May Update!!

Well we’ve had a brilliant start to the term. Been very full on for Mark and I but we seem to be coping!! The students came back to a house that looked more like a home. My folks had fished out a few pictures that we were able to hang in the house and it is amazing what a difference those few things made. We were able to put in place systems to help this term run better and are so enjoying having our House Mum full time with us now!!! We no longer need to do the weekly shop, duties in the mornings etc.

All the students were thrilled to be back and we got text messages over the holiday period saying that they couldn’t wait to be back! I think the holidays for some of them were tough as a few of them got back to some very tricky extended family set ups.

We have put together a co-curricular programme this term which is keeping them very busy in the mornings. Monday and Tuesday morning we have been given the use of Barclays Bank Sports Club and the students are learning to play football, volleyball, basketball and tennis. We love seeing them spend their energy this way and we have a fantastic coach!

We had a lovely ladies Bible Study host a tea at the boarding house for the students and they donated money too (which bought the jerseys for the students winter uniforms and paid for a weeks worth of food). They were so lovely and such a blessing. One of the ladies is a computer programmer and offered her services to teach the students how to use the computers. We were so thrilled with this provision as had just got the laptops up and running, free internet installed in the house etc but the students have never been exposed to anything like this before! So Jill teaches them voluntarily on a Thursday morning and has split them into groups of varying ability. She will be taking them until the end of next year and she is brilliant with them. She also says she loves teaching the 15 students as they are so eager to learn!! They will learn word processing, various different packages pertaining to future career ambitions, basic web design etc and Denise the House Mum has joined in too!

I have arranged a few career lectures for this term on various different careers to expose the students to what career options are out there. They struggle to think out the box as for many of them it just doesn’t seem like a reachable option. So it is showing them that they can achieve and follow their dreams. We have chosen a few local Zimbabweans that have successful careers but who started from nothing – hopefully to inspire and encourage them too!

Denise and I are running a Bible Study on a Thursday night for those who want to attend (all seem to come each week which is lovely) and we are studying The Purpose Driven Life. I am loving these times with the students, as I am getting to know the inner workings of who they are and being able to share life with them. It is an incredible foundational study to do with them and I feel so privileged to have this opportunity. They are so open and real and I feel excited at how God is working in their precious hearts!!!! Seeing real healing and restoration in their hearts and minds.

We took the students hiking up a huge rock that protrudes out of the ground (like a mountain but a huge granite rock). They had never done anything like this before and it was such fun as our kids joined us, as well as Mark’s brother and partner and their little boy Jordan. It was such a beautiful evening and we enjoyed snacks and drinks on top – a reward for our climb! The students had to go in uniform as they wanted to charge a ridiculous amount for them otherwise but they actually were thrilled to wear it and show it off to people!!!

We have also started baking lessons with the students. Once a month a friend Sian has the students round to her house and teaches them how to bake something – then we have tea and enjoy the delights of what they have produced at the end of the evening!! They have loved this – again something so new to them all!!! Sian will also be hosting games evenings this term!!!

A family friend called Liz teaches 3 of the students recorder and music on a Friday morning. They are loving this and the experience of doing something they have never been exposed to. We feel so blessed to have people who so want to step in and help serve these guys.

Academic stuff!!! Mark is doing a fantastic job of teaching these guys and they are all doing really well. His heart and soul goes into all he does for the students. Mark has found it quite a lonely teaching experience as he misses the comaraderie of working with other teachers, bouncing ideas off each other, working as a team etc. We have wonderful Biology and Chemistry teachers but as it is not a formal school setting, they only come and go for their lessons.

Mark has continued to try and raise money here. Mark and my dad have done a few presentations to various Rotary Clubs around Harare and we keep everything crossed that something will come of these meetings. We also had a company sponsor two students this month – still waiting for the money but the promise is there!!! We have amazing friends in England who continue to raise money for us – Shaun has organised a 10k run that 40 work colleagues are taking part in http://www.justgiving.com/acturis10k2011 and Stuart has arranged ‘Peter’s Commute’ which the 6th Form at his School are taking part in http://www.justgiving.com/teams/peterscommute You go guys!!! We feel humbled by peoples support of us. Thank you so much!

Family News! We are all doing well!! Though poor little Zoe lost most of her front tooth a few weeks ago!! Sadly needs a root canel but holding off as we wait for the tooth to firm up. Sadly she got an abscess this last week but thankfully the root canel is booked for Wednesday!!! She was very brave as having a root exposed was excruciating but the body is an amazing thing and it is only sore now with very cold food! The abscess was excruciating too but antibios work wonders!!

