Botswana

Today we headed over the border to Botswana to check out the national park called Chobe. It borders Namibia so when we were in the river (not swimming, boat cruise) we more or less skipped into another country. They are fighting for an island in the middle of the river at the moment. Each day a group of army guys from either side put their countries flag up in replacement of the other..today it was Botswana's. There isn't any actual fighting involved just in the court system one wants to use it for tourism and the other for farming.
On the river part we saw hippo, crocodiles, elephants, and buffalos they all come down to the river in the morning to drink. In the afternoon we took a 4 X 4 out to the land and saw them all over again just in massive herds. We also were the only ones to see the lions before they ducked into a group of bushes.

There are over 60,000 elephants on this piece of land alone..and I'm pretty sure not only did we see them but smell them. A few were at the river getting a bath and cooling off. There was a baby born just 9 days ago so he's still a bit scared of the Jeeps..poor thing. Also a baby hippo was born and he was sunning himself by the herd.. Too cute. They have cur down on the poaching in this area, normally men are looking for rhino horn which goes for over $200,000 and the ivory..the new rules are that the army guys shoot to kill not just arrest so to discourage any more animal killing. 

We had lunch at a hotel on the river before our game drive and by 4:30 we headed back to the border to head home. Long day but wonderful and a once an a life time event, on this side of things.  Now we eat our African meal of fast food.. Chicken inn..surprisingly delicious.. Night all I hope these emails are still worth reading and encourahing. 

Holiday week

This week we've taken off so as to see the sights in Victoria Falls we took the bus, pathfinder it was 15 hours of easy traveling. The first leg was on a new double decker with leather seats and AC..which is super hard to come by here in Zim. Only $35..what a bargain.
We met up with a brother here who is a travel agent, he had a few hotels we could pick from..we didn't brother with viewing them we told him to take us to the one he'd stay at... Livingston Lodge.  We get breakfast and soda for free...and the interwebs..yay!!!
Today we went to the falls for a better part of the day. Wow.. I knew it was amazingly large but because of all the rain you always are getting wet. Of course there was a thunder storm as well.. We were soaked completely. At one point all we saw was mist no falls... We figure that if we are in a rain forest it might as well be raining too, it just fit. After we went as far as we could and headed back to the gift shop to drip off.. Then the sun came out...so we ran back to the spot were you could sit on rocks and get some beautiful photos.
Jah did a great job creating this place..breath taking. The animals roam freely (this whole area is a national park) so at night once its dark we have to be in. There no crime jut lions and elephants they are everywhere.
Tomorrow we go over to Botswanan for the game drive in Chobe national park. They take you down the river early in the morning so you can see all the hundred of animals getting a drink. Then Wednesday we are walking with the lions..so I'll post as each event takes place.
We would love to come again with a large group its amazing...I can't say that enough.

Rurals

Every Monday our congregation travels more then 45 minutes outside the city of Harare to preach where it is seldom worked. The areas are high density and very poor, but white for the truth.
This is were our Shona really comes in handy.   I went with Primrose, she had three studies I'm both English & Shona. It been wonderful to learn so many different ways to conduct a study while I've been here.
There was a group of kids walking by so I grabbed the tablet and turned the Becoming Jehovah's  friend app on...they became glued. We also got the Bible lessons out and I'd ask.."chii eee chii.." Which means..what is it? They then would respond in Shona, they knew no English. They had been playing with rusty pipes so once I discarded those, we got to work.
We start studies in the Listen to God and Good news from God brochure its the easiest thing. I love it..
Lunch was under a huge tree with our group of 20 next to the tobacco field. Its so wired that in the shade its at least 15 degrees lower then in the hot winter sun. The rains are gone just a dry heat now. The last few days we've been hitting service hard, walking over 10 miles a day and handing invites and mags out like candy.. Actually our hall has run put of them... So we are now looking at old ones.
Alright I feel that's all I've got to say this week. Mainly our lives are service so there are only some many stories that comes from that...
This week on the service meeting we did get to do the demo, we are having many doorstep studies hopefully we can get a few to the hall soonish. We will keep you updated.

Odds & Ends

Holiday over its now time to really get to work here. We have the goal set for 100 hours... Plus we have Vic falls still to do at the end of the month..so these next few weeks we will be out and about preaching our little hearts out. Tony and Tracy left for the US today (Saturday) so we need to step up our walking and study game. We will miss them greatly but know that its a necessary trip so we sent our love with them with the hopes that everything is cared for in a timely manner so we can meet again before we both head home.
In our congregation we have 24 regular pioneers and last night we had another 6 or 7 announced for the auxiliary pioneer hours so we should have plenty of support this next month. We have a rep for preaching already which makes walking down the streets way easier, less people asking for money cause they know we will just hand them the newest mags.

