I go grocery shopping once a month. One big shop then I don’t have to worry about making sure I get into town or running out. I seem to have a good idea of what is needed in a month. So it is now at the end of the month and there are veggies left in the fridge that are on their last leg and need to be used so I have come up with an idea called “Left over chili”. Left over chili is the usual ground beef, tomato sauce, beans’n sauce and all the left over veg in my fridge. It turned out really well although there was an unimaginable amount of green string beans and carrots, but now I have loads of iron and good night vision!

ZESA for the first time this evening went out for a usual 4.5 hour stint. 5pm it went out, 9:30 it came back. Luckily for the first hour I was in a meeting, then I was able to work until my computer battery died, then I made dinner on the propane tank.

My “To Do” list is now numbered and the numbers are distributed evenly among the days. Lots of the numbers span over a few days and some I think will never get ticked off the list, it also doesn’t help that the list keeps getting longer!!!

We are now working on the game plan of what’s going on inside the building. The various ideas are becoming more concrete and various competitions to decorate the building. This should have been done before the building was designed but here in Zimbabwe things happen differently. I’m surprised I’m the one putting together this game plan, but it’s been good experience and interesting.

Another new thing we thought to try is mixing our Bamba brick system with a Hydraform. The design and strength of the Bamba system with the ease of construction of the Hydraform to create an iron brick that you can turn out 1000 a day versus the 100 a day with just the Bamba. The Hydraform usually doesn’t include cement in the mix and doesn’t provide the interlocking system of Bamba. So we’ll see what turns out. One small step for Meredith, one GIANT step for the construction brick making community.

I’m listening to classical music while trying to fix the library plans AGAIN! Finally after 2 weeks of daily conversations with different Council members in the construction department and mini visits to site where they walk around but don’t do anything, yesterday they FINALLY put in the pegs. However, the pegs they put in were not at the original location. The previous pegs, were not permanent and have since disappeared. The new pegs are permanent but not the location of the last pegs, so my site changed in all the wrong places. So I had to re-draw the site plan AND try to design a building that fits into the space. So I’m very lucky that ZESA (power) has decided to stick around so I can do all these drawings. Then having to talk to various people to get their input and opinions and doing different options to see what different things look like, it’s almost like starting from scratch. I thought we had this all sorted but I guess that’s not the case. I was going to ask for a variance to encroach on the boundary line by 500mm but it would take until June when all of Council has their quarterly meeting to get approved and we can’t wait that long. So we make the changes and send Council the amendments package, which they won’t read but approve, which is fine with me. The head of the construction department yesterday told me after he finished the pegging that he didn’t want to see me until the job was done. I laughed and said I would see him when I needed his help.

We continue to come up with new ideas for the resource center and all the things it could be used for and what we want in it. A big thing is that there is nothing to do here in Nyanga, if you want to go out, meet friends, whatever there is no movie theatre, no coffee shop, no take out, if you want to eat out, you go to one of the hotel or resorts in the area. We are thinking of ways to keep people entertained, out of trouble and something to keep them stimulated and something unique. The existing library is to be used for conferences, meetings, etc. but what about when there isn’t any. We wondered about making it a art gallery. There is currently a wee bathroom with a storage room around it that we are thinking of converting into a kitchen or even better a small canteen or coffee stall. From there sandwich’s, coffee, snacks whatever could be sold, bring your computer, look at some art and it’s a cooler version of Starbucks! It also means that people in the library don’t have to leave to eat. There isn’t anything like this in the area. If I was a student from 100km down the dirt road and I came on a Saturday for the library and computer room, I’d like to eat and have coffee. Also we thought of maybe having a big backdrop or screen to show movies, both educational and entertainment and then during meetings or conferences you could plug your computer in and run a slide show. This would give Nyanga a social life or weekend life outside of drinking and just hanging out in the bush doing nothing. This is one of the exciting parts of my job that I enjoy. We also thought of having the students paint inside the children’s area and part of the outside of building like a mural to give it a unique look to it, plus if students from all 70 schools were involved it would add to the community of the building

