"Letter from America" by Kuda

When David asked me to write this letter, I was most humbled. I was excited right until the moment I sat down to write. Then my countenance went dim. My countenance lit up, however, when the image of my grandmother struck my mind. How, widowed as she was in the rural Zimbabwean village of Murehwa, she understood the value of education, mustered whatever strength and meagre resources she had, to ensure that not one, but all of her children got a decent education.

I was born in Harare, Zimbabwe to two parents whose lives were remarkably touched by the power of education – a gift they received from their    parents. At the time of my birth father worked for a non-alcoholic beverage company and my mother was a primary school teacher. An education gave my parents an advantage in a world that is becoming increasingly competitive.

I thought perhaps the reason that David approached me to write this letter was because my mother and father passed on before I finished my formal education, but against the odds, I made it through the difficult and trying times in Zimbabwe. Before I left Zimbabwe to begin my studies towards a PhD in Biology in the USA, the whole family gathered to bid me farewell and give me their blessings. My biggest hero at that farewell lunch was…my Grandmother of course. I must also add that I am grateful to my parents as well as their parents, for when you give the gift of knowledge to one, you give it not to one but, to generations and generations to come.  One of the greatest gifts one could ever give to a child is an education, for unlike material things, its effects permeate from one generation to the next.

Not every child has been privileged to have parents to support them through school. This is the case in Zimbabwe largely due to the scourge of HIV / AIDS.  So many children lose their parents at an early age, before they complete primary school. If one were to cast a coin in the streets of Zimbabwe, chances are that it will fall on someone who has lost a loved one to that disease. The hardships for the orphans are further compounded by the dire state of Zimbabwe’s economy. In such a situation it is even more difficult for children to obtain school fees. Hope is lost.

I recall the days when David and Brenda joined Phithizela in the cause of Educating Others - the excitement in their words. I believe their greatest joy (as is mine) is to see the brilliant minds of so many children getting an opportunity to reach the fullness of their potential. To educate a child is to expand a child’s horizons. Every child dreams, but a child can only dream as far as his or her horizons permit. I shudder at the thought of how drastically different my life would have been had my grandmother and parents not passed to me the gift of education - I would I have never imagined myself in a laboratory trying to understand better the workings of the cell.  An education is undoubtedly one of the most important tools for life.

Though any contribution I make to this cause may be like a drop in an ocean, I am not discouraged. I gain some strength from a short modern Zimbabwean proverb which says “Padiki padiki saga reshuga rakapera netii spoon”. This translates to: “Little by little the sack of sugar was emptied by a teaspoon”. No single individual can end the problems of the world, but when I take my small   teaspoon and shovel out what little I can daily, weekly or monthly or yearly I can make my small big difference.
 

Another of Kuda’s “Letters from America” will
appear in a future issue of our Newsletter and on our blog.

"Six Months on : Realising Our Dream" by Phithi

In December 2009, we started our ‘small’ charity, Educating Others. Our aim was to   assist others who may benefit from our small contribution to enable them to attain a basic education. Our belief is that education liberates a person from perpetual dependence and gives them a meaning in life. Six months on, we are realising our dream by supporting two charities in Africa: ‘GUA Africa’ in Sudan and ‘Rose of Sharon’ in Zimbabwe. It has been  indeed an exciting,  challenging and fulfilling experience.

Of course we could not have made it this far without the support of you our donors, friends and readers who have stood with us and read our newsletter. We are ever grateful to you for your support and encouragement and we eagerly look forward to your input and feedback. Although our aim was to inform you through our newsletter,  an interesting dimension has also emerged: allowing people to re-live their yesteryears. Our last edition had a story from Cyril Rogers who lived and worked in the then Nyasaland (Malawi), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Next month, Heather Taylor who lived in Ruwa, near to where ‘Rose of Sharon’ is located, is also sharing with us her days in Zimbabwe. We find this interesting as we get to hear about their yesteryears and experiences in Africa. We realise that our small newsletter is becoming a ‘reliving the memories’ platform and we are proud of that.

Although Educating Others is a group project, I would like to take this opportunity to thank David Yates, the young-old man with the strength of a teenager. He co-ordinates our accounts, edits, designs and distributes our newsletter (every month) and donates £5 from every sale of his book, China ~ “A Traveller’s Diary”. Dave (as he is affectionately known) has put his heart, strength and mind to this great work, of course supported by my beautiful and ever smiling 'sister' Brenda. When I am advanced of years (200 years from now) and writing my life’s story, I will always remember these wonderful mentors, parents and ‘siblings’ for their support and love.  Dave is a dad to me and Kuda, while Brenda is a sister to me, so at times I’m not sure whether to call them ‘parents’ or ‘siblings’!

