Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Interesting morning

Things never seem to go as we plan but sometimes that is ok.  We had a good experience this morning.    After we went to Immigration we went to the church to exchange vehicles with the elders and there were two men there at the church.  They are brothers -- one lives in Blantyre and the other lives in a village about a 2 hours drive south of Blantyre.   The one who lives far away has somehow gotten a 'Restoration' pamphlet and says they have been reading and discussing it at the village and they came to find the church and want to learn more.

Problem #1 - distance.  Problem #2 - few of them know English  Problem #3 - no members around there.

We gave them the basic pamphlets and a Book of Mormon and we gave them a couple of Liahona magazines.  We also taught them the first discussion.  The Brother from Blantyre knows English really well and he translated for his brother from the village.  They were rather impressive men (about 35 yrs. old I think).   It kind of reminds me of Pastor Mhike and Seka from Zimbabwe.

The one that lives here in Blantyre can be taught here by the Elders along with his family, hopefully.  He has a wife and 4 children and the other has a wife and 5 children.    I ask why the one knew such good English and he said it was because he went to school and told me that his older brother (the one from the village) had paid his way to go to school. 

According to them there are about 75 in the Village that are hoping we could come there and teach.  It is one of those situations where there are no members there or priesthood holders to start a group so far away.  The only reason we have the group in Liwonde is because a Branch President from Blantyre moved back to his village there and has good experience in the gospel. 

It just makes my heart ache for them because they have found the truth and want more and we have to be so careful because they are so far from the centre of strength of the church there.   They are intelligent and would make good leaders.  We suggested the first thing they need to do there is to have the ones who know English (apparently there are 2 or 3 school teachers among the group) teach English to the others because all the church literature is in English.  If they could do that it would sure help when the church is able to go there.   We are already struggling so much with the lack of English language up in Lilongwe, especially with the women and children.

Anyway -- We will discuss it with the new mission president and if he allows us,  we would perhaps go visit these people and check it out.  The brother from Blantyre could take us there. 

Anyway -- back to work.  I have a lot of office work to do this week.   Our trip to Immigration went well and things seem to be ok with what we are doing, for the most part.   We may try to do up a letter and summarize what we have discussed recently and ask if he will sign it (he probably won't  want to commit himself) -  then our people in Johannesburg would be happy to have something in writing.  :)

We also need to go out and buy some blankets for the missionaries this afternoon as they say they are cold.  When they had the break-in here in March the thieves stole about 10 nice blankets and they are expensive here.   We also have to get beds etc. moved into the Sister's flat so that we will be ready for 2 more sisters who are arriving tomorrow. 

Still no diesel last night or today so we have to watch for that opportunity too! 

Love,  Nancy/Sister Bullock/mom




Sunday, June 26, 2011

Sunday, June 26th

We are in Lilongwe with President and Sister Dube.  This will be their last trip to Malawi as next week the mission divides and we have a new mission president, President Padovich, from California.

Before I tell you about our weekend -- I have to tell you something that is just crazy!    We were looking for an article in the newspaper this morning that the Elders had done and I came across an article that said something to the effect of:  Woman's lawn disappears.   Well, I had to laugh because the article is about a woman in Stettler, Alberta and here we are reading it in Malawi!!!!  I have no idea how old the article is but I am sure that people in Stettler had no idea that the story would make it all the way across the world.   (Some landscapers had gone to the wrong address and removed her front lawn and of course she was surprised to find it gone when she went home). 

We were fortunate to even drive here as the fuel shortage is a terrible problem.  The Zone Leaders in Blantyre managed to get us some diesel on the black market.  It cost about $3.35 a litre or between $14 - 15 a gallon.  The Elders here were in a line-up at a service station yesterday and after several hours were able to fill a 25 ltr. jerry  can for us.  This morning a station by the hotel was expecting some diesel to come in so Jim  talked to the manager and left our jerry can and money with him and he filled it for us.  We were hoping that the money and the jerry can didn't walk away but it turned out ok.  We also gave him an extra 500 kwacha ($3.33) so he could buy some lunch for himself.  We consider that to be a "tip" not a bribe!  :)    We were glad that he was willing to do that for us though because they are not generally filling jerry cans - only putting some in the vehicles.   Anyway - we now have enough to get ourselves home tomorrow.  The fuel situation is not getting better and it is a real concern.  We bought extra jerry cans but haven't been able to fill them up with any reserve yet.  I guess we should have bought them a couple of weeks sooner but we had no idea it would get this bad.