I’ve met with Council and had them sort out the pegs showing the boundary lines of our property. I had done the elevation points of the property and knew the dimensions of the property but wasn’t sure of where the points were. Theoretically it all works out, practically is the questions and the answer “Madame I’m sure you’re fine, we’re not concerned” doesn’t work for me nor is it legal! But you never just talk to one person and it never just one meeting, it was 4!!!! One thing about the Shona they love meetings and love to met about meeting, which I am not! I want to meet and sort it out and move on, get things moving, I now understand the phrase TIA “This is Africa” and BMT “Black Man Time” and why it takes so long for anything to happen. That was Monday, Tuesday someone was to show up at 8:30 and do the marking, 20 to 9 he still hadn’t come, so I contacted him and he told me, he’d be there at 9. 9:10 he still hadn’t shown, so again I contacted him and said when he was ready to buzz me, as I had other things to do. By 11 I had still heard nothing, so I thought, if I hadn’t heard anything by noon I’d go to the office. At noon my other half for the project, the administrative one called saying he was on site and with the head of the construction department for Council. I got to site and found out the head of the department was on his day off, and just wanted to see how the project was coming. I told him what the issue was and what I wanted and he said the man who was to come and do the marking was in the rural areas for the day. He said to call him back and find out if he could send someone else. The head of the department said he was going to start hiding from me because I always wanted/needed something and caused him so much work. I see this as a good thing. He also said he wanted to do some construction himself while I was still around so I could help him! We called back our original contact and he suggested calling one of his workers. We called him and he came to site, looked around at what we wanted and said he needed more time to do the work than he had and would come back the next morning at 8:30 to do the work. Wednesday morning 8:30 I show up to site and surprise, surprise no on showed up. At 9 I contacted him and asked what was happening and he said he would be right there, 45 minutes later he shows up with the original man who was suppose to come and they say they can’t do the work today because they are meant to be doing inspections around the area, so can they come back tomorrow morning. I asked for a time and he said he would call me first thing in the morning, I told him if I hadn’t heard from him by 9, I’d call him. My administrative contact called and asked how it went and I told him, he was fuming, I said maybe we should just jump the line and talk to the C.E.O forget this business, we are on DAY 3, tomorrow DAY 4!!!

We haven’t had water in 4 DAYS!! This is not good, nor is it normal! But we have had ZESA or power, for the 4 days straight. However, 4pm it came back on!!! So the first thing I did was flush the toilet and take a shower! Due to the good rains, Wangie damn is full, this is what powers the east side of the country. Harare still has issues like always, so it’s nice for once to be in the bush (munda). I have a geezer, so there is piping hot water, scalding hot water, but once the tank empties that’s it, so I have to use it sparingly (showering has been a priority because it is CRAZY hot).However, my bathroom smells like an outhouse, which isn’t pleasant but like they say TIA.

I have a dog, her name is Molly and she’s 3 months old. I got her from a friend who has a farm and his female had a litter. I knew that being up in Nyanga on my own this time, I would want some company. Molly has been great company, she’s keeping me sane! She knows her name, comes when she is called and follows me EVERYWHERE! Like all puppies she chews EVERYTHING and especially enjoys my shoes and her bedding. She is currently being house broken (a challenge) and also keeping her in HER bed at night. My house has a mud room, which has her bed, and her food. So she knows that’s her place. However, spending the night there by herself is not ok. She just destroys the room, I’ve had to move things around, get things out of puppy reach and last night she cried for about an hour and then silence, she spent the whole night in there alone!!! We are making progress.

The weather is hot, well hotter than the weather I left it is also still raining mostly just drizzling in fits and spurts but there has been some heavy rain as well. It’s nice to be back in the mountains, people remember me and when I go out, people stop me and ask what I’ve been doing, why haven’t I been around and it’s nice to see me. They also say that they can see the bricks being made, and that they can see the project has started, so we are getting positive feedback.

