Zimbabwebound

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.

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.

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!!!

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.

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.

I write a sincere apology to our blogger friends for not updating you for soooooo long. Please let me explain … Jodi, Gabi and I have been VERY busy trying to get back to OZ for Christmas. To cut a long and VERY painful story short, we arrived back in Brisbane last Saturday night and we have been having an absolute blast catching up with all of our friends and family back in Brisbane. My goodness, the effort it took to get to OZ even after getting Gabi’s holiday visa and tickets was mindblogging; but I don’t have the space on this blog to tell you all about it … shame hey????

Anyway, thank you so much for the time we have spent together blogging this year; I have really enjoyed sharing our experiences with you … Unfortunately there is a lot on the plate here in OZ, so I don’t think I will get much of a chance to update until the new year … I hope you all have a VERY Merry Christmas, and an absolutely sensational New Years Eve … look forward to blogging again in the new year.

What a great day it was when we finally got the sprinklers up and running. Unfortunately, the funding going to Willow Park staff has stopped and YFC need to find ways in which to utilize the staff they have more effectively … one way was with the watering of all the vegetable patches. Previously, four women would spend 4 days per week watering the vegetable patches; they can be used in other areas now that the sprinklers are in action.