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Friday July 3, 1998 - This rural school is set in a beautiful place surrounded by little mountains. There is no electricity, and one tap with cold water for the entire school. The squat toilets are quite nice. Our only incident of theft happened while at this school. It was not one of the students, but 2 young boys from outside the school who went into the room where Shinge was staying and stole 120 Zim Dollars. Shinge caught them running away, but he was not quick enough to get them. He told the police. I do not know how they came without a telephone but somehow they were notified. This is before the cell phone days!! As soon as Bob and I found out about this we immediately reimbursed Shinge for his loss. It's not much for us but a lot for him. It would feel like 120 American dollars would to us or more. Apparently several hours later in this little rural town without electricity, the boys were found and the policeman dragged them back in handcuffs, handcuffed to one another for Shinge to identify. He identifed them as the ones. The boys had confessed because they saw the donkey cart driver who apparently saw them flee. They knew if they did not confess the donkey cart driver would tell the police about their suspicious behaviour. However the boys had buried the money and the police wanted them to give it back. The police were hitting the boys trying to find out where the money was. Then Shinge told the police to stop hitting the boys. He said,"Please stop, I can not bear to see you hit them. These boys know they have done wrong and will not do this again". They probably did not have any proper family members to look after them. Normally, this would never happen. I can attest that the Zimbabwean people are incredibly honest. We often left our bikes by the side of the road unattended while we looked at a cave painting cave. When we returned half an hour later, our bikes were untouched. This is amazing considering that our bikes represent easily a year of income for most people. At the school today the students put on a fantastic show with singing, dancing and poetry, and story telling. There were some incredible gospel numbers with songs first sung in english and then African languages. Songs like " I want to thank you lord, I want to thank you lord, I want to thank you lord for the rest of my life. " It bought tears to my eyes. I moved my feet to try and pick up some of the dance steps and the rhythms. We later went for a walk to more cave paintings. Unfortunately we could not find them. I got a splinter from one of the thistle bushes. When you try to pull it off, it gives you a splinter and stings quite alot. These guys are tougher than our thistles in the US. A teacher Lewis, who we were staying with, took it out for me and bandaged my finger. Nomsa (precious) the Headmaster's secretary was also with us on this Cave Painting search walk. I was amazed at how agile and quickly she stepped and bounced over all the rocks. However the thistle bushes got her too, and tore up her stockings. She had to take them off. Nomsa and Lewis were super hosts for us. Nomsa did a lot of the cooking of the meals. We helped. I chopped up some "rape" (Spinach like vegetable). My pieces where a little big for her. She asked me if I used an ax or a knife. I guess I just have a big mouth and don't need such small pieces. For desert we had a Zimbabwean desert of corn and melon. It was good. I will never forget those gospel singers that moved me to tears. Among some of the others they did were: " Jesus is my Saviour" and "Going to Paradise". Bless these wonderful Afrikan Children !
