The ride to Pumula was a bumpy one for Sarah and Grace, having to wake up early in the morning and catch a kombi with conductors yelling ’Pumula, Pumula ‘. They were meeting the rest of the team in Pumula, at a pre-school called Everlasting Joy. The day’s lesson was going to take a different spin as they were teaching young children, ages ranging from tender three to six. This meant that when the team was presenting their lesson they had to bear this fact in mind.
As the fourth week of our placement draws to a close and the mid-term review fast approaches, I can't quite believe that the halfway mark is nearly upon us. Time has been consumed by our work at Simukai, experiencing the local culture and adjusting to life in Zimbabwe.
The air was splitting and the sky was glowing without effort as we were rushing to the conference room to make it in time for the programme to commence at eight o’clock on a Friday morning. We were all tired from either the long hours of travelling on buses or because of the jet lag, the long hours on flights and having to calm nerves high above in the skies.
As the midday sun beats down strongly onto the centre, the 25+ children (and young adults) squeeze into the back of the truck, with volunteers heading quickly on foot towards the football pitch. By this time it is usually near to 1pm, making it a definite challenge to both coach and play football in the Zimbabwean blistering heat. This doesn’t seem deter the eager children however, and only seems to have an effect on us Brits - who certainly aren’t used to such constant heat or sunshine.
Having now spent a good few weeks of endless fun and work with Restoration of Hope, we’ve managed to get ourselves out of the office a bit more and spend much more time with the several contacts that we’ve been busy making. The Psychosocial Support Department in particular have been spending much of their weeks with Scripture Union. This is a contact centre and safe place for street children (ages ranging between 11 and 20+) to spend their day times, where they have the ability to wash their clothes, bathe themselves, and receive three meals per day.
We are over half way through our cycle in Zimbabwe and time is certainly flying!
Here we finally are! After weeks of preparation, expectation and excitement, our team of ICS Progressio volunteers finally stepping into the rhythm of life and work in Zimbabwe.
It is hard to start a piece of writing about international development volunteering in Africa without using a cliché or two, but so far the experience has been filled with events that belong in an archetypal textbook on the subject. However, running water, cosy beds, not being trapped behind a toilet door for hours and surprisingly adequate food have left us feeling suitably comfortable, actually.
With a million stars in the sky to marvel at, both the national and the international volunteers felt at home the moment we stepped on the sands of the village called Bezha/Nyololo . As if that was not enough the moment we entered one of the huts in the homestead we knew that the cultural exchange had already begun. Served with a dish of African food called ‘inkobe’ and a metal cup filled with warming tea ,we all knew that the cultural boundaries were slowly but surely being broken down.
The Nyadombo family is headed by an 82year old widow, Mrs Nyadombo who has four daughters, of which three of them are married and stay away from their home except for Dorica. Aged 55, Dorica stays with her mother due to disability from birth. She cannot walk or eat alone. Since she was born, her mother has had to stay close to her. This has made it difficult for Mrs Nyadombo to participate in any village activities, work in the fields or even visit relatives. Furthermore, there has been noted neglect from the community as well her family members.
