My last blog ended with us getting out of the airport in Harare $81 poorer and eating and sleeping. That was Thursday. Today is Tuesday and we remain in Harare at the college, as planned. It has been a bit slow but things have been happening.
We have made a couple of trips to the grocery store. We are staying in a one room apartment, if you want to call it that. We have two beds, a table and four chairs, two dining and two wicker sitting chairs. One of the professors who comes only two days a week normal occupies this room, but he is not due until next week, or later. So for now it is ours. There is a nice bathroom with a tub which has no water, a sink also with no water and a stool which we fill using a bucket. For friends who have travel to Haiti with us, it all should sound familiar. The electricity is intermittent, and the water comes from a large blue pipe coming from the wall next to the toilet. There is also a dressing area outside the restroom. We do not have a stove so food has its challenges.
Our first road trip was to the new school that Hippo Valley Christian Mission is building about five hours away. We attended a teacher, church leader, come celebrate the opening of our school gathering. The place in new and the students are some of the best and brightest in all Zimbabwe. The picture on the left is the new cafeteria building. It is going to be a wonderful place not only to eat but to gather as a student body and a church that meets on the campus. We were definitely impressed by what we saw. After several hours of meeting and lunch we headed back to the college. This school is a place we will see several times over the next few months.
One of the things we are doing is once a day or so we take food (very simple Zimbabwean fare) with the students in the cafeteria. It is good food, and the students make it fun as we begin to interact more and more with them. We also have some corn flakes and warm milk, a teapot that heats water quick quickly if we have electricity. I have a large Hydroflack that we put heated water in for times when there is no electricity.
We also got some instant noodles that we pour boiling water over that get soft enough to eat. We have bread, peanut butter and jelly, some cheese, chips, and biscuits (cookies). We brought a few snacks with us and so we are not starving.
Most days I spend studying for class and doing some reading. The internet is available most days if we walk a few yards to the admin building. All and all we have a pretty simple life right now. Simple until today. Today was the first day of teaching. I have four hours of class this morning. I have twenty-eight or so students (some were missing this first day or came in a bit late). I learned that my students, whose first language is Shona and their second is British English, think I talk fast and my accent is a bit difficult to understand. Imagine thinking I have an accent! And the African way (and I knew it from last time) is to listen while I talk. I ask a question and they mostly politely stare at me waiting for me to answer my own question. The students are asking me to Whatsapp them the notes I use.
Two more stories. The first day to the grocery we went to the OK market. As I came in a gentleman asked me if I possessed a swipe card. Basically, it is a prepaid credit card. He offered to let me use his and I could then pay him in US dollars for the amount I used. The idea being his exchange rate would be better than the rate given by the store. I passed on his ‘generous offer.’ I told my host and today I told my class about him and mostly they just laughed. Sunday, we went with one of the professors from the school to his small, new church half an hour away. It was a fun service, and I didn’t have to preach. I love to preach but it is nice to experience a Zimbabwe service. Songs and dancing, prayers, communion, an offering and sermon. We had a bit of Sunday School lesson before ‘church’ made for a fun-filled day. I thought about our Shelton Christian family especially at communion time. I have taken my place at yet another table of the Lord. And at the same time join my church families around the world dining together, sharing the body and blood of our Lord, remembering him.
The next two days I have class to teach. Tomorrow, I have just two hours and Thursday four. Friday I am the chapel speaker for the whole college, there are probably 130 or so students. Then my work to CACC is complete until April. We are not sure when we make the trip to Chiredzi and the churches we visited last time. But we have things to do and meetings to share in. Thus concludes the first week on the campus of CACC.