I went to Harare this week to collect a package from home from a fantastic woman named Kirstin who was visiting from the States working with Operation of Hope, an amazing organization that does facial reconstruction for victims of war, fire and birth deformaties. I drove a friend back to his villiage, which I was told was just past Nyanga Town. Well, we zoomed past Nyanga and kept going, we soon hit a dirt road and then we were driving in the mountains. I politely asked how far were we going and was given the answer “only 60km”. On a dirt road this turned into 2 hours. We then left the road for another 10km trek through the bush, and I mean the bush. We were driving through tall grass swerving around trees and bushes. We arrived at a group of huts or round mud houses with thatched roofs. It was hard not to ask what his address was but I didn’t think he’d get the joke. Anyways after unloading his bags I asked him to drive me back to the dirt road since I had no idea how to get back and my driving skills are not bush-proof. I was so proud of my car, it handled it like a true F150! By this time it was starting to get dark and I was wanting to get home. I plugged along swerving to miss pot holes and giant rocks coming out of the road. About an hour into the drive my headlights decided they had had enough and shut off. I spent a few minutes trying to get them to work and found it a useless event. I thought, well this is a good time to call my roommate to drive in front of me and guide me home, but being in a truly rural area there of course was no signal. I turned on my hazard lights and got out my flashlight that I keep in my car for such emergencies and held it out of the window lighting up the road. After about another 30 minutes luck struck and I got a signal, so I called my roommate to guide me home. I told her I would keep driving and meet her. BAD IDEA!!! I hit a rock or a boulder or something because next thing I knew my left front tire was swerving. I stopped, checked out my tire and it was turned sideways and I couldn’t get it to go straight. Luckily for me it was a matter of minutes before my roommate showed up to rescue me. We left the car there and the next morning we towed it (ourselves) to a garage where it was fixed in only a few hours. I go to Zambia next week to look at a project where they are making an all natural roofing tile AND another project where they show communities how to build solar panels and batteries to create electricity for their homes and commercial buildings.

Sorry it’s been a while but unfortunately ZESA has been a struggle. Most of our power comes from 3 turbines in Karbia. Kariba is a damn that borders Zambia and Zimbabwe. ZESA has decided to do some maintenance on all 3 turbines at the same time, which they say will take a month or 2. I would have thought that they would just do one at a time so that there would be power but I guess not. The project is moving along, the final architectural plans are going to be looked at early next week. A school in one of the surrounding areas is doing them and I will be checking them. The old building has 2 walls that need to come down so the extension will go there. The city council put rocks (property pegs) where they are allowing us to build, however we have to go another 3m in from that as our setback. Luckily the biggest space is along the 2 walls we are taking down so the extension will go there. I wanted to see what the slope and elevations were like so I could plan for drainage as well they elevations have to be shown on the plans, I asked for the original building plans but there were none, all that was there was a rough map with the city lots and a few contour lines (lines that show the earth’s curve above sea level). Luckily there was enough I could calculate the elevations of the lot, but I don’t know where on the lot the old building is or where our property pegs are. So I asked if they had a surveyor who could map them for us and they said they didn’t but they had the equipment. I thought about it and said that I could do it (I took surveying in university in -40° weather and snow). The man at the desk seemed thrilled that I could do it and asked if I could do some other lots as well. So things are coming together. Materials from the area are being collected and taken to site over the next few weeks, we are hoping to use Solar electricity and a water tank so we don’t have to rely on ZESA and the municipal water.

Things have been moving along, slowly but I have come to expect that in Zimbabwe but it’s still hard for me as I am a planner and want to be effective and efficient but I am learning. First off, I’ve been busy on site, planning the building and finding the most effective and environmental way to build. I went to the site today to find out that City Council has now put in pegs of where they want the property lines to be, SO I had to do new measurements and have to adjust the plans. I went to Harare this past weekend and one of my objectives was to visit an NGO called Turn on the Tap, which helps communities with clean water using natural filtration. I was also able to get international police clearance so I can take my car across borders, which means I am able to visit 2 other projects using similar technology in South Africa and Zambia. I also was able to have a little fun and went and saw a live production of Agatha Christies “Mousetrap”. I was really impressed, it was well done and lots of fun. I learned lots of facts about this play including: it’s the longest running play of all time 58 years), it was a birthday present from Agatha to her grandson (lucky guy never had to get a job), as long as the play runs there isn’t allowed to be a film adaptation (it may be a while), the rule of the play is that you are not allowed to tell anyone who the murderer is after you have seen the play (that just makes sense). I also went to the monthly AIDS clinic in one of the high-density areas and I was asked to take pictures of which I took 130 of them. Power and water have been particularly poor the last week, however I did have some today, which meant I was able to do laundry, shower AND cook. The best news I have is I was able to talk to my mum, dad, Meghann and Richard on video skype for the first time since I have been back. We talked for an hour and a half. I was getting ready for bed and they were just getting up. It was nice to see their faces and not worry about the satellite time delay or the cost of calling. I went to the Bronte Hotel where there is a Wi-Fi hot spot.

Happy Easter to all! I hope it was a relaxing, peaceful time for everyone. I had a different kind of Easter this year. I went mountain climbing on Saturday. I climbed Mount Nyangani, which is the tallest mountain in Southern Africa. It’s peak is just over 8500 feet. The drive to the base is about 30 minutes out of Nyanga. The climb was hard, there isn’t a real path, there are white arrows painted on rocks that mark the route but you are climbing up the rocks. The view made it all worth it, you could see the whole valley and it was amazing. It took 4.5 hours return trip and I have now had my exercise to last me a year. If that wasn’t enough, Sunday afternoon we did another hike called World’s View. It’s at a resort known as Troutbeck. The drive to the base is about 15 minutes. The hike took about 1.5 hours return. There was no path and no arrows. In some ways it was harder than Nyangani but less steep. This view shows you a different look at the valley. It was really interesting because there was a patch of rain in the middle of the valley. All around was clear but this one square of cloud and rain, it was really weird and interesting. We were able to watch the sunset. This also made it a nice day because early that morning we had watched the sunrise from a farm on a rock. So I spent my Easter Sunday watching the day start and end. It’s unbelievable to imagine the natural beauty that happens everyday that we all take for granted. It would be nice to be able to do this everyday but reality sets in and I’ll just have to settle for once in a while. I have been busy putting together the building sheets, calculations and gathering the requirements needed by council to build the library. We are using a drafting teacher from one of the local high schools to design the project, which I will approve, oversea and make changes. So I have been busy learning the local building codes and bylaws so I can combine the plans with environmental standards to make this project as environmentally friendly as possible. Zimbabwe doesn’t have any real or strict environmental standards, which is unfortunate but good for me since this gives me a wide range to do what I can. I visited the site on Thursday as was able to start visualizing in my head what this will all look like. I have yet to be able to go inside the current library on the property to see what kind of shape it’s in and find a way to keep it on the site and what kind of use it has in the bigger scheme of the project.