These three missionaries have completed their missions and will be going home this week. On Monday, Bonnie and I taught them the Self-Reliance Class to help them be prepared when they returned home. I taught personal finance and education. Bonnie helped them create a CV. We fed them breakfast and their favorite pizza for lunch. It is a day of celebration and so much fun! From left to right: Elder Ngwenya from Bulawayo Zimbabwe, Sister Makura from Leribe Lesotho and Sister Rafanomezansoa from Antsirabe Madagascar. They will be missed.
On Tuesday, Lori and I had to pick up a young sister who lives in a little town about 30 minutes from Harare and take her back to Harare to get money from Western Union that her dad had sent because she needs some dental work done. She is from South Africa. This was my first time in downtown Harare. The traffic is terrible and there are no stop lights. Intersections are unimaginable free for alls. After some tense maneuvering, we got to our destination. Lori double parked in front of the business like everyone else and I went with the sister inside. Meanwhile, outside, 2 policeman come to Lori's window and tell her she made an illegal u-turn. They told her she would have to pay them $60 right then. She told them she did not have it. They told her to let them in the car and they would all go to the police station. She refused. We have been told to absolutely not let police in our car because of some misfortunate happenings in the past. They told her to roll her window all the way down. She again refused. They asked if she would prefer them to call a tow truck and haul her away in the car. Long story short, she called the mission president and someone went to the police station to straighten it out. Lots of corruption here! Downtown Harare.
It is winter here. Daily temperatures are lows in low 40's to highs in low 70's. We usually run space heaters in our offices but the electricity kept going off because too many of us were trying to stay warm at the same time. I happened to have a warm bathrobe at the office that I used to support my neck on the chair. I wrapped it around me and got on with my work. We have been without internet and electricity on and off at home and the office all week. So goes life in Zimbabwe.
Yesterday, we went to the Bottom Drawer, a delightful restaurant where you eat outside. We found a table in the sun so we weren't cold. This visitor came by and expected food. We gave it to him. His female companion was close by.
We have found that Google Maps doesn't know the back roads outside of Harare. Like last week, when we were trying to find the young sister, the directions worked fine while we were on the main road. But when we turned off, we went here, there and everywhere trying to find her. We finally had to call her, describe where we were and have her talk us to her. We went through this little town numerous times.
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