We don't have a washer or dryer..besides our hands, at our place. Any giving day you walk into our bathroom and its full of women's clothing drying.. Ha. We don't take them outside because of the Bot flies. They lay eggs on wet clothing that hatch when warm skin rubs on them. They then burrow into the skin and sooner or later re-hatch out of your skin.. You then give birth to flies.. Of course there is no real issues after..it's just gross.. Everyone irons their clothes here but if you were to ask why they couldn't give you an answer. Its just what has been done the last 100 years. No worries we take care so as not to have that happen..so far.  Its good for us to have these little things to worry about it helps us appreciate the things in the states later.  Same goes for the water we boil everything before we eat or drink..minus soda. :)
Last note. Today I finally started a bible study. Its on our route for the cafe and Friday afternoons I will have a real student that we can grab for meetings. I'm super geeked to see how she grows. She's in her last year of school here so chances are good that for a while she may come with us. Pray it goes well!!! ;) alright we re off to do a few more homes and street calls... Loving you all!

BTW..did I mention last email we helped take lit to a rural kingdom hall? Included the wine for the memorial.  It was amazing to be a part of that.

Lakr Karbia

This is the 3rd largest man-made reservoir in the world. It was created when the Zambezi river was dammed for the purpose of generating hydroelectric power. Some teak trees still stand even after 50 some years under water. Its swarming with crocodiles and hippopotami and on a good day you will be able to watch elephants cooling them selves off in the mud bed. Watching the world from here makes it hard to believe you're still in Africa.
Our group is 21 people, half from the states and the other are locals. We rented condos from a place call Caribbean Bay we have three, its in a beautiful place...right on the corner of a little land that jets out a bit into the lake and two personal pools. We may or may not have a pack of baboons running around our cabins too...fighting little dudes.
Part of the lake is in Zambia so we snuck a short swim so we could say we've been there. The only way to come to this place is with a boat.. Staying on land just wouldn't cut it. The three families we came with have boats so we spilt into groups of 7 and each day we take off into the rising sun, coming home only when the sun was setting. We have been be to see crocodiles...hippos..elephants..and zebras all from our boats, comfortably as we sip our cokes or gin and tonics.
One our new friends, Sport {real name is William} is our personal crocodile Dundee...I swear he's done everything up here in the bush. He worked here for a little while on the boats finishing for capenta fish which only work at night. He did a five day hike here when he was young and he said he's picked a few spots for the future new world he's gonna build on. Ha All the islands here were the high hills, one is called Rhino Island where a black rhino was stranded and they had to put into place operation Noah's ark to save him.

We've had a great time up her for the last four days. I will be happy to get back to service & walking routine. I will be coming home with nice color. :)

Game park

Today we went to a game park which to us we thought chucky e' cheese..and were not excited..but then we got a translated in there and they explained it was a WILD ANIMAL game park..we hopped on that real quick.  A large group from Massachusetts came in to visit Jon & Cindi, about ten of them. So we've hitched a few tourist rides with them. 
The place we went is about 20 miles out of Harare, owned by a private guy. This was one of the parks they took all the delegates for the convention. It was awesomely perfect weather as well. The first thing we went and saw was cave painting from forever ago.. He said 17,000 to 20,000 which as we know.....not so much but either way they have stood the test of time. Actually it isn't paint but stain made of wee wee pee. ;) before he headed back to the Jeeps a few of us took a bit of a detour and climbed onto a huge rock mass, it gave us an amazing view for miles around.
It was only our group of 20 there today so it was really peaceful. All the animals were out and about. Towards the end we pulled over got out our snacks and fed both ourselves and the rhinos! The guide wanted us to see the new baby born back in January.. She's adorable! As we waited the other ones came right up to our Jeep so we could pet them, they especially like behind their ears rubbed.. It was a great day.
At the end of the day the group of friends asked us if we want to go on a week trip with them starting tomorrow! Up to Lake Kariba!! Its a fresh water lake..but we can't swim in it because of the hippos and crocodiles. We ran inside took 15 minutes packed our bathing costumes and now we are packing a ski boat, we leave early tomorrow.
I'm not 100% sure if we'll have net up there.. So if not you'll hear from us when we get back like next Saturday or so.

