A lawn worth mowing
Nearly everyone who has been to Willow Park mentions the serenity of the surrounds as well as the lush green lawns. I can tell you this … it takes a lot to look after these lawns with two lawn mowers that keep on over heating and breaking down. One of my other missions on my recent trip to SA was to find a good quality lawn mower that can take a beating … and I you’ll never guess what … I found one. This little beauty should work a treat. Thank you to the person who donated the money to purchase this lawn mower … this gift will go a HUGE way in keeping the grass neatly manicured.
Finalized Chip In
Thank you once again for all the people who chipped in to help purchase the uniforms for the Willow Park workers. I was able travel over to South Africa last week and purchased the new uniforms and boots … but get this … because I was able to get these items on discount I was able to also purchase them some gardening gloves … this is a chip in that just keeps on giving.
You guys ROCK … Thank you!!!!
Finally
Hey guys … I finally have a good internet connection so I will attempt to upload some pictures of the toilet block repaint. I am also hoping to post a lot more pictures over the coming days as I will be in Johannesburg and I am hoping to find a nice little coffee shop with excellent coffee and fast broadband speed.
Finally some pics
Sorry for the dely … but I have finally uploaded the pictures from the Mawabeni graduation. Enjoy!!!!
Talk about a GREAT weekend
When you read the words “Doulos Enigma” what do you think???? No I haven’t smoked anything weird … no it is not Zimbabwean language … it is actually the new leadership program the YFC has set up in conjunction with Family Impact Zimbabwe.
This camp program is in its early days and we have HUGE neigh MASSIVE plans to introduce leadership development programs for all secondary school children from Form 1 to the Prefect leadership body.
We have actually started with the prefect leadership camp and our first one was on the weekend just gone. IT WAS AWESOME. We had a really good time working with the prefects (school leadership team) from Girls College and showing them important aspects of leadership. I think one of the high lights for me was to see how these 26 girls grew and bonded together as a whole team. They came on Friday morning in their own little groups of friends and by Saturday afternoon they all joined together as one big united team … I can’t wait for the next one.
Mawabeni Graduation
Last week we were finally able to have the graduation service for the young men from Mawabeni who we trained in various aspects of building. The service was held at Willow Park in the new (and nearly completed) dining hall.
The young men could invite 2 people each to the ceremony so they could show off what they had done in the last 5 months. This meant that I needed to try to find transport for 30 people to get from Mawabeni to Willow Park (about 20klm). Being true Zim style a majority of my transport plans did fall through at the very last moment … but we did manage to get everyone there after calling on some favours… if there was just one extra person we wouldn’t have had enough transport.
We had en excellent time with the young men and their families, they enjoyed showing off their work and their families were so proud of their accomplishment. One mother, when we handed out the certificate to her son got up and did a HUGE dance and African song/chant … she was as proud as punch.
Unfortunately, the hall isn’t quite complete yet. The paint that was stolen from our house was the paint we purchased for the hall, so we need to go across the border to buys some more. We also need to make some changes to the roof structure, as the company who constructed the roof didn’t make the cross beams strong enough and they are pushing against the walls making them crack under the pressure.
Theft at Willow Park
On Monday morning the YFC drive came back from Willow Park with extremely bad news. Over the weekend someone had broken into the teacher unit and stole a HUGE amount of items (blankets, selected clothes, 2 burner cooker, cooking equipment as well as their food and stationary for the Samkele girls). Thankfully the teachers were not there (they come back into Bulawayo over the weekend) and no one was injured.
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.
The roof is finished …
Just last week the thatched roof had finally been completed. It took a little longer than normal because we had run out of thatching twine and could not find it anywhere (even in South Africa). This is looking absolutely GREAT.
What absolute Legends!!!
The Legends from Mawebeni
The thatching is almost done
The dining hall is starting to take shape and now with the thatching almost done it is looking a treat. I have done a quick video so you can see what has been happening … enjoy!!! I will give you more pictures in the coming weeks
Willow Park Road
The Willow Park road has become worse for wear over the years and is in need for a HUGE over hall and re-leveling. We have been approaching the local council over the past year with no luck … but finally a break through. One of our workers knows a local farmer who is willing to grade and level our road at cost price … this is FANTASTIC. All we need is $203.50 USD and this will get the whole 5 km of road looking spic’n'span again.
Did you feel like chipping in? It is really easy now!!! All you need to do is look at the side bar on your right and click on the road picture; this will take you to my chipin site were you can make a contribution through paypal … it couldn’t be anymore simpler. I look forward to sharing with you how it looks after we have completed the grading.
More that just building
Having the SPCC team at Willow Park was such a HUGE help; not only did they help train the guys how to build they also got involved in a whole range of other duties. A group helped re-furbish the volleyball court; they cleaned the chook (chicken) pens as well as help repaint the glass hall … what absolute legends. One lone sole also fixed our ovens and hot water geezers as well as a lot of other electrical stuff that needed altering / fixing. Thanks Team!!!!
