A Trip out to Kezi
Last Friday, I drove out to Kezi (which is a rural area about 1 hour out of Bulawayo) with a couple of mates to deliver 3400 broiler chicks as well as have a look at some projects that have been developed to help the local farmers. Jodi and I had been out there a few times when we were here last in 2008 and it is amazing to see how it has developed.
When we visited last, it was just a few small buildings that had recently been built for the students of Ebenezer College, a few garden beds that the students had cleared for planting vegetables and maize as well as a small chicken run. Now there are many more student huts as well as a large dining hall many more farming plots as well as two large chicken runs.
After counting all the chicks, Ezra (Ezra is part of the Beyond Belief initiative and works with the chicken farmers in and around Mablauwuni village) took me around Ebenezer showing me all the plots as well as the chickens that are just about ready to be collected for slaughter.
They have also started a chicken program with some of the local villages where they sell the family 1000 day old broiler chicks and spend time training how to look after the chicks so that they can sell them in 6 weeks time when they are ready to sent off for slaughter. This last round of chickens was a HUGE success where they have grown significantly faster (due to using sola lighting to light the chicken runs) and the death rate was significantly lower (about 1% – 2% instead of 4% – 6%). One of the most amazing things to hear about this project is the fact that the families will use a donkey drawn cart to take the 1000 chickens to the road which is about 10 km away at about 12am in the morning … now that is dedication.
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Up … Up … and … Away!!
I have some absolutely fantastic news … Today I flew out of Brisbane and I am on my way to Zimbabwe. I am currently sitting in an airport lounge in Changi utilising their free WiFi and waiting patiently for the next leg of my journey; in total it is a 30 hour trip (including stop over times in Singapore and Johannesburg) and there is only another 20 hours to go.
You maybe asking … what about Jodi and the kid’s? Did they fly with you? The answer to that riddle is: No; they could not fly out with me but they will be flying to South Africa shortly with Jodi’s sister and I will drive down to Johannesburg and collect them. I can’t wait to start blogging our life in Zim again and sharing all of our adventures as they happen.
Stay tuned for more 
Go Forth and Multiply
Since leaving Zimbabwe back in 2009, Jodi and I have had 2 kiddies:
Dominic
and Sebastian
These two boys are an awesome blessing and it is amazing to see how both of our boys are growing so fast.
Hello … is anyone still there?
It has been a VERY long time since we have caught up!!! As a matter of fact it has almost been 3 years. There is a lot to tell you all since March 2009 and I can’t wait to tell you more exiting news for the very near future … so stay tuned.
River of Life Bulawayo
Something else I havn’t told you is about the church Jodi and I attend in Bulawayo. River of Life is a growing young church who have a huge passion for evangelisation and community outreach. One area they are keen in spreading out to is into Umguza (a small rural township just outside Bulawayo).
At this stage they are stongly involved in reaching out to the Umguza commity through teaching effective farming methods (Farming Gods Way) as well as starting up teaching programs for young preschool children. Just recently, I was able to head out with Taps (one of the elders and a close friend) to a block of land which the church has been able to purchase in Umguza. It is really exciting to see and hear their visions of this block of land where they are planning on builing a church as well as creating a Farming God’s Way training centre as well as a whole host of other community based programs.
Shine
The other day I was looking through all the pictures I had taken on my camera and realised that I hadn’t told you able a lady from OZ who came out earlier this year for about 6 months. One of the things that she was able to do was to bring the “Shine Program” into Zimbabwe.
The Shine program is developed to help girls encounter their true value and help the young ladies realise that they are individuals who have worth, strength and a purpose.
Here are some pictures of the Zim YFC team members who have participated in the course and who are now accredited trainers of the Shine Program.
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- The ladies performing
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- The ladies getting their certificates
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- Debbie: A honorary member of the Shine Zimbabwe Team
You wouldn’t believe this
Just last week I blogged all about how well our chickens were going and how we have only had minimal deaths (3) right at the start. Well … the next day when I went out to Willow Park, Chris, our head groundsman told me that 9 chickens had died during the previous weekend (whilst he was on his time off) … but due to his quick thinking he gave them all some muthi (medicine) and they are all back to 100% health (without anymore deaths). Rock on!!! We think it was some form of air-born sickness so we have now also moved them from the room where they were staying into the outdoor chicken pens.
I think that they only have about 7 more weeks and then they will be starting to lay … this will be fantastic.
SALE!!! SALE!!! SALE!!!!
If you are looking for a great deal then look no further … here is an offer you just cannot refuse.
Because of excellent camp sales this year we have been able to save up diligently and Willow Park Camps has been able to purchase the 30 litres of paint needed to re-paint the inside of the toilet block.
