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!!!!
