6/20/98: Today was sports day for all of Dan & Julie’s boys. Wes and Will (twins) and Jason all play rugby on the Gateway Christian School team. Two of them wound up with concussions, and one got elbowed in the head, so hard he had double vision.
6/21/98: Headed back up to Mvurwe to shoot Chris and Joyce G. at the church he pastors. It was a beautiful little chapel with a thatched roof. Lunch afterwards at their home. A lovely garden and gorgeous view of the countryside. Back at the guest house in Harare we met two new volunteers preparing to work at Karanda Mission Hospital for the next month and had a delightful dinner with them and the guard dogs begging for food at the back door.
6/22/98: Did some last-minute curio shopping downtown and began to pack up for departing Zimbabwe and heading to Kenya.
6/23/98: Final photography assignment in Zimbabwe. Doug and I ran around the three campuses of Gateway Christian School taking tons of pictures…
NOTE: The photo above is a local Shona woman shopping for fruits and vegetables at Mbare Musika in Harare, Zimbabwe.
6/23/23: We made some wonderful new friends in Zimbabwe. In some cases we were able to meet up with these new friends back in the US years later, like Christ & Joyce G. who visited Moody Bible Institute several times while their daughter was a student there.
The last couple of days in Harare were especially nice as we shared it with Cornelie A. and Astrid B., the medical students from Tubingen, Germany, who were going to spend a month at Karanda. We became fast friends and had a wonderful time talking about our experiences in coming to faith in Christ and what it means to be a Christian. They were visiting Karanda Mission Hospital to see just what missions was all about. They told us that in their Church experiences so far, the ministry of serving abroad in missionary work was seldom mentioned. It was a treat to get to know people who were hungry and adventurous enough to take such a step. Over the years we eventually lost touch with them. Though I still have and use the aluminum water bottle that they gave me as a gift. Every time I take a sip from it when we are off on some hike or camping trip here in the US, I think of them.
On June 22, Ruth and I, along with Cornelie and Astrid, headed downtown to do some curio shopping. On the bus ride in, a local man chatted them up, and invited them to get together “for drinks” later. He seemed nice, but the girls chose to be vaguely noncommittal. Once off the bus, all four of us suspected ulterior motives, so the girls decided to get their shopping done and pass on the invite. Instead, we all ate dinner again together back at the guest house.
On June 23, our day in Zimbabwe, Doug E. took all four of us to Mbare. Musika, Harare’s version of Chicago’s famous, but bygone, “Maxwell Street” open-air market. Everything from fruits and vegetables to local made arts and crafts. It was fun to chat and barter with the local sellers even though the conditions were cramped and atmosphere intense. The people were warm and welcoming of conversation.
Ruth and I also managed to fit in one more movie in Harare, where the ticket prices were so inexpensive. We saw Paradise Road, a sober, true story about female POW’s on the island of Sumatra imprisoned by Japanese soldiers during WWII. The women rose above the horror of their experience and formed a vocal orchestra during their imprisonment. The ensemble cast includes Glenn Close, Cate Blanchett, Frances McDormand and Julianna Margulies, among many others. A worthwhile film for sure.
