Head’s up!
Mid September and we are back to business, apologies for lack of updates over the past month whilst we have been spending time with friends and family and adjusting to life back in the UK for our extended time! (We are here until the end of December!)
This blog will hopefully serve to give you a few updates on where we currently stand and what the immediate future holds. We will then be sending our newsletter at the end of September with more detailed information!
Firstly, thank you so much to all our friends, family and supporters who have made our transition back to life in the UK much easier – we have thoroughly enjoyed being able to talk to so many people face to face! We are hanging around until the end of December, with baby Sangwine due around the beginning of November. This will obviously mean a re-adjustment and significant change in our lives and throw into the mix our return to Zimbabwe and we have a serious adventure to look forward to!
We are so delighted that Alison is our very first full time volunteer and has moved to Zimbabwe for 3 months to work with our schools project and also to be involved in a selection of other projects happening throughout Harare with people we are connected with. She has been there for 3 weeks and will return at the beginning of December. More details of her time volunteering will be made available through her blogs which will be uploaded to this website as and when we receive them – power seems insanely bad at the moment so communicating with Ali and with our school is proving intensely difficult!!
One Way Pre School has opened for it’s third term and yesterday enjoyed a whole school trip to the traffic centre and airport (getting to sit on a real plane!) – I look forward to uploading photos as soon as I receive them. The staff team are working overtime to ensure the school continues to run in a positive and god fulfilling manner and I rest assured knowing the teachers are leaning on their training and providing a super curriculum for the kids. It’s still taking Greg and I some getting used to that we are not teaching at the pre school anymore and have effectively handed over control of it….which was always the intention – but still, it’s like giving up a limb!
Primary school updates (look out for newsletter) – The intention is still to open One Way School in January 2015 with ECD A and B (nursery/reception) and Grade 1 and 2, increasing our school capacity from 60 to 120. The process is taking a lot longer than anticipated and just this week, after a mammoth council meeting, we have been informed of some major changes happening not only to the education system – especially for ECD centres, but also to the registration process for both ECD and Primary Schools. This is naturally causing some aches and pains and is increasingly difficult for me to help sort out due to electricity and therefore communication issues. Hopefully in the newsletter I will have some more detailed information and hopefully it will be positive! This area needs some SERIOUS prayer.
In general, Greg and I are doing okay. Greg is fortunate to have a job as a Primary School teacher in Waltham Abbey for a term – enhancing his teaching skills, making some good connections and earning some funds! We have, however, had a pretty rocky start to the term with first Greg being knocked off his bike and fracturing his elbow, to then having OFSTED in the 2nd week of term, as well as me falling at a train station ending in a hospital trip also- fortunately no serious damage and a safe baby. This is having some knock on effects with our mindset and motivation and we desperately need to take a step back, reflect and then get going again! Naturally there are many jokes that we should have stayed in Zimbabwe as we evidently can’t cope with the pace of life in the UK anymore! Haha!
Please do continue to keep us in your prayers as we look to the future and try to piece everything together (literally and figuratively!) and that we smooth over many situations before the baby is born. Thank you again for your continued support and please do contact us with any prayers, advice or general affection!
God Bless,
Sophie x (and Greg and JT x)