Mangwanani

We’re sitting in our den writing this by the light of the laptop and candles, as ZESA (Zimbabwe Electrical Supply…) is out once again. By the time we are able to post this we will have been here for 6 days, but we have not had access to internet until now which we is why we have not yet written a blog post. We arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe on the night of the 28th and thankfully all of our luggage made it here as well. We had no issues getting our visas and were able to quickly leave the airport and go to the house of our friends, Grace and Peter Musuka. The following day we went to the United Methodist Church Bishop’s office where Grace Musuka works. We were reunited with some old friends, including some of the children who used to live at Fairfield Children’s Home. After a day of running errands in Harare, we went out to eat with Grace and Peter. The next morning, Friday the 30th, Fairfield’s driver, Arabie, picked us up in the combi and drove us on the 4 hour journey to Fairfield Children’s Homes. As we pulled in, the children ran along the side of the cumbi yelling and screaming in excitement. Lots of hugs, hive fives, and greetings were exchanged before we carried all of our luggage inside and got settled in. Nyarai, the oldest girl at Fairfield, had cleaned our home prior to our arrival, so luckily we did not have too many spiders to kill. After we leave in 2 weeks, Nyarai will be moving into this house to live with Janine. Before darkness set in, we went outside and played with the children. Aaron started a game of soccer with some of the older boys and girls. Some of Janine’s friends, the Kies family, brought over dinner so that we did not have to cook for our first night here. Luckily, ZESA was on and we had lights which made unpacking much easier and we even played a few rounds of cards before going to bed. On Saturday (the 31st) we spent our morning outside playing with the children again. Several students that we met last year from Hartzell High School came down the road to visit. We walked around the mission to say hello to our friends; unfortunately all of them were in town when we stopped by. In the evening we drove to Hillcrest College(High School) Prep’s winter carnival and ate hamburgers as we watched their rugby match. Rugby is an extremely physical sport, especially since they were playing without any padding. That night we were invited to the Kies’s house to celebrate the return of their oldest son to Zimbabwe from the United States. He had not been home for 3 years and we enjoyed celebrating and eating a fabulous dinner with them. As we were eating dinner, ZESA came back on (after being off all day), so when we returned back to our house we had light to do our devotion as a group. Today (Sunday) we went to church for a couple hours at Ehnes Methodist Church here on the mission. We played with the children at Fairfield again all afternoon. Aaron played soccer again and Casey painted the nails of many of the younger ones (boys included, ha). We had a nice candlelight dinner of chicken tacos and chips (french fries) made for us by Lydia (aka Mai Makwerewho is a WONDERFUL cook even without electricity!). Every night we have looked forward to opening our letters (written to us before we left by friends and family) as we open a new one every day we are here. We also are continuing one of Janine’s old traditions of eating a piece of chocolate each night, typically a Dove chocolate so we can also read the fun quotes on the inside of the wrapper. We have devotions each night together and are taking turns leading them. We have all made some new friends already and have been reunited with many, many old ones. We will submit another post again soon (hopefully before 6 more days pass since we now should have some access to internet).