The following is a report from one of our SPAs (Southwark Pastoral Auxilliary), Martha Mutikani, who recently travelled to Zimbabwe with a Mission group from the Croydon area.

What were your most outstanding impressions of the country?

Zimbabwe is beautiful Victoria Falls and the Zambezi River adds to its beauty. I was impressed by the smiles and warmth of everyone we saw even though living in Zimbabwe has become a struggle. Having lived in Zimbabwe up to 1992 when everything was so affordable and roads were busy but it was shocking to find the roads so quiet even on the roads l have known to have traffic. I was challenged by the caring attitude among parishioners and hearing what  they offer each other during times of sorrow , sickness and joy even though  they are struggling.

Give a short portrait of your hosts, the area in which you were staying and the time you had there:

My host was remarkable, loving, l felt like l was at my own parent’s house.  They have lived and taught in the area since 1980. Mr and Mrs Malisa are both  qualified teachers, Mr Malisa is now retired. They are both ndebele and Mrs  Malisa is the deputy head teacher of St Marks Lozane. Mr Malisa is the chairman of the school board of governors (council). They live at a farm which is mainly small scale cattle ranching, small scale farming of maize, ground nuts, sweet potatoes, round nuts and an orchard of seedless mangoes.  They attend church at St Marks and the late priest who served at St Marks until he was 99 years old was Mr Malisa’s father.

Mrs Malisa is a sub deacon and Mr Malisa is in the PCC of St Marks church.  They have 4 children, 3 living in South Africa only one lives in Gweru. The son living in Gweru was driving us to the areas we needed to go. The son is a quantity surveyor and is well placed in terms of employment. At the time of our visit my host had just buried their 5th son and son in law they were still mourning but because they had committed to my stay they were happy to let me stay. They look after 7 orphans and their children help with financial support.

Although they both have an income Mrs Malisa travels to South Africa every school holiday 3 times per year and brings groceries to help them through otherwise their income is not adequate to afford a basic grocery to support their day-to-day needs.

During my visit their children from South Africa had left 60 litres of petrol so that they could add to the petrol that was being provided for our visit.

The Priest at St Marks Lozane has written to St Matthews and has given a detailed church profile. The priest was Rev Shazha he has 3 children aged 8, 5 and 2. They live at St Marks and he is the priest in charge at the school.  He looks after 10 parishes and 850 parishners. The furthest out station is 50 km and he walks to all the outstations. He has poorly controlled asthma so he cannot use a bicycle.

During my stay we travelled to 3 outstations and they were more than 100 people in attendance at each service including children and one church was over flowing with some people standing outside the church. St Marks being the main station, we visited St Bernard’s, St Eliza and St Peter’s their worship was vibrant and very exciting with dancing and beautiful singing l preached at St Peters during their Sunday service.

It was a wonderful time l cried at most of the services seeing so much joy, warmth and at the same time understanding their circumstances. I was welcomed in the most humbling way every outstation we went we arrived late because we had other engagements and people would be waiting singing from the gate, walking beside the car to the church. They did not even complain at one place we were expected at 10 am but we arrived at 13.30 because we had the project meeting at the school and everyone attending had arrived 1.5 hours late. I was given gifts that l did not expect although l left some money for each church it was not enough in English terms but it was greatly appreciated.

Give a description of the economic situation you discovered with your hosts and the people in the area where you were staying:

The Malisas survive because they have support from their children as well as the farming produce, the priest is struggling they get £2 ($100 000 zim) in salaries (Stipend) which can only buy 2 litres of cooking oil and a bag of 2 kg rice. Where as teachers earn  £10 ($500000 zim) that does buy a bit more but a basic grocery to meet monthly needs which l did for my mother cost £75 ($4 000 000 zim). During my stay l bought a few groceries for the Priest and the Malisas, which were £30 to them that’s was a lot considering what they can afford to buy. My host walks 6 km to work every day they take cooked potatoes or corn for lunch but most of the time the children will eat porridge in the morning and then later in the evening have thickened porridge with sugar beans or vegetables meat is a delicacy that can only be afforded on Sundays or special meals.

