarship scheme. Mark and Dave have been visiting township schools, which have better facilities but just as poor pupils. Marcus was saying that the visits (just before they wrote their O’levels) will have encouraged so many of these pupils that they could have a future and for them not to give up. The pass rate at most of the rural schools is 0% (obtaining 5 or more O’level passes). Those who have managed to achieve 5 O-levels have no means of going on further. These schools are so inspirational with how they make do with nothing, against all odds!

Mark looks to set both these up and as time unfolds we will know where we will live on a permenant basis. On this note we will not be moving into the little house out at Turf, as we would only be living there till January and we feel yet another move for our family would be too much. So we will continue to commute out to turf from our Bush home and this little house will be used by Agrippa and his family – another amazing man working with KST in Turf – he currently commutes from Harare every week, leaving his family too. We feel a little sad that this won't be our home but know we will have a home at some stage we can call ours! Here is the finished house - cute isn't it.

Having visited the local schools surrounding Turf, we will begin to support these senior schools with resources, teacher training etc so that they are able to raise their pass rates and have more pupils move onto the scholarship scheme and onto Wanganui, Turf A-level centre.

We have a lot that will need to be accomplished over these coming months leading up to the start of the scholarship scheme – so please pray for us and the success of this scheme.

My uncle asked where Turf is - it is south of Harare on the Bulawayo road. Turn left into the bush at Selous and an hour on from there. Running along the Great Dyke.

Rich and Olivia Wansbury are out for a visit from the UK. What a treat to have them here with us – sharing family life and work life with them. They are trustees of our charity in the UK and are good friends. They joined Mark in visiting the rural schools surrounding Turf, painting black boards and distributing text books we had bought for these schools (with grant money from Makomborero). They also joined me at the junior school with Grade 0 and were a huge hit with the kids!!! They are off on a round Zim trip for a few days and will see us for two nights before they head back to England! They have said they will blog on their experience here – so will save the details of their trip for another time!!! We have felt blessed by their presence with us!!!!! We love you guys!!!

Well I think that is all for now – hope it gives you a good update of where we are at!!! Missing aspects of England at the moment – not the wet grey but the beautiful crisp cold sunny mornings (which can be few and far between), Autumn colours, beautiful village high streets with their Christmas lights, friends (this is a big one), proper coffee, chocolate, broadband and electicity!! We pull out our Christmas stuff next week – I can’t wait!!!!!

Matt watching a bird make a nest from our bedroom window
Dinner picnic at Grandad and Granny's
Being pushed around by Grandad
Mark fitting free sat at our house - under the supervision of his brother (a satellite technician)
Treated out for pizza - what a special evening! First pizza since the UK!!

All photos are clickable if you want to see them bigger!!

Jacarandas, our bush home and other news!

Hello – it feels like a very long time since I last wrote – a lot has happened in the last few weeks!!

It is Jacaranda time!! I love it – I had forgotten just how beautiful these trees are – 7 years away makes me realise how much I’ve missed their beautiful flowers! Harare has streets lined with them and I thought it would be nice to share with you a few photos!!! I think I know why lilac is one of my favourite colours!!! There are so many flowering trees in Harare that I think I might do a post on a few more over the next couple of months as they flower.

We visited a miniature train with the kids a few weeks back – what great fun - they run it once a month as a bit of a hobby - real steam trains.

We are now together! Yah!!! Our season of being a family apart came to an end after doing it for 6 weeks. We moved out to our temporary home just over two weeks ago. Our stuff has been in strorage for 7 years so you can imagine the cleaning and washing that had to happen as we unpacked – 7 years of rat poo and wee!! It is in the middle of a game park – literally – nothing except our cottage separates us from the wild life and we look over a waterhole. It is amazing!!! As you can imagine the kids love it too!! We have a walled back garden – which has no gate – so we can get away from them but do need to keep an eye out for little nosey visitors. We have also had some unwelcome guests in our cottage – a snake – which crawled over my foot the first night, a massive scorpion (bigger than my hand), a massive centipede and loads and loads and loads of black ants (woken covered in them a few times). The cottage sat empty for a few years and I think it is taking a little while for creatures to realise this is our home now!!!