We arrived Friday and Pres. Dube did some training with the Elders here and then took us all out for supper.  The Elders love that.

Saturday we did some training with the 2 branches here and Pres. Dube did some interviews etc.  There are always some issues to deal with.   Also he is changing a few boundaries here and going to apply to have a new 'group' started so that people will not have to walk so far to church.  We will also get a couple more missionaries here in Lilongwe.   After the training we went and bought 2 bicycles for the Elders as there is only one Elder with a driver's license here now so the other companionship will go on bikes.  There aren't as many hills here as in Blantyre so they will do fine on bikes.  They were excited to get them.

Today we attended the two branches -- Elder Bullock was ask to talk on the spur of the moment and did a fine job.  We are getting more accustom to that now and don't panic like we used to.   In the other branch a fellow that has been here for 3 weeks with Nu-skin gave an excellent talk and then Pres. Dube talked.   Sister Dube helped with primary in the Kauma Branch and it helps that she speaks Chichawa as most of the kids don't speak English.  I went into the English class where they are teaching the sisters and observed.  Most of the ladies here don't know English like the men do.  Boys are educated far more than girls and it really shows.  Sad!

All in all it has been a good weekend and we will take Pres. & Sis. Dube to the airport in the morning and then we will meet the Elders at a tire shop and arrange for them to get two new tires on their truck, pay the bill, and then head home.  The plan is for us to go over to Liwonde (about 1/2 hr. off the main road) and teach some lessons there to 2 or 3 families. 

While we are away this weekend there has been an extra night guard at our house in Blantyre as it seems like that is when they attempt to break in.  All must be well because we haven't had any phone calls otherwise. 

It has been nice to have this time with the Dubes.  We won't likely see them again after tomorrow.  We do look forward to meeting our new President though and working with him.

 Our prayers are with Jim's sister, Judy and her family, as they are dealing with the loss of her son, Thomas, who leaves behind a wife and two young children.  Judy has lost her husband and two sons in the past 3 years or so and that is a lot for one family to bear. 

Thanks to everyone for your prayers on our behalf.  We know we are being protected in our travels and work here.  Some things seem hard or we don't know how to do them but as we just begin the task it seems to come together and we learn more each time.   We will be doing a lot with Immigration this week as there is concern from the Area Presidency that things are not being done exactly as they should be and we need to make the changes necessary to make sure that we are doing everything exactly legal so our missionaries are never in jeopardy.   We will be meeting with Immigration again on Tuesday to be sure things are right.  Missionaries should legally have TEP's before they enter the country so that they can do their volunteer missionary work but they have been coming in on Visitor Visas and then we apply for a TEP.  We have to change this.

Anyway --  Hope everyone has a good Sabbath.  Ours is about over as we are 8 hours ahead of you. 

Love,  The Bullocks

We are healthy and fine







Sunday, June 19, 2011

Our weekend

We went to Liwonde for the weekend (2 hours away).  That is where there is a 'group' that was started in February after a Branch nearby at Stima Village was shut down several years ago.   We went to meet some of the people who are investigating the church and want to learn more.  There are no missionaries out there although the Zone Leaders go out now and then.  The Zone Leaders went on Saturday as well and we split up and they taught 3 lessons and we taught 2.  We also visited a couple of other people and arranged to teach them next time we are there.  There are some excellent investigators that will be an asset to the church there.  We had 58 at church today including the investigators.  Elder Bullock and myself gave talks today along with a 9 year old girl who did a really good job.  She talked about agency, I talked about honesty and Elder Bullock talked about tithing. 

During the Sunday School lesson a couple of the people we taught yesterday made some really good comments.  So many of the members there are just so young in the gospel that we are really pushing teaching very basic principles.  We felt like today went well.  The only thing is - if we could just get African people to come on time but when a lot of them don't have watches and rely on the sun I guess we can't be too picky about it.  The problem is that too many of them miss taking the Sacrament.

We have 5, eight year olds, that need to be baptized and we have at least 5 investigators (likely more) that will be ready hopefully by July 16th.  Pres. Dube said to have the investigators come into Blantyre (the church would pay transport) to be baptized but when we discovered that we also have the 5 children and of course their parents etc. that is a lot of transport money.   So today we went to the Hippo Lodge and checked out their swimming pool and ask if they would allow us to have a baptismal service there.  After explaining it all they agreed that it would be okay if we do it in the morning (8 or 9) on a Saturday.  The pool is really quite private (mostly surrounded by bushes) and they said that a guard could be posted to keep people away.  It isn't that we don't want people around but we don't want anyone causing any kind of a disturbance.  We don't know yet what it might cost to rent the pool area and it was suggested that it might even be free.  We will find out later.  We have sent an email to Pres. Dube with our suggestion, hoping that we can try it and see how it works out.

