If you love something...

Living in Zimbabwe is teaching me many things. Like....

1. If you love something or someone - fight for it. We love bread. Yesterday John was in the grocery store at lunch, and there was no bread (there have been shortages ever since the government announced the new fixed prices). Then he started hearing murmurings, and they brought out a rack of half-loaves. He elbowed, and used his height advantage and scored 2 half loaves for us (sometimes it's really useful to have an athletic husband!) There were 2 security guards there in case violence broke out between customers trying to get some loaves. 2 half loaves cost him his monthly salary - but man, we're going to enjoy our peanut butter sandwiches today!

2. If you have a Chinatown in your city, eat durian! It's my favourite fruit - and there isn't a Chinatown in Harare. It looks like a weapon, and it smells terrible, but it's delicious.

3. Go with the flow. I had hoped Africa would teach me patience, and I think it's slowly working. We had our friend Kathy visiting us for a week, and it was wonderful to have our first visitor from Canada. I didn't want her to go! But having her here made me realize that I have become more patient and more "go with the flow." The logistics of the Zimbabwe School of Youth Leadership gatherings are always stressful, with many challenges. The day before it started we never have any food, our train ride to Bulawayo took 12 hours rather than 6 hours, etc. But I've learned to just accept all new information, stay calm and think of how we're going to go from there. It's a huge lesson!

4. Matches are valuable. Our power went off at 5:30pm and we still don't have it back on. So, initially we used candles and then moved to our lantern. It's such a tough debate. Obviously we don't want to use up our batteries, but it's almost impossible to find matches anywhere here anymore - too valuable (note: please do NOT send us matches in the mail!)

5. Sometimes you have to watch for ostriches. I saw one randomly at the side of the road when we were travelling back from Masiye camp. Of course we got out to get a better look. I stood beside it, and it's a big bird! We also saw rhinos as we were going into the camp.

6. God is good. The Z.S.Y.L. met last week at Masiye Camp. All but one of the students managed to find transport money, we ended up eating every day, and had some amazing training in psycho-social support. I'm SO proud of the students - they are writing very well for their assignments and just growing in their leadership. What a difference it would make to this country to have good, unselfish, un-corrupt, Godly leaders in every sector of society! Masiye Camp is run by The Salvation Army and is set in the beautiful Matopos, where it looks like God placed huge rocks on top of each other. What a peaceful setting - it was good for the soul.