March 23rd, 2021.

Greetings all you beautiful people out there.  Have been meaning to wrote for some time but time seems to have slipped through my fingers.  I can hardly believe how long it has been since I last wrote. My time here in Zimbabwe is already half over and June 6th I will be leaving to return to Canada.  I'm praying and ask for your prayers that things have settled somewhat with Covid-19 and I won't encounter any problems returning that side.

Things have been crazy busy here at PACC.  I am teaching six online classes.  Two of my first year classes  have 70 people in them.  So the majority of my time is spent teaching and marking papers.  I calculated out that by the end of our semester I will have marked over 500 papers. 

The Principal, Academic Dean, Dean of Students and I journeyed to Kwekwe (about 3 1/2 to 4 hours drive, depending on the potholes and the like) for a weekend of inperson intensive training.  This particular group of students are first year students and are enrolled in five courses.  We taught segments of all five courses beginning Friday evening and then all day Saturday.  We were blessed to join them for a prayer rally Saturday night and then join their Sunday services before being hosted for lunch and then the drive back to Harare.  

It was great to meet so many of our students who, up to this point, had just been online.  The pictures below are just some of those who were still around as we were about to leave to return to Harare.

Pastor Tich, our Academic Dean (Center in the above picture with brown and white shirt on) and I have just completed writing a text book for writing and research  and our manuscript is now in the hands of a local printer who is doing the formatting and layout.  The next step is to send off to the publisher.  Yippee. It is done!!!!  We started work on this project just over a year ago.  We are currently teaching a writing and rsearch course and our text is the official text book.  Our students are invited to give us their feedback on the user friendly aspects of the text.  All of this is part of a process in which both Pastor Tich and I will be certified as level three (highest level) teaching supervisors with  the Association for Pentecostal Theological Education in Africa (APTEA).  I have been facilitating teacher training with this group for the past five years or so and so it feels good to now be certified at the highest level.

Schools resumed for most students this past week and we, Gken and I, were able to get our young Malanaka enrolled in a boarding school near where her family live.  It was an exciting time as she, like so many students had been out of school for most of the past year.  Studnts weat uniforms at most of the schools here.  When we first met Makanaka, she was in grade four and now she is in grade eleven or form four as it is called here.  

At our college we will be finishing the semester with on-line courses.  We are planning a graduation the beginning of May and praying that things remain open for us to be able to do that.

The economy in Zimbabwe continues to be a challenge for the majority of people in this country.  With the lockdowns due to Covid-19 the challenges have increased...and I realize that is the same for much of the world.  On the positive side, the rains have come this year, after three plus years of draught.  The grounds are beautifully green and the weather is great.  

Enough of my ramble for now.  Blessings to all.

Marj