Last night an angel appeared at our front doorstep. She didn't have wings nor a long white robe, but her smile was angelic. Our friend Kim is the administrator for Masiye Camp - this amazing Salvation Army camp in the south of the country that runs holiday camps for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. They also serve their community with a whole variety of incredible programmes. Kim is a superstar and we love her. For her work she often has to travel to Botswana to get food supplies, etc. This time she went and thought of us. Check out what she brought to our doorstep last night (out of the blue)... caesar salad dressing, lasagna noodles, bacon, eggs, oreos, tomato paste, corn flakes, lemons from her garden... She is a pregnant woman's dream! I was really touched by Kim's generosity (so much so that I ranked her with angelic status). What a friend. It's clear that she read my blog about food cravings (don't we all want friends who truly listen to us?) and then she went out of her way (ok, she went out of her country!) to buy us special treats. I am truly touched. Friendship is a beautiful thing. Being loved is a beautiful thing. So many of us think of doing nice things for others and then don't take action. Kim took action. Thanks, Kim!
I just spent the day at an interesting inter-church meeting on the national HIV behaviour change strategy for Zimbabwe. I blogged about behaviour change yesterday, so I won't go into it. But three interesting things happened at the training: a) when we were making introductions, one woman got up and said "I am 59 years old. 8 years ago I found out that my husband had another wife and was living in a polygamous marriage without my knowledge. I went to get tested for HIV and learned that I was positive. We got divorced and now I'm living positively." The room was silent. b) they gave us a "sitting fee" just for showing up. This amount was more than we have in the entire HIV/AIDS account at my workplace and my monthly salary put together. Hmmm. c) They served us lunch at this meeting. I sat down at a table, and then an older man came and sat beside me and I learned that he is a Lutheran bishop. Someone came by and called me Mai Shumba. I explained how we were given totems when we came to Zimbabwe and that John is a lion and I'm a monkey. Then he got nervous and said "so you're my mother in law and that means that I can't eat facing you." I told him that I thought we could let it pass - seeing as he didn't know about our connection when he sat down! :)
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