We were spoilt living with my folks, they were so well prepared for power cuts – solar lights, solar panel to heat hot water, an invertor to run little things off, gas hob, ice system in their fridge to keep it cool etc. So fending for ourselves has been a slight shock to the system!! We have 17hr power cuts every day – 5am to 11pm and we have had a 52hr power cut. As you can imagine a fridge and a freezer can not be run with this little electricity, so our first week here we had loads of things going off. Poor Mark goes to bed at 7.30pm and wakes at 11pm and works for a few hours before he leaves the house at 5.30am for work. So we have desperately been trying to make a plan as to how we can make our lives work without power!! We have amazing family and friends who have lent us bits, sold us stuff we can pay off over a few months etc and as of tonight have two batteries that power an invertor that can charge LED lights, cell phones, laptops etc and will be slowly paying off a generator that will run our fridge for 2hrs a day – this arrives on Sunday! Woop!!! Woop!! Headlamps are just the best too!!! So the hope is that come the evenings we hope to feel more motivated to work – not sure if it’s the lack of power or the heat – it is very hot here – way hotter than Harare but not as hot as Turf! Poor Mark roasts every day! Zoe lives in a paddling pool on and off all day and we try and keep our house sealed up to keep the hot air out but inside temps are 35’C – still cooler than outside though. It has been weird not having rain for the last 3 months, something that is so foreign to us having lived in the UK for so long. We have had thunder and lightening this evening which is very exciting but early for rains so not sure if any will fall!!! I can smell the rain in the air!!! (Other Zimbos will know what I mean – you can literally smell rain here – beautiful.) A few days later now – it did rain and it smelt glorious – I got up at 2am just to smell it!!! Was a welcome change!!!!

We have already had a few people out to stay with us and enjoy sharing the delights of our wild home with others! The kids love the visitors! Marcus, who also works for the trust we work for here, came to stay a few nights ago and we so enjoyed time with him. He is an incredible man who we are humbled by everytime we spend time with him. What an honour to work with him. A true servant heart!!!! I could fill this blog with his stories of life out at Turf – just incredible what he is doing in that community and who he opens his home to!

I have found it quite isolated out here being stuck on a farm all day with kids and not really being able to venture too far away from the cottage due to the wild animals. I have found it tough at times but I also feel like I’m learning a lot as a mum and it is certainly character building! We have a sand pit, paddling pool, craft stuff, books and a few toys to keep us busy. I have turfed a small bit of the garden so that we have grass.

I will be starting work in the local primary school with their Grade 0 (Reception class) from next Tuesday, one day a week and they have said that the kids can come with me. I am excited about this but also a little nervous about how it will work with the kids and how they will cope with the heat and journey – especially as we do not own a car with Aircon! Let me tell you about the desperate state of the junior school. There are 1200 pupils at the junior school, a school that is built to house 400 children. So they too hot seat (run two schools – one in the am and one in the pm) and teach lessons under trees. This will become more tricky once the rains arrive! The Early Years department (Grade 0) comprises of 5 classes, 5 teachers and 150 kids!!!!! They only have one classroom!!!! It was so humbling meeting the ladies who run the department – such amazing ladies who are so creative with so little! They literally have no resources, no desks, chairs etc but have a curriculum that they have to follow. I took home their schemes of work to see what they are teaching and where I could help out. Amazingly humbling reading what they do with so little – so imaginative but also desperately sad. I was there during break time and so many of the kids have nothing to eat and have to sit and watch those who do have food – breaks my heart and you can see it breaks the hearts of the teachers too. They themselves live off so little!! So I have come away buzzing with what I can contribute - from toys, resources to running game, dance, drama sessions etc. The money we receive from Makomborero quarterly, a proportion of this will be given to me to spend on the Early Years and I hope to provide a meal once a week for the kids, resources etc. I start at the school on Tuesday 26th October. Please pray the my kids cope with the day out at Turf, trusting till the house is built that we can use a room in someones house for their afternoon nap and I’ll travel back to our cottage once the day begins to cool down a little. I took the kids with me to my meeting and Matthew had the pied piper effect – these kids had never seen a white kid before so he was a huge novelty – touching his hair and giggling! I will try and do an short blog entry during the week with photos!

Mark continues to teach at Wanganui. He finds the days long especially with the very, very hot, dry weather at this time of the year. He has a 70km drive each way from our cottage. He has become particularly fond of a young guy called Peter. Let me introduce you to Peter. He walks 15 miles to school each day, which as you can imagine takes him a couple of hours each way – Mark started to give him a lift before he went off on his study leave for writing his A-levels. He is highly intelligent. Sadly his English is not very good and this is often his down fall when it comes to his examinations. Peter did not have any teachers during his two years of O’level (GCSE). He taught himself. With his maths, he did not have a textbook and managed to find a few past papers and taught himself from those. He has now mostly taught himself Maths A-level. His determination to succeed against all odds is so incredible. He doesn’t have any career ambitions, as so many of these kids, as he just can’t quite comprehend what is out there. He lives in a little mud hut with his family. Mark and I have been invited round there for a meal once he has finished writing his exams and we look forward to it. Mark has got to know his parents from the lifts he has been giving Peter, they are subsistence farmers who really struggle financially to feed their family. Here is a picture of their hut. We are trusting for great things for Peter and hope to be able to steer him in the direction of a career that he will find fulfilling and will use the amazing academic gifts he has. As you can imagine there are many students with similar stories and it is inspiring!