Lastly, a special thank you to the communities of Rolleston on Dove and Burton upon Trent who are our main donors. We are ever grateful to them for supporting us through donations every month. We pray that God may bless them and give them more years on earth so that they may continue to be a blessing to us and help us to ‘educate others’.

Message from the editor:

I would like to thank Phithi for his kind words and at the same time explain to our readers, who may be scratching their heads a bit, why he calls Brenda his sister. When Phithi visited us in May 2009, we found out that one of his sisters in Zimbabwe was called Brenda. This in itself is not remarkable, but we then found out that they shared the same birthday date in November!

"Memories of Rhodesia" by Heather Taylor

In the latest issue of our Newsletter, we have an article, ‘Memories of Rhodesia’, by Heather Taylor. Heather lives in the same village in Staffordshire as David and Brenda and she met Phithi when he came to stay with the Yates Family over the Christmas period in 2009. We hope that more people with ‘African’ connections (especially Zimbabwe and  Sudan), will contribute articles to our blog and also for future issues of our Newsletter. These contributions can throw a completely different and personal light on our understanding of Africa. Articles by people with first hand knowledge of the historical, cultural, educational and social aspects of life, in that vast continent - both past and present - will be most welcome.

  Epworth Main Road

I was born in 1946 in Salisbury, Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe. My parents lived on a farm they called ‘Bellapaise’ in memory of an abbey in Northern Cyprus, where they met. My father had gone out to the country originally in about 1936, having been told that it was a very healthy climate, and the prospects for tobacco farmers were excellent. My mother joined him in 1939 with her parents who lived in a cottage behind our house. He worked as a manager on tobacco farms first of all, and then bought ‘Bellapaise’, which is only about 12 miles out of Salisbury, now called Harare.

 Jean and Heather sitting in the tobacco field

The farm consisted of 250 acres which wasn’t big enough for tobacco, so he changed to dairy and poultry. Tobacco is a very greedy crop, and land where it has grown has to be left fallow for several years after planting, so a very large acreage is needed.
 
‘Bellapaise’ was on the Lomagundi Road (now Chisemba) leading to Ruwa where the Rose of Sharon orphanage is, I believe. The road was what we called a dirt road, not tarred, so in time it became very corrugated and had to be graded regularly. Before ‘Bellapaise’ you passed the Epworth Mission, a very large area of land owned by the Methodists and the site in the corner was the Theological College. During the 50s and 60s the Mission was run by Fred and Kathleen Rea, a remarkable and very committed Christian couple from Northern Ireland, who also ran the College. In the 9 years they were there they completed a large building programme which produced the College it finally became:- “The first to be built was the classroom block, followed by the Chapel, dining hall and library, the hollow square of about 20 rooms for single men, two small guest cottages and a number of staff and student houses.” – Taken from the book, ‘The Best is Yet to Be’ written by Kathleen Rea.(a) They dedicated their lives to training and educating young people in Rhodesia and subsequently Zimbabwe.

 

Balancing Rocks

On the road to the farm you passed the famous ‘balancing rocks’, which are an arrangement of granite rocks balanced precariously on top of each other. There was granite everywhere and those piled up rocks were a playground for my sister and me. We used to ride over there on our horses and endlessly look for Bushmen paintings. These people had lived in the area of Southern Africa about 2000 years earlier and recorded scenes of their daily lives by painting on the rocks with vegetable dyes.

When my parents bought the farm the house consisted of two brick cottages I believe, which were then joined by the ‘middle veranda’  and there was another ‘front veranda’ looking onto the garden. The roofs over the bedrooms were thatched and the roof over the middle veranda and kitchen area was made of corrugated iron – a cheap material in those days. We had a ping-pong table in the middle veranda; also a darts board and we used to love roller-skating when we weren’t riding. Farming was touch for my Dad; he could never leave the dairy and poultry, so we had very few holidays. He had to get up at 6am every morning to supervise the milking. I remember watching the farm labourers who did the milking, they were very good and made the milk sizzle into the galvanized iron pans! I used to try but was pretty useless! The head milker was called ‘Simbi’ so named because he had to come to the house and beat an iron plough disc hanging by a rope from the Jacaranda tree near the house,  to wake up the milkers, who had to get the cows into the dairy first. I believe ‘simbi’ means iron in Shona.

