Field Reports, Fall 2011
 

Update #1, 19 September 2011

Nancy left Thursday evening, September 15, 4 hours late (1 a.m.) but made her connections into Zimbabwe and arrived at about 10 a.m. Saturday morning, Sept. 17, our time. We sent three very large suitcases over. They were filled with school supplies, medicines, clothing, protein bars, batteries, shoes, twenty backpacker meals from EMS, and three jars of peanuts, to mention just a bit of the variety of stuff. 

When Prisca called this morning she said they would not be leaving Harare until tomorrow (Sunday) because the van would not start! It’s being repaired today and it sounds like a bad starter, so finding the part will be the next challenge.  Stay tuned. 

Nancy then tried to call me on the satellite phone and for some reason the phone kept saying to insert the sim card. We had just purchased a new card with 300 minutes on it so we tried reinserting it several times to no avail ... will contact the folks at GMPCS and see if they have any suggestions.

The weather was warm with beautiful, blue African skies. Nancy and Prisca were relaxing under a shade tree at Prisca's house planning the next month’s activities, placing school fee payments in appropriate envelopes, sorting the clothing for the kids, making lists of what needs to be purchased and where, catching up on all the village gossip like who is sick who is preganant who has gone who has become "late," i.e. passed away, and any new or updated information regarding the Child Headed Households. Nancy brought a very large dog bone for Prisca's giant dog Brutus who is at first alarmingly threatening but is in fact a really big pussycat. Wishing I was there with them!

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Update #2  25 September 2011

Talked with Nancy early this morning via satellite phone. It has been very cold in Zimbabwe this week. Mangos on our tree next to the Zienzele House in Masvingo have sustained frost damage! The orange tree is in blossom so hopefully the blossoms  will survive the cold and bear fruit in March. The minister and his wife, who live in the “guest” house and are part time caretakers, have one year old twins that are now crawling all around the yard.  Quite active little guys and accordingly very amusing.

This week Nancy and Prisca visited four school districts.  Mushai, Mupagamuri, Chitatu, and Chamatutu. You may recall from updates last year that Mushai is located on a bluff overlooking a spectacular valley and is the most remote of our schools. Last year there had been problems with their group leader being absent and intimidating. Nancy and Prisca had asked the group to elect a new leader and make more baskets. We are paying school fees for twenty plus kids with very little involvement with the caregivers. The situation has not improved. After a three hour drive over very poor, dusty roads, only two of the twelve women in the group were present for this once-every-six-months meeting, and they had made no baskets!  After very difficult discussions with these two women about the dysfunctional group dynamics, Nancy and Prisca decided to suspend our involvement with the Mushai group with the understanding that if they can work out the problems and begin meeting their obligations(baskets), the partnership could begin again. Hopefully this hard line will be enough motivation to change the group dynamics. 

The visits to Mupagamuri, Chitatu, and Chamatutu were very good. Updates on the kids via the caregivers and headmasters went well and baskets were purchased. Much catching up with all the caregivers and of course much discussion and sharing of pictures of our grandson Joseph. A couple of the headmasters have asked Zienzele to provide calculators for the classrooms. I did not get the impression that either Nancy or Prisca thought this was a priority for us. It would seem that pencils, exercise books, and textbooks might be more important. It remains the case that Zienzele is the largest single payer of school fees. Parents, who pay as much as they can, are very worried that if we were to leave, the schools might close. Nancy and Prisca have assured everyone that for now at least we will continue to pay school fees. Suffice to say that the negotiations to establish the school fee rates are an exercise in confusion at times, but our caregivers are becoming more assertive.

Mrs. Mapope is the representative for us in the village/district of Chamatutu.  She has worked tirelessly to get information on the Child Headed Households and has spent a great deal of time over the years tracking the kids in school. She makes every meeting and is always very enthusiastic and positive about Zienzele. Her husband died six months ago. When Nancy and Prisca met with her this week to discuss foundation business associated witrh Chamatutu and to offer condolences for her loss, Mrs. Mapope tearfully explained that her brother-in-law was trying to seize her home and cattle. If this were to happen she felt she would have to leave the area and move in with family many miles away. At this point she became quite emotional and very humbly asked for the $100 title transfer fee that would allow her to keep her house and cattle. Recognizing the implications of Mrs. Mapope moving away, Nancy decided (with Prisca’s agreement) to “micro-loan” Mrs Mapope the fee and accordingly wrote up a loan contract in which the payment is made in baskets. The first “payment” will be made next week!  Mrs. Mapope was in tears at this point and I suspect so was Nancy. Mrs. Mapope said she will pay the transfer fee on Monday. Crisis defined…. crisis averted!