“… but how can I benefit from this?” I here you ask
Well … the saving comes to you through a HUGE MONSTEROUS discount on the “Toilet Block Chip In”. Because Willow Park Camps was able to “Chip In” on this chip in we can now pass the savings onto you and slash the initial chip in asking price. What was going to cost $592 will now only cost $460. WOW this is FANTASTIC deal … don’t wait and miss out on this saving … chip in now by clicking HERE
Chickens are going well!!!!
This years round of day old layers are doing a lot better than last years brood. Last year, due to bad feed we lost about 60 chicks, this year however we have only lost 3 chickens right at the very start … this is awesome … all the chicks are growing very well and they are all looking extremely healthy.
This project was started because of generous people “chipping in” last year; because we were able to purchase the chicks last year and because of the eggs sales we were able to purchase our next round of day olds as well as all of their feed and medicine until they start laying.
If we have 80% of our chickens laying each day, this means that we will be able to provide eggs to all of YFC’s ministries each week as well as pay for 1 worker to look after the chickens and save up for next years brood. It is exciting when projects can be started and become financially self sustained whilst providing valuable produce to YFC.
It is now finished.
Thank you to the last two people who chipped in for helping to purchase new uniforms for our staff. We now have enough money to purchase 5 new uniforms and boots for the Willow Park staff.
Jodi and I as well as all the Willow Park staff want to say thank you for our help with this. Your generosity has gone a long way in helping Willow Park and it’s staff. (I will post pictures in the coming weeks when I get them their new gear).
Up up and away
I posted a couple of weeks ago about Jodi’s parents coming to visit … I was aslo able to post rare footage of some pretty way-out-there dance moves. But all good times must come to an end and they left last Saturday. Along with a lot of Zimbabwe souvenirs they also took Jodi bakc to Australia in preparation for our new little one who is due on 03/07/09. So for about two weeks now I have been living as a bachelor and I have to admire … even though Jodi is not here I am still scared that I will get in trouble if I leave anything just lying around the house.
I Hang My Head in Shame
G’day guys … I am so sorry I haven’t been blogging lately. There has been so much goin on around here and it has been hard keeping up with everything. A lot of the stuff I can’t even blog about but what I can blog about I will let you all know about in the coming week.
I will give you my word that I will post a new blog every day over the next 5 days; then you guys should be up-to-date.
You better act quickly
Thank you to the person who donated money towards another uniform … this time it was for Rhoda. If you are thinking of chipping in … you had better act quickly there is not much time left until the chip ins run out of time. There are only 2 more uniforms to purchase as well as items to help secure our chickens and newer and cleaner toilets for Willow Park’s toilet block.
Once again, we would like to thank you for all your kind help and considerations with these chip ins.
2 down and only 3 to go!!!
Thats right … two uniforms down and only three to go!!! Thank you to the person who chipped in to purchase another uniform for one of our workers. Now Chris and Steven will be getting new uniforms. Jodi and I are thrilled to see how people can are helping YFC and the work that is being done at Willow Park. You guys rock!!!!!
If you would like to chip in to help purchase three more uniforms or if you would like to help repair Willow Parks toilet block or to help secure our new chickens please click on the links on your right.
Time at Vic Falls
No trip to Zimbabwe is complete without heading out to Victoria Falls and seeing this amazing wonder. Another amazing sight to see is my in-laws dancing … this is VERY rare footage … viewer discretion is advised.
We also had a great time on a Zambezi river cruise where we came across a really large hippo eating his evening meal. Jodi and I have been out on the Zambezi 3 times and this is the first time we have seen a hippo this close and we have never seen them eating before.
Here are some happy snaps … enjoy!!!
Snapshot
Alice
Alice came to the Sandra Jones home after temporarily being placed in “Mustard Seed”; an orphanage run through the Catholic Church. Alice’s mother was in the Crisis Pregnancy center (another outreach run by YFC) and because she was unable to look after her daughter she wanted YFC to look after her. Alice is quite tiny for her age but she is very alert and generally wins the baby walker competitions. One of Alice’s trademarks is her long eye lashes.
It was in October that we celebrated Alice’s 1st birthday by having a party in a local park with all the other children and they all had a wonderful time. You can see more pictures in a previous blog by clicking here.
About 1 month ago Alice’s grandmother came to visit and this was the first time the grandmother had ever seen her granddaughter as she had previously wanted nothing to do with her. This is encouraging and we are hoping that she continues to visit.
Thank you
I am just wanting to write a quick thank you note to those who “chipped in” and helped us raise money to purchase some of the items stolen from our house. This means a HUGE amount to Jodi and I and we are EXTREMELY thankful.
What the???? How could this happen after we left our friends house?
