Home again

Well we made it home safely. After a long flight stopping in Lusaka (Zambia), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Rome (Italy), we finally touched down at Heathrow 7am Saturday morning.

It's great to be back home with family and friends, and both of us enjoyed the welcome back we received from our churches on Sunday.

Now it's back to work and the normal routines. We both intend to let people find out more about our experience through various talks etc, so please let us know if you are interested.

Thankyou for your support and interest and for the comments you left on the blog.

Planting the pots

Open day - visitors enjoying refreshments

Open day

Open day was very successful. We had 18 visitors - a mixture of parents, committee members and friends. Children sang and danced beautifully, visitors watched a PE lesson and activities with the least able group. They also enjoyed a drink, popcorn and biscuits. The school grounds have been brightened up by 4 large plastic containers planted up by the children. Today, Henry the handyman at Gatehouse, has made 3 outdoor benches for us to put in the grounds of the school. None of this would have been possible without your donations. Thankyou.



Our time here is drawing rapidly to an end. We are looking forward to the party with children here at Gatehouse tomorrow afternoon.

Please pray for our safe journey home and continued freedom from migraine. We have been richly blessed during our stay here. See you all in cold England (with a bit of a suntan!)

Children from the orphanage

Musha Wavana Orphanage

We had a really good visit to this orphanage. It was built to house 40 children but now has 90 living there. As aresult most of them have to sleep 2 in a single bed. There are 4 houses with children living in family groups led by a house mother. Gatehouse community are one of their suppoprters. The children were pleased to see us and sang enthusiastically thanking us for the teddies we were able to give them.



This coming week is a very busy one. We are teaching at school each morning. On Wednesday we have an open morning to which we have invited parents, committee members and other supporters. On Wednesday afternoon we are holding a staff training session. Thursday is our last day and in the afternoon we have invited the Kukura children and staff to Gatehouse for a party and to look at thecows and pigs. It is with sadness that we shall say goodbye to them.

Kudzai and Ishe-unopa

Thought you might like to meet some more of the children we're working with and in these pictures you can see some of the things we've bought for the school so far. This first young lad is Kudzai:

And next is Ishe-unopa, who we introduced you to the other day. He is playing with animals and making fields of bricks:

The school has very limited resources, most of which are many years old and well used. You may like to know how some of the money raised in the UK is being spent. As well as things we bought in England, we've bought paper, exercise books, glue, biros, pencil sharpeners, sellotape and storage boxes. It's not easy to buy exactly what we'd like as the shops have limited stocks. We have managed to get a few simple childrens books, but a book we might pay 50p for in the UK costs US $3 in Marondera! From the craftsmen in Bulawayo we have bought small wire cars and wooden animals. the local youth group have made push along toys for the children using wire and drinks cans. We are sure the children and staff appreciate what your money has bought so far.

Prisca and Ishe-unopa

Just thought we'd upload a couple of pictures of the two pupils we talked about in the previous post so you can get an idea of who we're working with.

Above: Prisca

Below: Ishe-unopa

Back to work

Today we are back at work teaching in the school. Today and the next 2 days, we are being observed teaching by potential candidates for the job of superintendent which becomes vacant at the end of April. (Ruth and I are considering whether we should apply!)

This morning we taught the youngest children and used playdough, sang, did drawings and ended the session with a game of skittles. After the morning break, we split and took the 2 other groups. Ruth's group did writing patterns, number recognition and number sequencing to 5 and ended the morning with a music session. Stephanie's group (the most able group), read together a reading book we have made using the childrens photos and then did some simple subtraction work. The session finished with simple geography - looking at maps and then using video taken of the animals we have seen whilst we've been here. The children really enjoyed it and were impressed by the technology.

Let's introduce another 2 of the pupils. Prisca is 24 and has been in a wheeelchair for many years. She lives in the hostel for Kukura children. without any special aids being available for her, her spine has twisted badly and she is unable to sit up straight. She attempts speech and makes her needs known. One of her hands works fairly well so she uses a pencil. She loves to sing and joins in clapping when we have a worship session. She's always happy and smiling.

