Journal 5
May 19, 2018
Greetings from Zimbabwe,
I hope this finds friends and family doing well. Summer should be close at hand. Winter is coming to this part of the world. Days are pleasant and hot in the middle of the day but nights are cool.
A question has been asked about O-level and A-level exams. The O-level exams are given near the end of a child’s Secondary Education. The results of those exams determine whether the child is prepared to go on for further education. If so, next step is to go for A-levels with the focus on the area of the child’s interest. This is a two year education at a Boarding School. Passing A-level exams is important if a student plans to go to a University. It is rather like a senior in High School and a year of Junior College. The cost of taking the O-level exam is $15.00 per subject. Normally we only pay for five exams, or a total of $75.00 per child but sometimes students want to take additional exams if they feel they want to go into a profession. Taking nine exams would cost $135.00. Because we have so many children to consider we have made a practice of only paying for five subject exams.
Finally, the dryer has been released from Customs. Albert is in Murewa as I type this transferring money to the shipping handler at the airport in Harare. The dryer has been in Harare since May 3. What a challenge we have had! Hopefully it will soon be on site. I am not certain how it is going to be transported to HCOC. Both trucks have had mechanical issues. As of one hour ago, the Nissan is back on the road. The Toyota still has issues. Hopefully they can find repair parts for it. Monday, Albert and I are going to Harare to look at what trucks may be available. There is a 2016 model in SA with only 64,000 km on it. My concern is the issues of getting it into Zimbabwe. There are always issues of duty etc. It will be a last resort. I am hoping there is something available locally.
Yesterday, some orphans came along with care-givers to help with clean-up and additional harvesting of maize. The greenhouse was destroyed in a storm before I arrived. It has now been rebuilt and so the children were helping with weeding and the salvaging of the Moringa plants that had been in the greenhouse. Everything looked neat and tidy when they had finished. I am anxious to have the compost bins completed so the worms may be transferred from the greenhouse to the compost bins.
The septic tank at the Moringa Building site is in the process of being dug. I am amazed at how high the workman is able to throw the dirt up and out of the hole. He plans to dig it three meters deep; that is a little over nine feet. This will be bricked up on the inside and plastered with cement when finished.
A second pit is being dug to catch the wash water from the Moringa Processing. This water, plus rain water run-off from guttering will be reused for irrigation in the Moringa field.
The garden is beautiful. It is full of vegetables, carrots, spinach, lettuce, rugare, peas etc. The plants are healthy and abundant. This is the first time that I have seen such variety. The cooks were picking vegetables for the lunch for the orphans that had come to work on Saturday. The varied diet plays a role in fewer visits by orphans to the clinic. They are definitely healthier than in the past.
Praises! The dryer for the Moringa is finally on site as of Monday, May 21 about 5:30 in the afternoon. Thank you to those who were praying with us and for its safe arrival. It appears to be in perfect shape. We have not unboxed it because I don’t want people testing the controls until we have it in place. The work still has not begun even though the suppliers have been identified. Nothing happens quickly in Africa. The next step is getting the money here so that we have funding to purchase supplies and I am working on that.
I am asking you to Praise God for the safe arrival of the Moringa Dryer. It is truly a blessing and will provide employment for a number of community people. I am especially grateful for the support given us by Rotary. We saved more than $5,000.00 on import charges. This is a real Blessing when we work on such a tight budget. It required much patience.
In His Service, Roberta