During my stay I was given meat with all my meals at the Malisa’s and the Shazha’s. I was informed that most people from the church had contributed various foods to help Mrs Malisa . I was surprised at the comfort l was allowed to have, l had my own bedroom in a village it’s not usual practice but the Malisa’s would not be classified as being poor. Most of the people in the 10 parishes were small scale farmers and they survived by selling their produce and fruits like guavas, oranges but due to lack of rains it appears the rest of the year will be a big struggle because most people yielded very little. The other parishners did not yield enough to even feed themselves until the next rain season.

Most teens have left school due to lack of funds and they have no employment they help with the subsistence farming.

St Marks school has 290 pupils and a third are orphans or destitute being looked after by non relatives. The school has very few textbooks they have provided a list of books that they need. The Head teacher and deputy have provided a school profile that we can pass on to other schools for links and pen pals. The school has no windowpanes, multiple cracks on the walls, the furniture funded by St Matthews’s church and some donated by a Croydon  school is still in use.

There is no advanced planning or budgeting in Zimbabwe the inflation keeps rising. Individuals spend the money as soon as they get it. It does not help to try and bank money in Zim dollars the next time that money is drawn it will have lost 50% of the value.

What if anything did you discover about the impact of HIV/Aids among people you met?

Most children have either lost one parent or both and grandparents would be the main guardians. The surviving parent would be struggling with health and coping with children is often difficult. In rural areas one needs to work in the fields to survive and an ill person cannot cope with rural lifestyle.  The situations leads to children leaving their homes, going into prostitution or other criminal activities because there is no food or they are forced to care for their ill parents. There has not been major development in Silobela the roads are gravel with no regular maintenance, there are no telephone lines or mobile reception so if someone is ill they have to travel long distances before getting any help. People with HIV struggle to get help even though there is medication in Zimbabwe only those living in urban areas have easy access to areas where NGOs are funding HIV medication.

HIV related deaths have impacted on the general development of the future generation of the Silobela area. The project they are planning at St Marks will help but there is a need for more similar projects if HIV orphans are to survive.

What sort of attitude did you discover towards the government and did you  feel that people were willing to actively participate in change?

This was not difficult to gather and one did not even need to ask but people seem to be in limbo and everyone believes in God’s time change will happen.  No one dares to get involved with public denouncing of the Government because they feel it’s not worth their life. Most people feel they are suffering already and almost dead why bother if they do not have backing from people who can force Mugabe to change. I did not discuss much politics because having read and heard about what has been happening it was such a  painful discussion to pursue, l felt like they did, very despondent.

Do you have any thoughts on the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe and the way it functioned? Did you become aware of any areas in which we might offer particular help or training?

The church has been struggling with growth but this is a problem even in the UK. The Zimbabwean Priests are aware of the need to change their order of service so that the service is more interesting. The usual common worship order needs to be shortened and more motivational type of worship which people in Zimbabwe needs be considered.

They have lost church members to Pentecostal churches and the youth would like to be in charge of a service like we do at St Matthews, where the youth have FROG ( Fully reliant on God) doing all the planning etc under the  leadership of the Priest at least once a month, since they have large numbers of youth. Youth leaders need sponsorship to be able to attend youth leadership courses usually held in Gweru.

The children’s church needs support they do not have materials for teaching we could send the books we are using as a donation to one parish that would cover a lot if other churches in Croydon diocese would do the same. Teachers teach from experience but it would be advantageous if they were taught using some form of a guide. This would not be considered high priority if they had to buy for themselves because of the many needs they have.

Leadership training for Mothers Union, youth and Church on leadership would help. Some of the training is available but they cannot attend because of lack of funds to travel but if workshops are held locally that might help.

The garden project at St Marks would be an important project to support and if possible getting them expert help to set up and run the project initially. They are motivated and some funding has been provided by St Matthews’s church but without further funding and expertise it might not be utilised to its full potential. The projects summary is available and it is clear from progress made so far that they have determination.

