Zimbabwe

Last weekend I got a chance to go to Zimbabwe with three friends. What an experience! The Zimbabwe border is only an hour and a half west of us, but it is a totally different world. It is currently a country in crisis. Their economy is plummeting downwards, and the people are suffering. One US dollar is now worth ten million Zimbabwean dollars- this is since they cut ten zeros off the end of their currency a few months ago. Driving through town, we saw crowds of people standing beside banks- trying to take out money- money that is worth more in the morning than in the evening. People there are literally getting poorer by the minute.

Zimbabwe is a beautiful country- once the “breadbasket of Africa”, but now on the verge of collapse. Carlos is now helping to start home based care in Zimbabwe- striving to reach the thousands of children orphaned by this thing we call AIDS. It is hard to imagine that such a beautiful country is having such troubles.

We met a lovely couple who worked at the hotel that we stayed in. They had retired a few years ago but recently had to start working again. Because of the crazy inflation, and cutting ten zeros off the currency, their life savings is now worth about seventy cents. Less than a dollar. The schools are in danger of closing- teachers are no longer showing up to work because they aren’t being paid. The hospitals have no medication in them. We were told about a child who died because the hospital didn’t have Tylenol to give to get a fever down. Just staying alive is a huge challenge- thousands of people have to cross into Mozambique just to get food.

The country itself is beautiful- lovely rolling, green mountains, beautiful birds, exotic flowers and trees… we stayed up in the Vumba mountains in a lovely little lodge that had an amazing view and a fireplace (it was cool enough there to actually use it too). We drove to a very fancy hotel called “Leopard Rock” that used to entertain celebrities, and had a game park and a pro golf course on it. It was empty. There were staff, but no guests. The restaurants were the same. Beautiful with excellent food, but we were the only ones there. We had the opportunity to ride horses in a game park. We actually rode right up to giraffes and zebras. It was very surreal. Please pray for Zimbabwe.

Here is a picture of Me, Brooke, Sarah and Dara half way up the mountain.

This is Dara in front of the giraffe (she's on a horse).

Here is a picture of Dara and me at the restaurant- our bill was over 50 million Zim dollars

needs...

We were driving with Carlos and Pascua the other night when Carlos got a phone call- it was from the chief of one of the communities that Rubatano does Home Based Care in. Over the phone, Carlos learned about a child that just become an orphan. The child’s father had died years ago, and the mother had just died the previous day. The grandmother had taken the child and gone looking for help. She had no money, and no food. Carlos drove to Rubatano’s main center and got some maize, beans and salt for them- the last food parcel that the center had, and we drove to meet the grandmother. When we arrived it was already late- out of the darkness walked an old woman carrying a small child on her back. The grandmother had been traveling all day- trying to get help- desperate for help. She gratefully took the food which would last her for just a few weeks, and left with the child…

A couple of days ago a woman named Maria came to Carlos to ask for help for her neighbor… her neighbor is a girl who is about 13 years old. This girl is an orphan and lives with her two young uncles. Her uncles don’t want her. They are trying to sell her for money. Maria came to Carlos to see if he could help the girl somehow. Carlos and the volunteers are now trying to find a place for this girl to live. Maybe an old granny or a sick patient that she could help in exchange for a place to live. Rubatano will give her some food- an incentive for a family to take her in. Just imagine being this girl. Your parents are dead - the family you do have is trying to sell you…
These stories are not rare here. People come to Carlos and the volunteers almost every day with needs like these. AIDS is rampant here, and turning kids into orphans every day. Rubatano needs help caring for these children.

Currently, volunteers at Rubatano provide orphaned and vulnerable children like these with a monthly food parcel, assistance with education, and visit them at home twice a week. It is amazing to see the care and dedication of these volunteers. Most of the volunteers are very poor themselves- many with holes in their shoes and hungry kids of their own. As of January 2009, Rubatano no longer has money available to cover their operating costs. This is due to their two main government donors completing their commitments. It is now time for the church to step in- for us to help the church in Africa to take care of these little ones.

It is the goal of Rubatano and Hands at Work to provide each orphaned and vulnerable child (OVC) with basic health, education, and food security. This costs about 15USD per child/month. Currently Rubatano cares for almost 650 OVCs in the Gondola area (where I live), and over 400 in a new area called Nhamatonda. As Rubatano is expanding to four other new areas, hundreds more OVCs are being added to this these numbers.

I have been so impressed by what God is doing through Carlos and the volunteers at Rubatano, and I encourage you to be a part of it. If you want to donate to Rubatano, please let me know, and I’ll send you more info about tax deductable donations. My email address is lauraeliason@hotmail.com

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed." Psalm 82:3

another cake...

Here is one of the latest cakes that we’ve made… it’s a unicorn. We made it for our 15 year old friend Matthew- not sure why we picked a unicorn- just seemed like the thing to do…

fruit...

A few weeks ago, four of us girls went away to the beach for the weekend. Here is a picture of us- our friend Jess from the USA is here for a few months, then me, Dara, and Jenny from the Peace Corps (she’s leaving next week and we are very sad!).

Believe it or not, this is how cashew nuts grow! They looked like a joke fruit- like someone has hot-glue-gunned a plastic cashew on top of an apple, but they were real… The cashew nut is inside of a larger, harder shell, and grows on top of an apple-like fruit that has a pink, kind of sweet/kind of bitter flesh… who knew?? This is Jen and Jess with our new discovery.

One of the things we enjoy a lot here is all of the fruit… mangos are the fruit that we’ve been enjoying lately! When we went to the beach there were so many people selling mangos on the side of the road, that we got a bit carried away… here is Jess buying us mangos- she bought eighty (80) mangos for eighty (80) cents! They tasted so good! Jess later developed an allergic reaction from all of the mangos she ate- swollen eyes and sores on her lips- I think she learned a valuable lesson that weekend…

a few pictures...

Pascua, Carlos’ wife, cooks all of her meals outside on a charcoal stove. She’s mastered baking carrot cake on this stove-something one of the last western girls showed her how to cook. This is a picture of me teaching Pascua how to make ‘no bake chocolate cookies’. We had a great time… Carlos loves the cookies and calls them “his heart”.

We have a lot of fun hanging out with Carlos and his family. This is his baby, Jessie. She was born in the same month that my nephew Mason was, so I have a fun time watching her grow and thinking of Mason. Here she is taking a bath on their patio… so cute.

Have I mentioned that there are a lot of bugs here? We’ve learned to cohabitate quite nicely with the spiders - it’s the cockroaches that I have not learned to love yet. When we first moved into the house we saw giant spiders like this on the walls, and were told, “oh, those are ‘crack spiders’ we don’t kill those”. So, Dara and I never really questioned why we don’t kill them, but we’ve gone along with it….