Out at Willow Park
The main aim for the trip to Zimbabwe was for the South Pine team to help in the re-building of the dining hall at Willow Park. They have done an absolutely fantastic job getting stuck into the plastering of the inside of the building and helping train the Mawabeni guys on how to fit windows. Two of the carpenters told me that when they were training the guys in fitting the window, the Mawabeni men had never seen a power drill before and it startled them at first, but low and behold they were excited to use it and became quite skilled in the art of power drilling. The building is finally beginning to take shape … it will be great when all of it is finally complete.
Occupational Heath and Safety … is it really needed
One of the interesting things here in Zim is the lack of Occupational Heath Safety on the worksite. It always humours me to see the ways in which things are done without the stringent guidelines back in Brisbane. I remember last year when one of the dorms was being re-thatched; the thatchers put their scaffolding on a bucket and a couple of bricks so they could get it a little higher and more even. This year, when the roof structure was being put on the dining hall, a young man was up about 3 m’s and walked out onto an wooden plank only being held by another man on the scaffolding … life is Zim … you gotta love it.
Proud as punch!!!
The other day I was able to take the central African regional director out to Willow Park to show and tell him all that is happening. Whilst out at Willow Park we were able to give the young men from Mawabeni a break from the build and present them with their certificates for preparing and building a brick structure. They were so proud in getting their first certificate and I was told by the builder that they when they got back to working they started to sing about receiving their certificates.
It more than just the dining hall?
The building of the dining hall is going extremely well and all the young men we are training are REALLY appreciating the experience they are getting. It has been encouraging to hear them all speak about how these new skills will not only benefit them (building their own houses) but also their community. They are asking our builder how they can build a proper toilet for their community because at the moment their toilets are just tin walls with a rickety tin door and they want to build a new toilet block with brick walls and a proper door.
Where has the builder gone?
Our trainer / builder has left for a month to go to a church conference in the UK and the guys have been carry on with the job of laying the last of the bricks … and boy have they done an EXCELLENT job. All the walls are just about completed (there are only 3 courses left on one of the outside walls) and they are eagerly waiting to lay more of the floor and learn from one of our workers at Willow Park how to plaster.
When it rains it pours …
Just last week I was running extremely low on cement and we had to finish the working week a day early whilst I tried to locate reasonably priced cement. I have learnt from past experience that I need to run about three leads at the same time and generally only one lead comes through with the goods. Well, I had gotten two leads and was pretty much convinced that both had fallen through so Jodi and I, along with Graham (our builder) and Sarah (his wife) decided to go to Botswana for the night so we could collect some groceries and other miscellaneous items for the build. Just before we were about to leave I got a call from my first lead saying that they agreed to my price for the cement and that they would have 20 pockets waiting for me to pick up ASAP … not even 5 minutes later I got a call from my second lead saying that they also had cement now and that they would come down to the price that I had offered. Of course this would happen when I had other things to do … anyway to make a short story long; we postponed our trip by about 2 hours whilst I collected the cement from various locations (including a back street alley).
A bridge over trouble waters … or a trouble bridge of waters
You know what? I have crossed this bridge so many times over the last year that it has just become part of the norm; but boy this dam bridge (I am not swearing … it is a dam that also acts as a bridge) is starting to get a few leaks in it and most of the “other side” has eroded away … it will probably only take a few more rainy seasons and we will need to invest in a barge to get the cars from one side to the other. This bridge leads over one of our smaller waterways and is the gateway to Willow Park Camps. Make sure you keep tuned to http://zimbabwebound.com to find out more and to see how you can help Willow Park rebuild this troubled bridge of waters.
Where’s the local hardware store when you need one?
This whole building project has definitely been an interesting task to say the least. I know that when building back in Brisbane it didn’t take much to find the labour or the materials to complete a variety of tasks … come to Bulawayo and it is a totally different story.
I had always planned to be on the build site to get some building experience but I just have not had the time to stay out at Willow Park all day every day. A majority of my time is spent sourcing out all the building material such as cement or trowels at a reasonable rate and then trying to find the funds in cash to pay for such rare commodities. Fun and games all round!!!
Just the other day I came out to Willow Park to collect some of our trainees to take them to the local rural council to pay for pitt sand and then we would have to drive another 30 kms to the site and load the back of the bakkie manually. Much to my delight, one of our young men knew of a “location” where pitt sand could be retrieved without paying for it from the rural council (don’t worry it was totally legal … I made sure of it). After a VERY bumpy ride through the bush we came to an old private mining site with more than enough pitt sand to build 100 dining halls. As they always say … “it’s not what you know but who you know”.