Jean and Heather with 'Jess' ~ Christmas 1950

When we were small, my sister Jean and I had a wonderful nanny called Lydia who came from the Mission aged 18 to ask my mother if she needed any help. She looked after us until we went to school. When my sister subsequently returned to the farm with her husband in 1967, Lydia reappeared to look after Jean’s two young children.

Jean, Heather and Suzette with 'Tinker Bell', the duiker

We had a wonderful childhood. I was a tomboy and my memories are of climbing trees, sitting for hours in the ‘tree house’ and watching the chameleon. A fascinating reptile like a large lizard who could swivel his eyes round his head and change his colour according to the background he was on in order to camouflage himself. Animals filled our lives; my father was a great naturalist and bird lover, so he was forever bringing home injured birds and animals. I have memories of various owls, and a young duiker (small antelope) we called Tinker Bell who stayed with us for along time. We made friends with the cows who all had names and we watched them giving birth. We were sometimes asked ‘to collect eggs’ from the laying birds, and you knew which hen would peck when you darted your hand under the nest! Then there were snakes! We had black mambas (very poisonous), hooded cobras and pythons on the farm. My closest encounter with a cobra was when it came into the bathroom and coiled itself around the tap. Its head was in strike position and my father beat it hard with a sjambok (a whip made of cow’s hide) to kill it.

We had to go to boarding school (government schools for farmers’ children) from the age of 7, so from then on we only came home in the holidays. That is another story!

The black and white photos record our time on ‘Bellapaise’ described earlier. The coloured pictures show scenes of holidays when Paul and I and young Clare went back between 1982 and 1995. I have lots more of these photos!

Faithful Nanny Lydia who came back to see us when we visited Zimbabwe with daughter Clare, aged 3 months, in April/May 1982

 Heather, Jean, baby Clare, Sheila and Nanny Lydia in April/May 1982

  Ruin of Great Zimbabwe in April/May 1982

View from the ruins of Great Zimbabwe

Trout Farm at Nyanga in the Eastern Highlands - September 1995

Guest at the Ilala Lodge Hotel, Victoria Falls, being prepared for white water rafting on the Zambesi - September 1995

The Garden at Ilala Lodge Hotel in September 1995

Harare Airport - September 1995

Thoughts on Central Africa by Cyril Rogers

This article was printing in the April issue of our Newsletter. Cyril Rogers is now on the panel of organists together with David Yates at St. Johns Church, Horninglow, Burton on Trent. Cyril is also acting choirmaster.

“Regarding my time in Africa I went to Zambia in 1959 to work for a firm of accountants. In 1969 we moved to Zimbabwe because of health problems with one of our daughters. For most of my time there I worked for a building and civil engineering contracting company. Two of our contracts might ring a bell with Phithi and Kuda, namely the Parirenyatwa Hospital, Harare and Heroes Acre. We returned to UK in 2003”

1.    Much has changed in the three Central African nations of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe since they were part of a political federation 50 years ago. However many things, common to all three, have not changed. It may be interesting to think of a few.

2.     The sun goes down quickly by 7pm in summer and 6pm in winter. As it goes down many people enjoy a drink, usually referred to as a ' sundowner'. There is an annual rainy period and there can be great suffering in years of drought. Just immediately before the rains begin people can smell their imminent arrival and often dance in the rain as it starts to fall on them.

3.    Many people can speak two languages - their tribal tongue and English. Often you will hear two people of different tribes conversing in English. This is particularly so in Zambia where there are many tribes and it is so much easier to understand each other in English.Sometimes there can be a little over-use of the English idiom i.e. A senior cattle herdsman lost one of his cows and explained "I searched for 3 days and eventually came across the poor cow ~ looking like a lost sheep".

4.    In some places the practice of polygamy still survives. I recall one man who often looked worried and occasionally arrived at work looking as though he had been in a fight. On one occasion he admitted that he had had a row with his 3 wives who together beat him up. A universal practice is the 'lobola,' the bride-price payable to the bride's father. In earlier days this could be settled by means of cattle. These days it is more mercenary and the bride's value is often based on her educational attainments in 'O' levels, 'A' Levels and university degrees, etc.