Ishe-unopa is a small bright eyed lovable child. He too lives in the hostel. He can't walk on his feet because they are malformed, but this doesn't stop him getting around using a crutch. Amazingly he loves to dance and has a good go at kicking a ball. He speaks in Shona - if only we did too! This morning he enjoyed using the playdough and spent time cutting up little bits with a knife.

Victoria Falls

On Saturday we visited the Victoria Falls. We walked along and were lucky not to get too wet. Though they are not full at this time of year, they were spectacular. The sun came out to give us a rainbow. From there we went to the Victoria Falls Hotel to take tea! We sat in the garden overlooking the lawns with the VF Bridge and the spray of the falls in the distance. Reminders of times past.
We stayed in a beautiful thatched lodge. Our bedroom overlooked the bush - it didn't have a back wall but canvas sides that you could roll up. While we were having breakfast on the patio we were visited by a curious warthog family, guinea fowl and a pangolin.

Monday 1st Feb

We're still in Bulawayo this morning, but travelling back to Harare this afternoon. Fantastic weekend spent with friends (Amita, Pradip and Amir Sudra) who have looked after us so well. We spent a night at Hwange Safari Lodge where we seemed to be the only guests and enjoyed watching zebra, impala and buffalo at the water hole behind the hotel. At 6am the following morning we took a game drive and saw lots of birds, giraffe, gibbons, warthog and a crocodile. It was hard to believe that we were really sitting in the African sun watching these animals and it wasn't something on TV!

Home!

This is Kevin and Gill Martin's house where we are staying at the Gatehouse Community. We're feeling at home with them.

Feeding the elephants!

Wednesday 27th

Sorry we haven't updated recently - we're having severe problems with lack of electricity and satellite connections.
Last Saturday was a real treat for us as we were taken to visit Imire Safari Drive. We were driven around in a trailer behind a tractor and saw lots of animals. Lunch was set out for us in a beautiful spot beside the lake. 4 elephants were brought down to play in the water while we watched and we then had a chance to feed them.
On Sunday we went to church and then spent time mending, planning and making things for school. We've made dolls house furniture and dolls, number charts, playdough and shakers. The children enjoy these additions to their usual and basic equipment.
Today, Wednesday, we used the parachute for the first time. The children loved it and there was lots of laughter. There had been a bit more rain but still not all that is needed.
From tomorrow we are being tourists for 5 days. We will travel to Bulawayo to meet up with friends, Amita and Pradip, and then travel on to Hwange Game Reserve and on Saturday we will stay at Victoria Falls. We will return on Marondera on Tuesday. Hopefully we will get a chance to update over the weekend, but if not it will probably not be until Wednesday (electricity permitting!)

Norman and Arthur

Norman

Arthur

We would like to introduce you to 2 of our students - Arthur and Norman.

Norman is the oldest student born in 1967 and has been at Kukura for many years. He is unable to walk but manages to get around by crawling. He only has the use of one arm and has very poor and indistinct speech, but his smile and his attitude to learning are wonderful. He understands a fair amount of english and can write with his good arm. He lives in a hostel which is supported by Gatehouse, along with 8 others from the school. We are discovering more and more of his abilities and today during lunchbreak were surprised to find him writing "wanted general handiwork" on a piece of paper which was obviously a job application. What great faith he has in a country where unemployment is so high!

Arthur is about 11years of age (not everyone knows their exact age). He lives in the same hostel as Norman during school terms. We guess he has autism, although he's never had an official diagnosis. He's always pleased to see us in the morning and likes us to stroke his arm. When we are singing in the praise and worship session to begin the day, he will sit next to one of us and appears to enjoy the singing. He finds it difficult to join in with group activities and finds it hard to stay in the classroom. He wanders about in the school yard and on a bad day will scream and seem very troubled. With limited resources and training it's hard for the staff to cope with his needs.

Today is Friday so we are now off for the weekend. Tomorrow we are going with Peter, the farm manager from the community, to Imire game drive where we hope to see antelope, elephants and lions.