Market

When we first got here Tracy took us to the Avondale flea market. An amazing place, with the assembly day coming upon us quickly, this Saturday, we need to make a stop over for some accessories 💎.  A brother from the assembly hall cleaning came with us because he had a study to conduct there as well. This is were we started most of our bible studies so far.  It took it over 30 to walk though the first aisle because we knew everyone and wanted us to give them something to read, they kept yelling, "CHIDO! CHIPO!" And it wasn't to buy stuff but to say hi and to ask we are when when we were coming back. The brother was a bit taken back because he didn't realize how sociable we are with everyone, remembering everyone's name, speaking our Shona and letting them know that later this week we would return with the study materials. We also spoke to two of our calls who want the address for tomorrow's program!!

Today we were able to take part with cleaning the largest assembly hall here in the country. It seats 3000 people in the open air gazebos. They have 4 english circuits, and 8 Shona, they use this hall for about 42 weekends out of the year. It's what I imagine our halls will look like in the paradise, it didn't help my imagination when a small kitty passed me as I washed the seats. We've named him Paul. 😸They had a lot of people attend so we were done by 10:30.  After cleaning and market I walked Chandi   Down the road so she could be picked up for the pioneer meeting.

Earlier this week we were blessed with doing Shona service with another missionary couple in a part of the city called Warren Park. It's a high density, poorer area of Harare. Jason & Grisel Gálvez graduated from Gilesd one class behind Tony & Tracy, so class 130. He's originally from California and she, Puerto Rico. They are in the Shona field as well, and this is their third language change! Oh the wonders one can do with jahs spirit. ☺️ sadly we had to break early, but have made arrangements for a longer day in the next few weeks. {they may be moved into the co work..still up in the air.}  for the meeting for field service we met in a small house and people kept coming in, it was full by the time they were making groups, 19 of us.

In these areas it's difficult for them to find ahome to meet in mainly because people rent rooms not whole houses. It's just too expansive here, if you are a maid you only make about 100 a month.. Of course there are perks with that job, normally you also get a cottage or rooms to live in rent free..still gas runs about $6 a gallon, plus food and if you rent its an average of 450 a month, not leaving much or any for anything else. That's the system we live in no matter where you are in this world. Even with all that the people are a happy type ready for some fun and good news about the future. Last month I was short just two hours but placed over 50 some magazines! 

It didn't take 21 days for this place to feel like home. Where one can do the work they love, any place can become home all it's missing is my lovely family. 💗

Lion park

One half month down, two and half more to go. The weeks have been passing quickly...that doesn't make me happy...  We finished last week with our meeting on Friday then visiting with the young people of the congregation then Sunday after the meeting we went and watched our first rugby game with some more friends. Ireland pummeled England into the ground...it's a game I think I could get into.

This week on Monday the circuit overseer from the Shona side wanted to: one.. Feed us roadrunner and two take us to lion and cheetah park here in town. He told us to be ready by noon on Monday, his day off for our field trip.

First we finally got to check one more thing off our list of must dos...riding in the back of a vehicle! And being in a car load of black Zimbabweans it's least likely we'll be ticketed...don't ask..it's just the way. Anyways we go and have a fab lunch of rice, noddles (yep two heavy starches), baked pumpkin and roadrunner...or a underage chicken.. Ha At about two we pile in the CRV and head out of town, south towards Bulawayo. Now Zims weather is a lot like Michigans, one minute it's hot and wonderful the next it's a down pour where everything you're wearing becomes soaked in about two minutes.. This was one of those occasions. Another thing off our list, playing in the rain... Huge rain drops. The park was a completely empty, and the walkways were now rivers. The first part you drive through with the car to see the lions, sadly the cheetahs do not survive well in captivty and are now gone.you then park and see some in enclosed areas here some guys nicely gave us umbrellas to use while we walk around the enclosed areas.  We still got drenched beyond saving, our shoes were worthless. 

I have been to a lot of zoos, but this was amazing. I have never been so close to a lioness before today and most likely until the great day won't again. She was beautiful, her hubby was massive! They were all out in the rain getting cooled off so our photos came out great. They have more lions then I could count, both regular and white ones. We are going to a few more parks but they are mostly nocturnal we didn't want to lose out on seeing them up lose. Normally they have Cubs you can hold but they hadn't had a litter in a while and I asked about the teenage one but they have me a crazy look...ha 

They have hyenas, baboons, elephants {which didn't come out to play}, giraffes, tortoise {his name is tommy and he's over 300 years old}, zebras,water buffaloes, eland antelope, kudu, wildbeests, impalas, and Nile crocodiles..yes we saw all of those. It was a great day, the older couples were pulling out the phones for photos even though they said to keep windows up we were passed that.. With the rain it was hard to see out the windows so we have to do something to get our $7 worth. Best money we've spent so far for sure. 