We stayed Saturday night in Liwonde  at "Hippo Lodge".  We didn't think there would be a place for us to stay in Liwonde but it is pretty good.  It is on The Shire River (3rd largest river in Africa).  There are crocodiles and hippos in the river and also lots of fish called Chambo.  We had some Chambo for supper last night and it is a nice mild tasting fish.  It was interesting because we saw them out in small boats casting nets into the river and pulling the fish up the the nets.  There were some fishing onshore and we thought they were brave as there are crocodiles around and apparently some people go fishing and never return!!!  There must be a lot of fish because the kids we were watching fish just dangled their hooks (with a minnow on it) straight down from where they were standing near shore.  Actually they were standing in a hollowed-out log canoe.  I took a picture and will post it.   There were also some ladies finishing some laundry and some kids nearby.  Jim called them over and let them look across the river with his binoculars.  They thought that was pretty amazing (even though they don't speak English we could tell they thought it was amazing).  :)

I got a few bites on my bare legs while we were eating on the patio last night.  I have discovered that rubbing some deodorant on the bites make them stop itching.  It is great.  If I don't scratch them they go away much faster.  FYI I use Secret but I think any kind would work.  I read it on the internet and have been doing that this mission.  Mosquitoes, etc. are not really too bad right now but about Sept./Oct they will be a lot worse.  We do faithfully take our Doxy (malaria pill) each and every day with no side effects.  I hope we don't get malaria ever as it is pretty nasty.
We sleep with a mosquito net for extra protection too and we need to remember to use  bug repellent when we know we are going to be out. 

Happy Father's Day to all the men in our lives!  We just realized it was Father's Day on our way home -- there is no mention of such things here.

Love to all,  E/S Bullock/dad & mom

pictures

Kids laughing at Jim - he was whistling with his hands!
Hollowed-out Log canoe - boys were fishing.
Trying out the binoculars
Shire River - slow moving. See the chunks of grass & branches. There are lots of them floating. Strange!

picture

Snack for sale - mice!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

pictures

Can they get any more people in the back of this truck?
Moving day
Always busy roads
Load of grass or.....

Thursday June 16th

We had a good day today.  We picked up the mail and got the certificates for our TEP as well as for 2 Elders.  We came home and got the passports and went to Immigration and got them stamped.  That makes us all legal here for two years - not that any of us need the full two years but that is how much time they give on a TEP.
 
We also went and bought cleaning supplies and toilet paper for the Blantyre chapel and dropped that off for them.  We then went for lunch at a place we were told about and it was really nice and the prices were reasonable (about $12 each).  We will go there again sometime.  After that we met with a landlord of two of the flats that we rent for missionaries and renegotiated on one flat for the next year.   Normally here they raise the rent 20% each year due to inflation etc.  He offered to only raise it 10% since he likes renting to us (he always gets the rent) and we have had the place for several years.  After some discussion we renewed for another year at the same rate as last year - no increase!!  We also pay the year's rent in advance.  Other rentals we pay 6 months or 3 months at a time -- never monthly.  Just the way it is here!! 
 
We did a bit of grocery shopping today.  We are getting a little more used to the food choices and I suppose we are learning that to some extent we have to not look at the prices.  A can of mushroom sauce (kind of like a soup) is about $3.50 -- but it does add a little moisture and flavour to our chicken so we buy it now.  We even bought some T-bone steak today and will try it for supper.  Beef just really hasn't looked that appealing here but today it looked and smelled a little better in the meat department.  We also bought a small beef roast.  Up to this point we have only bought mince (ground beef) and chicken so we will add a little variety to our diet today.  :)
We also bought a bit of cheese that is made here and will try it out.  The cheddar that we got before was from South Africa and it was really good but they don't expect to be able to get any more for 2 or 3 weeks (which probably means 4 or 6 weeks).  
 
We also filled up our tank and a jerry can with diesel today and there was no line-up.  I think we were just really lucky as most of the service stations still have none.  We did learn today that it is easier to get diesel than fuel (regular gas).   We also learned that this shortage will likely last through December and it will get worse because about August the Tobacco season ends and there will be even less Forex (foreign money exchange) coming into the country and that seems to determine how easy it is to bring in and pay for fuel.
 
The Zone leaders are coming over this evening so we can discuss any issues and know what is happening. 
 
