Tinashe

Today I am going to tell you a story about a bright eleven year old boy named Tinashe. He lives on the compound here at Karanda. His mom and dad are both nurses, but last week both of his parents were gone, leaving his oldest sister of eighteen in charge. He also has a sister that's fifteen, two younger brothers, and a little sister who's three.
Tinashe is a very social young lad. I met him for the first time on my first day working here at Karanda. He absolutely loves Jon, my boss for the next few weeks yet. He spends every possible minute with Jon, and lately with me, also. He loves to hang around Jon's workshop, and Jon will "bend over backwards" to mentor him. When we get oxygen compressors in for repair from the hospital, Tinashe is tinkering, with Jon's instruction. Sure, he makes mistakes, but that kid is very handy already.
Last week, Jon and Tinashe were fixing a pulse oxymeter that needed a little soldering done. Should have been an easy fix. Jon soldered up a bad connection, then said to Tinashe," This one belongs to the male ward. We'll try it out on you, and then you can run it back to them, okay?"
Tinashe held out his finger, but the pulse oxymeter appeared broken. Tinashe's pulse would drop to 60 bpm's, then shoot to 120 bpm's. That couldn't be right! I checked his pulse, and it was reading correctly. We returned the pulse oxymeter to the male ward, then had a nurse check his pulse. She was not very happy. Another nurse checked it. Same thing. Two doctors checked it. They pretty much said that it was unheard-of for a young boy to have that problem! The next morning, Tinashe had three EKG's(electro-cardiograms) done, all saying the same thing- a second degree atrial block. He will need more testing done in Harare, and then possibly a pace-maker. The problem is that pace-makers don't exist in this country! He'll be lucky to find one in South Africa!! And to think that all this came from a pulse oxymeter!! God works in mysterious ways!!
A few days ago, Tinashe came over to the shop while I was repairing a air-conditioning fluid recapturing unit, and he asked for a wrench. I asked him what for, since those tools can't leave the shop unless they are somehow connected to my being. He said it was to fix his bike, which was just outside. According to Jon's own rules, I carried the spanner (crescent wrench) outside, and was completely in awe over his bicycle! I didn't want to say anything, but his bike was a complete pile of trash!! Both wheels wobbled, the bearing were shot, the seat was layer upon layer of duct tape, it had no gear shifter, but a cable twice as long as it should be because it stretched so bad, the brake cables were both the same story, the brake handles were held on to the handlebars with chunks of wire, and I realized that this bike had a lot of history. It had been handy-man fixed, and again, and again. There was only one thing left to do. I found myself wishing that there was a second-hand bike shop up the road.... but there wasn't. Besides, you don't want them to grow up dependant on handouts....
Today Jon invited me to go "hunting" with him and Tinashe. Hunting is hardly the right word. It's an outing that Jon uses to encourage Tinashe to do better in school, so if his teacher says he was trying hard, then he can go. He uses Jon's pellet gun to hunt birds- but if he kills one he has to eat it. He brings home yama (meat) for his family. It makes Tinashe proud, because he wants to contribute. Of what I saw tonight, if his family is counting on his ability to hunt , they'll all starve!
We went up the hill where the water tower is. Wow, have things changed up there. When we got here weeks ago, things were lush and green, but we haven't had any rain in nine days now. February is supposed to be the wettest month, but January was unseasonably wet, so Jon says this is likely the beginning of the end of the greenery. Up on the hill, weeds and grasses are wilting, and even browning, and lots of trees were already getting yellow leaves. He figured that it is entirely likely that we will see things really dry up while we are in Zim.
Tinashe beat around the bush, blasting at things I didn't even notice until they flew off. Meanwhile, Jon showed me the site ofthe old army barracks from 1978, when Rhodesian soldiers occupied the area. There was only rubble remaining. Jon calls it Scorpion Alley,appropriately named for all the scorpions under the rubble. We spent some time overturning bricks in search of the elusive big ones, (yesterday Jon found two over three inches long but had no container) but today we only found ten small ones. We kept the first one that Jon found under his first brick, and then gave it a bath in ethyl alcohol until it was good and dead. Next time we're taking Jon's metal detector and hunting for old army bullets. Totally cool, but Tinashe needs to do good in school first, or we don't go, so now I'll be pushing him for good grades, too.