Matt is back at school two mornings a week and just loving it! They did a special Postman Pat day last week and he was so thrilled to take all his Postman Pat stuff to school to show and share with all the other kids! He has become so protective and loving towards Zoe - it is soooo lovely to watch!!

We often go for family bike rides – I push Zoe on her bike and Matt rides along on his little bike. It is so lovely and I go try and go out on the afternoons we are home!!! We live in a quiet area, so it is safe to ride on the road without constant traffic! I think the kids love the freedom of it!!

My business Zimbaby has been crazy busy but that is because I have my big launch on 26th June so busy building stock etc. I have had a few stresses with lack of electricity and not being able to sew but sure we will make it for the 26th fine! Though can see me working crazy hours this next 2 weeks! I wish I wasn’t a perfectionist! I’ve even begun to make sales without much advertising – made 10 in the last two weeks!!!

We are loving our new home and it really does feels like home. Don’t feel like we have a huge amount of time to enjoy it but it has been good. They have cut 15 huge trees down in our garden so it currently looks like a wood has been felled! Lots of fire wood and lots of mess to tidy up!!!!! The kids have built numerous T-Pees!!! We have struggled with water, as we do not get government water – just doesn’t come through our pipes – bad area and we have been relying on the well in the garden which is virtually dry due to the rainy season having gone for a few months. So been quite tough at times but our next door neighbour has been so kind and sends over a hosepipe to fill containers etc as they have a borehole.

We are thrilled to let people know that my youngest brother Richard and his wife Anni are expecting their first baby in December! We are so excited for them!!! Woo hoo!!

We have two ex students come to visit in July, which will be amazing and then very close friends the Campbell’s arrive at the end of July – we can’t wait!!! I think that is all our news!

Some photos of family life!
Snuggles in the spare bed together!

First Dress Up Party - Fairies and Superhero's! A few hours before Zoe lost half her front tooth!

The serious business of building T-Pees in the garden!!!

We went to a little game park for Mother's Day with my folks!

Drinking tea on the step with the kids! Best bit dunking our biscuits!!

Snuggled up warm watching TV

Sunset Picnic on the School fields

Best Friends!

It's been a long time...

Where to start!!!! Sorry this update has taken so long to sit down and write! I think the last 3 months have been the toughest months since our return to Zimbabwe. Times of doubting our return to Zimbabwe, whether we were making the right decision going ahead with the scholarship programme when the funding isn’t in place, the stress of moving house twice in a month etc. We are riding the rollercoaster ride of living by faith and learning lots of lessons along the way. Our house has been full of people since the end of January and this has been fantastic, as this often jollied us along – they have had to muck in with all that was going on but good fun too!! Often hitting rock bottom with doubts and fears and then God sending a little golden moment for us to cling to and know we are not alone! When we are in the thick of it all and in survival mode we often have lost sight of the bigger picture and what God is doing – when we do finally see sense and do look back we are amazed at what we have accomplished and can see God moving and what a privilege it is to be a part of that!!!!! To those of you who have held us in your prayers, phoned to encourage us or just been people we can laugh or cry with – thank you!!!! We are truly blessed with very special friends, even if a lot of you are miles and miles away!!!!! So I hope to update you as briefly as possible with where we are at and the exciting A-level Scholarship Programme that is running.

General Family News
We’ve had a wonderful run of visitors and have had people staying since January when Mark’s mum was here. We so loved time with her and she got to stay our last few nights with us in our Bush house!!!

Grace arrived in February for a few weeks – one of Mark’s ex-students from Benenden. She came at a very busy manic time but we thoroughly loved having her around, squeezed into our temporary little cottage!! We took her away camping for a weekend and was able to share our work out at Turf with her – the lions got out the night we stayed at our old bush house – bit scary!!! Grace was also able to be part of some of the testing and selection process of students for the scholarship programme. Grace is now serving on a project in Tanzania for a few months. She also got an article printed in her local paper about her trip and experiences in Zimbabwe.

