Wildlife in Zimbabwe

gnus

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Onward to Zimbabwe

I went from dedicating wells to visit Nkhoma again for a few days. It was hot and I got to relax and greet friends before leaving for Zimbabwe.

In Zimbabwe I got to visit with Ute and her family. It's and I were in Nkhoma together. She is an eye surgeon and we went on a great road trip in 2011/12 through Mozambique and Zimbabwe. She now has 2 kids and works outside of Harare.

There is a park nearby called Cleveland where I got to see wildlife on a Sunday morning walk (and drive).

These pics are from the second weekend when we went to a sanctuary called Wild is Life. They rehabilitate elephants, let us feed giraffe, protect a pangolin (prehistoric ant eater). Such fun!

Clean water

One of our last well installations was 300 feet from the lake. (I was very tempted to go for a swim to cool off.) Lake Malawi is known as the calendar lake, 365 miles long and 52 miles across. That is a lot of water. With the rising heat and lower amounts of rain the level of the lake is lower than I remember it. Our first hotel used to have its own private beach just outside of the dining room and now it has sand outside of the dining room and a field of grass and then the lake.

The village was so excited to get their well installed. Clean safe water to drink. Having the lake so close, where everyone washed (bodies, clothes, dishes), where animals live (hippos and crocs), where diseases can be contracted (belharzia). Now there is clean water! Such a gift!

Thanks to donors and volunteers. Thanks to Marion Medical Mission and their staff. Thanks to the water committee and the villagers. Life giving clean water. Unkhanku kwaku chiuta! Uchindami kwa chiuta! Ulemu kwa mulungu! Glory to God!

Wells

Teams 1 and 2 helped to install and dedicate 2,717 new wells in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia! 3,093 wells have been constructed this year and will be finished up by Team 3 (the African staff)!

What an amazing feat! Well construction started Sept 1 and Team 2 finished Oct 26. That is a very busy 8 weeks (and they aren't quite finished)!

To all the donors and volunteers (from a village): you people are a ray of hope. We are receiving gifts that we never imagined possible. May God continue to guide you and continue to help you that you may keep helping our neighbors and those who still have these water problems.

Want to help? www.mmmwater.org
~Wells still need to be funded. ($450 or any part thereof)
~become a volunteer! We'd love to have you join the team
~invite a speaker to come and share what if going on.

Final week

This is Chisadziwa Kamsuli. He didn't make it down to the well but he is so excited to have clean water in his village. He came to the path that we took back to the truck and shook my hand with such a big smile.

Team 2 is ending. We've done 3 weeks of well installations and have been blessed so many times over! Mary and I helped to dedicate 130 wells in northern Malawi. We have sung and danced with many women (some men too)! Shaken hands with men women and children, scared many children and babies (inadvertently of course), and shared so many smiles and prayers.

The prayers have been beautiful. Thanks to God for the gift of water, clean water. For the donors in America, as well as us volunteers who represent them and have travelled so far. Prayers that God continue to guide us as we travel on to help those neighbors who still need that gift of clean water.

Thank you all for making this possible. Blessings and peace.

(I'm planning a few more updates as I rest up and continue to process this experience)

A typical day

At training in the first day, the powers that be try to keep people involved and keep from having only one person talking all day by breaking it into pieces. This year I was asked to talk about a typical day. with more experience (this is my 6th trip), I'm not sure there really is such a thing, but I agreed to try...(And thus far this year, I suppose this has been the typical day)

Up early (6 for me, though my partner gets up at 530)

Breakfast at 630 at the hotel restaurant: eggs, chips (potato wedges), white bread, and tea (or coffee)
*if you want to choose your dinner you should order it now, otherwise you eat what they have when you get back

Get your Field Officer or Installation Supervisor and go load the truck with pipes, pumps, and pieces for well installations

Stop at a shop to pick up lunch supplies (bread, peanut butter, biscuits (cookies), drinks)

Drive, drive, drive (we on Team 2 are known as the cleanup crew and often the wells are some distance apart)

Get to first well or first parking spot to start the hike to the first well (greet, install, dedicate, dance)

Drive, drive, Drive to second well (repeat throughout the day)

Stop for lunch under a tree so that you have shade and continue on

@4 start your way back toward where you stay so that you return before dark (6pm)

Shower, do the backups for the well info, plug things up to charge

Eat dinner

Prep for the next day (get water ready, climb under mosquito net)

SLEEP!!

At the well

Mary and I were based in Nkata Bay. On Thursday of week 2 we are moving down the lake to stay and work in Dwangwa. There are many different languages in Malawi, the main two are Chichewa and Chitimbuka. Of course the area we worked in speaks Chitonga. So I've learned yet another greeting that is similar and not to what I know. Of course when I get confused I revert back to Chichewa and that works too as it is the national language.

When we park the truck there are often many villagers (or at least children) around as we pull from the back the pieces needed to install the well. They help us carry the parts sometimes singing, sometimes chatting along the way. I nod and pretend to understand or song along. At the well we greet everyone. 'Mwe uli?' (Pronounced mway) (it is a phonetic language) responding 'te o mampa. Kwal imwe?' (how are you? I'm fine and you?) Lots of smiles and misunderstandings and me getting my words confused. The laughter is contagious and fabulous.

The greetings go on as the installation supervisors and builders work on measuring the depth of the well and assembling the parts. One of us volunteers puts information into an Android for office purposes and the other will lead the dedication.

The dedication is an official handing over of the well. It has belonged to the village the whole time but this reinforces the idea. we begin with a prayer often lead by a villager. (They pray for the water and the night of God. They pray for us the visitors who have come so far as well as those who support from America. They pray that God continues to guide us as We continue our work for their neighbors.) We emphasize our partnership between Christians in the US and Marion Medical Mission, the synod that we work with here, and the village and water committee. We explain the maintenance plan and who to call for repairs if the well breaks. There is a demonstration and we ask if there are comments. (They talk about the problem they had of unsafe water and how far they had to go to get water-pointing up and over and emphasizing way far away. How now they won't get sick, that God has provided them life now with this clean water.)

Then we head back to the truck where more handshakes and hugs are exchanged. Gifts are given and we take off for the next village.

When we left Nkhata Bay, we had helped dedicate 73 wells. We are still working for another full week and while I'm tired, I'm definitely not done!