Saturday (9/24) was the first workshop of this field trip. Once again we asked the folks at Batanai to conduct the workshop with Zienzele covering the cost and providing lunch. One hundred and eighty kids came to the “Choosing Careers” workshop. The focus was not so much describing careers as it was how you go about assessing your skills and interests and then translating that self awareness into a career. Nancy and Prisca once again felt like Batanai did a good job. I think they are doing another workshop in week threes. The bigger question of where these careers would exactly be found is for another day.

Another upcoming event is that Nancy and Prisca are having lunch with the Masvingo Rotary Club next week. I thought they had disbanded several years ago but perhaps not. The purpose of this meeting is to see if we can partner with Rotary International in sponsoring kids to come to school here in the US. As Marjorie has learned, the first step is to have a recognized sponsor for these kids. School boards can then be approached for a tuition waiver request from a recognized, reliable organization. A host family is the second critical part once the school cost/waiver issue is addressed. This is an evolving process for us so hopefully we will have more info soon To this end, Nancy and Prisca are hosting a “retreat” for five or six very promising kids (including Innocent) from the various villages we serve. This retreat will entail discussions focused on establishing interest levels and all the steps and cultural issues that are part of this project. Stay tuned.

This past week Prince was in Johannesburg attempting to get merchants there to sell our baskets. The goal is to raise money to help offset the costs of fuel and food for some of the field trips etc.  Prince is a very good salesman so we are hopeful he will meet with some success. He returns to Masvingo on Tuesday.

Other than the weather being really cold, my impression is that things are proceeding in the typical relentless yet adaptive manner the so characterizes our work.  As you are all aware, the new vehicle is the primary front burner issue for us at the moment.  Kevin Ramsden, from Kyoto, Japan  has made contact with a car buying service out of Japan.  Prisca has sent them our requirements and we are awaiting their response. The plan is to arrange delivery to Harare.  Stay tuned …. 

Jim

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Update #3   4 October 2011

First of all, today is Langton’s Birthday. Happy Birthday Langton! You can email him at lm288008@hotmail.com if you get a minute ……..

Nancy and I talked for about ten minutes this morning before the phone went dead again. Still using Prisca’s car as the first starter they found for repair was in fact no better than the original, meaning many dead spots along the circumference and so unreliable. The second starter is going in today perhaps. In the mean time they continue to use Prisca’s car even though it is quite a bit closer to the ground making some of the terrain more difficult.

Nancy and Prisca went to the meeting of the Rotary Club of Masvingo last Thursday. There were six Rotarians there and they were very glad to see Nancy and Prisca. There was much enthusiastic discussion about sponsoring a child, and the Rotary Club of Masvingo has agreed to do just that. In fact one of the members has agreed to transport the selected student once a week(for a day) to Masvingo to work on English and to assist him in getting a passport etc. This is a very helpful arrangement in that we in general are unable to be there enough to expedite/track all this preliminary activity. This means that if we get the Hanover Rotary to agree to co-sponsor this student then we have a process that hopefully will enable us to petition for a tuition waiver at Hanover High School, a very critical arrangement for this exchange to happen. This coming Saturday is the meeting with the “candidate” students for this exchange. Innocent, from Mupagamuri, remains very interested in coming. His home circumstances, however, weigh heavily on his mind in that he has a younger sister (age 8 I believe) and his mother is very sick. Musiwa, one of our reps, has said that if the Mom dies, she would take in the sister if Innocent were to leave. Innocent knows nothing yet of all this exchange news but obviously will very soon. They are meeting with Innocent tomorrow, Wednesday. The timing for all this is of course an important issue and will hopefully get resolved asap.

