After a restful but short night, we arose early, 3:30am, to begin our journey to Gutu to attend a meeting of headmasters for the ministry schools. We traveled down familiar roads, as familiar as one can be going down it only once before. Several things catch my eye as we drive down the road. Along the way we see these small stores, gas stations, butcher shops, whatever. the all look the same, sloping roof toward the back, and an awning across the front, think old western town. I love story and as we drive past them my mind wonders. Who built them? Are they still viable? What was the dream of those who constructed them? I know a little about Zimbabwe’s history and am intrigue as to how these play into that history.
We continue along and come across round houses. Some are famers who live on their land, some are small villages, made up of several homes. Often there is a square house or two there as well. It is the blending of two worlds. Along with these houses, we see small stands, people selling produce along side the road, very much like Haiti. Once and a while we see a cluster of “shops” if that is what you want to call them, making them a market of sorts. We travel for three to four hours, heading toward Gutu.
One of the things that most fascinates me are some rock formations. These are large, very large boulders, stack dozens of feet high. They are very impressive. Amongst these formation stand a couple of huge outcroppings. We work our way through this region for an hour or so.
We finally arrived at the town of Gutu. A few miles beyond, we came to the high school where this important meeting was to take place. Well actually it was two meetings, one on Thursday, another on Friday. We arrived to a very nice meal, I’ll call it brunch. We hadn’t eaten as our accommodation the night before was a nice cottage on the campus of Zimbabwe Christian College. Nice beds (we had twins), but no food available and we left at 5:00am anyway so a banana and a Kind bar was breakfast, but I digress. The meal consisted of a white bean salad with corn, green beans and other stuff. It was quite taste. We had a variety of things to make a sandwich, I did a BLT with cheese. There was also a dish of liver, which I took a small piece and kidney which I took but upon learning what it was, I did not eat.
After the meal Sherry and I were escorted into the headmaster office, awaiting a couple of students to give us a tour of the campus. While in his office we chatted, and watch him sign a pile of paper, photo copies some of which looked like nothing but black images. Finally the two students came, the first girl and the first boy. These were the top two kids in the whole of the school. They took us for a visit of the campus. We started at a soccer field, then moved to a farming project. There was a fish pond, a garden, chickens in various stages of development, vegetable garden with cabbage, garlic, broccoli, and tomatoes. We say some cattle they also had and heard about but never saw any pigs. There was the remains of a mushroom project, but no mushrooms. This school has over 1000 kids in a boarding school. The garden helped feed them and gave agriculture training to those students interested in such things.
After the tour of the school we went across the street and visited a church. It was round, built in 1987, I enjoyed the moment. Then we had another meal. As we left for the evening we stopped to take pictures with our guides. Other students showed up and it was quite a picture taking session. The girl, Emily, said that they were celebrities, having walked around with Sherry and me. Our pale complexion was apparent evidently.
We went visit a new school being constructed and while there the long trip and short sleep began to catch up with me. I became nauseated, like I was car sick. From the school we went into Gutu to a guest lodge. As soon as we arrived, I laid down for a nap, that was 6:00pm. I got up from said nape at 6:00am the next day. I was tired, but felt refreshed.
Then it was back to the school, Dewure, for a meeting of headmasters. one traveled 500 miles on a small motorcycle to be there. Five others were actually arrested and taken to a police station. Evidently they were traveling the wrong direction on a one way street. The meeting started with breakfast. I had boiled eggs and liver, and the afore mentioned white bean salad. That made liver two out of three meals. I haven’t eaten liver for years, and don’t plan to again anytime soon, but somehow yesterday it tasted quite good.
The headmasters meeting was quite interesting though with the fans keeping us coolish and the accents it was a little hard for me to follow. We heard about the plans and vision for the schools as well as reports from some of the headmasters. The host school is the best in Zimbabwe. Another is new and struggling with 55 students, 2 teachers, and 2 rooms in a primary school. This man has his work cut out for him.
As the meeting ended, we made a break for it and headed to Chiredzi, our home for the next two months. On the road we encountered a several thunderstorm. It started as a dust storm, turned into lightning and heavy rain. Sherry saw a large tree that had been struck and was burning. It stopped raining as we pulled up to the gate of the mission house. We settled in, had a sandwich for dinner, figured out the internet, got lesson on running things in the house, troubleshooted a generator problem (my answer was, “I don’t know what it is.”), and headed off to bed.
This morning we went to the grocery store and spent $8000 bond, about 80 bucks. We visited the office of Hippo Valley Christian Mission, our hosts, and helped unload some missionary barrels. OK, we arrived after they were unloaded, but we had good intentions. The day ended with our first solo adventure to the grocery to get a pre-paid cell phone card. After a bit of miscommunication with the clerk, mission was accomplished and I have minutes on my Zimbabwe phone. I think I hear dinner being prepared and preparation for tomorrow worship services. I am preaching 2 tomorrow. Finally earning my keep.