Thank God for showers at the Amsterdam Airport!!! Well maybe I’m getting a head of myself, lets start at the beginning. Last week started out like any other week, I got up Tuesday morning to a phone message from Zimbabwe telling me I had to come back ASAP or they would need to find someone else. I had planned to go back but was trying to make a little more money to go back with but I was needed. So after I listened to the message, looked at mum and said “I need to leave now!” and I booked a ticket for the following Monday. So the week became a rush of work, buy a ticket, getting insurance, packing my bags, picking up last minute things, trying to say goodbye to as many people as I could and caught the Monday morning ferry to Vancouver for a Monday night flight! And that’s how I got to appreciate the showers at the Amsterdam Airport! The flight from Vancouver to Amsterdam in 9 hours with an 9 hour difference and a 6 hour waiting period, the flight to Nairobi is 8.5 hours with an additional 2 hour difference and a 2.5 hour waiting period and the flight to Harare is 3 hours minus 1 of the hours from Nairobi for a total flight time of 20.5 hours flying time, 10 hour time difference and a waiting time of 8.5 hours, for a grand total of 39 hours of travel! The bonus I think is that both long flights are over night flights and God has blessed me with the gift of sleeping anywhere, anytime. So not only am I clean BUT I’m not exhausted!!! It’s the little things isn’t it? And to make things sweeter I was in a row of 3 with only 2 people so I was able to use the middle seat for my legs to sleep, which is a total bonus!!! Now if only Nairobi had showers. These showers aren’t the garbage kind at roadside motels, these are nice rain showers with fantastic hot water and amazing pressure, they put most households to shame. Did I tell you about the showers? At 15 Euros everybody wins!

I was fortunate enough to get my own row on the Amsterdam to Nairobi flight, which is 8.5 hours, so I was able to sleep most of the way. From there I went I flew to Harare!

I arrived in Harare and went through passport control. What I had was to get in was an acceptance letter from immigration but not the original, a copy because I couldn’t be in the country while the visa was being processed and the acceptance letter couldn’t come to me. Passport control had to have a conference while I was waiting to decide if that was enough to let me in. My contact wasn’t picking me up and so the original letter was in Nyanga. The decided to let me through with a 7 day pass, a form to let me pick up my permit, however I wasn’t allowed to travel outside Harare. From there I went to pick up my luggage, which I am pleased to say was NOT OVER WEIGHT! Then I had to clear customs, I had nothing to declare and went through that door, I was pulled over by an officer to have my suitcases go through security as you do when you are traveling. They decided they wanted to go through both suitcases, both were emptied and everything was questions, each cd was checked, all my textbooks, my safe was opened, all pockets were checked. I brought 2 bags of used glasses to donate to an optometrist who checks peoples eyes and gives them glasses for free. The officer wanted a detailed explanation of why I had them, how much they were worth, what was going to happen them. He then wanted me to clear them with customs. So I packed up my stuff and went to the other side, where a new officer asked me to empty my suitcases AGAIN! However this time he just looked at the glasses and asked me the same questions, he looked at the glasses and said, “I don’t want these, you can take them, pack up and go”. So it all ended ok except it took me 2 hours to get to the terminal. From the airport I went to immigration to sort out my work permit. The office found my file relatively quickly but it took them an hour to re-read it and write out my permit. Luckily I was able to get it just before the office closed.

The next 2 days were spent running errands and getting reacquainted with the city and the country, readjusting to life in Zimbabwe.

I then left Saturday morning for Nyanga. I had forgotten how beautiful the drive is or how bad the roads are but I made it with a dog in tow, Molly, my new roommate to keep me company. She’s 3 months old, she half Alsatian, half mixed breed. So we arrived at our new home which is across the street from the site and I can see construction from the yard.

The house is HUGE! It’s a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, with a covered garage, mud room, living room, dining room and kitchen. The yard is also massive, I could play a real soccer game on the side lawn! They have a fantastic porch with a brai (bbq), table and deck chairs! I feel like I should run it as a guest house.

So now to work, I met with the contractor on site and we went around and talked about issues and what’s been going on, they’ve started digging, and making bricks!! It’s starting to take shape.