Wednesday, 10 April: Mtshabezi

The day started early with breakfast at 5:30 am. A Zimbabwean rode with us which made the cab of the farm truck extremely cramped. Being the smallest, I had the privilege of sitting in the middle seat. The trip took us about an hour driving south on the main road between Bulawayo and Beitbridge (pron. "bite-bridge"), on the border of South Africa. Once we reached the turnoff for Mtshabezi, we turned off the tarred road and onto a dirt road for about 10 km. We passed quite a few herds of cattle along the road. Jake explained that today was "dipping" day when the local farmers would take their cattle to the dip tank at Mtshabezi mission to dip them in water ridding them of ticks and other pests.

Just dipping day, that's all.

Our first stop on the mission was the milking station where Jake's cows were in the process of being milked. We walked into the field so that Jake could look over his herd. During this time, he discovered that one of his calves was very sick. Heading back to the truck, I met the District Overseer.

Next, we drove further down the road to the hospital. Jake had some business to attend to so he had scheduled a tour for me. I met with the hospital superintendent who sent me with Chibane (pron. like Chobani yogurt but with an "i" instead of an "o").

We took the ambulance (a converted pickup truck with a cap and a mattress in the back) to drive around the mission. Chibane was educated on the mission, went to the Bible college, had pastored a congregation, and now worked for the hospital as a driver. He was also working on an honors degree at a school in South Africa. His dream is to one day be a youth pastor for one of the churches in Zimbabwe (currently very few of them offer full-time salaries for youth pastors).

My tour vehicle.

The first stop on our tour was across the Mtshabezi River (which is where the mission gets its name). We were headed to Ekuphileni Bible Institute (EBI). There we went into the administrative offices and met the administrative assistant, Lynette, and the librarian. They had a fun time making me pronounce the name of the school. The two of them gave me a tour of the Bible school.

Lynette unlocking one of the classrooms.

The school has about 15 students enrolled in a three-year program. They can also receive a degree through TCZ (pron. “tee-sea-zed”. Theological College of Zimbabwe). We toured a couple of the classrooms. The first one had a newly installed permanent projector. For the other rooms, they had a portable projector that they moved from room to room.

One of the classrooms at EBI.

The next area of the tour of EBI was the kitchen and cafeteria. They also had an outdoor cooking area for when the power goes out. One interesting thing I noticed there was a solar cooker. EBI also has a garden where they grow a lot of the food for the school.

The corn wasn't doing so well.

This crop was doing much better. Not sure what it is.

The last place in the school I got a tour of was the library. Just outside the main room of the library is the computer lab. There were probably 10 computers in the room, but I was told that only 2 or 3 actually worked. The computer room also housed the only printer on campus for both the students and teachers. The librarian explained that she was in the process of cataloging all the books in the library. They had recently gotten 10 new steel bookshelves donated from the United States. There were also two wooden ones. The wooden ones do not last very long so they were in need of some more steel ones to hold all the books.

Inside the library.

The next stop on my tour of Mtshabezi was Teen Missions in Zimbabwe. Teen Missions is an international organization based out of Florida. Teams from the United States travel to different locations like this one throughout the world to attend military-style boot camps where they also do some service projects.

I met the on-site director who was an African who has lived all over Southern Africa working for Teen Missions. When I told him I had just come from Beira, we had a good chat about how bad the roads in Mozambique were.

The tour of Teen Missions included their farm, kitchen area, and hostels. Around the premises they had different obstacles used during the boot camps for team building (similar to the co-op course at Camp Yolijwa).

Chibane found a friend.

We left Teen Missions and headed towards the high school. On the way, Chibane soon filled the back of the ambulance with people wanting a ride. At the school, I met with the headmaster. He was interested to know what I wanted to see so he could tailor the tour to my particular interests. After discussing this, we walked down to the secretary's office to get the keys for different buildings. The students were on holiday (aka vacation) this week some most of the buildings were locked up. We made sure to mention that the secretary was single, and from her reaction, this must have been a common occurrence.