In addition, you may recall that within the Paringira family (our first Child-Headed Household) there was a young man named Kunofiwa who had done very very well in school. He had taught (via Nancy and Prisca’s arrangement)at Rungai secondary school until they stopped paying teachers about a year ago. Kunofiwa then went to and returned from South Africa with no luck in finding work. He has been discouraged but is still trying to help his “family” as best he can. During the Rotary meeting it became clear that the university in Masvingo will be resuming classes very soon. One of the Rotarians has agreed to bring Kunofiwa to the school to meet with a friend and hopefully get him enrolled in the college. We do not know a lot about this college except that it was once well known and had a large enrollment. As I learn more, I will pass this info along.

Nancy also said that the city of Masvingo is “bustling” now with much more food and activity. She also said that the streets were being cleaned and some storefronts were actually being painted. The effect of the US dollar stabilization of their economy is finally beginning to show through — my interpretation, not that of Paul Krugman. In fact Nancy said that many of the schools have been painted and some maintenance work completed. She sounded encouraged by these observations. I asked how the hike meals were accepted and got very little feedback.

Today they went to three schools, Paradza, Razi Secondary, and Makamuri. These three schools have many of our kids, and the day, while very long, sounded like it was very productive in that they saw many of the kids and had useful discussions with the headmaster about our kids , Child-Headed Households, and the fact that school fees are well above what families and Zienzele can pay.

On this end, with the rain this weekend, I decided with Prue, Tim and Jackie’s concurrence to forego the Cambridge Octoberfest. We did not get a spot that allowed a tent this year, and since the email of Saturday night from the organizers encouraged raincoats, umbrellas and tarps, it seemed like the right decision. Today I mailed off the registration forms for the Vermont International Festival in Essex Junction (Dec 2,3,4) and the Woodstock Wassail (Dec 10,11). We may need help manning these booths
so stay tuned.

More later.

Jim

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Update #4   6 October 2011

Nancy, Prisca and Prince were driving between Manauishi and Arch Manaka schools when they realized it was way past lunch time so Prisca pulled off to the side of the road to have their lunch break. In the distance they began hearing the bleating of an approaching free range goat herd. Nancy took the opportunity to call while Prisca made sandwiches and Prince did his twice daily engine fluids checks.

The visit to Manauishi went very well indeed. They had great discussions with the caregivers and picked up the best, most colorful baskets yet. The women were very enthusiastic and this of course was encouraging for Nancy and Prisca.

Nancy then jokingly explained that the Foundation had just added international special education coordination to our list of provided services. Over the years there has been a young man named Niko who we have seen at most of the workshops and Zienzele Club gatherings. Niko is albino, which of course on the high plains of sun-drenched Africa is both a challenge and dangerous. He is always well covered and sunburned but has always seemed very happy and accepted by his peers. According to his teachers he has failed his seventh grade tests and may not be permitted to continue in school. After considerable discussion with the teacher and headmaster about why, it apparently became clear that Niko has a definable learning disability. Nancy and Prisca then began an extended discussion regarding how the school could perhaps accommodate Niko. This entailed more time on tests and regular one-on-one time with the teacher each week. The concept of special needs kids is obviously evolving and the extent to which the school can actually sustain this effort remains an unknown. They will check in again in four months to see how Niko and the school are doing. I am guessing here, but in a country that once had the best-educated population in all of Africa, there are undoubtedly agencies in Zimbabwe that address these issues in the cities. However it is unclear how much of this service is available in the very rural areas we cover.

Yesterday afternoon, while Nancy and Prisca were visiting Arch Manaka Secondary school, a young man named Serini was stabbed and wounded quite severely. His wounds were such that Nurse Nancy said that Serini needed to see a doctor asap. Since the only transport vehicle for twenty miles was ours, the remainder of the afternoon was spent getting Serini to the hospital. I didn’t find out where this hospital actually is located. They got back home late that evening after having gotten Serini’s needs addressed and then bringing him home.

This lunch break was while they were on the way back to Arch Manaka to have additional talks with the headmaster about Serini. We had a great satellite connection, and I wanted to hear so much more of what has been going on, but at this point the goats had arrived and cute though they were, they also like peanut butter sandwiches and were trying, apparently successfully, to get in the van! I heard Prisca shout “Nancy, get in the van, we are leaving!” The last words I heard from my wife were “I have to hang up now.” Just another rollercoaster day in ………

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