Mark will be running a movie afternoon at the school. This will serve two purposes – one it will be a fun thing for the kids to do and secondly we hope that this will help them improve on their English in a fun way. English is the medium that they write all their examinations in and so many of them struggle to speak a few sentences in English. Mark will run this on a Tuesday afternoon – with the hot seating and the school running in the afternoon, we have come up with a timetable for each form to attend without it affecting lesson time. This also starts on 26th October – with Form 1. I’ll be cooking popcorn for 150 pupils each week!! The little house at Turf is being built and has gone up incredibly quickly!!!

Here are a few photos to show you the progress to date. It is very little and cute!!!


The crisis on day to day funding has kind of sorted its self out after much stress and trying to make plans etc but sadly funding on a bigger scale for next year is not looking likely, so we are moving forward with some big plans to make next year work. Once these plans are finalised and we know exactly what is happening we will fill you in. For those of you who do pray for us, please pray that we continue to make wise decisions, we don’t feel discouraged, that we knock on the right doors and things really fall into place for our emergency contingency plan!! It is exciting but scary too! We have been reminded of that verse Proverbs 3v5&6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path.

I’ve been struck again at how amazing it is to be a parent and the blessing my children are to me. Especially being stuck in the bush with them and not being able to rely on anything other than what I can provide for them to do for entertainment etc. It has shown me areas in me that are yukkie and need sorting out and also made me see a fresh how delightful they are. It struck me that we are now parents to two toddlers – our baby is not a baby anymore. Matthew and Zoe are really beginning to play together and I love watching it! Poor little Zoe is suffering terribly with heat rash that blisters as her body adjusts to the weather!! They both drink so much water and I put them to bed now with beakers of water that our empty by the morning!!! They are so dirty by the end of everyday and are delighted to welcome Daddy home each evening!!! Master (the caretaker here) has won Zoe’s heart and she will often wander off in pursuit of him for a cuddle! Very precious!! She has to be watched like a hawk if the doors are open as has no concept of the dangers that surround her here!! She is covered in bruises from all her falls and climbing endeavours!! Matthew is still completely obsessed with trains and has duplo cars that were mine when I was little that he plays with all day and each one is a Thomas train – Percy, James, Toby, Spencer etc! He is a gentle soul and often comes out with things that melt our hearts. He often tells me now that he thinks I’m wearing something pretty, that he loves us to the moon and back, what he wants us to pray he will dream about that night, is totally in love with his Granny and Grandad and Uncle Steven, Aunty Linda and Jordan. They feature in all our pretend stories now – as well and Felix, Uncle Rich and Mr Peter (they know who they are). Matthew and Zoe have started to play together beautifully – particularly what is called ‘Rough and tumble’ time in our bedroom!! Very cute to watch all the screaming and laughing coming from both of them and Mark and I often join in too!! Matthew was a little sad the last few days so climbed into bed with him one evening and he told me that he is missing his friends in England - he went through his list of little friends and special people! I was amazed at how much he still remembers - the list was long too!!! Very precious but made me a little tearful too - not just us who feels home sick for England at times.

The kids love coming into Harare and it is such a highlight to spend time with their granparents - here are the kids picking roses with Granny in the veggie garden!

We're still waiting for our stuff to arrive from the UK - it's in J'burg and been there for 6 weeks - grrr!!!

Well I think I’ve said enough! Now to upload this – which is a laugh!! We drive about 2km out of the game park and sit on the side of the road and send and receive emails and check internet. Feels very odd the few times I’ve done it. Mark mostly does it on his way to work. So hence email is a better way to contact us at the moment. Waited till we were in Harare to upload this – still took a few hours! Happy half term to all you UK teachers! For those of you wanting to see pics of the kids: Thought this one might make you laugh - yoghurt eating by Zoe!
For some reason I can't get this photo to load the right way up!

Spring flowers, temporary home and reality of teaching at Wanganui!

