September 2nd, 2019
Greetings Family and Friends
Life has been full here in Zimbabwe.  I am crazy busy teaching five classes...so teaching Monday through Friday, non-stop.  I said, never again and Glen laughed at me and said "I've heard that story before".  However on the upside is that I am busy with not much time to be homesick for Canada, although I certainly miss everyone on that side.  I am fortunate to have Whattsapp as that has become my go-to way of connecting.  The phone lines seem to be intermittent and I have a hard time getting through.
We continue with the load shedding with power being available from 10:30 pm to 5:00 am, so everyone spends much time working through the night to take advantage of electricity when it is available.

On the upside our friends from Bulawayo, Frick and Lizette Muller came to Harare last week and came to my place for lunch.  We had a good visit and I plan to visit them in Bulawayo during our midterm break in mid-October.

This weekend, I hosted our two adopted young people while their mom was attending a funeral in Mutare.  Makanaka and Panache came and stayed overnight.  They both have August birthdays so we celebrated with cake and everything.

Inserting here a picture of the two of them taken at my house..

Makanaka is the young lady we are supporting with school fees and the likes.  Panache is her brother and he has just received a full scholarship to study architecture and design at the University of Algeria.  So now he is waiting for his passport and we are praying for that to come through quickly.  He first applied over a year ago.  Please join us in prayer for that to happen as passports are not a top priority for the government here.

 Imserted later when I resumed writing Sept. 29th.  Panache has been granted his passport so will be leaving for Algeria very soon...probably within the
WOW!!!! It is hard for me to believe I started this blog almost a month ago.  Tomorrow is the end of September already and I will try and send this off tomorrow.  So sorry for the long delay.  Things have been crazy busy here (if I said that before please excuse me but somedays I'm not sure if I'm coming or going).  Such is life for me here in Zimbabwe at PACC and often times in the morning, I have to check my schedule to see which course I am teaching at any particular time.  Perhaps it is just my age catching up with me but in reality I think it is just overload.  I am so looking forward to taking a break mid October while block courses are being offered. I have respectfully declined teaching any of those courses this time around as I felt I needed a break.  I am going to make a trip to Bulawayo to visit Frik and Lizette Muller.  Lizette is principal of a school for the underprivileged there in Bulawayo and she is off the same time, so will have a good visit.

There has been so much sadness in this country with many deaths of loved ones and much illness to add to the economic stresses. Medications are unavailable or out of reach pricewise.

The Jacaronda trees are just beginning to bloom and the purple flowers are so beautiful and add a bit of life to the otherwise dry surroundings.  There has been no rain so things are looking pretty dry.

The economy continues to worsen and prices go up every day. It is indeed a struggle for my friends and colleagues here. 

Enough for now.  Will finish off tomorrow and hopefully end on a positive note.  Goodnight for now.
Well, it is now October 1st, 2019 - long past time I should be sending this off.  So today I will do that without thinking of everything else I should be writing.

Yesterday the use of the US dollar was criminalized so not sure where things are heading.  Time alone will tell and we will trust in God to see us through.

Next week we are hosting a two day ACTEZ (Accreditation of Theological Education in Zimbabwe)  conference where our students, along with students from other theological colleges in Zimbabwe will compete in debate, preaching skills, sports and musical talents.  I am facilitating the debate portion and really looking forward to working with our students in that regard.  We have chosen ten students to participate and we will have a debate this Thursday.  From that debate our judges (made up of our faculty) will choose the top four debaters who will represnt our college at ACTEZ.  Our entire college is looking forward to a fun couple of days.  So all is not doom and gloom for us here.

These are just a few of my ramblings and the happenings here at PACC Harare in Zimbabwe.  Wnjoy the read.  Continue to pray for all of us here and the country that God will intervene and bring sbout a sense of stability and peace.

I wanted to send more pictures but having computer problems with downloading them from my phone so will, hopefully, send more next time around.

Love and blessings to all
Marj