Hello!
Made it safely to Kadoma, Zimbabwe… Finally.
We left the hostel in Pretoria, South Africa at 9:30am on Sunday, and arrived here in Kadoma, Zimbabwe at the home we are staying at around 6:30pm Monday. 33hours later, we were all very tired!
The border crossing took 8.5hours… Six of those hours were just standing in a line to get OUT of South Africa, and the other 2.5 to get Visa’s and into Zimbabwe. i never thought I’d be comfortable laying on the very dirty ground, but getting to the border AT 10pm, made for A very interesting 8.5hours.
After we arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe our host met us and took us to Kadoma! We rode in the back of a pick up truck with all of our luggage (that I fell out of once we stopped.. My backpack pulled me over the side haha), caught a public bus that was about to leave that had over 80people on it and only 60seats, then we put our big packs in a car and walked to our new home! The walk was down a long dirt road, and was honestly so peaceful. It was my favorite part of the journey!
My team and I are staying in two rooms in a house we are sharing with our host Pastor David Maza, and his family: his wife Naomi and his three boys ages 15, 10, and 6mos. The baby cries whenever he sees us, BUT hopefully soon he will love us as much as we love him.
While we ate dinner we could hear the rustling of rats above us in the house, and then when we were setting up our sleeping pads a huge cockroach decided to make a home under my pillow. We slept on the floor last night, praying for protection from the bugs. Only two of us got bitten last night!
There are cracks in the walls that the bugs come out of, and holes that we think rats live in – but we are thankful that we don’t have to tent!
We are also blessed with a broken toilet that we can squat over, and flush by pouring water into it with a bucket. We also get to experience bucket showering this month!
I’m finally experiencing authentic Africa again, and I couldn’t be happier. God has blessed me by placing me on a team with 6 other women, and a wonderful host family.
Let the journey begin!