Rachel arrived just after Grace returned to the UK – she lived in the local village where we lived in England. Rachel stayed with us for 3 weeks and slotted into family life so easily. She volunteered at a local orphanage and helped us with the initial running of the boarding house. We had a really fun 1st games night with the 15 students with her. I was also able to take her out to Turf and she got involved with the primary work I do out there. Her little nursery school in England – Mr Noah’s raised an amazing amount of money and we were able to buy some much needed stationary for Grade O, as well as get an incredible wooden play frame made from wood – swings, slides, tunnels, house, sandpit! It gets fitted this next week!!! So exciting. Rachel also got taken on an Albertyn family camping trip!!! We have now done two camping trips as a family since being back in Zimbabwe and we are converted – we love camping and the kids love it too!! These two young ladies were incredibly brave to travel on their own during their gap years before Uni and we so loved sharing our lives with them. We love them both so much and miss having them around!!!

The Mansfield’s were our next visitors – they are a family of 4 and Steve, Amalia and Mark taught together for 5 years. They are good friends and it was soooooooooo special to have them in our home!! The kids all played so lovely together and we just enjoyed time with people we felt very comfortable with – we laughed and laughed! They were here 3 weeks. We jam packed their week with doing workshops at the boarding house and sport with the scholarship kids, we took them out to the rural areas and a day out at Grade 0 in Turf and even managed black board painting at rural schools, which Grace and Rachel enjoyed doing too. They so embraced everything in Zimbabwe and were so keen to try all that they could. They also had a wonderful holiday around Zimbabwe. Four days of which we joined them in the mountains of Zimbabwe. So amazing for us to get away to such a beautiful place, but also such fun being on holiday together. It was so hard saying good bye to them but Zimbabwe has left a permanent mark on their lives and we hope to welcome them back here again!!! We have many, many happy memories!!!

The kids have settled into their new home. We love being their parents. Matt chats endlessly and has an incredible imagination – he plays with his Thomas trains endlessly with elaborate story lines!!!! He is a cuddly little boy, who has a very sensitive heart!!! He was a little unsettled after our last move and kept checking that we were in this house for a long time but seems incredibly happy and loves riding his bike up and down the drive way!! He loves chasing visitors cars down the drive way shouting ‘Bye’ and waving furiously – Zoe joins in too!!! Zoe is a typical toddler into everything and fearless!!!! A real adventurer who doesn’t think before acting!!!! She has permanent scrapped knees!!! We have named her Miss Congeniality from the scene where Sandra Bullock is walking out of the warehouse and takes a tumble – it is so Zoe – she is pigeon toed and will be walking along confidently and then next minute hits the deck as she trips over her feet!!! Zoe has an eccentric way of sleeping – with every single soft toy in her cot and no room for her!! We are not allowed to move any out!!!!! It’s very sweet!!!


Poor Zoe had a nasty fall from a chair that broke and looked like she had decapitated herself – it was so scary but thank goodness she is so young and her bones so soft the x-rays show no damage and all she had was a sore stiff neck for a few days!!!! I had all these terrible thoughts running through my head on the way to the hospital – thank goodness we were confronted with none of them!!!

A Matthew Quote: Driving along in the car one day with Rachel, “Mummy, the clouds are dirty, God needs to wash them and send some rain!”

We have also welcomed another nephew into the world – Samuel West!! We can’t wait to meet the third addition to Pete and Jo’s little family!!!

So now onto some project updates!!!
February was a frantic month with two house moves and the setting up of the Scholarship Programme. We were madly renovating our rental house so we could move into it (it had had chickens living in it and we temporarily lived in a tiny cottage on the property), doing up the boarding house, fundraising with local companies, starting up my own business, sorting out school uniforms, teachers, text books, going through the gruelling task of selecting just 15 scholarship students from 150 applicants etc. It’s probably the hardest we have worked in months, working till 2am most nights and trying to juggle kids with all that was going on. We look back and wonder how we survived that month!! Grace was with us during this time. She was great, she saw us at our worst and just loved us and helped out with the kids. We also had great fears of actually committing to the A-level Scholarship programme without full funding in place for the first year and this was something we wrestled with during the selection process – will we mess these kids lives up more if the scheme crumbles around us! But God was faithful as during this month he gave us little glimmers that this was right. One of those instances was when Mark was in a very hustle bustle crazy part of the city looking for cheap school uniforms. In the craziness of the traffic and very few road rules a car stopped where Mark was walking on the pavement and out hopped a student that Mark taught 10 years previously. Mark and him chatted and he was excited by what we were doing and took us into the crowd and into the back of a little shop where he introduced us to his Mum. She heard what we were doing and as they make components for leather shoes she said they would donate all the school shoes!!!

So the boarding house is set up and been running since the 1st of March. We have 15 incredible students – you can read more here about their personal stories, a wonderful House Mother who has a passion for these precious kids and they all call her mum now, my business is running – all be it rather slow and we are in our new home. Mark is teaching all the Physics and Maths lessons, as well as coaching sport and we have a Chemistry teacher and two Biology teachers.

