Sunday, February 27, 2011

Winding down

We got two bore-holes running, but not totally. After a very frustrating morning, we finally got one bore-hole to go, but if there's any power flickers of any kind it shuts off, and has to be manually restarted. The problem is that after obtaining keys for the building and control box, it's about a twenty minute walk. We had a thunderstorm on Friday evening, the power flickered, so it will have to be re-started tomorrow morning. Hopefully Jon can figure out a way to wire it up differently. The other bore-hole had a chronic leak in the union, so long story short it's finally operational, but the electronic circuit protection is shot. They will try to get some new parts brought in with the next people coming in from the U.S., hopefully sooner than later. It was wired in the meantime to run, but could be dangerous for the pump, so it's not being used at this time.
We have officially begun packing our clothes (especially our winter coats- it's hard to believe we'll still need them- I want to donate mine, but Michelle says no) and packing souvenirs and memories. Today was our last Shona church service, then we skipped out with the kids to sit in on Awana, which runs during the second half of the service. The kids who got their memory verses down pat (1 Corinthians 15: 4-6) got a candy for a prize. It was interesting reading along with the big complicated words.
Tonight is a birthday party for 3 different people, all new friends of ours. Michelle put together some simple gifts of candles, chocolates, and books, and right now there are three ladies trying to fancy-decorate several cakes. They're having lots of fun with it. Over the next few days, it's going to be hard to say goodbye to some of our new friends, who have been everything for us these past number of weeks, but on Wednesday we head back to Harare. Thursday we fly to Johannesburg, and the next three days after that will be spent on safari in Kruger National Park, in South Africa. From there we will fly to Cape Town, in South Africa, to visit my dad's cousin Eelke Haaijema and his wife Jellie. Does anybody out there have any suggestions for things to see and do in the Cape Town area? We already hope to see the penguin beach, where you can have the colony of 3,000 penguins gather around you. Also, I might like to see some wine country. Any other ideas?

3 comments:

momofcrt said...

I will ask our friends who live in / near Cape town for some tourist suggestions.
Praying for traveling mercies.
marie

Lengkeek Family said...

Hi, this is Marie's friend in South Africa. We'd love to help you organize a fabulous visit to the Cape Town area. As expat visitors we've voraciously consumed everything worth seeing in the Western Cape in the last two years, and that's saying a lot. Please send an email so I can send you some info. You can get my contact info from our family blog - top left corner.
http://www.walking-on-mountains.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Hi Garner & Michelle,

Small world, we know the Lengkeek family, one of their children is in the same pre-premair as Suzy!

Don't worry G&M, you don't have enough time to see everything overhere. Even if you stay for more then a year, there is still much to see.

Only one week to go!

Eelke