Zimbabwe (Trip #2): People

Driving to Zimbabwe:Helen and Dan

Helen is a teacher at the Beira International School here, but is from Mutare, Zimbabwe and goes back monthly to visit her children that still live there.  She offered to give us a ride to Zim, and once we got there, invited us to stay with her!!  Staying with a Zimbabwean family like Helen and her kids was such a huge blessing.

The main people we hung out with were: her son Rumbe (25 yo), other son Trip(21), her daughter, and a 5 year old neighbor named Shamayne, who particularly loved visiting us to be tickled and to dance.

Shamayne, as a little diva

Shamayne just asking to be tickled.

Vumba look-out with Trip and Rumbe

Tony's served REAL coffee and we gathered pears from the orchard

The living room of Helen's home was full of photos of the children from their school pictures and the graduation shots of when Helen graduated from college. I was curious about the family dynamics as there were pictures of the kids' father and it was obvious that Helen had been an influential single mother for a long time. On the trip home I asked about her husband as he had been brought up a few times by people we met in reference to how Rumbe was a good man like his father had been. He had died from a car accident when the youngest child was 2 years old. She had adopted the son Trip after her sister and brother-in-law died when he was 11 years old. Now Helen works in Mozambique because she is paid more and can support her children as they go to college. What a woman! She lives so far away from her children, but still supports them with monthly visits.

Trip, Dan, me, Helen, Rumbe, daughter, and maid Maria

My favorite memory of the trip was when Helen took us to her oldest half-brother's home to visit their family. Her brother is an apostolic pastor and farmer working for the ministry of agriculture. I asked her to tell me all their names and she stopped me and said, "before that we must pray!" Upon which Rumbe started singing a beautiful song that the rest of the family joined him in singing. At the end of their musical melodies we were motioned to kneel and then all the family members began praying outloud at the same time. I later asked Helen what they were singing in Shona. She said it was a greeting and story of how once they didnºt know God, but now they did in being born again and couldnºt stop giving him praises. It was one of those moments where even without translation you understand God's Spirit being present.