Greetings from Zimbabwe,
The truck that I brought up from South Africa is now registered and licensed in Zimbabwe. Finally on Thursday, last week Albert purchased insurance and so the truck is legally in Zimbabwe. I still can’t get over how complicated such a procedure can be. So much time has been wasted, not to mention the diesel, running from one office to another and always way across town from one another.
The new truck has still not arrived. The most recent information deals with the same thing I had to deal with at the border when I brought the other truck up. South Africa now requires an export license for anyone transporting anything across the border. Nissan indicated in an email to Albert that it had taken three weeks for them to get the license. Now we are caught in the back-log of vehicles destine for Zimbabwe. Hopefully it will only be another couple of weeks.
Getting the new truck would not have taken so long if we had not wanted to be exempted from paying duty. However, this amounted to between $7,000 and $8,000. To me it seemed worth the wait as long as we now have some form of transportation. I am not fond of Combie transportation.
HCOC has benefited from Albert becoming a Rotary Member. One of the Rotary Members has offered to sponsor a deserving student for her A-level education. He has even offered employment opportunity for the student during school holidays. I am really pleased that this has happened. There are other benefits as well coming as a result of connections that Albert has made. Last week Albert received an award for being the most outstanding new member. Rotary is really getting involved with the work here at HCOC. One of the Rotary Members brought a clothing donation from his church for the orphans at HCOC.
Last week, July 12 and 13 we booked a one night stay at Imire, a Safari Lodge about a three hour drive from HCOC. Here you can see Amanda, Phillip and Bill having an elephant ride. They did this early in the morning. After breakfast, we all went on a game drive. The driver took us to a picnic area where lunch was served. Some of the elephants showed up and enjoyed treats handed out by the guests.
I am glad that we had this opportunity since driving to Victoria Falls is such a long way. It wasn’t quite like seeing the animals in their natural surroundings but it was a good experience.
The Surveyor and his crew arrived at HCOC last Wed. the 18th to begin laying out the roads at the new site. That work is complete now and Albert learned that he now has a larger garden area. The road that had been in use was through one side of the garden. The next task is to get a machine in to grade in the roads and crown them for drainage purposes. The plan is to haul in broken brick and river rock to begin building a road base. Eventually it will all be covered with crushed granite. Getting a good base in is essential.
The Surveyor laid out the garage but at this time, the plan is to put in the foundation and slab only. The rest of the garage building will have to wait until later. There are way too many places where money is needed right now. The Safe House is going to cost more dollars than I had anticipated. It will get done one way or another.
The visitors have all left and it is really quiet around here. Amanda, Bill and Phillip flew home on Thursday. I know all of them were looking forward to being warm and having a hot shower. Those things were hard to come by here. This has been the coldest spell I can ever remember. Thursday morning, Albert said that there was a layer of frost ½ inch thick on the top of the truck. Both the tomato plants and the new Moringa plants are showing the effects of the cold. It is still cold at night but has moderated a bit during the day. August will soon be here and the temperatures will begin to warm.
I will bring this letter to a close now. I will be in Harare tomorrow and want to get this emailed to all of you readers.
In His Service,
Roberta