half way through

So we've made it through the half way mark, 3months in, with no sickness, and only good stories to share...praise the Lord!

last weekend was another memorable one. we got invited to travel to gweru with a group of friends, about 2 hours from bulawyo for the first ever 'national ultimate frisbee championships' against Harare (made us think of you laura Bry) - it sounds a lot more impressive than it actually was, because it was just organised between friends...still lots of fun!

we had a full day playing frisbee, how we ached after, then all of us stayed the night at a safari park close by. about 15 of us camped out at the park, enjoyed a braii in the evening, spending time getting to know each other....our first night of camping in africa went well. there was a lot of rain-but amazingly no tents leaked&not too many bugs found their way in, phew.

On Sunday, we had an action packed day, seeing lions close up-magnificent creatures. The place we were staying has had an itv documentary done on it as it's doing this impressive 5year programme reintroducing lions to the wild-a big poaching problem in africa! we're looking forward to checking the documentary out when we get home, if you want to see it before we do the place is called antelope park.....let us know what it's like! Following on from the lion viewing we went on a mule cart around the park (giving us the opportunity to see giraffes, zebras, and vultures ridiculously close up - incredible stripes&height). Lui has decided to add to the tortoise pet, a giraffe would be fun! then finally we went on an elephant ride - andy's highlight had to be the experience of riding on the back of an elephant&feeding them through the trunk...something we'll never forget...our legs ached for the next few days from having to do the splits as they were so big. They felt like a bristly brush&smelt alot. we were really impressed with how well the animals are looked after! we'll upload some photos soon for you to look at.

2interesting elephant facts...
no.1: they are family orientated, so when an elephant dies the rest of the family will dig a grave&bury the elephant, covering it with branches!
no.2: if you are in the wild&an elephant looks like it will chase you-take off all your clothes leaving them in a pile&run away stark naked. The theory of this method is that elephants rely heavily on smell rather than sight......! (our guide had never witnessed this so wasn't 100% sure of it's reliability).

Following on from the adventure packed weekend, this week we have been around the FI offices, helping to mark life skills books - there are over 4000 to be marked. We can only mark grade zero to three as it is mainly pictures&very basic indebele words! We were also busy preparing for the prayer day which happened yesterday. We helped out at by decorating the room with all sorts of things to help aid people with praying for the many different outreach projects being run. Of course, we brought our touch of snow to the room by making the famous trent
snowflakes - a great success!

We've spent a day painting a new house built on the ebenezer grounds (see previous post to learn about ebenezer). We were thankful for the cool weather day&were pleased to complete a room. We were told we were using paint-but it appears zim paint is more of a consistency/ smell of egg whites&water-pongy!

As christmas fast approaches, Zim is still pretty hot. we hear there's been lots of snow back home?! it's quite hard for us to imagine what it's been like really! the Family Impact office is only open for another week, then it's the christmas hols, so we'll probably try to pack plenty in this week so we can make the most of the time we have left.

we love you lots, eat an advent chocoloate for us please,
andy&lui*

p.s here's a fun video for you to check out...enjoy!