Well spring is here – sure feels like summer though – hot but not humid – so nice!!! Also my folks house is very cool so feels like they have air con to some degree when you walk inside - lovely! Here are a few pictures of the spring flowers in their garden at present – so pretty! We even had our first family swim this weekend where it was not just the kids in the swimming pool! Though where Mark is it is about 7’C hotter and with no ceilings in the classrooms is extremely hot and dry!!!


I am making friends and settling in – still all feels very new and scary at times but is nice to mix with other mums and kids. Matt has made two friends he now regularly talks about which is special. Here are a few photos to show you what the kids have been up to in the last few weeks!








We are enjoying our new church and the people we are meeting there. So refreshing to be in African praise and worship! There is a nationwide prayer meeting on Sunday and a training day in foundations for farming to initiate a program to feed Zimbabwe. We are trusting this will be a huge success!!!! Visit this website for further information www.lovezim.org

The kids continue to be such a delight to us!! Zoe is walking confidently now and is so proud of herself – quite happy just to walk around not really doing anything! She is fearless when it comes to animals, climbing, jumping, etc. We have to watch her like a hawk as she often ends up in dangerous situations – nearly falling down the loo etc!! Matthew continues to talk continually – he loves the world around him and is such great company! He has really struggled with Mark being out of town during the week and often asks when we can all be together again! As you can imagine this breaks Mark and my hearts!

As has become a tradition – here is another Matthew Quote – ‘I knew it!’ – pointing his finger at you! It is very cute and is often done when he is playing with his toys and manages to figure something out himself, do something he was struggling to do etc. He is also learning Shona and I am amazed at how quickly kids learn. He says good morning, thank you and good afternoon unprompted now! He will soon be putting Mark and I to shame.

We (the kids and I) had the privilege of going out to the rural areas just outside of Harare to visit an old family friend on Thursday. Here are a few photos of our trip out to visit Prisca – Gogo as Matthew calls her (which means Granny). We’ll be visiting quite often I think as the kids loved their time there and it’s not that far!! As you can see from the photos my kids were slightly obsessed with the goats (excuse the pun)!!!


Not sure if you can make out from the picture below but basically this is a tap outside someones walled house offering free water. Many houses – in fact most homes in Harare – have lived without running water for a couple of years now. A lot of people have been able to drill boreholes but for those who can’t afford to or do not have any underground rivers running under their properties – obtaining water has been tough. As you can imagine there have been lots of people jumping in on the band wagon and selling water at astronomical prices to those people who don’t have. This house is offering free borehole water to whoever! I love it! What a great heart!!!!



The revision school was a huge success and one of the volunteer teachers paid for me and the kids to visit for one night! What a great treat to feel part of that week for us 3! We drove out on the Thursday afternoon and came back on Friday lunchtime. The highlight for me was having dinner in the mine compound with the volunteering teachers – I don’t think I have laughed so much in a long time. They were such special people – so thrilled to be able to give back something to their communities. Mark found it such fun to serve with them. The pupils loved their time and hopefully benefited greatly from the lessons. So many special memories and heart warming encounters for all involved!

We have made slight progress on the home front. We will be moving into a house about 60km from the school on a safari park. This means that Mark will only have to spend 2/3 nights out at Turf as opposed to 5 nights, which will be great for our family!! Still not perfect, as I will be more isolated – in the middle of no where – compared to Harare where I can fill my days with things but the big up side is more time with Mark and being able to support each other as a family! We will live there until we are able to build something. So Mark continues to commute out to Turf till the end of next week –he leaves on a Sunday afternoon and is back on a Friday evening. In some senses he is working such long hours that not having us around is probably a good thing!! Mark is staying in a tin shed on the mining compound.

Our more permanent dwelling place will begin to be built within the next two weeks. It is three rooms – two of the rooms will be used as bedrooms and the other room will be used for our lounge/kitchen. We can’t wait for this to be built and for us to be in the community!! We have managed to secure a very small loan to build.

Mark has shared with his Sixth Formers photos of our life in England and it has literally blown their minds!!! Especially snow and Benenden!

As you can imagine it has been an interesting four weeks for Mark getting his head round how the school runs etc. He has been given a very heavy timetable for this term (the last term in the academic year) and is teaching from Year 9 to Upper Sixth – Mathematics, Physics and General Science. The school is terribly over crowded, so they run one school in the morning and one in the afternoon – 9 periods of teaching for each school, so a total of 18 periods a day. First lesson starts at 6.55am and the last lesson finishes at 5.00pm, with a 15 minute teaching break in the middle of the day.

