Monday, July 29, 2024
The morning started with breakfast at Mt. Selinda HS made and served by students. It was amazing. They served us local bananas and avocado. The school is trying to be self-sustainable so the fees remain lower —they have two greenhouses, fish ponds, orchards, farm for beans, milk. When we were done, the chaplain sent us with all the bananas!
FACT: Bananas ripen year round in Zimbabwe but are smaller in the winter and larger and sweeter in the summer.
Breakfast in the cooking student kitchen area.
📸 S. Westergren
After breakfast, the delegation went on a tour of the high school and primary school. We learned that Mount Selinda HS is a mission school and they are trying in to transition from physical books to internet so student can have more access to the world.
It is difficult to get books for their library.
📸 S. Westergren
Mt. Selinda Primary School - visited deaf and special needs students.
📸 S. Westergren
Visiting the Daisy (Hohoza) Dube orphanage - the delegation brought supplies and a few toys for the 25 children who live in the home. 19 of the 25 children were at school when we visited.
📸 S. Westergren
The delegation also visited the Mount Selinda Mission Hospital. We learned it has 155 beds and 90 nurses to cover all shifts. Patients are divided into wards: there was a men’s ward and women’s ward on the first floor, each with about 16 beds.
We were also lucky enough to have a tour of the maternity ward, followed by the waiting mothers village. Since there are many homes and each is so spread out, there is a village at the mission hospital where women can come stay when they reach 36 weeks in their pregnancy. This will alleviate the stress of needing to get to a hospital when they go into labor because the maternity ward is next door.
The delegation with several of the waiting mothers. They were so happy to have visitors as they spend most of their time together, cooking and cleaning for each other and just waiting.
The delegation left Mount Selinda around 11:30 AM and, after a quick stop at the grocery store to get lunch, headed to visit the site of the new Gazaland University.
The delegation visits the site of the new Gazaland University.
📸 UCCZ Facebook
After our site visit, the delegation began the 3-hour journey to Masvingo. Unfortunately, about 40 minutes outside of Chipinge, the clutch on the kombi (van) gave out and we started smelling burnt rubber so we pulled over. Silence (our awesome driver) and Rev. Mhlanga made some calls because there was no way we could continue! Silence, had to stay with/in the van overnight because it would get vandalized otherwise.
We all piled into 2 vehicles (both small sedans) with all the luggage on top and went about 6 miles down the road to a nearby hotel at Birchenough Bridge.
📸 S. Westergren
Upon arriving at the hotel, we ordered dinner— it took over 2 hours for the meals to come! I think, because they were not expecting a large group, they weren’t prepared to make food for all of us at once. We were so grateful that this happened so close to a hotel!
While we waited, we sat in the bar area and watched the Olympics while Shaun provided us with some stand-up comedy.
📸 S. Westergren
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