Changing money has gotten to an all time ridiculous point.  Since inflation has been out of control and the currency has been revalued (10 zeros were dropped off and a new set of notes was printed), there are several different exchange rates:

1. Cash for cash black market coin rate: this is where you exchange us dollars for zim dollars on the streets.  If you want zim coins, then the rate is $1=85 zim dollars
2. Cash for cash black market bill rate: this is where you exchange us dollars for zim dollars on the streets.  If you want zim dollar bills, then the rate is $1=80 zim dollars.  (It is slightly a worse rate from the coin rate as people prefer bills rather than coins).
3. RTGS Bulawayo rate: this is when one does a bank transfer from their bank account to your bank account.  In Bulawayo, this RTGS rate is lower than in Harare.&# ... Read More »
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    Living in Zimbabwe, you learn that if you need anything, you either buy it locally for exhorbatant prices (because everything is imported and marked up) or you wait until you are making a trip down to South Africa (SA) and buy it yourself.  We typically opt for option #2 as you end up saving a lot of money this way.  We know that we only make trips every 3 or 4 months, so we make detailed lists before going to SA and try to pick up everything we need.
    We just got back from our South African trip on Sunday.  On Monday, Mat was using the super glue to fix something and it squirted all over his only pair of khaki cargos--ruined!  Also, he didn't realize it but he superglued the scissors shut--ruined!  Oh, why couldn't this have happened before our trip so we could have bought some pants and scissors?
   Today, I went to fill up the car with fuel and to fi ... Read More »

     So my "get-rich-quick" scheme seems to be working!  I went to ebay and posted a full set of the last Zim currency: from the 1 cent note to the 100 billion note.  32 notes in all!  And it sold for $350!!!  I also have sold 4-100 billion dollar notes and they sold on average for $69!  So I banked in about $630 from these notes which cost me about $5 to get!  CRAZY!  I currently have another full set of notes on ebay and it is going for $100 so far.  I'm hoping to be able to put aside my ebay earnings into a college fund for Calvin!

   Mat and I have been looking forward to our South African get away for many weeks now!  We drove down to Pretoria today with another Australian couple from our church, Jodi and Andrew.  Though we left at 5am and got to the Beitbridge border at 8am, the line on the SA side was already super long--the longest I've ever seen it!  And there were even two lines!  The last time we were at the border, they let us to the front of the line since we had a newborn baby.  So I went up to an officer to ask him if I could get to the front with my newborn.  He said, "Is there anything wrong with the baby?"  "No," I replied.  "Then get to the back of the line."  So we joined the line that seemed the shortest.  And we waited and waited for hours in a line that was not moving. 
    At one point, I went out to the car with Calvin and ... Read More »

      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 »