At the airport they shrunk wrapped our baggage. That seemed odd, but we later found out that it wasn't to keep baggage handlers from stealing, but to keep them from putting drugs, etc. into our luggage. Who knew? We got through without incident and then boarded a small plane that took a couple of hours to get to Harare. We flew South Africa Airlines who always serve a meal in flight regardless of how small the plane is or how long the flight is. We arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe and the airport was deserted, only about 12 people going through customs, but we still had to wait a long time to get through.


The waiter gave us a couple of choices in menu and the food was great. We talked about the training over dinner and talked about the next day and meeting Samantha for some more Mormon Newsroom Training. We got her to come for lunch at the lodge which was great, because we were without transportation. Our waiter was very nice. We apologized for keeping him late, but he assured us that it was okay and he would still be able to get transport home later.
Samantha joined us for lunch and we talked about some problems she had with adding photos to newsroom. I showed her some tricks to changing PDF files into photos and how to extract photos from a word document. She left after agreeing to get the vision story posted right away.
We spent the rest of the day setting up the room and making sure our training was in order for the next day. We checked emails and discussed who was going to do which part of the training. We did not expect a large turnout, because people have a hard time getting away during work days, but we were prepared to have 20 attend. We made arrangements with reception for the lunch and room setup. Everyone was very nice and attentive.
That night we had a nice quiet dinner...still seemed like we were the only ones there. We were still in our room when it started raining really heavy. We didn't know how to get to the dining room without getting soaked, so we called the desk and she sent a guy with umbrellas for each of us. We still got wet, but it could have been much worse and it was kind of nice being so cozy in the lodge while it rained outside. By the time we were done eating, the rain had almost stopped, but water was pooling everywhere on the grounds. We slept well and woke up ready to start our training.
Our next stop was at a school where humanitarian had installed water tanks and fresh water source. Before that, the school had no water. The humanitarian couple were treated like royalty, because everyone was so thankful for the fresh water. The students had on their uniforms and looked so nice.
Some of the older children were put in charge of various duties at the school and they were all lined up in their special status uniforms greeting us as we traveled to the water tank. A couple of teachers also rushed out to see us and all seemed to enjoy getting their picture taken.
Water Storage towers supplied by the Church |
They took us to their water tank storage and the children all followed us there. What a sweet bunch of children. Their two water tanks are to the left and a pump was attached to the building to bring the fresh water in. The pump was fenced in by leaders of the school, to make sure they did not get damaged and they were proud of the fact that they did that on their own.
Neighborhood grain grinding machine supplied by Church |
After the school, we drove by one of the many bore holes that humanitarian provided for this poor community. This is where the neighborhood goes to get their supply of water each day.
This helped us to understand how much is needed in Africa and how much the Church is actually doing. It's amazing really.
We then traveled to a hospital that was in dire need of repair. The roof was bad and the ceilings inside were falling down on the patients. Humanitarian brought in materials for the ceiling and supplied pain for the inside. They also brought boxes of clean blanket sheets for the patients and more things to help the hospital take better care of the patients.
These photos are before and after of the ceiling.
They used a very interesting material to put on the ceiling. It's pretty durable and requires no paining. It's a shiny slick surface.
Some patients were all crammed into a room on the end during the remodel. The conditions were not good...very different from US hospitals, but improvements were being made. This is a government hospital.
We then went back to the Steven's office and met up with a nice young returned missionary who was getting married the following week. He said his friends were giving him a hard time about getting married so young (He is 24), but he want to marry this woman. He showed us a photo and was very pleased when we commented on how beautiful she is. He was very sweet about it.
Thursday we packed up to head for Windhoek, Namibia. Unfortunately, no flights to Namibia from Zimbabwe, so we had to fly back to Johannesburg and then change planes and fly to Namibia. This time instead of a small plane, we got a 747 huge fully packed plane with five or six seats in the middle. There was a gal from Switzerland on our row talking to her friends across the aisle and we heard other accents, so there seemed to be a lot of Europeans on this flight. When we arrived in Namibia's very small airport, the customs people were packed with this airplane full of 300 people, but they were efficient and we only had to wait about 35 minutes. I helped this one guy fill out his forms. He was a young guy who had come to Namibia to do some volunteer work for some organization. He had no one else with him and didn't know how to fill out the forms. I worried about him when we left and hoped that someone showed up to pick him up.
We were picked up by our National Public Affairs Director, Womba's husband and sister. They were very nice and we had fun conversations on our long drive from the airport to the hotel (The airport is out in the middle of nowhere). The countryside and mountains reminded us of Arizona. There had been lots of rain, so the desert bushes were green dotting the mountains. We stayed at a hotel downtown, so it was a very convenient location. Our biggest surprise was downtown. The streets were clean well tended. The buildings were in good repair and no trash anywhere. This is very different from the other places we've been.

Namibia has a population of 2.1 million people and a
stable multi-party parliamentary democracy. Agriculture, herding, tourism and
the mining industry – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver,
and base metals – form the backbone of Namibia's economy. Given the presence of
the arid Namibia Desert, it is one of the least densely populated countries in
the world. Namibia enjoys high political, economic and social stability.
We actually were walking down the sidewalk downtown
when two native older women in grass skirts with no tops came towards us
holding their shopping bags. This must be an ordinary sight, because no one
paid them any attention, but it sure surprised us. What a contrast between them
and this modern city.
The next day we had a lunch planned at our hotel with Rev Maria Kapere from the Namibia Council of Churches, The Mission President and his wife, plus Womba's dad who will be our representative to the Council of Churches. Womba's dad is a very sharp man with a doctorate degree and many years in education. He will do a great job representing our Church on the Council. Rev Kapere is a very wise and caring woman who realizes what needs to be done to help her nation. She was very passionate about the family and how it is the core of society. She said she needs our help to promote the family and address the problems that come when families disintegrate. We had a great discussion about the problems and how we can tackle them. She and her husband have been working to help the community for years and she will be our friend on the Council of Churches. It is due to Womba and other public affairs efforts that we have a great relationship with this wonderful woman and that our Church is finally recognized by the Council of Churches, which is a big deal in Africa. It was a long successful lunch meeting.
It was a great trip. We got to meet many influential people, see a bit of Namibia and learn about problems Namibia is having. We learned that we have more similarities than differences with the churches in that area and that we will be able to accomplish much more when we work together.
We find as we travel to these wonderful countries with their beautiful landscape and even more beautiful people that we are more the same than we are different, that God's hand is evident in all of Africa, especially in the faces of its people. We will be forever thankful for these choice experiences.
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