Happy New Year everyone, this will be our final update before we head back to the UK next week. Strangely looking forward to some cold weather, although that will probably only last a few days! The last two weeks have seen the heat return in force and both of us have been unwell due to it.

Max’s family have joined him in Sanyati now. Agnes his wife and their two young daughters Ropafadzo & Keyla are excited, if a little nervous about their new life in Sanyati. It’s lovely for Max to have his young family with him and we are glad to see they are all settling in well.

We enjoyed a yummy Christmas Lunch (cooked by Edline) with them, Mum and Annalena our volunteer. Sat outside under a tree in 100f makes it a strange Christmas feeling. New year was spent watching films with popcorn and a few drinks.

Back to the work side of things, we delivered new mother/maternity packs to expectant and new mothers at Sanyati Baptist Hospital on Christmas eve. The packs we had put together from donations in the UK included baby grows, hats, mittens, soap that kind of thing. They were gratefully received and brought a little Christmas joy.

Lean on me campaign continued with us able to donate hospital supplies and crutches to Sanyati Baptist Hospital and Shalom Hospital in Kadoma. Thank you to Elysia Jarman and the other midwives at Frimley Park hospital for the donations and once again to Southampton minor injuries unit for the crutches.

We finally managed to collect items sent by Tools with a Mission (TWAM) that we ordered back in the UK last year. 3 manual sewing machines, ground workers tools, books, gardening tools and builders kits. It’s a little late to do much with them this trip but we were able to give some books to a local nursery and primary school. We look forward to setting up projects and making good use of them on out next trip.

A catch of 500 fingerlings for our fish farming project arrived a week ago. Only took 3 weeks to get them but this is Zimbabwe! This 500 is so that we can trial the tanks and to try feeding with a mix of commercial feed and dried pig manure. Our aim longterm will be to feed them purely organically using waste from our other projects. The water from the fish is also being used to water our fruit trees and flowers. So every time we do a water change nothing is wasted and the plants get the benefit of fertiliser water.

Sadly the Makota pigs haven’t been able to be delivered but Max will be kept busy with our 9 growing piglets, 5 weaners and Betty (let me destroy everything) sow. We still plan to get the Makota pigs when we return later in the year.

We have started 2 community gardens with our families. One group is doing cabbages, the other tomatoes. Hoping to have around 500 heads of cabbages and around 200 tomato plants. All the families are involved helping to prepare beds, watering and weeding. The hope is that these gardens can continue and the families make a good income from selling the produce.

Fertiliser

Our new rabbit house is nearly completed and the outside classroom has been started.

It sure has been a busy 4 months, lots has been done, in fact most of what we hoped to do. A big thank you again to everyone who has helped make all this possible, especially to Kitchen Tables Charity Trust one of our biggest supporters who have helped fund a lot of our work.

We look forward to a short rest back in the UK before all the fundraising and work starts again.