A quick update on life in Zim.
We have just returned from a month in the UK to find the situation here has deteriorated further. As a result of the government forcing shops to sell their goods at cheaper prices, many businesses have closed down, and those that haven’t are not putting anything on the shelves so that they do not loose money. Just some of the things that are short at the moment are bread, milk, sugar, meat, cooking oil and toilet rolls!
On top of this fuel, electricity and phone networks continue to be major problems. We arrived home on Monday to find there was no electricity, and this continued until Thursday, with the power only coming back at night. We are more fortunate than most as we do not have water cuts only reduced water pressure, but this is a daily reality for many.
As a result of all of this we were glad to leave Zimbabwe for a month to have a bit of break from it all, but we are now refreshed and ready to get back into the swing of things. Our trip was mostly to attend Debbie’s brother’s wedding and for Sean to have an operation on his hand. However, we also managed to see quite a few friends and family, and Sean spent quite a lot of time in Brighton, learning from others how best to communicate the initiatives we are involved in to churches, donors and the people who can benefit from them.
Sean’s operation went well, there was a high chance he could loose his finger, but fortunately they managed to keep it. He now has a pin in his finger, that has to be removed in a couple of weeks time, which will have to be done in the UK as there is no one who can perform the procedure here.
Kate is doing well, and is already 3 months old! She sleeps through the night, and is generally pretty laid back, which is a great blessing.
Debbie will be returning to work this week, after 3 months on maternity leave, but will be working from home and remaining part time so she will be able to look after Kate as well.
Sean is finding work pretty frustrating at the moment only having his left hand in action, this week has been concentrating on sourcing fuel and cash for the projects, which seems to take up more and more of his time, but is vital for the projects to continue!
Last month was the end of the harvesting season, so a team of volunteers have been out to visit the farmers who are part of our Operation Joseph programme so see how they have done this season, and compare their yields with those who used traditional methods of farming, I hope to be able let you know soon, as we are currently still analysing the data. Predictions by the major aid organisations are saying that the country has only produced 500,000 tonnes of maize, compared to the 2 million that is needed to feed the whole country.
Coming up:
August
– In UK for further treatment on Sean’s hand
- Site visits for Operation Joseph and CEDAR
September
- Reach the Nation Conference
- Megavision conference