To give you an idea of how a day runs

8am - Breakfast
Mornings - spent either at the boarding house for personal study time or sport or a lecture on something different (i.e. a language, craft etc)
12noon - Lunch and then catch a bus to the school which we use their facilities for teaching during the afternoon
1.30-5.30pm - Lessons
7pm - Dinner

They are weekly boarders, arriving at 5pm on Sunday night and leaving Friday afternoon after lessons.

This 1st term has been a steep learning curve for us in running a boarding house and school but we did it and we know this next term will run much smoother!! We have run games nights, language workshops, History of Art workshops, played volleyball, tennis, basketball, football and golf with all 15 kids and hosted a BBQ at the house with some of our friends. We are setting up a more structured co-curricular programme for this term. Sport on two mornings a week, one morning of fun lectures on varied topics (to expose the kids to different things) and then the other two mornings are free for study time.

Mark and I have adjusted to Harare life and finding where to find the cheapest food etc. We do a two monthly shop at this crazy wholesale place where you queue for two hours just to get in the door in a very dodgy part of town. But we have learnt that if you go on the last Sunday of the month it is not too crazy!! All fresh stuff is bought from a local supermarket. I have learnt the art of catering for 15 kids without wastage. Though have had a few laughs along the way – one being I taught the house mum how to bake cakes for them once a week and made a slight mistake when I wrote the recipe out. I wrote 3 tablespoons of baking powder instead of teaspoons and I got this frantic call saying that the cakes were exploding all over the oven!! We did have a good laugh about it!!!

They have an incredibly smart uniform – which you can see in some of the photos and they all wear it with such pride! They made us laugh, as they chose their uniform and were so particular about what they wanted!!! We are so proud to have each one of them on this programme.

As many of them are orphans or have very tough family backgrounds we have been impressed with how they have adjusted to a structured ‘normal’ family life!!! They all have responsibilities around the home, which they participate happily in. Edwin walked me to the car the other night and told me that this is the happiest he has ever been and he now has people he can call family!!! This obviously brought a tear to both Mark and my eyes – this is defiantly worth fighting for. Peter (who we have blogged about before) is also part of the programme. He came and stayed with us for a few days to see if he wanted to be part of the programme. He did and started a little late but will be rewriting his A-levels and learning English! House rules – no Shona during the day!!! We have got to know Peter’s family well and I pop in and visit them every time I go out to Turf. Peter has adjusted well to living in a western house (lives in a mud hut village) and we have been very proud of him. All the kids work incredibly hard and their motivation is unbelievable. The Chemistry and Biology teachers all teach at private schools and they have said how refreshing it is to teach these guys, their passion and zeal to learn is amazing!!! Amalia did a Spanish workshop while she was here and the kids drank it up and were speaking Spanish all week and asking her for more and more stuff they could learn – she said that she had taught them more than she would be able to do in 8 lessons in the UK!

Matthew and Zoe also slot into boarding life well and Zoe has spent a few evening in a camp cot in one of the bedrooms sleeping while we do stuff at the house in the evenings. They have got to know the 15 kids well and it is lovely to see how comfortable they are just hanging out at the boarding house! Matthew had us in stitches the one games night when we played twister – he was calling out the moves and kind of got stuck on Left foot Yellow!!! I feel privileged to be exposing them to different cultures but also different class structures in Zimbabwe. I love kids as they are oblivious to the normal barriers that we see and embrace everyone so openly.

It is holiday time and time for us to catch up with life and get systems in place for next term.

Mobile library update: it is happening!! Mainly with our own books and kids from the boarding house but it is getting off the ground. Thanks to those of you who so generously donated books!!

Mark is an incredible man!!! There are moments in our 15 years together that I have been overwhelmed with pride – one of those being the birth of both our kids but these last few months I have again been blown away by him. The demands on him from every angle – fundraising, teaching, setting up a boarding house and school, personal financial pressure etc. We have had moments of complete exhaustion but have pushed through and I am so proud of Mark!!!! What an amazing man – striving for the best for these kids, as well as trying to provide a happy secure environment for his family!!!! I love you babe – we can do this!!!!