Just got a phone call and must go meet a landlord of another flat.  She wants to see us for some reason. :(
 
Love,  E/S Bullock

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Our security system worked!!

Hi,

We are in Lilongwe for the weekend and about 10:30 last night we got a phone call on our cell from Davie, our gardener.  He was in a panic and said that the thieves were back again trying to get through the wall that surrounds the house.  We told him to push the remote panic button that we had given him and he said he already had.  I think he was in a panic partly because it is a silent alarm and he hadn`t heard anything.  While we were on the phone with him the Security Company arrived and took care of things.   Davie was really scared because he and his wife were really hurt the last time this happened - before we arrived in Malawi. 

The thieves did not get through the wall this time.  Thank goodness!  It took the security about 6 minutes to arrive, which is about what they had promised us.  We are happy with their response.  They also brought in a dog and a dog handler to stay there the rest of the night and will have one there again tonight.  He also said that the gate guard who also had hit his panic button should have then gone and hit another alarm that would have set off the siren on top of the house.  That would likely have scared the thieves off right away.  We didn`t know about that alarm ourselves so we will have them come and show us when we get back.  We do have several alarm buttons in the house as well and if they had tried to enter the house it would have set off the sirens, as well as automatically sending the alarm to the security co.    Anyway - as much as we hate that this happens here we are so relieved that we were protected by our new alarm system!!!! 

We were going to go home today but since there will be the dog and handler there tonight we will stay here and finish our business tomorrow and then head home.  We will have to get the bricks fixed where they tried to come through the fence. 

We had a good day - spending some time at each branch here.  Apparently at the branch where we did not attend sacrament meeting - there were about 30 Americans that showed up.  They are here with Nu-skin who have some big projects here in Malawi to teach agriculture and also they make a porridge type food here and feed thousands of hungry children.  The fellow we talked to is from Springville, UT.  He said that Donald Trump`s x-wife is here with them and she also went to church with them.  We missed all that!!   They were mostly gone by the time we got to that branch and that`s okay.

Well - that is our excitement for the time being -- excitement we could do without but all turned out good.   Keep us in your prayers - as you see we do need them constantly. 

On a good note - remember Mike that we told you about from Lilongwe.  He is an inactive returned missionary and Jim called him the last time we were here and he came to the hotel and talked to us.   We asked him to please come back because we need him in the church, as well as his family.  Well - he has come a couple of times and his returned missionary sister, his young brother, and  his mother have been there every week since.  Lucy, the sister, taught the Sunday school class today and did an excellent job.   We are so happy to have them back!!!  See what a simple phone call or visit can do sometimes.  They are a good family.  Things like that make this all worth while!

Love, Elder & Sister Bullock

Friday, June 10, 2011

Whew!!!!

Just to report that we now have a full tank of diesel -- after waiting in line for 2 1/2 hours.  We had a book and a crossword puzzle to keep us entertained and of course, numerous vendors trying to sell us their wares/food.  We did buy some nathies (madarine type oranges) and then the vendor beside that one wanted us to buy from him because he said he needed to buy something to eat.  I offered him an orange but..... :)  that isn't what he had in mind!  haha
 
All is well.
 
The Bullocks

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Thursday

Hi,
 
Well we didn't go to Liwonde today to drop off chairs and then take E/S Bean to the pottery shop.  We had to decide which was our priority -- going to Liwonde today or going to Lilongwe on the weekend and taking the allotment to the missionaries.  Of course, the missionaries HAVE to have their allotments if they are going to eat.  We can still drop off the chairs to Liwonde on our way to Lilongwe.   The reason for the decision is that there is no petrol or diesel to be had - well not much.  We do have 40 ltrs. in jerry cans and will top off our tank with that to get to Lilongwe and back on the weekend.  
If a tanker does comes into town with fuel there is a LONG line-up behind it to buy gas at the filling station and by the time everyone is done the fuel is gone.   It isn't looking good and hopefully this won't last very long. 
We did find out today when we were at DHL paying our bill that they are getting fuel from a place that sells 'bio-diesel.  We went there to check it out and it looks really good but they can't sell to us unless we are approved.  We will send in an email and see what happens but it won't happen quickly.  This bio-diesel is made from soya (I think he said).  It is much cleaner and gets better gas mileage than regular diesel that we get here.  You can mix it with regular diesel if you need to ......    Anyway - it sounds interesting and we may apply just in case this shortage becomes a huge problem.
Tomorrow public affairs is having a media day.  They have invited some media and will give some presentations (including Elder Bullock giving one on 'the standard works').  Afterwards they will serve them lunch.   It should be interesting.
We ran a few errands today - only necessary ones since we don't want to any more diesel than necessary. 
 