He had some other business to do, so he found another employee to give me the tour. He headed to the garden. There the students who were taking agricultural classes were able to test their skills by growing vegetables and raising chickens. Judging from the height of the maize, the students were receiving high marks.

Compare this with the previous picture of corn. These two fields are only half a mile away from each other.

Next, we toured the school’s library. The library was in a very small room, slightly smaller than the size of your average living room. It was overflowing with books and other materials.

A bit cramped.

After seeing the library, we headed to the Home Economics classrooms. All the rooms on the campus were designed with final exams in mind. For instance, the cooking classroom had six stations with ovens. Since there are more students than workspaces, they rotate groups during exams.

Sort of reminds me of my home economics classroom in middle school.

Our next stop was the science wing. We couldn't enter the rooms, but looking through the windows I saw the old familiar lab stations like I had in middle school and high school. Another interesting course they offered as a part of their science curriculum was metalworking.

The final destination on the tour of the high school was a walk past the dorms which were vacant due to the holiday. From there we returned to the administrative offices to say farewell to the headmaster. When we got there, he was in a meeting. We were pressed for time so we left and headed back towards the hospital. On the way, Chibane pointed out the church, tuck shop, and farm building.

Back at the hospital, Chibane and I parted ways. He asked for my email address so he could contact me in the future. I went back into the supervisor's office where I met a young doctor named David. He would be giving me a tour of the hospital. I noticed that while he was waiting he had been looking at some of the TED talks on an iPad.

Our first stop was the outpatient receiving area. Next we passed through the laboratory. That is where they test all the samples that are taken from the patients. Malaria is not a major problem in the Mtshabezi area, but other diseases like TB and HIV are.

From the lab, we headed to the theatre (The theatre is not for entertainment, but rather where the surgeries are performed.). The most intensive surgeries done at the hospital are C-sections. Surgeries that are more complicated than require sending the patient to the hospital in Bulawayo.

One of the minor theatres.

After that we headed to check out the hospital's water supply. The water for the hospital is pumped from a nearby dam. They have their own water treatment facility by the storage tanks to purify the water.

Water treatment "facility".

The next stop on the tour was the pharmacy which was closed for tea. I met the Sister-in-charge. Here I learned that she was overburdened with all the work and would like another sister-in-charge for help. We continued on to the children’s ward. The main function of the children's ward is to treat children suffering from HIV and AIDS related illnesses.

Then we headed by the maternity ward. The maternity ward is much different than it is in the United States (or I assume it is. I have not been in one since 1994.). At Mtshabezi, pregnant women come weeks, even months, before the birth. The reason for this is the lack of reliable transportation. The hospital prepares accommodations for these women to stay at the hospital. The women and their families are required to provide food and any other amenities.

On the backside of the maternity ward was the Environmental Office. The lady in this office is in charge of community awareness and investigating health conditions in the Mtshabezi area. For instance, when a case of malaria is found, she has to go to the region where the person lives and test mosquitos there.

The next stop was the building which housed the x-ray room and mortuary. David explained that their large x-ray machine was broken and they only had a small one which was inadequate. On our way back to the administrative offices I got a quick tour of the chapel which is used for services each morning and the laundry/kitchen building. These two areas were both in the same building despite it being against regulation. In the laundry room, David showed me the broken ironing machine and mentioned that the washing machine also breaks regularly. We stopped by the pharmacy before returning to the supervisor's office.

We did not enter.

Jake was waiting for me and we headed out for one last stop at the farm fields. We drove out to the field to see how they were doing. Then Jake showed me one of the dams they had built to supply water for the farm and both the primary and secondary schools. He also mentioned that the farmers were having problems with baboons and wanted him to come hunt them. Finally we left Mtshabezi and returned to Bulawayo.

Back in Hillside, we ate lunch and I took a nap since I was tired from waking up at 5:30 am. When I woke up I discovered that the water had come back on so I was able to take a hot bath. It was interesting taking a bath since I hadn't taken a bath (I take showers) since I was a young kid. After my bath, dinner was ready and we had rice was a pork sauce poured over it. I spent the rest of the night relaxing.