A quick update on the Zimbabwean Trust – KST – sadly this trust has gone totally bankrupt and in essence we are on our own! We are in the process of registering our own trust here – Makomborero Zimbabwe. Even though all we had returned to Zimbabwe for is totally different to the reality, we continue to believe that God has brought us here. It has been tough at times as it feels like we have done 180 degree turn and have nothing concrete but our hope is in God!! Chatting to Dave and Liz Holden (our pastors from England), they reminded us that we are living our dream of over 13 years and what we are living now is closer to our dream than what our lives out at Turf would have been!!!! So, funding is in place for 8 kids through the grants from Makomborero UK and various other sources and we trust for the rest! Keep knocking on doors, doing presentations and hoping we stumble across all the funding we need!!! Personal funding has been tough too but God is faithful!!!!!

Hope waits but does not sit. It strains with eager anticipation to see what may be coming on the horizon. Hope does not pacify; it does not make us docile and medicore. Instead it draws us to greater risk and perseverance. Dan Allender

See I am doing a new thing!! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wastelands. Isaiah 43:19

Thank you to those of you in the UK who are so generously fundraising for us for the scholarship programme. We have been humbled!!!! To our friends who continue to support us – thank you, thank you – words are not enough!!!!

Well, I will endeavour to write more regularly on this blog and share moments of joy and heart ache more openly!!! Thank you for being patient enough to catch up on our news!!! The next update won’t be soooo long and a little more regular!

Elephants come to visit on our camping trip




Sunset on our camping trip


Zoe helping with Laundry


These photos are for the benefit of the lovely ladies at Darrick Wood - these flowers are what you buy at Christmas in little pots!! I used to tell them they and were trees in Zim - well here is the pic of one of the ones in my garden!!! I miss and love you all!!

Happy New Year and a little of our news!

Happy New Year to all of you, we hope you had a great Christmas! I can’t believe we are half way through January already!

We had a busy few weeks leading up to Christmas. We finished up at each of our schools for the term, with a commitment to being out at Turf one day a week this year. We’ve had lots of visitors come and stay on and off leading up to Christmas, and loved catching up with people. One family in particular – The Davis Family. They were our cell leaders when we got married 10 years ago and we hadn’t seen them for 8 years. Really special to meet their great kids. So wonderful to pick friendships up where they left off so long ago. It felt like we had seen each other the other day – the only tell tell sign was that there are now a few little people running around!!!
Made me realise that so many of our friendships in England will be like that!!!

Christmas Fun with the kids!

I got a spider bite just before Christmas. I was terribly ill and had to go to A&E for intravenous antibios and for the rotting flesh to be removed. I really never knew how sick a spider bite could make you – hallucinations, fever, migraine, terrible pain in all my glands – lasting for a week! We were very impressed with the medical care I received – very 1st world!! Our medical aid covered everything including theatre. I am totally well now!!!

We celebrated 10 years of marriage in December and got away for a night just the two of us – thank you Dad and Mum – our 2nd night just the two of us in over 3 years. We enjoyed the luxury of getting out of bed in the morning later than normal! What a privilege it has been to share the last 10 years with Mark. He is truly my best friend. We have had some big mountains to climb, some amazing mountain tops, a few tough valleys but through it all I’m so glad I’ve journeyed with him!! He’s an amazing man who I am proud to call my husband! Thank you babe for being the best Daddy, Husband and friend anyone could wish for! You still make me laugh and life with you is fun!! 10 years of marriage and two kids - we're slightly bonkers!!!

Christmas was special. My brother, Richard and his wife, Anni came up from South Africa for two weeks. It was so lovely to spend quality time with them after such a long time. The kids enjoyed getting to know them again! We also were able to take them out to Turf to see what we have been doing and we stopped off at Peter’s village (see October entry about Peter). We had a lovely morning with his family and we were so humbled by the gift they gave us – a massive bucket of ground nuts (raw peanuts) and freshly harvested honey. This reduced me to tears, as we knew what a sacrifice a gift like this was to them as a family. It made the few packets of biscuits I gave them seem so insignificant. Here is a photo of us all outside their little village
Mark and I are hoping to have Peter live with us for the rest of this year and find little bits of work for him to do to try and help him save and find support to go to University.

Christmas was spent in Harare. What a treat to be somewhere which has more electricity than us. Had 6 weeks of no power!!!! Not much fun! Though am now a pro at hand washing and living without a fridge! The kids thoroughly enjoyed their time with my folks and their uncle and aunt. They loved opening presents!! We made good use of the swimming pool. So wonderful to spend Christmas with my family again.