Anyway - that is our day!!!! 
 
Love,  Sister Bullock

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Wednesday, June 8th

Hi,
 
The power was out for a couple of hours this evening but is back on now!  :)    We went out and had a hamburgar for supper and it really wasn't too bad.
 
We have had somewhat of a busy week.  We had the financial/audit trainers (Elder & Sister Howell) here on the weekend from Johannesburg.  They trained all 4 branches and then the District.  It seems to go quite well with no real issues so that is always a relief!   We drove them around to the various branches but they did get their own transport to the airport at 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning (shuttle bus at the hotel). 
Monday evening Elder & Sister Bean (our humanitarian mission replacements) arrived here in Blantyre and have been checking to see how the 'wheelchair' project is doing here.  They arranged for their own transport etc. so we haven't seen too much of them, other than they did take us out to supper last night at the Hotel and it was very nice. Tomorrow morning we will pick them up and they will ride with us to Liwonde where we need to deliver some chairs for the new meeting place (school) that we rented last week.   We were able to find some chairs to buy - black hard plastic seat with metal legs -- that cost the equivalent of $48.  That seems pretty high but it is the same as they pay in Zimbabwe so that's ok.  We will take 30 chairs up in the back of our truck tomorrow and then take the other 20 on Saturday and drop them off on our way to Lilongwe. 
Sister Bean wants to go to a place that makes pottery near Liwonde so we will do that
 
 
Victor, the physical facilities guy for the mission has been here all week too.  We got phone liines into the Blantyre chapel, which has been a long time coming.  The application was made quite some time back and they suddenly called and said that they would do it as soon as we came in and paid so.... we hurried right over!   Victor pretty much just had his own agenda while here but we did touch base a couple of times. 
 
We have a couple of families going to the temple next week and we paid for the bus tickets today and it seems that everything is pretty much in order.  Pres. Chinyumba has done a lot to help them and that is the way it should be.  :)  It is wonderful to have the Temple Patronage Fund to allow these members to make the trip to the temple - they could never do it without that. 
 
I broke down today and had someone come in and clean all the floors and wipe down ledges, etc.  It tends to get rather dusty - not really dusty as much as fine dirt/sand that blows in.   We were at the church yesterday and Christopher Sitolo was there cleaning and doing some windows etc. and I decided to ask him if he'd like to do some cleaning here.  He agreed and spent most of the day here and did a good job.  With all the floors here being tile it does take a fair bit of time to clean them and the house is quite big.   I went up to the wing that we never use a few days ago and realized that there were quite a few dead insects here and there as well as dust, etc.  I did vacum it all but had Christopher redo it and mop, along with the rest of the house.  He did a good job and was happy to earn some money.  He is a returned missionary that served in the Zimbabwe mission when we were there. 
 
I did wash baptism clothes and towels this week too - about 5 or 6 loads and as there is no dryer we hang everything out on the line -- which I don't mind.  Rainy season will be more of a challenge though.  
 
Jim met a man while he was waiting in line at the bank last week (I was in a different line) and he walked out with us after so we could give him a Restoration pamphlet.  He came to church on Sunday and we just happened to be at that branch (Zingwangwa) with the Howells.  He stayed for Sac. Meeting and Sunday school and then the Elders met with him and his wife Sunday afternoon and had another appointment today.  He is about our age and is retired from working for the Airlines (not a pilot).  Nice man.
 
We also had a nice waitress the other night when we were out with Howells and we gave her a pamphlet and sheread it and has some questions for us so we will get together with her next week.    The fellow that we rented the school rooms from in Liwonde said he also wants us to tell him about our church s. that is great.  It is nice to be able to do some teaching along with all the administrative things we have to do.
 
There seems to be a possible fuel shortage.  We couldn't get any diesel today and Victor couldn't get any fuel either.  We have seen some line-ups at the gas stations the past couple of days.  We do have an extra jerry can of diesel that we will put in tomorrow when we go to Liwonde but if we cannot get any soon we won't be going to Lilongwe on the weekend.  Hopefully - there will be some but today none of the stations had any.   I think we pay 260 MK a litre for diesel ($1.73) and gas(fuel) is more than that.   
 
It is time to head to bed.  We will have an early morning again -- not that we could sleep in even if we wanted to.  A rooster starts crowing about 4:00 a.m. or sooner.  :(  
 
Hope evveryone is doing well.  Miss you all.
 