Mark has obviously found the work load massive but has also found that the gaps the pupils have in their education is something that possibly can never be rectified – something so well explained in a recent documentary – The forgotten Children of Zimbabwe. He has found this incredibly sad, as he wants to be able to make a difference in these pupils lives but educationally for some of them it is too late and for a lot of them the gaps are so big that years of teaching will not fill all the blanks. We realise that we need to start supporting junior schools to get pupils to the place where they have a chance of passing at least a few O’levels, let alone A’levels. The examinations that the pupils write here are so much harder than what Mark was teaching in the UK and it seems so unfair in so many ways – all the odds are stacked against these kids. Mark said that they are eager to learn but often have already given up as they know they can never know enough to get them through – due to the instability education has experienced over the past 10 years in Zimbabwe. Sadly most of the teachers are unmotivated a) due to lack of resources, b) poor working conditions, c) next to no pay, so at times Mark feels like he is the only fish swimming in the other direction – arriving to all his lessons, teaching, marking etc. Mark was saying this weekend that he is so proud of some of his Sixth Formers, he can’t believe how they have managed to get where they are with so many gaps in their education and knowledge. They have purely relied on their gifting!!! So many of the kids writing their O’levels in 4 weeks have pinned such high hopes on Mark being there to teach them but Mark feels so sad as he knows he can’t make much difference other than to encourage them to do their best and try and cover as much as you can in a short space of time (and he’s only teaching two subjects). These pupils have given up so much to write their O’levels and A’levels – so expensive! It just seems so unfair that they are set to fail before they’ve even started! So as you can see the magnitude of what we are dealing with is dawning and we just need to get our heads round how the best way forward is and where we can make a difference and to focus on that and not feel overwhelmed by it all!

We are partnering with a Trust here in Zimbabwe. Sadly, their main funder has gone bust so we have been running on literally thin air for the last two months. This has also made us have to rethink all the things we thought we would be able to do in the community and Sixth Form during this next year and are trying to reinvent the wheel to try and make the A-level centre work effectively but also support the kids in the best possible way. So watch this space! Hopefully we can have some concrete plans in place soon!!

We could lie to you and say the last few weeks have been easy but they have been tough. At times we have questioned whether we have made the right move but we have had some encouragements on particularly bad days, that remind us we are not forgotten and not alone. So thank you to those of you who have texted or sent messages that have kept us going!!! One verse in particular has really spoken to me, 1 Peter4v12 and this song has played on my mind too – Oh no you never let go through the calm and through the storm.

I was given five pebbles when I left England with the following words written on each pebble – Love, Dream, Peace, Hope, and Laugh. They have been sitting on the dressing table in the room I sleep and I have been so encouraged by them over the last few weeks. One word will hit me and stay with me all day!

I’ve been reminded:

Love – God’s love for me is endless and limitless! My families love for me and my love for them is unchanging!! How truly blessed I am to say that I know what it means to be loved and to love!!!

Dream – that God has given us a dream that we are trying to fulfil – He knows our hearts desires and knows the journey we will travel – even if at times we feel forgotten and alone. Dreams keep us putting one foot in front of the other and we don’t let us get bogged down in life.

Peace – that His peace would surround us daily!

Hope – I have a hope that goes beyond the grave!

Laugh – I am blessed to have two precious children that enable me to laugh each day!!!!

Well enough from us!! Till next time!

8 weeks of living out of suitcases!!!

Yes – from the title I think you can tell reality has hit – with a bit of bump too but that is all part of moving countries! Honeymoon has to end sometime and we’ve done a country move before, so were expecting it! Doesn’t make it easy but it reminds us to keep our eyes on why we are here and not all the obstacles!!!

So what have we been up to! Lots!! Zoe turned 1 on 17th August. What a special day 1st Birthdays are! They make you think back to that moment they entered the world and also give you the opportunity to marvel at how much they change in just one year! We love her sooooo much and are thankful to God for our precious girl!!!!!! Here are a few photos from her birthday tea and her actual birthday! We took the kids to a safe place to ride bikes – Matt mastered peddling on his own!!



A friend of ours here had their first baby last week and I got to meet the little one on Saturday – what a precious little girl and reminds me again what a miracle new life is – so thrilled for them! Welcome to the world Savannah Mae!!!

Sadly we had friends attacked in their home this last week – robbers broke in just wanting money, mobile phones and jewellery. Such a traumatic experience for them. They have been so brave and courageous through this whole ordeal. It has made us all tighten up with security in the early evening.

My parents have been away for two weeks and get back on Monday. The kids just love having their granparents around - especially with no daddy during the weeks now!

