On Friday, Oct. 4, Albert brought the Rev. Godfrey Gumunyu to meet Vickie and me. The Rev. is the pastor of the United Methodist Churches is this area. He lives at Dandera, about 5 km from HCOC. We talked at great length about the Spiritual Development of the children attending the schools here in Ward 1.
Rev. Gumunyu proposes that he work with children according to age level at the individual schools. He wants to work with all of the children and not just the orphans. We agreed that this was a good plan. He indicated that on Monday he would start to develop a syllabus for what he proposes to teach. Finally after all of these years, I feel like we are on the right track.
The house that Ralph and I used for all the years has been turned back to the school. They are short of teacher housing. Vickie and I are living in the new Orphan Home that is not yet entirely complete. While we were in town, the person laying tile on the floor completed the last bedroom. Finally we have running water in the kitchen and bathrooms. Solar power is working although in the beginning it was a struggle to get it connected properly.
Albert appointed one of the employees to be our house maid during our stay. This is a luxury that I have not experienced in the past. The picture on the left is of Renica. She has our laundry in the basket on her head and is on her way to do the washing. My washer is not yet connected.
Bryce, my son that lives in Houston, flew in Saturday evening. He will be here for two weeks. Already we have put him to work fixing things. I am hoping that he can figure out how to connect my washer. Both of my sons are a lot like Ralph in that they can usually figure out how to make something work.
At the moment, Bryce is at the poultry buildings. He is working on the wood chipper that came on the last shipment we made from the U.S. Our shipment was opened at the border and things were gone through. When the shipment arrived here, there were numerous things missing. Thankfully the wood chipper and the roto-tiller both arrived. However, spare parts for the chipper were missing. So I sent information to Bryce and he brought parts with him from the United States. Bryce just returned from the Poultry buildings. The wood chipper is working properly. Great news! It is used to make bedding for the chickens from the corn stalks.
On Saturday, Albert and his family along with Vickie and I went to Harare. We were picking Bryce up at the airport in the evening. During the afternoon there was a fund raising event being held to benefit Mother of Peace Orphanage in Motoko. Albert felt that we should attend since we had paid numerous visits to the Orphanage in the past. We have copied some of their systems here at HCOC. Mother of Peace is struggling to keep their head above water. They house 108 children that have no one. During the fund raiser, their choir performed several songs. The 12 year old that conducted did a superb job. He has an inborn talent. One of the pieces they performed is one that he had written himself.
Dorothy, Albert’s oldest daughter, joined us for the fund raiser for Mother of Peace. Afterwards, we took her back to Lovemore home. Dorothy has been working as the Social Worker at Lovemore home for about one year while she attends college to get her degree in Social Work. Lovemore home is a home for Street Boys in Harare and is sponsored by the Presbyterian Church.
A termite mound has been turned into bricks. The mound was located near the new Orphan Home where we are living temporarily. In the picture you can see children throwing bricks to the men who are preparing the kiln for burning. Albert is anxious to get the bricks burned before the rains begin for real. We have had some rain in the last two weeks and the weather is much cooler than I ever remember.
Tomorrow we will make another trip to Harare. The Rotary Club that Albert belongs to is having their weekly meeting. They have invited Vickie and I to attend. Following the meeting, the committee supporting the Moringa Project will meet. We will have an opportunity to discuss our vision for the Moringa Project and the future of HCOC.
Please pray for us as we move forward with the Moringa project.
Roberta