Re: Back in Zimbabwe

Thursday, October 15, 2009, 6:45pm local time

 

I have been waiting for  a good African mission story to happen so that I could have something interesting to write about. That might not happen for a while, so I guess I will go ahead and tell you about the ordinary goings on around here. Currently we are on our daily power outage, so I will try to keep this brief.

 

We have 54 orphans here. 23 of them are highschool students, around 12 are in elementary school and the rest range from newborn through pre-school age. I have been spending most of my time tutoring the highschool classes in such things as how to solve simultaneous linear equations graphically and how to calculate geometric transformations using matrixes. Some of these things (graphing equations) I remember more easily than others (matrixes). I have also been teaching chemistry/biology/and basic physics, getting the seniors ready for their exit exams next month.

 

Two other volunteers showed up the same week that I did. One of them is helping out with the preschoolers and the other one is doing something similar to a 4-H program with the rest of our kids. We are helping them set up a chicken raising co-op. We have purchased 50 broiler chicks so far and are going to be picking up 50 layer chicks tomorrow. (Interesting note: our broilers are the direct descendants of Tyson Foods in fayettville, AR).

 

Ok. battery is getting low. I spent yesterday sick in bed. vomiting, muscle aches. Supposedly no malaria around here, and I am feeling much better today. The kids tell me it was that wild fruit that I ate the day before... I dunno... Will write more later. Have alot to do tomorrow. Welding up an old maize storage cage into a rate/snake proof chicken house in the morning (if the power comes back). Keep in touch.

 

Luke