Beauty and the Beast

The orientation for the Zimbabwe School for Youth Leadership is going really well. God is good. Thanks for all of those who have prayed for this initiative. We're based at Horseshoe - which is a run-down country club that was donated to The Salvation Army in the middle of nowhere. It's actually quite a beautiful place with mountains and farms and lots of green. I'm used to prayer walking in downtown Toronto. It was a bit of a different feel when we did a prayer walk and didn't see another person for the first half hour! But we had some nice prayer over the borehole and trees! The roosters wake up early at Horseshoe - 4:30am is rise and shine! So far we have 12 students, and they seem to be really enjoying themselves and learning a lot. When I look at them, I feel so proud! You know you work so hard on a programme, and then when people actually show up - it feels like a dream come true. The group is great - they're willing to try anything. They did a whole obstacle course blindfolded, and showed such determination. A whole bunch of kids from the school came out to watch. They were fascinated to see all of these teenagers doing crazy things (and it amazed me that some where still more fascinated with my "bright" skin than all the craziness!)

Rest assured - we did find a beast! The whole group got together to slaughter it and then clean out the insides. John and I have been involved in a few leadership training schools, but this was my first time to kill a beast. It wasn't even like, "hey, this would be a cool team-building activity." It was like, "hey, we need to eat." I was amazed. No one asked, "ok, who knows how to do this?" Everyone just stood up, got the ax, and went to work - whether they were from the slums of Harare or the deep rural areas. When people started getting splattered with blood, I suggested they might want to remove their ZSYL name tags!! I got to see the "byble" that we ate at Christmas in its very raw form. We gave the head of the bull to the Divisional Commander (I guess that's custom because it's a delicacy) and the liver to the Territorial Commander (don't forget protocol!) Other than that, we've been feasting. I'm not a big meat-eater anyway, and the whole slaughtering thing didn't exactly help, but when in Rome... and it was nice beef.

Everyone's always concerned about my health, so I'll just say that I'm fine - a few "washroom problems" but nothing major. The first night was a bit brutal - I got a hundred bug bites, and peed on my pyjamas (it was dark when we arrived so I was figuring out the whole outhouse thing!) Mostly I'm just really happy. It's so cool to see all of these emerging leaders and to see that they're being challenged but up for the challenge. I'm pleased with how the distance education course I wrote turned out (John designed it). When I presented it to the students, they seemed very intimidated, but I know they can do it (I told them so) and I think they're up for it. I need to sort out some stuff at work and then I'll go back up until the end on Saturday. I must admit that on Tuesday at 12:00pm when we were supposed to be leaving Harare and we didn't have any: students, food or course books I was a TAD anxious, but it's all come together. God is good.