19/12/07 - Crazy Money
On Wed Dec 19th,the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gono, issued new notes in the following denominations:250,000.00; 500,000.00 and 750,000.00. The old 200,000.00 note has to be handed in to the banks before Dec 31st. It will be obsolete. There had been rumours of this for weeks and that he might devalue the currency. He did not do the latter. I went to the bank daily to withdraw cash. All kinds of well to do people were hoarding the 200,00.00 notes. There was a limit of 40 million on daily withdrawals.

Thursday was teachers' pay day. There was a queue to the door of the bank just after eight am. I went back at 11.30 and joined a shorter queue. We needed the money for shopping and for donations to the local orphanage, convent and some individuals. On Saturday, the withdrawal limit was raised to 100,000,000.00 I withdrew the cash and went directly to the butcher's, where I bought a 2.6kg(5or 6lbs) of ham and a large chicken for Christmas dinner. Total seventy six million, $76,000,000.00!!! It is all very unreal. Imagine having money in the bank and not being able to withdraw it for ordinary expenses.

11/01/'08 - Water-logged
A good break in Harare led into a busy weekend. The rain? Well it does not know when to stop. As I drove from Harare to Marondera the heavens opened. No place to pull off the rural road. Just keep going in the downpour. When I arrived in Rusape, the quadrangle within the house was water logged. About a half inch of water flowed over to the cement surround. We wondered what the road to Nzvimbe would be like? I set off in good time on Friday. The 80 km journey, 25 km on dirt road, took two and quarter hours each way. It was laborious driving: clutching, breaking, changing gears, avoiding deep channels and holes caused by the recent floods. There were fifty adults for Mass. The trip was worthwhile.

On the return journey I drove downhill towards the first stream. The loose, wet sand had accumulated on the edge of the water. The back wheels got stuck. No movement. The seven women in the back of the truck discarded their footwear, pulled up their skirts, standing in over a foot of water, gave a mighty heave and pushed the truck backwards. One man lifted a heavy stone out of the way and added to the push. The rest of the return journey was covered with great care and attention. If the condition of the road worsens, we may have to skip that outstation until the rainy season ends. The people in Nzvimbe have to walk 20 km to catch a bus to town.

Running on empty...
Collecting fuel for the trucks and the generator is a monthly chore. I went to Caltex on Monday morning to get 50 litres of petrol. I queued for over an hour and a half but got the fuel without any difficulty. We have vouchers, paid for by the Irish Province, for the petrol. It is great to have such a facility.

In my running around on Tuesday morning for various messages, including picking up milk substitute for the new babies in the orphanage, I forgot to load the container of petrol. A friend in Mutare did some shopping - margarine, cooking oil, macaroni, milk replacement - for us in Mozambique. The police had a checkpoint on the road. They asked me what I had in the back of the truck. Nothing, I declared. It was only then I realised that I had left the petrol behind me. I place the foodstuffs behind the passenger's seat.

Electricity cuts are more frequent since the beginning of the New Year. With the cuts goes the local water supply. Thunder, lightning and flooding all affect the electricity and phone/email services. It is back to how it was long before Christmas. We may be in the dark for some nights until we get the petrol.

While I was in Ziweya on Saturday, there was a request to visit the sick. I went out with Sr Thomas on Wed 9th Jan at 10.00 am. We ended up visiting six different homes. The last one was the saddest. A grandmother, in her sixties,who had lost her five sons and only daughter, (their spouses also had died) was looking after some toddlers. She was also looking after older grandchildren who were not present. It was pathetic. We got back to St. Simon's at 3.00pm, after doing a lot of walking in the bush, tired but fulfilled.

16/01/'08 ...and still it rains!
The lightning knocked our phone out of action in the middle of last week. Tel-One workmen, eight of them, were outside our gate all day Thursday and Friday. They went away saying they would be back on Monday. On Thursday night I was able to access messages via the Internet but was unable to send or receive an email.

The rain continues. A local white farmer told me on Friday that since the beginning of December there has been 36 inches of rain in Rusape. The Zambezi river flowing from Victoria Falls through Zambia and Zimbabwe has burst its banks in Mozambique. The water was six meters deep in some places.The last bad flooding there was in Spring 2000. It made world news as a woman gave birth to a baby on top of a tree. She and the baby were rescued by the South African army on a helicopter.

The Baptism of the Lord concludes the Christmas season. We had a nice meal of chicken and beef on Saturday evening. The delicious Christmas cake was sampled. St Simon's was full on Sunday. I enjoyed the energy and enthusiasm of the congregation. Mass took one hour and fifty minutes. Philip, my Australian visitor, had never been in church for such a long ceremony.

After that lengthy liturgy I went to Tsanzaguru. I had passengers and a plough to carry. The government, due to deliver the ploughs last August, distributed them on Thursday evening and Friday. The Governor of the local area, Makoni, came late on Thursday, spoke for ages. Most of the people slept out of doors in a queue waiting for the ploughs on Friday morning. There were hundreds of people. Imagine sleeping out of doors in this rainy/damp season! An elderly man from Tsnazagurur came to St Simon's on Friday. He needed help to take the plough out to the parish church. From there the family would take it to their home on a wheelbarrow. The small plough will be pulled by two cattle or three or four donkeys.

Mass in Tsanzaguru was also well attended. I visited four sick people in one home after Mass. A walk in the bush is good for the constitution, especially when the thunder is rumbling in the skies, and one does not know when the rain will come.

28/01/'08 - a new puppy and an ordination
When I returned from Harare last Wed there was neither electricity or water in Rusape. The electricity came on spasmodically for the rest of the week but we were back to drawing water from the Carmelite sisters farm over 2km away.

On one of my previous visits to Harare I dropped off Sr Thomas at her cousin's house, not far from Hatfield. There was a litter of puppies in the yard. I bespoke one. On my way home last Wed I picked up the three month old pup. He is slowly adjusting to life in Rusape. In Harare, he was out with the big dogs at night guarding the property. His sleep pattern needs to adjust. He sleeps during the day and whimpers at night. He is probably missing the company of the other dogs. Hopefully, he will grow into a good night guard dog. We named him after his predecessor, Shumba (lion).

There was an ordination of a diocesan priest at St Benedict's Mission on Saturday. It is one of the oldest missions along with Triashill, St. Barbara's and Mount Mellerary, founded by the Trappists about one hundred years ago. The Carmelites served there until the Liberation War. With the exception of the church and priests' house, all the other buildings were destroyed and what was transportable was taken away. Since 1980 the mission has been rebuilt with modern class rooms and assembly hall. It now has a large day and boarding school. Much of the journey was on dirt road. Having got stuck at a broken-down bridge on the outward journey, I returned by a different road in teeming rain.

The ceremony began with a procession to the outdoor altar at 10.00 am. It was 10.40 by the time the first reading began. The homilist, a Carmelite, spoke for over thirty minutes. In all, the ceremony lasted three hours and forty minutes. I visited the grave of Fr Morganti, an Australian Carmelite, the first of our missionaries to die in Rhodesia in 1962. His grave needs urgent attention. Had a quick lunch and was on the road to Rusape shortly after 3.00 pm.

from Bob Kelly, O Carm.