Friday, July 26 was Field Day for farmers in Ward 1.  The gathering was held at Inyagui School.  Farmers, mostly women, brought samples of their crops for judging.  Classroom floors were covered with samples of all kinds of crops, from sorghum to oranges, papayas, tomatoes, onions, spinach and even eggs and of course maize.  Prizes consisted of varying sizes of maize seed packs.  The coveted prize was 50 kg of seed maize.  There was much celebrating when the prizes were handed out. I am certainly glad that I was not one of the judges.  It looked to be a nearly impossible job to pick just the top three winners.  Many of the samples looked excellent to me and I would not have wanted to eliminate anyone.  I was tempted to sample some of the oranges.  They looked too perfect to be real.  I am certain that they were the real thing.  The papayas and the avocados were also very tempting.  Numerous prizes of 2 kg packs of maize seed were handed out for some of the other entries.

The community members have been busy for several days shelling the maize at HCOC.  Albert said they had the best crop they have ever had this year.  Pictured below is approximately six ton of maize shelled and bagged.  Albert estimated that they would have seven ton of shelled maize.  I believe it will be more than that.

There is a huge pile of cobs for composting.  The compost that they have made is making a huge difference in the garden.  The vegetable crops look wonderful.  Albert has been keeping me supplied with head lettuce from the garden.

The tomatoes were severely hurt recently from the cold weather.  It didn’t kill them but certainly stunted their growth.  The Moringa also suffered from the cold weather that was more severe than usual.  Moringa does not like temperatures below 70 degrees and doesn’t tolerate frost.  New shoots turned black but new growth is beginning to show.

Today, Fred Chigwida and his team came to the HCOC site.  They looked over the site for the new Safe House and assessed what needed to be done before they began building.  I am hopeful that on Thursday, when Albert and I meet with them in their office that we will be able to finalize everything and work can soon begin.  This is a huge undertaking and I want to make sure we are within the guidelines of Social Welfare (SW).  They (SW) are excited to see us move forward with the next phase of our development.

Each of the schools that have pre-school classes has been encouraged to erect play sets for the children.  I saw one at Inyagui but the one at Nyamashato has just been completed and is more elaborate. Actually here at Nyamashato they have constructed two sets alike because of the large enrollment of preschoolers.  I believe they have more than 160 children enrolled. It has been constructed using gum (eucalyptus) poles.  The children have a wonderful time on it.  I am afraid the preschoolers are not going to want to go inside for class.

Tomorrow, August 6, I will be going into Harare for a few days.  I am taking the truck I brought up from South Africa, in to be serviced and some repairs taken care of.  I will be staying at the Bed and Breakfast for three nights.  I hate to waste the time sitting around in town but there is no alternative.  I don’t do well at marking time.

The last time Albert visited Freight World, he received some encouraging news.  Albert was given an email containing the chassis number and engine number for the new truck.  Now he can proceed with getting it licensed in Zimbabwe.  It should be arriving soon.

Albert also was requested to supply some information concerning the container that we loaded the end of May.  I believe this is an indication that the container may soon arrive.  I am hopeful because this will allow me time to train someone on the operation and maintenance of the roto-tiller and the wood-chipper.  He can submit the information requested when we go to Harare tomorrow, August 6.

On Thursday, August 2, Albert and I along with Fred Chigwida finalized the plans for the Safe House and work is to begin on Monday, August 6.  Friday evening about 7:30 a truck load of cement was delivered.  All the helpers had gone home.  The trucker was not interested in waiting until morning to unload.  So Albert had to look around for people to help unload the cement.  Eight guys worked until about 9:30 unloading 600 bags of cement.  The cement is stored in the garage next to my house.  It is the only place that is big enough to hold that much cement and also a place that can be locked.

In His Service, Roberta