Blog 5 Chipinge Chiredzi

Blog 5
So the rain continues to put a damper on our travels. All the way to Chimanimani not to even get a glimpse of the mountains. Likewise throughout the usually magnificent views from Skyline junction down to the Rusitu Valley the rain and fog meant we were confined to the immediate roadside view only. Even at Waterfalls we were unable to even see the family graveyard of the Moodies.

Chipinge has changed tremendously with huge amounts of new building across what was once a golfcourse and all up the sides of the valley on the right travelling in. We have been told this development is all based on the money that became available following the surface diamond find near HotSprings in the lowveld. The club is non existant and the bowls section is now a pre school.

 

 


The road from the club down around to the Chipinge clinic was just one big pothole. Arriving outside the Chipinge Clinic where we sweated our hearts out to develop a small cottage hospital and senior care home was to say the least gut wrenching. I have been unable to post photos along with the blog for some reason but they are up on facebook and tell the story more than words can do justice. What a waste of so many years of community in terms of time , money and resources.this is where Brendan was born and it was gut wrenching to see the state of the delivery ward and post natal ward area.

 



We were however glad to see that 4 of the 6 units built at the back of the clinic were in used . It appears the really nice one in the photos belongs to Mrs Barkhuizen and she uses this when not out at Mvurachena school.

We were lucky enough to be given permission to visit and have a look around our old house that we built with the support of the community and the Trust. It remains in good condition and has recently undergone some internal refurbishment with new tiled floors and en-suite.  The family who have recently purchased are chuffed with the home and it was great sharing some of the stories around the building of the home and some of the trials and tribulations we had to deal with.

 

 

We spent a wonderful afternoon and evening with Hazel Odendaal on her dairy farm. The road was a challenge and once again the family had to trudge some way through the slippery red mud so I could negotiate some testing patrs in the car with less weight reducing the risk to the undercarraige.

We spent the evening reminiscing about the people who had been lost to the neighborhood and the trials Haazel had experienced following the taking of a large part of the farm and the unexpected heart attack that took her husband Duff away. She is a wonderful disciple for her faith in god and expressed her belief in his guding hand over her through her trials and her current predicaments. She is such an example of the stoicism of the farmers of our country. She made us so welcome and fed us like kings and we were very sad to have to move on in the morning. I spent some time with the local farm mechanic trying to sort out a blowing exhaust but we had to compromise and settle for some exhaust gum and tape .

 









We were kindly assisted by some local friends who happened to visit Hazel and they took Renene and the kids back into town whilst I slipped and slided down the farm track in the mud back to the main road and then into town.

We had an emotional meeting with the young woman who was the nursemaid and domestic carer for the two children when they were growing up. It was fantastic to hear how she has been able to educate her son,who used to play with Brendan as they grew up. He attended the local Mt Selinda High School and awaits his results for 3 GCE A level exams. We hope to be able to meet him in Marondera on our return to Ruwa .

 

Once again the rain made the opportunity to walk around Chipinge impossible so we headed off to Chiredzi. The road between Tanganda junction and Chisumbanje was the worst we have experienced and we travelled at 40 km/hr dodging constant potholes. Anormally 2 hour trip took us 3 hours. We w lucky enough to catch up with Trevor Gifford and his Wife Karen on the side of the road. They were kind enough to delay their trip to Humani ranch so as to enable our meeting. Really good to hear from Trevor first hand his experiences and his views on the future of the country.

 

 We then went into Chiredzi town and explored to centre , drew some more money, resolved some cell phone issues and found our old house (Where Renene and I started our married life)and the clinic I used to work from. Unfortunately the road out to the mill and the medical centre was so bad we decided to abandon that part of our exploration. The rain was persistent and so on we traveled to Triangle where  Courtney was born to meet with two very special friends , George and Tarns Webster.