One of the men in our small group from church is leading up a farming school called, Farming God's Way.  This school teaches their students farming skills, proper times to plant and harvest, as well as business management skills too.  Right now is prime planting time before the rainy season really takes off, but there is no seed to be found in the country.  He was telling us that the Zimbabwe government is not allowing any importing of seed into the country from South Africa, even though there are literally TONS of seeds waiting at the border to be shipped in.  This means that there will be NO maize meal (the staple here) in Zimbabwe for this next year! 
    The reason?  I'm sure it is politically motivated.  With this power sharing agreement that is taking place between Mugabe and Tschvangarai, perhaps Mugabe will be able to blame their food problems on Tsc ... Read More »

   Today we had a spiritual retreat for the faculty and staff of the college.  It was a really nice day where the speaker spoke about dying with Christ, rising with Christ and being his representatives on this earth. 
    Tonight Mat and I were watching a movie before bed and we heard gunshots at our neighbor's house.  Normally they will fire off a few shots to let everyone know they have guns, but tonight was different.  As several shots continued to be fired, it became clear that something was going on.  Then we began to hear gunshots on the other side of our house and behind our house.  Apparently our neighbors behind us had a break-in.  A armed robber broke into the window of their little girl's room and the family fired back.  The neighbors joined them in firing, but the robbers got away in their white twin cab truck.  And once again, I'm faced with this sit ... Read More »

      Well, we are house hunting once again!  For those of you who have been following, this has been something that has been looming for quite some time.  Our house went on the market in October 2007, before Calvin was born.  With every person who came to see the house, we thought--is this the buyer?  Will we have to move?  Once Calvin was born and we were settled, I began to look around for another place to move, but with no success.  Finding a house to rent that has good water, good location, good security and that is not a run down house needing lots of maintanence is harder than you might think!  I didn't find anything at that time so we just left it.  Then came the political elections here in March and again in June and the landlord told us that he was going to "sit" on the house for a little while.  So for the time being, we were ok.  
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   So many milestones lately!  This past weekend, Calvin began crawling--backwards crawling that is!  He's still learning how to move forward, but at least we are moving now as it has been a long journey to this phase! 
    Not just this, but today he began really eating with his hands for the first time.  He would always eat rice cake snacks or dried fruit with his hands, but never dinner.  If I would put his dinner on his tray, he would pick it up and throw it (as he LOVES throwing everything now--future baseball pitcher?).  But tonight, he picked up his peas and carrots and put them to his mouth!  YEAH!  So much progress all at the same time...
    A few other things Calvin has been doing lately: he hears the dog bark and says, "Da"; if he is upset, "I'm a Little Teapot" calms him down; he loves Turbo, the dog ... Read More »

   I've never been one to say that things here are bad, as I've always been able to see the positive side of things.  But now I can say with confidence that things here are bad.  I honestly don't know how people are surviving.  There is a major cash shortage so banks have a limit of how much cash you can withdraw each day.  Bank lines are SO long just to your maximum allowance of cash out of the bank each day (equivalent to $1.50).  Nearly all businesses are charging in foreign currency and are raising their prices to meet their needs, meaning businesses and services are now more expensive than ever (I got 3 keys copied and one key made for $70, which is outrageous for here).  Many businesses are being forced to close as they just cannot operate anymore, meaning that many more people are becoming unemployed.  Some businesses struggling to stay open, like a factory that makes foam for cushions, can't get the raw materials ... Read More »

    This Saturday was the first Men's Fellowship Breakfast.  Mat really had a desire to start up a men's fellowship group upon "catching" a student surfing pornography on the internet at the college.  So this morning, they kicked it off with breakfast and explained the purpose of the men's group that will meet once a month. 
   Mat said the morning went well.  He hopes that it can be an environment where men can be encouraged to develop accountable relationships with one another as well as a place where different issues can be brought up each month and discussed as men.  Certain issues that Mat hopes to talk about are: pornography, monogamous marriages, being better husbands to their wives, being better fathers to their children, etc.  This is a culture that doesn't talk about sex; yet, the society is so drastically affected by sexual behaviors that are destructive to society (AI ... Read More »

   Last night the guys had a "guys night out" while the girls went to another house to have a "girls night out".  While there, my Australian friend, Jodi, said told us of the continued saga with their gardener.  They had a maid, a very trustworthy and wonderful woman, working for them.  They hired her son, Jehtro, to be a gardener for them.  Jethro's brother, Joseph, is also an amazing trustworhy guy is a believer and works for my other friend Jo.  Jethro started off ok, but got lazy.  He was working part time for $20 a month (which is a good salary for one working full time as a gardener here).  He was getting paid well, but getting lazy and wouldn't do the gardening tasks he was supposed to do.  Jodi and Andrew always thought that some of their fuel out of their 50 gallon drum was "going missing" but could never really be sure as they couldn't quite measure how much was in the dru ... Read More »

   Tonight was our first night staying the night in our house again after the break in.  We stayed the evenings at our friends, Ian and Jo, for 6 nights until I felt ready to stay at our place once again.  Neither of us slept that well.  Mostly because so many thoughts were going through my head. 
     Mat and I both feel like we want to move houses and today went to visit a lovely house with better security and more room.  Talk about God's provision--we had somewhat house hunted earlier in the year when we heard our landlord wanted to sell our house, but we found nothing suitable.  Then over the weekend, Jo heard of a house becoming available that is 2 blocks away from her.  It was the first house we visited and knew it was the one!  As we drove up, I told Mat that the most we could pay for rent was $200.  After seeing the house and asking the rent pric ... Read More »

  Tonight was probably our most thrilling night here in Zimbabwe by far, but not the type of thrill that is enjoyable.  We had pizza night with our small group where everyone brought a topping.  These pizzas were some of the best pizzas Mat had made to date.  We all just enjoyed chatting and laughing together.  The last couple left the house by 10:15pm and so Mat and I were just chilling after a long hot day.  We had the doors open still after our guests left to keep the cool air coming in and cooling off the hot house.  Mat was in the living room on the computer and I was in the office skyping a friend in the UK. 
    Around 11pm I hear the office door opening while I'm talking on skype.  I turn around to see two black men in our house telling me to get on the floor.  They tell me to get up and they take my wedding rings and ask me where our money is.  It was al ... Read More »

   I've enrolled Calvin in swimming lessons.  He's in a class with many of my friends who have small children and today was our first day.  We got in the water with the babies, singing many songs and getting them accustomed to the water, kicking in the water, splashing water on their faces and eventually going under the water.  Calvin wasn't sure about things as the water was a bit cold and he was on his back sometimes and tummy at other times.  But all in all, he did well...he moved around the water to some favorite hits like, "Zippedee-do-dah", "The Wheels on the bus", "It's raining its pouring, the old man is snoring", "If you're happy and you know it."  It will be fun to see how he does over the next 7 weeks as he gets more and more used to the water.