5.    African country borders, on maps, sometimes bear no relationship to the areas inhabited by the bordering tribes. Often, in colonial times, maps were drawn with straight lines  between the countries. These resulted in some tribes being split between 2 bordering countries. Of course the tribes-people would ignore such borders.

6.    Occasionally roads between countries will be straight but will ignore a meandering border. The road from Zambia to Malawi did this with the result that it ran for a few miles through Mozambique.  Somebody established a Portuguese Pub there and it was not uncommon to drive 50 miles to reach it, just to drink Portuguese wine. If you wanted a meal as well, you needed to wait a couple of hours while they killed and cooked a chicken. On the same road the Roman Catholics built a seminary, one half in Malawi and the other half in Zambia. It was possible to drive straight through - always a headache for the border control officers.

7.    A lovely custom of African weddings is to bring a highly decorated wedding cake into the church. The priest would bless it and distribute pieces to the guests during the service. A lady who makes these cakes explained to me that it took the place of the old tribal custom whereby the bride to be had first to cook a meal for her intended husband in order to prove her cooking abilities. Another delightful wedding custom involves 4 or 5 ushers in smart colourful suits and gloves to match, who carry out a drum-accompanied dance, followed by the bridesmaids down the aisle, ahead of the bride.

8.    There are a large variety of insects in these countries and many are edible. Flying ants in particular are a delicacy. At one time there was a cookery book on sale in Malawi which devoted a whole section to the cooking of insects. This should not shock people any more than the fact that French people like to eat frogs' legs!

9.    Just as there are different tribal languages there are also different tribal customs. But many of these begin to be forgotten as more people are born in cities and towns and lose touch with their ancestors' tribal areas.

The photographs used are ones taken by Cyril during his time in Africa.

(1) Air Malawi Dakota (1964)  (2) Chipata Airport, Zambia (1964)  

(3) Great Zimbabwe (1970)  (4) Typical Ox-wagon (1964)  (5) Village in Zimbabwe  

(6) Joyce Rogers  holding twins she had delivered  (7) Joyce with young hospital patients

 
 

Fund Raising Event - 28 August

Christmas Prayer by Kuda

This Poem/Prayer, from our first Newsletter, was written specially by Kuda for Christmas 2008 for use in Churches around Burton on Trent in Staffordshire, UK. He was to have taken part in several services, but much to the great sadness of many people, his visa was refused. However, his prayer was read at Christmas Services in several Churches, and hopes were expressed by many people that Kuda would eventually be able to come to UK, to spend a holiday with his numerous friends in Burton and the surrounding area.

Our Heavenly Father, Our Lord of utmost wonder,
Tonight as we remember the birth of your son,
Your  forgiveness we ask, for all the times we have taken for granted 

all the good that in our lives you’ve done.
 
As we await in eager anticipation to feast and make merry,
For the birth of our Saviour the Son of Mary,
Within our hearts we remember those in the   

“forgotten corners of the world”,
Whose hearts amidst the turmoil, by fear, captive held.

 
 We commit to you the people of Zimbabwe,
Whose people are now scattered everywhere.
Our prayer being that their nation you may heal,
And your justice for the victims reveal.
 
We remember the starving children,
The mothers and fathers whose dignity has been stolen.
We pray not for war in that nation,
But your peace and salvation
 
We glorify your name,
With hearts all over the world, the same.
In our hearts we receive your Son,
May he therein come second to none
 
In the name of the Father, 

the Son and the Holy Spirit, 

we pray, 

Amen.

Zimbabwe & Sudan - two articles by Phithi

From time to time we will be adding articles and other information about our work extracted from back numbers of our Newsletter. These will be written not only by ourselves but contributors from our African beneficiaries and other supporters of our cause. The first of these is re-printed from the February 2010 issue and is an introduction to Zimbabwe, the second from the March issue is on Sudan.

Educating Others

Supporting charity work in Sudan and Zimbabwe

Contributions  by
Phithizela Ngcobo

Educating Others has been supporting two charities in Africa: Rose of Sharon in Zimbabwe and GUA Africa in Sudan. In this and the next issue of the Newsletter, we will look at the two countries and this issue looks at Zimbabwe. The next issue will look at Sudan.