Managed to organise a few play dates for the kids – stepping out a little!! They have loved being around other kids again and good for me too!! I miss all my mummy friends so much and miss the fullness of my days in England. I know once we are out at Turf my days will be full again – a different full but this limbo stage can be a little lonely at times. The kids and I are also walking twice a week with a family friend – I went to school with her kids. I’m really enjoying having something structured to look forward to and it’s good company for me and the kids! We also walk lots to the local shops and chat to all the market sellers! They know who we are now!

The kids are doing well. Zoe is not quite confident to walk totally on her own but is so nearly there. She is learning to say more and more each week and really understands all that is going on around her. She has a little sense of humour that is coming out and is an incredibly strong character! Matt chats nonstop – so lovely and endless questions of ‘What’s that?’ One of my special school friends brought a box of Weetabix for Matt when she popped round to visit the other day – she had heard they are one of his favourites!!! This was a particular treat for him, as they are a luxury here!

Spring is here and the trees are getting their leaves, flowers on trees and bushes, masasa trees changing etc. It is beautiful – but I have been rather spoilt my England springs and the changes in seasons here are really just winter to summer and spring is defined by what you see and not what you feel! The mosquitos have arrived – so we have bought the kids their mosquito nets. Matt loves his and calls it a tent! Here is a photo of them in use in our cottage at National Parks!

Soft hearts!!! There are so many people selling things and you get approached whenever you park your car somewhere to buy something from them. Ranging from vegetables, fruit, toys etc. One thing Mark and I have found really hard to resist are the handmade toys they make! So we have two toys for the kids – the first was made by a little boy of about 5 years old and when pushed along the man peddles a bicycle.
The second is a poacher being chased by a rhino – all moving bits - for Laura Singer's benefit - 'a rhino searching poacher'. So clever!
So needless to say I think our home might become quite full of little toys that we don’t really need but we know puts some food into someones belly!! We love the ingenuousness of people here for make a living! Can’t wait for our own home – to get one of these guys to make a climbing frame for the kids – what a blessing to know how important that job will be to someone.

Matthew Quote – it seems we can’t have a blog entry without a Matthew quote now! There have been a few classics these last two weeks but this one is one that is being said the whole time. I started it months ago and Matt has now picked up on it!! He’ll come very excited to us and point at us and say “I’ve got an idea, Mummy?” We reply “What is your idea Matthew?” Sometimes there is a really good reply and other times he is not too sure, so you get jumbled up words. This must happen about 50 times a day and to any one prepared to ask him what his idea is, they either get a great idea or a little boy who isn’t quite sure what to say, but is thrilled you asked! As you can imagine we have all picked up the phrase too!!

A lesson is making our money stretch!!! US dollars is what is used here but the lowest denomination is $1USD. So change is tricky – you either end up collecting credit notes from lots of shops, buying sweets or pens you don’t need etc to get your change. Mark being Mark – has decided that the most cost effective way to get change is to buy eggs! So today I bought a loaf of bread for $1.10 and had 80c to spend on eggs (got 5), though was tempting to buy two chocolates instead!!! Makes me smile!!

We went out to Turf last Wednesday for two nights. We stayed at a National Parks cottage about 20km away from Turf on a difficult dirt road. The cottage was very slightly better than camping and had no running water – so we drew our water from the dam (had to be boiled before we could clean in it) and brought all our drinking water with us from Harare in two 20L containers – no such thing as bottled water here!! Here is a photo of our bathing buckets! White for feet, Black for body and silver for face!
The dust in the rural areas is so thick this time of year – about 2 inches deep. Rains have been gone for a couple of months and are only due to start in November so everything is very, very dry and dusty. Matt loved it, as all the dirt roads provide an excellent surface for drawing all his trains on!!! The kids were filthy at the end of each day – clothes red from the mud and legs, arms, faces and hair looking very dark brown!

We loved showing the kids the school Mark will be working at – Matthew calls it “Daddy’s new school”! We were welcomed by staff who were around, as it is the holidays at the moment. Our friend Marcus, who has been running the 6th Form since it started last year, was there to welcome us and show us around. What a lovely man, so humble and has an incredible heart. We have been encouraged to hear his ups and downs with adjusting to rural life. He is a retired Head Teacher of an Independent School in Harare – so a big change for him. He is also so aware of the challenges we will face as a family adjusting to our new lives out there. So it feels like we have a real partner!!

Our main aim of the trip was to try and find accommodation and Marcus and another teacher kindly took us around Turf. So good to get a feel for where we will be living. Since we last wrote this has become critical!! We realise that for us to live in Turf we have to build something. Thankfully the charity we partner with here has a plot of land which just needs to be built on. So we have arranged a loan for a house to be built and now are working on all the hoops we have to jump through for this to happen – not an easy or simple job! We are hoping the actual building will only take 8 to 9 weeks to complete but it is now finalising things and getting that process started that is causing quite a lot of stress. Also the where to live in the meantime?

