Rhino Chaser

This is Charles. Charles spends his day guarding some white rhinos against poachers. Rhino horns fetch ridiculous prices on the kooky medicine black market. When Zimbabwe's economy tanked the incidence of poaching skyrocketed. 

The rhinos are most active at night (when Charles is sleeping) so each morning Charles tracks them. At times the rhinos leave the reserve, walking straight through the fence. In the last week Charles has has to track and herd the rhino for up to 30 km outside the reserve. He does it all on foot.

Other than stout walking gear, Charles is kitted out with a semi-automatic weapon and has a mandate to use it against would-be poachers. His life must be a weird mix of serenity and stress.

Elephants

We stood right in front of a gigantic grey elephant. It was extremely exciting. One of the guides asked whether we wanted to ride an elephant. Dad and I really wanted to go but Mum, Abbey and Bridie were not so sure. After a while they agreed. I was slowly lifted off the ground onto the bony, calm elephant. It had humungous feet and was very tall. It walked very quietly and I felt it’s scratchy skin on my legs. It slowly plodded over the hard ground, went over the dusty road, past the floppy trees and past a few smaller animals. Eventually we came back to where we had started and the elephant slowly lowered itself to the ground. As I hopped off I looked into her intelligent eyes and wished I could ride again.

Clare

Stitched Up

On our recent trip to the beautiful city of Bulawayo, we visited a locally owned and run clothing manufacturer called Femina Garments.  The clothes that were produced were elegant, well-tailored and reasonably priced. The numerous factories nearby were empty with no workers to be seen and no products being made.  

At Femina there was a happy hum of industry throughout the factory. Great music was playing, workers were happily busy, employees with disabilities were meaningfully engaged and there was a palpable sense of pride at every station. It was a heartening corrective for the sweatshops we so often hear about.

We were overjoyed to see and speak to the directors and workers, and celebrate their creativity, resilience and hard work.    

Anthea

Pile of Poo

Facilitating and encouraging our friends and community to increase the diversity and quality of their food gardens, is one area that we are passionate about.   It is a joy to discover the varied food plants that God has provided in Zimbabwe. 

The resident minister at Matthew Rusike Children’s home, Reverend Tadzaushe, very generously donated an 8 tonne truckload of manure from his rural property to improve the gardens here.  Such kindness brings with it the potential to transform the food production in this place.  The soil is very sandy and quite poor in this area. With the addition of increased organic matter, it would be possible improve the diversity and quality of the vegetables that are grown at MRCH.

Tomorrow we are heading across the city to buy new sprinkler heads for the main garden. This purchase has been made possible by the generous efforts of our friends in Evandale and will make a huge difference to the efficacy of food production at MRCH.

With these changes, we can’t wait to see a wide range of vegetable bursting out of the many gardens here. More than this, we can’t  wait to see the children enjoying a wider range of fruits and vegetables from their home gardens.

Anthea

Editor's Note

Hello All,
You may have noticed that we rarely have pictures of the children from Matthew Rusike in our blog. For example, in Bridie's story below we would love to show you what a fort full of gorgeous grinning African children would look like. I'm sure you'll understand, however, that as much as we would love to populate our blog with pictures of the gorgeous children here we do want to respect their privacy. Here, just as it is in Australian schools, you need to get a permission form to publish a child's photo. So for now you'll just have to take our word for it that the children are way too cute.

Big Fort

On Sunday we went to the ECD (early childhood school) to make a big fort. All the pieces were in 21 boxes and I got to open some of them with a pocket knife.

We started making the fort by following the instructions. My job was giving out the connectors. We got help from Elanor, Abbey, Clare, Daddy and Brian.

When we made the floor, the downstairs it turned into a crawling space. When we finished we got to play on it. It was fun!

Bridie

The Art of Being Humane

 

Anthea recently met some delightful artists from a local community called the Art of Being Humane. When Rudo and her friends heard about MRCH's latent clinic they got to work. In no time at all, they had organised a fundraising concert. We took a couple of friends and enjoyed the tunes of 'Prayer Soul' and four other artists in the afternoon sun. The concert was the first phase of an effort to raise $6000 which would allow the clinic to be equipped and registered. It is exciting to see (and hear) the difference people can make in their own community when they harness their passion.

Too Little

Last week, a dear girl from MRCH was admitted to hospital with heart trouble. Three days later, five-year-old Gracie died. The shock and sadness felt by the community has been bone-achingly sad.

Gracie’s house Mama cared for her beautifully, refusing to leave her at the hospital without having settled her right to sleep first. The next morning she rushed back to the hospital before dawn to comfort Gracie as she woke.

Gracie has been living at MRCH from babyhood when she was abandoned (probably at the same hospital where she was recently admitted). She was severely malnourished – a possible cause of her congestive heart failure.

A simple, reverent service was held for Gracie at an infant burial ground on the outskirts of Epworth. A circle of stoic Africans sang Gracie to sleep, offered prayers and shed tears. I never want to see such a small coffin again.

 If you read statistics about Zimbabwe’s infant mortality rate or the health budget or the HIV infection rate you get a sobering picture. Of course, children are not statistics and I struggle to make any sense of Gracie’s loss.

Abbey Birthday

Abbey turned 12 in Zimbabwe so we had pizza with some American friends, ate at an Indian restaurant and we've got a dance party with some African friends organised for tonight. I think that's five continents we've involved!