The locals always know where to go, because this park is not on any guild list or book. So if you are thinking of going and exploring the world make friends with those who live there, they will take you to the best places. 

Now with the down pour that lasted over an hour and the land being clay we had a bit of flooding..thank goodness we had the CRV and not the baby car the co drives. We took on some rivers while going through the game area. It felt a bit like Jurassic park with the thunder and lighting and green forest around us. 

As we drove home of,course the rain ceased and we got home in time for tea and cake so our cold bones would warm up before our cold ride home. 

Such an amazing day seeing all Jehovah has made for us, and the company we enjoyed was stellar. 

Mama G

 We are not settled in our home away from home, 5 Benator Way, New Alexander park Harare. Here we will be with uncut power and water, they live on the presidents grid so they hardly ever lose either. The couple is David & Adela Garonga, an older couple of about 70 & 60. We affectionally call them, Mama G and David.. Here out of respect in the english congregation if you use someone's first name you put auntie or uncle in front of it.. But she said that's she's our moms while here, she use to be a nanny to a few white Zimbabweans. 

 We started our English field minstry this week with the Avondale congregation. They are quite large, over 120 attend each week so they are not lacking in publishers but in workers in the field. Strangely witnessing back in English is presenting a challenge, they are not as friendly as the Shona but we will find the ones hungry for truth. Chido (Chandi) and I both have a few calls near our place so we can walk after service and get those on our own. 

Every time we say or offer to walk, the locals won't hear of it. We keep telling them with all the food that mama g is feeding us we better be walking real soon or we will be bring more of Africa then we need home with us. Today they did let us walk to the store a few blocks away..of course we ended up walking the wrong way for a few minutes but hey just another adventure. 😛  once I got our maps out we were fine, plus it just gave us more people to talk to so we could keep our time going. The Kingdom Hall is only about 2 or 3 miles away so if we leave by 8 we have time to witness on the way there and back, slowly gaining return visits with the people selling things on the side of the road. The locals are getting use to seeing the two of us everywhere already. 

There is a family in this congregation who's father is a diplomat, and so they move often, in fact this weekend sadly they are moving to Mozambique. I worked with the wife, Leocardia..we call her auntie Eve. They were living in Germany in 1990 and she heard the truth, the idea of living on the earth not going to heaven appealed to her. Her husband and herself asked for a study and from that point on and always had the whole family study with the brothers and sisters there until they were moved back to Zimbabwe. She said she was worried because she didn't think there were any witnesses here, but after two weeks a couple called on them and they resumed them having it two times a week. In 1998 they were relocated to China, just when she was ready to make her dedication they move to a under ground land.. She wasn't sure how she was going to survive but she leaned on Jehovah to care for her. Each week she walked the city of Beijing looking for any signs of witnesses. Oddly her husband started asking the local secretaries in the government offices if they have every heard of any bible teachers in the area. One desk women was a sister! She was nervous that it was a wolf in sheep clothing so the family had to prove that they were true witnesses, once they showed all the literature both studied and preaching ones she welcomed them with open arms the next day the brothers made the official visit to inform them of their book study location. 

Eve told the brothers she would like to make a dedication, so they had a brother from Hong Kong come and he give the talk to just her and her family in her home then they took her to a local hotel pool. They had to use the excuse of her getting swimming lessons so as to not raise suspicions after a few minutes everyone left the area and she was dipped. Two years later her two daughters made the same decision  and the process was repeated. Next they moved to Iran. Another barred area for us. I think Jehovah is single handedly using this lovely sister to preach where we are not openly allowed. She can preach in the open if she wished because she can not be arrested, because of her husbands role she has diplomatic immunity and is untouchable in that instance, she uses her time to witness to all the families in her husbands circle. Jehovah makes sure everyone has the chance to hear his good news. 

She is such a sweet amazing sister, she had so many stories I was glued to her side all morning. 

Our brothers and sisters have so many wonderful stories of survival here, they had a period of time of war back in the 80's called the Bush wars. It was not an easy time to be neutral here, there is one sister who were hogged tied and left in the open field because of association with the white brothers and sisters. She is still a faithful pillar to this day, saying that Jehovah didn't leave her then and he won't pull away from her now if she keeps her stand like she did then. The 1985 year book has more experiences if you would like to read more, I think later we are going to meet a few that gave them at the assembly coming up in a few weeks.  

To-O-nana mangi mangi... See you later here (spelling is not correct but phonetically so you also can learn with us.) 😘