Untukmu Para Pengunjung

We were just at the grocery store and saw a bread mob. There was this huge line of people that extended out the door, and then the bakers pulled out a cart with fresh loaves of bread. People were grabbing and pushing and rushing the bread. It was gone within seconds. Yesterday we went to a bakery and were surprised to see many loaves. John pointed to one and asked, "how much is the bread?" "We don't sell bread." "OK, well, how much is that?" "Oh, the twisted loaf? It's $300." See, officially bread has to stay at $200, but if it's not technically bread, then other prices can be charged. But you have to be careful. Several bakers have been arrested. "Give us this day our daily bread" is quite literal in Zim these days!

Last night Colonel Mhasvi died. He was the personnel secretary for The Salvation Army here. He was a good, kind, righteous, respectful, gentle man. He had developed cancer in the liver and kidneys, and was in a lot of pain, and so it is good that he is now at rest - restored and completely healed. But, of course, it is also sad. I was so touched when I visited Col. Mhasvi in the hospital a couple of weeks ago. He was so frail and weak, and yet took time to ask how I was doing, and how John and my family back home were doing. In his weakness, he wanted to bless me.

Someone knocked on our door at about 9:30pm last night to tell us the news. "Col. Mhasvi has just died. We are going." So, we got dressed and went to their house. Within an hour the house was packed. Everyone shows up. The immediacy of everyone's response really marked me. Everyone hears the news, drops whatever they're doing (including going to bed), and shows up to mourn together. When we got to the Mhasvis house, we greeted all of the men outside, and then went inside and one-by-one greeted all of the women. All of the women sit in the house on the ground - lining the walls. All of the furniture is removed from the house (or at least the living room). The men stay outside, but as they arrive at the house, they come in, crouch down, clap their hands together, and pay respect to all of the women. I was touched by this act. It's the women that seem to hold most of the pain and the grief, but the men know it - and they show their respect. There was a lot of singing, and crying, and wailing. One woman was screaming all the way down the street, and then when she got inside the house she just collapsed. After awhile, everyone moved to the backyard, where we had a memorial service. Members of our corps band came and played, we sang, people shared memories, there was a sermon on Job (and how even the righteous have to suffer). We left at about 1:00am, but some people stayed throughout the night.

In the middle of the service, Colonel Mhavsi's wife and children came. They are a family of deep faith and grace and joy. I sense that they are all trying really hard to be strong for everyone else. Sam had his dad's wedding ring on his finger, and talked about how he had never stopped praying for a miracle, but now he just had to accept. He's 23. Please keep this family in your prayers. Pray that they will have strength and comfort and grace.

We had an AMAZING weekend holiday in Kariba. We went with the Johnsons and our friend Hope, and stayed in a little cottage beside the lake. It was wonderful to be by water, and it really refreshed our spirits. Being by the water also made me feel closer to Sherri and my family, and reminded me of lots of happy family vacations. There was a swimming pool where we stayed, and it was wonderful to be able to just swim around in the sun.

We saw lots of animals. We drove up really close to an elephant that was on the road and then discovered that there were 6 other elephants surrounding us. It was cool. We also saw an elephant charging at some villagers. I think being charged at by an elephant would be quite terrifying! A 10 minute walk from where we stayed, we could watch and listen to hippos. They are majestic creatures. We saw crocodiles too. Oh, and buffaloes and zebra (but from afar). We also got to go on a boat cruise, and to walk along the Kariba dam wall (which is on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Hope was thrilled because it was her first time out of the country!)

We got some amazing photos (if I do say so myself), so have a look at the photo gallery. I've put some captions on most of them, to help tell the story.

Monday morning I woke up early to watch the sunrise. I was sitting on a rock, enjoying the sounds of the waves lapping along the beach, and reading some Psalms. I read this verse from Psalm 143:8 "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love..." and then I looked up, and there was the bright pink sun. It was a beautiful moment, and a reminder that God brings light every single day. And then a crocodile swam past right underneath the sun - which was cool. God is good.

This is not news, new news at least. But the reality of the situation just hit me this weekend.

With the new fall TV season in full swing, and school work taking up all of my primetime, I figure I should record my shows and watch them at a later time. There are a couple of problems with that solution.

Problem 1) - I don't have a VCR. Revise that; a useable VCR. I do have one VCR whose timer doesn't work, and it's nearly as old as I am. It works, but I'd prefer one that is programmable.

Problem 2) I can't find a VCR to buy. I knew the technology was becoming more and more obselete, but I never thought they'd be this hard to find. All the major electronics stores no longer carry them. I found one at Wal-Mart for around $50, so I may pick it up this weekend.


Look at it while you can; it's headed the way of the dodo.

It's amazing to think how the former king of home video has gone the way of the failed beta-max within a few years.

Zimbabweans love their bread. I have been amazed at breakfast or tea time to see people take 5 slices at a time. One guy at our church eats a whole loaf of bread to start the day. Right now there's a bit of a bread war happening in Zim. When we got here, bread was $85,000 ($85 revalued), and the price has jumped twice in 5 months to $200. The government sets the price, and so anywhere you go, a loaf of bread will cost $200. Well, last week, the bakers raised the price on their own (to above $300 a loaf) because inflation is causing the price of ingredients to go up all the time. The government ordered the price back down to $200, and so the bakers stopped producing so much, and now it's really hard to find bread anywhere. Rather than go to the blackmarket, my resourceful husband got out some good Canadian flour that we had brought and baked us a couple of loaves last night. I had heard that near-future conflicts in the world would be over resources like land and water. I hadn't expected bread! (P.S. Speaking of my resourceful husband, I must admit that it's a lovely treat to have some nice strawberries on your cereal that have come from your own garden!)

I finally did it. After over a year of sleeping at 3am and getting up at 11am, my internal rhythm has been reset to accomodate early morning arousals (6:30am).

Why did I do it? OISE (a fancy acronym that basically translates into "teacher's college at U of T") has scheduled me for several 8:30am classes. Factoring in the time needed to commute and do my entire beauty regime (you CAN look as good as me, you just have to invest the time....), I figured I needed about two hours.


The Red Team chooses to raid the Blue base when I fall asleep at my post.

It wasn't easy, mainly because of my late-night rituals. I love watching Conan O'Brien. I love killing n00bs on Xbox Live at night. I love reading novels/comics before going to bed. And I love doing all of this after 11pm. There were times in the past several months where I had to get up around 7am for early morning teaching. 11pm would roll around and I'd think "I can't sleep now!"

Anyway, with all the work I have these days there's barely any time for all of that goodness. Maybe I could fit some things in if I pace myself accordingly.

Good news: Our friend Sean's brother Luke is in remission from cancer! And my brother Josh got a job.

Bad news: Our friend Chris was killed in gang violence.

Cool news: Our friend Elizabeth Shepherd was on the cover of NOW magazine in Toronto. I feel so proud of her. My brother Joel blogged about it, if you want to check it out.

Interesting news: All week I've been at a Training of Trainers that our department organized. I've been so impressed with the delegates, who have come from all around the country. They've worked hard and shown commitment and vision. Some of them gave presentations yesterday. They were each asked to present on something that's a training need in their area. One guy got up and said, "My topic is the importance of men and young men shaving under the arms." I thought he was joking, and laughed, but he wasn't. It was explained to me that if men and women shave off hair everywhere, it will help them to be more clean. John says he's not up for it. I guess you can't adopt EVERYTHING in a new culture.