A couple of days after we notice all of our stuff go missing we went over to our friends place with a load of other friends to all have dinner together and have a time to catch up. It was a great night of eating home made pizza’s as well as catching up with all of our friends and meeting a new couple who have just moved back up to Zim from South Africa. As both Jodi and I were fairly tired, we decided to call it a night early and were the first to leave and then various other couples left after us … it was after the last couple left our friends retired back into their house where they both started finishing their work on their computers. This is where the trouble began …
Not long after heading inside they heard their dog starting to bark … being a boisterous dog, they told it to be quiet. Then, with his back towards the door our friend heard a voice say calmly … “lay down on the sofa with your hands behind your back”. Without hesitation he followed the intruders’ instructions and they tied his hands up with a computer cable. They then found his wife and hustled her into the living room with the husband … an hour and a half later the armed bandits left with loads of stuff.
It is amazing to see this type of thing happen; these guys have a fully walled property as well as electric fence and gate … but these robbers broke part of their dura wall (thin cement wall) to get into the property.
Ooopsies … my bad!!!
With all the excitement about the chickens I have forgotten to fill you in on the progress of the building. It wasn’t last week … but the week before that we had the Mawebeni boys come back to Willow Park to complete a little bit of flooring as well as clean up some of the mess they made whilst mixing the cement as well as get taught on how to fix lights. They had a great time learning how to fix the lights, but as with many young males didn’t really like the cleaning too much.
Something I didn’t mention about the house…
Along with moving into the house we also took on the responsibilities for looking after these little critters; we now have 3 Guinea Fowl and 3 Bantams under our care. Two of the Bantams lay eggs semi regularly … they are so small … about half the size of a normal chicken egg … but the yokes are quite large and EXTREMELY yellow.
WOWZERS … You would not believe this
In my last post I was a little down because my chickens at Willow Park were not meeting the quota of eggs required. We tried the method given by Gordon (he commented on the previous blog) and it only seemed to make them a little nervous seeing the chopping board and knife on the wall. So we resorted to plan “B”; this was installing the light timer. OH MY GOODNESS … it only took them three days and they began spitting out eggs like it is going out of fashion. We have now hit the 90% lay rate (210 eggs in 1 week) and things are looking at improving; from the sales alone this week “project chicken layers” can finally support itself by purchasing its own layers mash (I have had to purchase the layers mash in the past because we there was not enough eggs being produced to sell to make the revenue to buy even one bag of mash). We can now look at starting to save for our next bunch of day old layers in 6 months as well as ALL the feed and muthi (medicine) for them until the new chicks reach point of lay … hooray!!!
WOW … that was FAST!!!
Thank so much to the person who donated the money to fix the Willow Park road … you really got in fast. Actually, I should tell you the story of how fast it was:
The day before last I had decided to post a chipin to help raise money to fix our road. Literally the very moment I had pressed submit and the fund-raising event had been lodged I got a pop up message on my facebook asking me to chat with someone. Of course, being the socialite that I am I accepted and it was one of my mates from OZ … the very first thing he asked was if there was anything he could help out with as he had a certain amount of cash he wanted to donate … you’ll never guess the amount that he wanted to donate … almost the exact amount … how amazing is that. Both of us were blown away by this!!!!
I will be going out tomorrow to pay the farmer and hopefully sometime next week (or the week after) it will be finished. I can’t wait to show everyone the photo’s of what it looks like after it has been leveled and graded.
If you also want to chip in but missed out on this one … you can chip in to our lives in Zimbabwe by clicking on the coffee cups on the side bar.
US team visit
At the moment friends of ours are hosting a bunch of American theological students here for their summer break. A few are involved at the Zimbabwe Theological College and the rest are getting involved with relief and development. Last week we had these guys come out to Willow Park to help with the build as well as help out in Samkele and the Training Centre. It was fantastic to have them interact with the children at Willow Park and to give encouragement to our teachers and volunteers. The US students had a great time as did our girls.
Ready … Setty … BUILD!!!!
As mentioned in the previous blog we are in the process of demolishing our old dining hall and rebuilding a new one. One of the more exciting aspects of this whole venture is the training we are able to provide to a bunch of local young men from Mawabene (a small rural village about 20 klm’s from Willow Park).
Yes … Willow Park did need a new dining hall, but we wanted to do more than just build a hall, we wanted to be able to use this whole project as a form of outreach into the local community and to be able to introduce and train a group of young men in the “how to’s” of a build.
These guys have all been working hard and according to our builder have been VERY enthusiastic and eager to learn all that he has to teach them. It is also exciting is to hear how these young men are now thinking of ways in which they can use these new skills in helping advance and build their own communities.
These are exciting times and I can’t wait to see what further training and outreach Willow Park can give to those in the surrounding communities.