Thankyou for your comments - we love to read them. We hope to update again on Monday. :)

Kukura Neshungu School

Sorry if we've been giving you all the wrong impression, but we really are working hard! We get to school at 8am every morning and began the day with praise and worship. The children really enjoy singing and dancing along to the drum. There are 19 'children' (aged from 10 - 43yrs) split into 3 groups. We've taught english, numeracy and PE. Some of the children and all of the staff, speak some english. There's one great lad named Tawanda whose english is so good he can interpret for us. We are very very slowly learning a few words of Shona, but body language and gestures work well! Some of time has been spent helping them to reorganise and mend the few resources they have. We've attended a management committee meeting for the school and been asked to produce a report before we come home. A new superintendent is to be appointed in April (perhaps one of us might apply!).

The children are given lunch at school - often sadza and vegetables or meat. We go back to Gatehouse for our lunch and spend the afternoons preparing work and visiting. (Yesterday we had a very english afternoon tea with china cups and saucers sitting out on the verandah of one of the Gatehouse community.)

Tonight (Wed) after supper we will go to the housegroup meeting. Power and water cuts

are a daily feature, but we're getting used to coping with them.

Our first weekend

As usual we woke up to lovely blue skies, sunshine and bird song on Saturday. Breakfast at 8am (a lie in compared to the usual 6am). We were driven to the Tsindi Ruins which are 40mins away. They are an old Shona site built at the top of some huge rock formations. We climbed up to the top and got beautiful views.

We had lunch back at Gatehouse under the big tree - pizza, salad and potatoes. The afternoon was spent in the garden and after supper we joined the community for a fun evening.

On Sunday there was a lively church service and we knew some of the songs!

Hopefully you can see a photo in this blog. We're having trouble getting them to uplaod and we can only use the internet occasionally. It's lovely to get messages back from you, so please comment if you can. Are you still snowed in?

We're in the sunshine

We've arrived safely after a long but uneventful journey. We are staying with the gatehouse community in the home of Kevin and Gill Martin. There is a main house where everyone eats together and a chapel where we meet each morning at 6.15am for prayers. The surroundings are beautiful - there are lots of flowers and trees and we've seen monkeys in them, a mongoose, lizards, storks and other exotic birds.
The weather is beautiful - about 26 degrees with a cooling breeze. We have been to the school each morning and have received a great welcome. The staff and children are very friendly even though many speak Shona and no english.
Each day there has been no electricity and water for part of the day. Mum and I share bathwater and we keep the water to flush the toilet during the next day. There is a borehole at Gatehouse so we have good water to drink. The power goes off with no warning so you need to have a torch handy.
We've taken some great pictures, but unfortunately I can't get them to load at the moment. We'll try and get them up next time. Hope you are all okay in the snow!

5 hours until take off

Well we are all packed - anything we have forgotten is too bad. It's 13.40 and Alan (the minister from mum's church) is coming to pick us up at 2pm to take us to Heathrow. (Thanks a lot Alan). There hasn't been any more snow here in Northampton and I've spoken to someone at Ethiopian Airways and they are not expecting any delays, so everything looks set for take off at 9pm.
Thanks to all those people we know who are praying for us and for safe travelling. We both had great send offs from our churches yesterday and we've received lots of cards, texts and phone calls. Thankyou for all your support, love and prayers.
So begins our big adventure! Next time we write this we should be in Zimbabwe.

Lots of love,
Stephanie and Ruth

It's cold out here

I'm just checking out how to upload a video clip into the blog. Hope you enjoy looking at these Canada geese who were skating about on the frozen lake at West Park yesterday!

5 days and counting!

It's getting very close now. I (that is Stephanie) couldn't get into work today because of the snow so I'll go in tomorrow instead and I've spent the day getting ready. I went shopping this morning for some last minute bits and bobs and I managed to send some money on to the school. Got around to packing this afternoon. We're allowed to take 2 bags of up to 23kg each which seems plenty even including the things we are taking out for the school.

My house in the snow this morning!

Sorry this is a bit short - got to go, lots to do.