Greetings from Zimbabwe,

Tomorrow Jeff and I need to go to Harare to take care of several bits of business. So I am going to put together a Journal to night. I am uncertain when we will be going back to town. However, some weeks the trips are rather frequent. So far we have driven 6,200 km since picking up the truck in SA. That gives an idea of the frequent trips to Harare.

Sunday, October 2, we traveled to Nyahuni Boarding School. Tracey and Pertronella, two orphans, are students
HCOC has been sponsoring there. Sunday was a gathering of friends and families for the end of the year awards
celebration. Tracy, the girl whose picture is on the left received three awards. She was the top student in her
grade in physical science, agriculture and commercial studies. We are so very proud of her.

Petronella, the girl in the picture on the right, was the top student in her grade level in Geography. It has been a struggle to find the money for school fees for these children but their achievements have been our reward. We are committed to providing for their schooling if at all possible.

We presently have three students attending Cheunje Boarding School. Those three students will be graduating at the end of this term. Due to the shortage of funds, there are no plans at this time to start any new students in Boarding School beginning the school year in January.

This has been a rainy week. It has begun to rain the last three evenings just after dark. This evening it is a gentle steady rain. Last night we had hard rain with wind and some hail. Normally this time of year we get scattered showers but not heavy rains. I guess the weather is changing the world over.

In spite of the rains the Well Drillers were able to do their work. The men and equipment arrived at HCOC about noon on Monday, October 3. They began drilling early afternoon and hit water at about 45 meters. The following day they continued drilling to 70 meters and continued to get some water. The final results are about 500 gallons an hour. It isn’t as good as we had hoped for but better than previous attempts. It certainly will provide for the crops that are soon to be planted.

Tuesday afternoon, the well drillers tore down their rig and Jeff led them to Guzha Primary School. We were not optimistic about the prospects of getting water. The hydrologist gave us only a 67 % chance of finding water. He thought the best we could hope for was enough water for a hand pump. Today, they continued to drill to 70 meters and continued to find more water.

The water was coming in so fast that the driller couldn’t blow out the borehole to install the casing. The casing that they were attempting to install kept breaking because the water and soil created too much pressure. It was necessary for them to call for a heavier casing. The final results were 2,000 gallons per hour. This is far beyond our wildest expectations. When we left the people were dancing and celebrating.

On Monday Trevor, the person that we will be buying the pumps from, will be coming out to HCOC. We had originally hoped to put in a solar pump at Guzha but he may advise otherwise. Guzha does not have electricity or any hopes of getting electricity in the near future. There are many decisions to be made and lots of work to be accomplished. Once we meet with Trevor, we will have a better idea of the time frame we are dealing with.

The picture on the right is the view outside our door this morning after the rain last night. The Jacaranda trees are in full bloom and the ground was covered in purple blossoms. I hated to see anyone walk on them but then
the goats were out and they love to eat the blossoms.

God has truly answered our prayers for good sources of water. Praise Him! We ask for your prayers as we make decisions next week. Our goal is to be God’s hands and feet in this place and to carry out His will.

In His Service,

Roberta