Food, girls and leadership

Back in Harare. The orientation is done - praise the LORD! Wednesday morning I arrived at Pearson to meet the students and one of the leaders came up to me saying we had something to discuss: "Rochelle, just so you know, we've run out of food." What???!!!!??? Literally - nothing in the pantry. I had no cash on me. There were 32 people to feed. I panicked, wept and cried out to God for about an hour begging my almighty father to send us some food. I thought it was an appropriate way to start Lent! Food did arrive. A lady donated some pumpkins (did you know that pumpkin leaves are really tasty?) and then another man finally brought potatoes that we'd paid for the day before. So we ate pumpkins and potatoes, and then John arrived from the city in the evening with some money to purchase some items for the next day. I've got to admit, it was a horrible feeling to think that I was responsible for a large group of people and I had no idea how to feed them. Being part of the youth leadership school is always teaching me new things about leadership. I don't like it when leaders micro-manage and take charge of everything. Delegation is good, and we've always delegated food to others on our leadership team. But it doesn't always work out, and at the end of the day, a leader has to take responsibility. I think it's ok to panic/cry/be frustrated at people who didn't follow through for a while, but then you have to make a plan. I still have so much to learn.

Wednesday the youth did an amazing programme for the kids at a near-by school. It was good to see the kids having fun. Most of them don't have shoes to wear to school and their uniforms are ripped, and yet they have this joy... Thursday all of the ZSYL students hiked through the mountains for about 7 hours. It was tough, but amazing too. Yesterday was the last day, and in the afternoon we had a prayer time. I was really praying for reconciliation amongst the girls in our group. We learned that the girls have divided themselves along class lines - the "rich" or "urban" girls (who have nicer clothes and brought extra food like biscuits) sleeping separately from the others and telling the others to wash their clothes in the river, etc. This broke my heart - it's such poor leadership and so anti-Salvation Army. So we took some action and spoke with the girls. Last night I noticed some improvement. Things aren't perfect, but at least they were laughing together, sitting together, etc. I read the evaluations last night and one person had written, "this school should only be for boys. The girls are always late and they seem to hate each other." Ah, girls...

Speaking of leadership... did you hear that Simba Makoni is running for president of Zimbabwe in March? He's already being trashed as a Western puppet in the state media. He used to be the finance minister. Could make for an interesting election...