Because inflation has been so bad, many shops are only accepting cash because if you write a check, it takes a few days to clear and by the time it clears, the money is typically worth half of its value.  So most places only want cash.  However, because the shortage of cash in the country, the bank restricts how much money everyone is allowed to withdraw per day (which is currently equivalent to $1)!  So as you can imagine, if you can only withdraw 100 billion ($1) a day, you can't buy much in the shops with that! 
   Mat and I are starting to run low on many items in our household.  We only have 3 more weeks until we go on a shopping trip to S. Africa.  But Mat told me yesterday that we only had a salt shaker left of salt in our house.  I heard that one of the shops had some salt and that this shop is still taking checks, so duing Calvin's afternoon nap, I ... Read More »

  Calvin is really coming into his own.  Even as I type, he is laughing at me everytime I yell "boo."  We're enjoying hearing him giggle and belly laugh from the depths of his tummy!  We've found several tickle spots: his feet and shoulder blades, but right where his legs meet his hips is the most ticklish spot!  We can get him really going sometimes when tickling him!  It is so sweet!
    Calvin keeps us laughing and smiling all day long--what a joy!  He loves his sunshine book, his bear puppet that plays peek-a-boo with him, his teething porcupine ring, standing on his wobbly legs and when daddy plays airplane with him!  He's a constant delight not just to us, but to those he comes in contact with.
   Today he has been droppin' some stink bombs though!  He's been on proteins for the past week and man--those produce some amazing smells on t ... Read More »

    Dependency is a huge issue that we constantly face here.  Though you want to be generous and give to people who have needs or subsidize things so that it can be affordable, you find that your generosity can quickly become taken advantage of or an attitude of dependency/entitlement develops. 
     We've seen one such case with our friend's domestic helpers (gardener and maid).  If one has the ability to hire a gardener or maid, it is your social responsibility to do so.  Our friends have a hard working maid and they pay her well in comparison to what most maids earn--about 5 times more than average.  However, because they pay her so well, she has developed an entitlement attitude.  She will see meat in the freezer and moan to our friends about how her stomach hurts since she hasn't had meat in so long (expecting them to give her meat) or our friends' children will be pl ... Read More »

      As inflation is getting soo out of hand and as the government keeps printing larger and larger bills (the largest bill now is a 25 billion bill worth about $1.50), I began thinking that it would be really cool to begin to collect every bill that is printed in this currency, which is about 30 different denominations at the moment.  Then I began to wonder if these Zim bills were selling on ebay.  I checked out ebay and saw that sometimes a single bill can go for $20!  So that got me thinking...what if I collected the entire set of bills and sold them on ebay!?!?  How much could that sell for?  $100 a set?  
   Today I went into the bank and talked with my favorite teller, Cecila, who looked bored as the line was quite small.  So we chatted and I asked her if I could get 100 sets of each denomination!  She said sure!  So she sorted th ... Read More »

   Mat was checking the computer logs and noticed a "sketchy" site that was viewed by a student in the computer lab.  He was able to narrow down the viewer to a particular student and sensitively confronted the student about it.  Though the student initially denied viewing pornography, he later admitted to it.  Mat was able to use this as an opportunity to gently and lovingly talk with this student and seek to help him be accountable in this issue.  We know that pornography is a growing problem everywhere, especially as the internet becomes more and more accessible.  Though pornography isn't as pervasive here as in the US, we know it will only get worse and we're thankful for this opportunity to help this student in this area.

     A man who was working as the grounds manager at the college has recently been fired.  Apparently several things had been going missing: blankets and sheets, cooking pots and pans, etc.  It didn't take long to figure out that someone inside the college who holds the keys to storage rooms and to individual housing units was the one who would have done this.  This man was SUCH a nice guy--really cheerful, jovial, pleasant, kind.  It was such a disappointment to see that this Christian man gave in to the temptation to steal from the college.  At times like this, we can't help but get discouraged at the state of the church here and we can only hope that by playing our part in the building up of the body, that the church will deepen and mature.  We've been reminded through this incident that the Zimbabwean church is under a lot of pressure for survival, but that God still desires his people to be obedient to him ... Read More »

   Our church had a "School of the Spirit" weekend where they invited another speaker from within their denomination to come speak about the Holy Spirit.  This guy and his wife have a huge multi-racial church in Capetown and this guy was advertised as an expert in the field.  Mat and I had a teacher's conference all weekend at the college and so we couldn't go to the church event.  But we heard disturbing reports of what was being taught: saying things like he doesn't care how the spirit manifests itself in you, as long as you walk away from church being filled with the spirit, he said Jesus sees us as people who are without sin since he's forgiven us (which is true), but kept having the crowd chant, "We are sinless!" which started to become quite misleading, he said if you don't believe in the baptism of the spirit (a very Pentecostal belief) then you must be "so daft (or stupid) to even breathe",and he mostly preached his op ... Read More »

    This weekend we had Dr. Perry Shaw come to us to teach a workshop on how to be better teachers.  Perry teaches at a theological college in Beirut, Lebanon and has studied the field of education.  He challenged us as teachers to try taking a more wholistic approach in our teaching, appealing to the mind, emotions and behavior in our classes.  Perhaps we can ask questions or have creative assignments that do this.  But we want to help students make the leap from what they are mentally learning to how this can change their lives.  Another challenge he gave was to be careful about the "hidden curriculum" that we are teaching.  The hidden curriculum is what you are saying through your actions that may undermine what you are teaching with your words.  For example, you may be teaching on the ills of the abuse of power by those in leadership.  At the same time you may demand to be called "Mrs ... Read More »

    Today we had the American summer team and the faculty of TCZ over to our house for an impala roast.  As with anytime you host about 30 people, you can expect chaos, but here in Zimbabwe it always seems a bit more chaotic than back home!  We had a warthog roast last year at our house with the American summer team that came out so I had learned how to do things better this time around.  One thing I did differently is that I asked people to bring their own plates, cups and chairs, along with a dish to share.  I also prepared my dishes (a soup appetizer, coleslaw and cookies) the day before so that I wouldn't be going crazy the day of the event.  Last year we made coffee and tea for everyone with dessert, but this year we decided this was too much hassle and didn't do it! 
    Well, the night started off with a bang--I mean, a literal bang!  One of our lecturers, Golden, ... Read More »

   Mat took the American summer team out camping to the Matopos, which is a beautiful national park about 30 minutes from here.  Two other faculty/staff members from the college joined them with their children.  They cooked dinner over the fire, played games, sang some songs around the fire and then snuggled into their tents and sleeping bags for the evening. 
     Around 2am, Mat is woken by the echoing sounds of someone vomitting.  Unfortunately, Michael (one of the Americans) ate at a local restaurant and got food poisoning.  It's 2am and he's throwing up about every 30 minutes along with diarrhea as well!  In fact, one of the lecturers took Michael back to town at 7am to get a shot to stop him from throwing up and to get him some liquids to help rehydrate him.  As the group got up for the morning, they saw a dead rat a few meters away from them and tossed it over the r ... Read More »