It is a beautiful autumn day in Mutare. It is difficult to associate Easter and the beginning of autumn, but here we are. Easter and the beginning of new plant life don’t make sense in this situation. The autumnal equinox has just occurred and the stores are advertising winter clothing (winter means heavy sweaters and light jackets). The rains have virtually ended, except for an occasional thundershower, and they won’t come again until next November (early summer). People are asking us why we aren’t beginning to wear sweaters. We reply that is has finally cooled down enough to be comfortable. Actually, for us Michiganian types, the sun is still rather hot, but breezes are plentiful and cooling and it has rarely been hot at night all the time we’ve been here. Winter (June to August) can bring frosty mornings and the buildings aren’t heated, but we will be home by then, just in time for another summer.

One of the never-failing sources of wonderment for Ann is the ever-changing appearance of the mountains as light and clouds strike or cover various surfaces in different ways. No matter, in which direction we look or drive from Mutare, vistas of hills and valleys confront us. Some are jagged, craggy rocks, while others are largely tree-covered. Since we live in one valley and work in another, we make the twice a day trip up and over Christmas Pass, complete with ears popping at the swift and significant changes in elevation. It is a rare day that there isn’t some vehicle stalled on the road (fortunately 2 laned each way). It may be an enormously heavily laden truck bringing goods from the Mozambique ports to Harare. It might be one of the scores of worn-out buses loaded with people with baskets and luggage on top. Maybe just an elderly car or pickup (where a 10 year-old car is still new) that’s just too tired to make it over the pass one more time. For us flatlanders, it has been a real treat to sample this scenery with just short afternoon jaunts in any direction. Easter afternoon we took a 70 kilometer circular drive that took us over a number of mountains, into a large fertile valley, past masses of banana and coffee fields, along a dirt road past villages, forestry projects, etc., and over a couple of mountains back home. More about local animal life in the next letter.

Ann’s work here continues to bear fruit. Much of that success is due to the active support of the school staff. They put together an elaborate weeklong reading emphasis program with posters, poems, storytellers and time out for reading.

Storyteller time at Hartzell School

You can see a FEW of the pictures on the web site our son has created for us, http://www.taber.net/anm/letters.htm. In one activity children went out into the community to solicit donations in order to buy professional books to put in the library for the teachers. The teachers, students, and community are getting involved and have ownership in this endeavor. The room to be the library is almost completed. Ann and her two helpers are using April to get it organized before school starts up again in May. (The schools here have three three-month terms with a month off in between. April, August and December are school vacation times.) The headmaster has scheduled the 21st of May for the grand opening celebration ceremonies. It promises to be a media event. Ann wants you to know that you are all invited and urged to attend.

Boys reading

Actually, we’d love to introduce some of you who have made this possible. Some letters of encouragement and congratulations for the effort THEY are putting into it would be grand, too (Mr. Naboth Maramba, Head Master, Hartzell Primary School, Old Mutare, Zimbabwe). We have just received word that some thousands more books are on their way from a book collecting effort by the Hartland, MI elementary schools in celebration of "March is Reading Month". The thought of processing that many is giving Ann some doubts and serious anxiety, but she is grateful for the enthusiasm and sharing spirit of the students and teachers of Hartland.

Reading Frog and Toad

This generosity has proved to be typical in a way that surprised us from the beginning and is continuing to astound us. After our last letter, an already generous supporter wrote, asking about tuition fees. As a result, he has given enough money so that 100 more primary age kids will be able to attend school next term! They haven’t been in school because many families that get work only a few months a year on neighboring farms simply can’t afford the miniscule (to us) fees needed to give their children the most basic education. A bright elementary student, the daughter of the mission groundskeeper, will attend Hartzell secondary school, and a full time clerk (one of her present helpers) will staff the library when Ann leaves. These are currently commitments for one year, but who knows what the future may bring? We continue to marvel at the generosity our involvement has unleashed.

We have become more personally aware of the immensity of problems facing Africa. You may recall our mention of people attending an AU seminar on Disaster and Emergency Relief at our hotel. They have now returned to their frontline tasks in places like the Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda, Congo, and Rwanda. One of them is already dead; killed by a spray of gunfire while she was eating near the Kenya-Somalia border. Two pastors--theology students at AU--were trapped for a number of weeks at Christmas by fighting in their home country, Sierra Leone. One pastor shared her experience of seeing rebels hacking off arms and legs and of how she and her grandchildren had to defy orders to stay inside or be shot in order to hike for a day across Freetown through the lines to get to the airport. The family of one of the lecturers at AU is still trapped there. Rather than our tendency to affix labels of backwardness, however, we should keep these horrific events in perspective, remembering the sufferings and tragedies inflicted every day on so many people in our "more civilized" U.S. Our Vice-Chancellor’s closing remarks spoke of hope for the time when disaster response will be needed only for natural ones, not man-made ones. Amen!

One of the high points of our week is Wednesday morning chapel at AU. The music is spectacular as the university choir sings at least two numbers each time, often singing compositions by the director, Patrick Matsinkenyiri. (His musical talents were also very evident at his son’s wedding last Saturday.) The choir will take its annual American tour to Boston and the East as soon as exams are over in May. The speakers are varied, with visitors from various countries interspersed with resident members of the faculty. Quite regularly, recognition is given to donors’ support for AU, representing funds for the newest dormitory block or a 1562 edition of a Martin Luther Bible as one of the initial items for the continental archives to be located in the new library now under construction. The university is certainly not thinking small in its ambition to be a star in southern Africa’s educational firmament.

Africa University’s semester is nearing an end, far too soon for Morris. April 30 is the last day for instruction, followed by two full weeks of exams. Exams are three-hour marathons and count for 60% of the final grade. Faculty members turn in their questions and instructions and then "invigilate" (proctor) other instructor’s exams (in teams). Most of Morris’ students missed 2 classes last week (one of the days a test was scheduled) because of a "strike" called by the student government to protest the possible raising of tuition fees. He’s feeling very frustrated because he has had so little time with his students. Most of the students would have just as soon come to classes, but felt intimidated by the activists. The Dean (and leading history teacher) of Humanities and Social Sciences has now returned from a life-threatening illness and therefore the scheduling and planning of the history curriculum should run much smoother in the semesters to come, but this one has been quite chaotic by any standards. Growing pains can be expected for a new international university with a wide variety of backgrounds and expectations, and Africa University has them. The nosedive of the Zimbabwean economy and currency has made it doubly difficult. With faith, hard work and continuing support it will succeed. It has to! Too many futures are at stake!

When we hear of newly arrived neighbors just the south of us working in a rural hospital with no electricity and precious little medicine or equipment, we are again reminded of how comfortably off we are even here compared with most of the world. Last letter’s closing line is still appropo. "Life here is challenging, sometimes frustrating and occasionally depressing, but always rewarding, and never gets boring."

Grace and Peace, Ann and Morris