Love,  Elder & Sister Bullock
 
 

Friday, June 3, 2011

picture

Transporting goat to market

picture

No waste here when hunger is a big issue
We saw this as we were driving the other day.  Traffic was stopped while people swept up the spilled maize.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Thursday, June 2nd - Logan's 16th birthday

Hi,  Yesterday we headed out early to get to Immigration again before the rush and line-ups.  They know us there now and they are very helpful and of course it helps that we know what we are to do also, although we still have to ask questions sometimes.  We had received 4 TEP approvals in the mail so we took them in and pay 30,000 Kwacha ($200) each and then we put the receipt into the passport until we receive the certificate in the mail.  The certificate can take several weeks but once it arrives (if the missionary is still here) we take in the passport and they stamp it.  We did have one certificate come and got the passport stamped.  One of the TEPs that got approved was Jim's (as his spouse, I don't have to apply and they will stamp both passports when the certificate comes.)
Today we went to buy a map for the new Zambia Assistants to the new President.  We did find and buy a map of Blantyre (not new) but the only one they have for Lilongwe was printed in 1976 and there is nothing newer available in the country.  We  ask for a receipt (big mistake)!  They went to the back and filled out 3 papers and then we had to fill in our name etc. etc. -- that was not the end, however.  One of the guys then had to take it to the bank and deposit our money and then would come back with the receipt.  We waited, and waited, and waited and finally said that we had to go.  We were told that the que (line-up) at the bank could be quite long and that we could come back in the afternoon and pick up the receipt.  We just made up our own receipt which will work fine for what we need. 
It is true that the lines at the bank can be REALLY long - that is why we always go early, as soon as the bank opens, and because I have the forms filled out ahead of time we are usually always first in line (the others don't seem to think about filling out the forms before they get there).   
The new Assistants are in town for a couple of days to meet with the District presidency and  are trying to get information gathered so that when Pres. Padovich arrives things will be all ready and organized to make the start-up of the new mission go as smoothly as possible. 
We have a fellow named Moses, who is doing some gardening at one the the chapels.  He has been living behind the Sister's flat in what is referred to as 'the boys quarters'.  He was allowed to live there for free while he got himself established (2 yrs).  He came from the "Bush" and had a lot to learn apparently.  Anyway - he got married about December, I think, and he was told he needed to find a different place but he kept putting it off.  Why not, when it is free!!!
Anyway, we told him that he needed to go and he did find a place and called us last night to see if he could put his things in our truck so we could take them to his new place.  It only took one load as they don't have a lot.   His wife comes from better circumstances than Moses and I sure hope she is okay with the new place - she hadn't seen it yet.   We barely got in there with our truck as the road/track was pretty bad.   It is in a 'high-density' area and it was not nice.  Lots of people do live like that but I felt bad for her and hope she is going to be okay.  I was just so relieved to get out of the area and felt so bad for the poverty that is there. It was hard to not start crying but I did manage.    We saw that a lot in Zimbabwe too but I guess we just really haven't been into one of those areas here yet.  I would much rather live out in the rurals where there is space and a place to grow a garden etc. and it  feels safer in the rural areas.   With that said though, the many children are smiling and happy!  I doubt many of them go to school though due to the poverty there.
Time to fix some supper.  We found some chicken breast yesterday so we will try it out with some veggies we bought from a street vendor.  It must be the season because suddenly we are seeing them with broccoli, cauliflower, beans and zucchini.  They were nice and fresh too.  We even got a nice lettuce at the store.  We will enjoy it while we can.
Love to all,  Elder/Sister Bullock

Michele Guertz

Michele, I can't figure out how to email you on here, so thought this would be the best way to get your attention (sorry everyone else!).  Can you send me your email address please?  noflattires@gmail.com

Thanks, Nancy

Fwd: Road Rage....

This is an email we recieved from our golf girl friends from Zimbabwe.







These photos are from Thursday, Feb. 17
by someone from Centurion in Pilanesberg game reserve, South Africa.
The guy was trying to get past the elephant.
 


Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Fwd: Only in Africa!!!

Thought this was good.  We haven't actually seen a goat carried like this but we have seen some interesting things being carried on bikes.  In fact I am making a collection of pictures of things you can carry on a bike and will post it when I get a few more.  :)  This is an email we got from our golf girl friends from Zimbabwe.

Sister Bullock


How is this possible…An imbudizi (goat) on the back of a bike!
ONLY in Africa!!!