Hey again,

Well another few days have passed, it’s going really quick out here! It’s been pretty hot recently, I heard you guys are having the coldest winter in 100 years?!?!? Is this right? I will be annoyed if you get deep snow! Oh well.
So, Monday was a really good day, we went to this orphanage in the morning. It’s the one where there’s about 8 kids to each house thing ( a building with a kitchen, a front room, a bathroom and a couple of bedrooms.) I went back to the same house that I was in last week. That was really good, as you start to build up good relationships with the kids and the ‘house mothers’. The kids are adorable, and range from one month to 12 years old. There’s this one little guy called Paul, who’s about 2 years old, as soon as I walk in the room he’s transfixed on my hair! He’s really cute. Breaks my heart that all these children have no family though. The programme running at the orphanage is really great though, they make sure they’re well setup. Although they seem to be severely lacking in funding at the moment. They asked us if we would be so kind to purchase a bag of cement for them, so they can secure some rusty old w\swings in the ground. We’re just going to find out how much a bag is, and then consider it. Next Monday we’re going back to paint the swings, which should be fun.
In the afternoon we were at the special needs school. I’m actually really enjoying the time with those kids, it’s such hard work, considering the language barrier and the fact that they have such severe problems, but it’s great. There’s this one girl called Francis, she’s the only white girl in the whole school, but she is such a handful! She’s about 15, and screams and laughs her head off, before pulling off all the other kids clothes. She’s great, we’re starting to be able to handle her. It’s a real shame though because every time we’re there, she’ll constantly say that her Mum is coming to get her, and apparently she’d been saying that for years.
Tuesday was really good too. We had our training for the Scripture Union programme we’re going to be helping with. It looks like a really good programme, can’t wait to get stuck in. We then worked with Simukai in the afternoon. That was cool. We played loads of basketball, however I embarrassed myself highly by slipping straight back into netball mode by always forgetting that you can actually run with the ball. Oh dear.
Yesterday we were in Sakubva all day. Jennifer preached to the adults, then we had a couple of hours of games with the kids, with a little bit of teaching at the end. We then had the ‘youth group’ (mainly teens but some older ones) for the evening. We taught on the importance of reading your bible and praying. A 40 minutes talk turned into a couple hours of discussion as they had so many questions (plus translation doubles your time there!). It’s really weird – we’ve found that the black people out here have learnt about God and the gospel, but don’t understand it at all. It’s like they know all the words, like crucifixion and resurrection etc, but have absolutely no clue about what that actually means. So it was good to spend them time with them really breaking it all down, and getting back to the basics.
We had dinner with a couple called Bret and Kerry, from the Presbyterian church we’re based with. They head up the youth group from this church. We’ve been getting stuck in with this group, helping with teaching and stuff. From now on I’ll be involved with the worship for youth as well which should be cool. They’re a good bunch of kids, just need a bit of encouragement to come out of their shells.
This morning we visited Strickland lodge, a white old peoples home. That was cool, but after an hour they all retreated to their rooms, so there wasn’t actually much to do there. So we went and visited a couple of girls we’ve been getting to know who are in the hospital. Tutsi has had both her legs amputated, for a reason none of us are able to find out. Seems a bit suspicious. But she’s on the road to recovery, just needs some help with self esteem now. The other girl is called Dorkas, she had to be taken into hospital after a previous simple stomach operation got seriously infected and messed up a lot of her bowels. She’s been in for ages, waiting for it to heal internally. She’s still got a few months to go. We brought them both some fruit and a magazine each. They were really chuffed.
So I’m definitely getting used to the culture now. Suppose it’s not actually a cultural thing, but they have milk in bags out here! Keep spilling it everywhere. Nightmare.
It’s common for men to hold hands whilst walking down the street as well. That takes a bit of getting used to!
The post strike has been really annoying. Apparently it has finished now, but please pray that we get the post we’re owed!
I’ll write again soon. Take care everyone, miss you all heaps
Love Bec x x x