Here is the plot of land the charity we are working with owns:


A cluster of huts on the outskirts of Turf village - beautiful! These clusters line the dirt road into the village.


We were also told that someone has three rooms that we could possibly rent out. Not ideal as in the middle of a building site, very dusty, incredibly hot during the next few weeks, no ceilings, not ideal for kids etc. But beggars can’t be choosers, so feeling we will make it work in the time the house is being built.
Also, one of the teachers has offered us one room in their garden (Mark will stay here the next 3 weeks - a matteress on the floor of an empty room). So have two options. We feel the three roomed place is what we have to go with but if something just outside Turf comes up, we might take the one roomed place to base ourselves at during the day and go back to a house out of Turf to sleep! So as you can tell – not 100% there!! But God knows! If you are the praying type – please pray we make the best decision for our family and that building starts soon. We have friends from the UK coming to visit in November – so would love to be in our home by then!!!

Mark is teaching and running a revision school at Turf this week – the last week of their school holidays. Been a little stressful as he only found out on Friday that he was running it! He has had to find accommodation for 8 volunteering teachers from Harare, organise food for them, find paper and pens for the kids etc. He is staying out at Turf for this week and will be back at the weekend. He will probably do this for the next 3 weeks (as school starts next week)and then hopefully we will all move out there. We feel at times quite vulnerable and low but we know it is just the uncertainty of not having a home that is making this so tough at the moment. The good thing about being at Turf was that it reminded us again why we are here. Such incredible people, such a desperate need and makes us buzz with excitement!! I even ended up doing some admin work for the senior school in the 2 days I was out there!!

Here is an email I got from Mark last night:

I am in Turf Village this week “helping” (…but has pretty much turned into running) to teach at a GCSE (…still called O-level) and A-level revision school at Wanganui school. We have some teachers from a school in Harare that have volunteered to spend a week away from their family (….and the last week of their holiday), helping the students at Wanganui school prepare for their exams.

It could not have gotten off to a worse start (…if you are from the UK that is….completely normal for Africa)….I was meant to get to the school at 7am to set up room label, brief the wanganui staff about the timetable etc…..but got caught at the mine security, negotiating for 90mins trying to drive through the mine….the other dust road is impassable with the low clearance car I was driving!. So get to the school at 8.30am…timetable set to begin at 8am! Students waiting…I delegate room labelling…which is passed to the head…who calls me to ask me what needs to be done…who then delegates it to anther person who calls me to ask me what is to be done…..and then proceeds to mix up all the labels for the rooms….grrrrr!

Assembly is called by the head….i am introduced by the head…..i start talking to the kids….can feel my phone vibrating in my pocket….I show them a picture of Laura and the kids form my wallet….a few wolf whistles (…not for me!). I send the kids off to their rooms…..wondering where the other teachers from Harare are who were meant to be arriving at 8am!! I check my phone to find out that they will only leave at 10am due to “a few problems”….so will get here at 1pm! – first 4 lessons with no teachers……

…..so I “made a plan”: The heads husband is an English teacher in Namibia…he took 50 o-level students to do some English, I took about 50 o-level students and did some maths.

Teachers turn up at 1pm…..lunch only finished being prepared (…by the lovely ladies who work in the admin office and the library…they take real pride in serving us…really humbling) at 1.30pm…which is meant to be the start of the next lesson…..no worries….lunch must be had….despite my attempts to suggest that I will save some food for those that should be teaching…..lessons got going at about 1.50pm…..come 3.30pm I was relieved to know that the first day was over….I had survived my reintroduction to working in Africa.

I felt like Mr Bean in Church at Assembly every morning this week, as I have forgotten the words of the national anthem....guess what I'll be learning over the weekend!

The people here are really amazing…..they just want to help! The students are still getting used to me!....I must talk slower!! (I had one student come to me today an say he will try and find us a home to live in!).

Here are a few photos of Assembly, teachers and pupils, lessons, Admin block and classrooms.


My song this week has been – Your Grace is Enough!! It really is!!

Hope all you UK people enjoyed your long bank holiday weekend!!! Haven’t been keeping an eye on weather – I know this plays such a big part in bank holidays!!

Till next time!!!!

Price Comparison.com and other news!

We thought some of you might find it interesting to compare the prices of goods in Zimbabwe. We have found that a lot of things are the same price or a little more expensive. Just an interesting exercise when you consider the salaries here and how little people earn!!