We were able to get away for two nights to a cottage friends of ours lent us. It is on a lovely game park called Antelope Park. It was such a welcome break for the 4 of us. Really special family time! We swam in rivers, through stones into Dams, rode ponies, had picnics, went on walks etc. What a great place for kids, such freedom! Our cottage was surrounded by 70 lions (in cages) and that took a little getting used to – so so noisy!!! Antelope Park is an amazing lion sanctuary. http://www.antelopepark.co.zw/index.html

The rainy season is well and truly here!!! Just today we had 41cm of rain in 25 minutes! We have had weeks of wet days and very muddy children. I forgot how much it does rain in the rainy season!! It is beautiful and green everywhere. Over the last 5 months we are beginning to get our heads round buying things that are in season (you never have to think about it in England as you can buy everything all year round or nearly all year round). So one of my favourites – Mangos are in season!! Woo hoo!!!

Our precious little boy turned 3 on Thursday – boy does time fly!! What a joy it has been to parent him! He had a count down chart for the week leading to his birthday and did a little gig every morning when he could tick off a day!! He loved speaking to his Granparents, Uncles, Aunts and Cousins on the phone from South Africa. He had a little party on Friday with a Thomas theme. This is his second Thomas party and this might not be his last – he is totally obsessed!!!
We can have such deep chats with him now and he has a wicked sense of humour!! I have so enjoyed watching him grow up but at the same time it’s going way to fast!!!! He is adamant that he is not ‘little’ anymore – Zoe is little, Matthew is ‘little big’ and Daddy is ‘big’!! We love you our special boy!!!

Scholarship Scheme in Harare
We’ve also been busy setting up the scholarship scheme, collecting scholarship application forms from rural and township schools, finding accommodation and a school to partner with. Mark is now going through the tough task of picking 15 pupils out of 150 applicants. Each of their stories is moving and each of them deserves a chance!!! Mark ran two interview days with testing as well, which he found quite emotionally draining, as some of their stories are heart breaking. As well as approaching local businesses in Zimbabwe to fund a pupil for this scholoarship scheme, Mark would like to find support for the students who do not make the 15 but are extremely gifted. The idea is to pay for their school fees at their local township school for the two years of their A-levels and provide holiday revision schools that they can attend to boost their learning. We are excited by this and hope to be able to fundraise for this too.

The costs involved:
• Scholarship Scheme Student - £2700 per year
• Student in a Government School with Revision School - £400 per year

We still have a long way to go to make sure that this scheme will go well but we can see how both these schemes will change lives forever. This is both humbling and exciting but we realise the huge responsibility that comes with this!!!

Mobile Library
I think having been working out in the rural areas for the last 5 months there has been one thing that has stood out to me the most. How poor English is and how limited pupils are if their English is not good. They can have outstanding exam results but will be totally over looked if their English is not good enough. Peter is a prime example of this!! I’ve also seen the hunger for reading material and would love to provide something recreational for kids to enjoy – both junior and senior school age. So I’ve been dreaming – to start a mobile library. I obviously started dreaming big – having a big truck that travels around like a mobile library. We would start in the Turf area (45mile radius) and then hopefully expand the work nationwide!! Where would we get the money to set something up and running like this?

So I kind of put the dream on the back burner and then last night lying in bed it just came to me – start small Laura!!! So I’m going to start collecting second hand books that people don’t want anymore in a box – and stop off at a few villages on my way out to Turf each week!! It is also an easy thing to build up as people can donate the odd book here and there. I don’t have a box yet or any books but watch this space! It could be a logistical nightmare but I’m going to try!!

We feel so humbled!! We have lots of visitors to look forward to this year! Mark’s mum out at the moment - so so special to spend time with her - Matt loves having two Granny's around!! One of Mark’s students from Benenden is coming out for two weeks in February, a teaching colleague and his family in April and another colleague and his family in July! How excited are we, we can’t wait to share Zimbabwe with all of them and to spend quality time with some very special friends!

We have found somewhere to rent in Harare, as we need to be out of our bush home by the end of the month – will be sad to leave, this has become our home for nearly 4 months. Matthew has just started calling it home! Where we are moving to is a little run down and needs work but we are very excited to know we have somewhere to move into in just over a week! Matthew started Nursery on Tuesday – two mornings a week, so will commute into Harare to take him. He is so excited!!!! I feel a little sad that our intense time of just the three of us in the bush has come to and end! His little school

For those of you who pray for us – please pray that the scholarship scheme comes together well, all loose ends are sorted out, that we settle into our new home and that through the tough times we keep focused on why we are really here!

The kids sitting in a tree


Us Four

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!!