Zimbabwe
A brief introduction

Located in southern Africa, at the base of the continent, Zimbabwe is a former British colony hence the use of English as the Official Language although the indigenous languages Shona (spoken by about 75% of the population) and Ndebele (spoken by 25%) are widely used in the media and in every day life. The country is known for its mild climate with maximum temperatures of about 27 degrees Celsius in summer and minimum of about 2 to 5 degrees in winter (May to August).  The  staple food is sadza made of dried white maize powder which is then ground. The dish is eaten with meat, fish, vegetables and other available alternatives. Like any African country, Zimbabwe is made up of diverse ethnic groups (popularly known as tribes) although it’s generally divided into Mashonaland (the Shona speaking areas) and Matabeleland (the Ndebele speaking areas). However, these language and ethnic differences are generally insignificant as people try to forge a sense of nationhood and oneness and Zimbabweans are generally regarded as friendly people.

Zimbabwe still boasts of the highest literacy rate in Africa with over 90% literacy rate which was a result of the government’s investment in education after independence in 1980. However, the turn of the new millennium (2000) has witnessed a rapid deterioration of the country’s economy and social life; with most families facing challenges which are a  result of several factors like drought and the government’s land reform programme. (This newsletter will not dwell much on these as the aim of Educating Others is to reach and support children). This has led to many children failing to go to school and the proliferation of street children - a common consequence of hard times. This has created a need among the children who are the future, as they can no longer pursue their studies.

Educating Others has therefore decided to move in to be part of those who are shaping Zimbabwe’s future by educating children. We will achieve this by working with charities in Zimbabwe within our budget and resources. It is for this reason that we are raising funds specifically targeting children. Education and health services have also deteriorated but the year 2009 saw the formation of the new government which has given the country an opportunity to move on. Our aim is therefore to support this effort and ensure that those who can benefit from our contribution are afforded the opportunity to attend school and build a foundation for their future.

More detailed information about Zimbabwe can be found on this Wikipedia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe

It is hoped that this brief information will give our valuable readers and supporters a vivid picture of the country and in the next issue we will give you a brief picture of Sudan.  
  

                                                                                                                   

   We have included two photographs of the Victoria Falls



Sudan
A brief introduction

This article looks at Sudan, a country where Educating Others is supporting efforts to build a school for children. Sudan is a former British colony that gained independence in 1956. It is the largest country in Africa (in terms of size, not population) and uses Arabic and English as mediums of communication along with other local ones. It is home to both Moslems and Christians and is endowed with natural resources. Like many other parts of Africa, Sudan has witnessed religious and ethnic tensions creating a humanitarian situation. The Darfur region has witnessed a lot of religious and ethnic fighting for a long time leading to the use of Child Soldiers. More information about Sudan can be found on this link:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudan.

  

These fights have meant that children fail to lead a normal life of going to school and    preparing for a better future. However, in spite of this bleak-like situation, ‘miracles’ have emerged as shown by a brilliant, inspiring and blessed young hero, Emmanuel Jal who fought as a child soldier for years after losing all his family members during war until he was rescued by a wonderful British woman, Emma McCune who risked her life rescuing over 150 child soldiers. (Unfortunately Emma passed away in a car   accident later on but her friends continued to   support Emmanuel’s  education).  His moving testimony, arguably one of its kinds in our modern life, can be found on the TED website below. You can see the reality of Emmanuel’s life when he was rescued in 1989, but more importantly, you will get a chance to see Emma, the angel who decided to ‘save the life of an African child’. The music by Emmanuel is awesome (watch the video and grab a copy):

http://www.ted.com/talks/emmanuel_jal_the_music_of_a_war_child.html

 

Emmanuel has decided to build a school, Emma Academy, named after McCune to educate children who are the victims of war. The first time I heard Emmanuel’s story on the TED Website, I was moved, I felt this is a young man that deserves my support and of everyone that believes in making a difference in our world. It was one of the reasons that I decided to join hands with the Yateses to form Educating Others. What is unique about Emmanuel’s venture is that he is building a school, probably the greatest investment one can ever make. I happen to live in Oxford, one of the world’s leading educating centres. Every day I see the buildings of Oxford, built in the Medieval Ages (c 1200 or so), I am reminded about the enduring nature of educational institutions, they far outlive those who build them. The great men and women who built Oxford are long gone (and probably forgotten), but their works are still transforming lives to this day. Think of great world leaders who have passed through Oxford, but it took someone to build structures that have shaped the future. I think that’s what you and I are doing right now; building the future that will far outlive us. Emma Academy may not become Oxford, but it will help to shape Sudan and the world’s future, thanks in part to our efforts. Let’s all put our sinews and resources together to support this great Sudan project. Yes We Can.

 

 Near Emma Academy - photo from GUA Africa