RENEWED HOPE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, INC.
Working Together For Zimbabwe's Future
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RENEWED HOPE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, INC. Working Together For Zimbabwe's Future |
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| July 12, 2004 Journal 1 Dear Readers, We left home two weeks ago on June 28 and are just now getting to Nyamashato and getting settled in. We arrived in South Africa on June 30 after traveling for 48 hours. We spent three days in South Africa with friends trying to recover from jetlag. Our trip to Harare was not without events but we did arrive safely and are grateful for that. It took most of the week to sort out things such as visa, car permit and bank accounts. Things still are not completely resolved, but we felt we could not delay longer coming here to Nyamashato. Our arrival was a quiet one since it was nearly noon on Saturday before we were able to get here. The people had expected us to arrive on Friday. It took the balance of the weekend to get things unpacked and put away. Now that we have a house, it is rather like moving every time we come. I might add that moving is one of my least favorite things to do. July12 Our first visitor this morning was the grandmother who is raising her grandson that was orphaned 10 days after birth last year. You may recall that we provided formula because the family had no way of feeding the baby. The grandmother brought the baby for us to see. He is a healthy one-year old boy now. He came right to us with no fear. It seemed as though there was a bond between us. (see attached picture) We met with the faculty this morning in the Library. They wanted to all see us and welcome our return. The staff now numbers twenty, so there are many new faces. Nyamashato Primary school enrollment has jumped to over 700. They desperately need more classrooms and housing as well. The sewing and knitting women have had to vacate their room to make room for another class. The preschoolers are without a room until the new building is finished. The new building only has the glazing of the windows and painting left to do. Some of you who wonder what you could do if you came, right now we could use help painting. Ralph will be pushing hard to get that done as quickly as possible. We have been told that the Nyamashato Secondary School has also increased in size. They need more classrooms and teacher housing. I don’t think our money is going to go far enough. Everything is so expensive. Cement is more than three times what it was a year ago. When we arrived on Saturday, we learned that the windmill is not working. It is so expensive to get anyone to come and repair it, so they have been doing without. Ralph is working on getting someone out here as soon as possible. Ralph just can’t carry water anymore. The feeding center cannot operate without water. Carrying the amount of water needed is a serious issue. Today, a big reception is planned in our honor. All four schools in this area are gathering here at Nyamashato. I understand that the District Education Officer will be coming along with other dignitaries. This promises to be a long day. July 15, 2004 Monday was a long day. The reception was spur of the moment since we had not arrived when they expected. In spite of the short notice, school heads from some distance away managed to attend. It never ceases to amaze me how news travels in this remote area without modern technology. A highlight of the community gathering today was my getting to present the Red Cross Certificates to the Orphan Caregivers. They had recently completed their training. One of the women had already put her training to use by delivering a baby. Thanks to all of you who have donated to our work here. You have made a difference. After the reception we were asked to go to the library where we would meet with representatives from the various schools who had traveled so far to meet with us. The meetings lasted until late in the day. While their requests for assistance were all urgent, we had to tell them that at this time we were unable to give any assistance. That is the most difficult thing we have to do. At the end of the day we were drained. July 18 We are in Harare at the moment and I do need to bring this to a close and send it off. The weather has been much colder than I remember it being. We find ourselves wrapping up in blankets to keep warm in the evening. Often we go to bed early just to get warm. The days are not as warm as they have been in years past. Even the local people are commenting about the cooler weather. The windmill was repaired on Thursday and then the wind chose not to blow and so there still was no water when we left to come to Harare. We will be in town at least a couple of more days trying to get issues resolved before returning to the school. Hopefully there will be water when we return. Yesterday, we had a board meeting with the Advisory Board for the Center. We are still working to get the Center registered. It has been three years now and again they tell us they have no record of our papers. FRUSTRATION! Today, at church we met a couple that are anxious to visit our site and to learn of our set-up. It could prove to be very beneficial. We will have to do some follow-up. Mr. Bondeponde has decided that this project is bigger than he realized and has decided he needed to take an accounting course at the University. So he is traveling to Harare to go to school all day on Saturday and Sunday. His bookkeeping does leave something to be desired and so we will be working on that in the coming weeks. We are pleased to tell you that Mr. Bondeponde now has all of the teachers working on the computer. I understand that the teachers typed their end of term tests on the computer. They are anxious to get electricity so they don’t have to run the generator. Running the generator has proven to be very expensive. Petrol is costing 3100 ZD per liter. Hopefully there will be more computers donated. We could use about five more here at the Primary School. The Secondary School is also requesting computers. Pray for us as we struggle to resolve many issues. In His Service, Ralph and Roberta |
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Renewed Hope Charitable Foundation, Inc. | a 501(c)(3) charity | P.O. Box 1476 | Castle Rock, Colorado | 80104-1476 2004 Journal 01 |