The St Patrick’s hospital project progress remains very slow due to the inflation rate the current support from UK need to be given in the form of building materials if the project is to be completed. The diocese has not been able to use parallel (black market) market to withdraw their foreign exchange because once the funds are in the foreign account they use the bank rate to withdraw cash, which is 100 times lower than the black market rate. We were disappointed to discover that the hospital project had still not moved beyond the slab (foundations) level. We do however, now have much more understanding of the enormous pressures and difficulties which people are working under there. Bishop Ishmael has now appointed a Building Committee to be responsible and they met with all of us one afternoon to address our concerns. Problems seem to mainly be because of time of getting local authority approval for this stage of building and now the escalating cost of building materials.  We aim to appoint a buildings project manager from our end to be in close touch with the building committee and work with them where possible. We have said to Bishop Ishmael that we will be looking for some progress very soon and to see a long term plan of everything needed (although we acknowledge the difficulty of planning in the current climate), before pledging our support for next year's Lent call. We were able to see for ourselves the importance of the clinic and the work it is doing and will, of course, continue to support this ongoing work.

What do you think the church in the UK has to learn from the church in Zimbabwe?

Their worship is different from ours but certainly vibrant with dancing and music quality is very powerful. Cultural differences would make learning what they offer difficult but l would encourage welcomes that are as unique as we experienced, when a visitor is coming they sang and waited outside the church and went in with the visitor that made us feel welcomed and special.

They care for each other by attending to those sick the members would give each other a rota of who is going when and where. In the UK most people live alone that would be helpful for church members to offer not just moral support but practical help shopping, ironing etc. There tend to be the same groups helping in the UK church and also there are cliques, which present a barrier to making the big family we noticed in Zimbabwe work. If someone had a death they would all visit after church to support taking with them food items that might be useful to use with visitors attending funeral.

Their fundraising like bidding for best couples was interesting and offering garden services to other parishners was something l had not witnessed here  and certainly worth considering.

The Youth hold a quarterly conference which l attended and it was certainly vibrant. Our youth might explore the idea of meeting with the other diocesan youth groups quarterly to support and have fun together. The individuals and the church would share the cost of the youth meeting conference, we have held Greenbelt, Spring Harvest and youth festivals but these are not regular enough.

What have you personally learned most from the trip? Has it changed your attitudes in any way?

I have learned that there is no hardship that should stop us from maintaining our Christianity. We should have courage to speak up when concerned about issues rather than wait until they have caused more harm to those around us.

My attitude towards others and spirituality was challenged and l felt God speaking to me. I have dealt with the anger that l experienced, the faith l observed encouraged me to realise that l should appreciate what l have and aim to do more for God’s work. We should always reflect on our behaviour on a daily basis to make sure that we do not continuously offend those around us. Forgiveness, purity, honest, love and unselfishness should be our principles of daily living.

Having returned, what is the one question you would like answered about Zimbabwe, the people, the Church or the trip?

The question is always were do we go from here but l would like to see the funds from UK doing more than what they are doing at present. The people have suffered long enough, how can we lobby for help from UK and US to help Zimbabweans? The church remains strong we need to continue to pray for them encouraging them to remain steadfast. The trip was well organised hopefully another one will be arranged. Hope we will always remember how vulnerable we can all be when trying to help each other, being sensitive to each person’s needs would be important.

If we were to run another similar trip in the future, have you any suggestions on how we could improve it?

I would certainly ensure that Zim dollars are ready at the airport on arrival to prevent negotiating for cash once in Zimbabwe. Provide transport with good speed for long distance journeys. Check that the transport can travel legally to avoid unnecessary negotiations on the Zimbabwean road bocks. Provide a phone with local contract line for easy communication. Ensure that there is an agreed code of behaviour especially if travelling with clergy in a country with different cultural values.

Do you feel you want to be actively involved in the future work of the Link in any way? If so, how?

I would like to help with campaigns to get Zimbabweans in UK to uplift the areas they come from not only as Anglicans but also as Zimbabweans. I would like to get involved with the Zimbabwean association in UK so that we can  get ideas on how to make our link remain vibrant. I am willing to offer help to those churches who need to explore best ways to make their links function and arranging trips to Zimbabwe. Be involved in setting up prayer meetings for Zimbabwe and UK links.

Please feel free to ask me questions l hope you will pray for me and those who visited so that the visions and dreams we now have can result in empowering those people we will support.