1L of Milk - £1
1L of Yoghurt - £2.88
Box of Cereal - £2.80 (Mark and Matt having cereal withdrawals!)
Coke - 65p
Loaf of Bread - 65p
Disposable Nappies - £24 (so glad we don’t have to buy these and we have reusable nappies)
Tin of Baked Beans - £2
Cocoa 50g - £2.60 (decided to have a vanilla cake instead for Zoe’s birthday!)
B&Q equivalent plastic stack of 3 drawers - £48 (didn’t buy – just shocked)
1hr in a soft play area - £3 (won’t be visiting this to often!!!)

Well another week down and a busy but good one! Mark was away Monday and Tuesday with Scott in Gweru and attended a few meetings and an education conference. It was good to reconnect with Zim people and education stuff! Mark then travelled out to Kadoma on Wednesday, the nearest town to Turf, to meet with the local education authority and introduce himself and let them know we will be moving out to the school. It was a good meeting – I was offered to run the nursery school in the village – very tempting so will see what happens. Still haven’t quite made it out to Turf – hoping it will be soon! We are pushing on lots of doors this next week for a house!!! Trusting God we’ll get break through here, so that our new lives can start soon! Finding this a little unsettling! There are no houses available and a massive housing shortage in the village – so we need a miracle!!

Mark was brilliant with his perseverance this week with sorting out the kids residency. He registered both their births here. Just need to collect the birth certificates and then the residency process starts. As I’m sure those of you who know Africa – these are not simple tasks!!! We’ve also had a few doctors visits and jabs for he kids getting them all up to date for this country. A very expensive process without the NHS! Done boring things like open bank accounts, get mobile numbers, health insurance etc – so slowly setting our lives up here!! All these things take 50 times longer here than in England and we are slowly adjusting to Africa time and pace! It’s good for us to take life a little slower – so trying to see the positives of it all rather than champ at the bit!!!

Meet the new additions to the Albertyn family given to the kids by the Peirson’s. A great empowerment iniciative – www.gogo-olive.com – gogo means granny in shona. Matt got given an Elephant whose name is Givemore and Zoe got given a Leopard with a baby on her back – Katie and Sara! Love it! This is just one of those things that reminds you of some of the amazing things that are being done in Zimbabwe. We have been blown away by the people who stayed during the toughest years in Zim where there was nothing here – we salute them!! I’ll try and keep my eyes peeled for more things to share with you but sadly Zim is not very world wide web friendly – so a lot of incredible things are hard to share because they’re not online!!!

Family news – kids doing really well! Zoe is taking about 6 steps between people now – too cute! She is soooo proud of herself! She turns one next week and we can’t believe how quick this year has gone! Matt is struggling at times with trying to understand that he won’t be going back to his home but we are very proud of him and is generally taking everything in his stride. He is a very open, friendly little boy who breaks the ice for us in many situations!!! We love them both so much and are so proud of them!!

They are loving the swimming pool, tree house and sandpit! Turning into outside bodies. We took the kids to a park that runs a train in it on Thursday – it hasn’t changed since I was a kid (feels a lot smaller than I remember it) – all needs a lick of paint but Matt had a ball!!! Zoe loved the train ride too, though is probably not as big a train lover as her brother!!


We went to a game park yesterday with the kids – their first taste of African animals (and a few farm animals mixed in the pot)! What a treat for all of us!! Even got a little sunburnt!
Watching lions:

Picnic in the back on Mark's brothers pick-up (Bakkie)at the end of our animal exploring

Matthew Quote for this week: This one needs a little explaining! On Matt’s last day at his play school they visited Zimbabwe on a map and gave Matt a Zimbabwe flag (which he calls Matthew’s flag) and a UK flag – needless to say everytime we are driving along and see a Zim flag this little voice pipes up with great excitement – ‘Look Daddy, Matthew’s flag. Might see another one?’

Quiz - What's wrong with this picture? (not sure if it's very clear)

My heart is way too soft and I find myself in tears or on the verge of tears often! We are surrounded by people who are so struggling to survive and life is tough. As a couple we want to help as many people as possible but there is a limit and we’re learning what we can do and what we just have to toughen up about! So so hard!! As a mother my heart aches and I want to open my home to all!!!! But I know it is not realistic and we have to focus on the little bit of difference we can make and not try and rescue the whole of Zimbabwe. Saying all that though, we are blown away daily by the character of the people of Zimbabwe. I feel so proud of my nation and it’s people!! They have stood and continue to stand!!!

So another update soon!!!