The following was received from a recent email from the Cooledges and is posted here as an update:

One Thursday in January 2007…

At 5:15am, Gord’s alarm goes off on his cell phone, he has placed near his bed the night before. We have given up using the digital clock because ZESA (electricity) so frequently goes out and the clock is useless. After a year here, the routine of the morning has become so ingrained, Gord and I have been awake for almost half an hour already dreaming of sleeping but waiting for that fateful buzz to begin the morning. This week it is my turn to drive the kids to school, so as I attempt a shower, Gord turns the house alarm off, feeds the dogs, puts coffee on, hooks to the internet, and begins to pack lunches. This morning the city water is off and has been since yesterday morning, so coffee is made from the 8 jugs stored under the sink for such occasions, and Nathan, Ben, Tasha & I jump in the pool - what an awesome thing when the water is off - a way to flush toilets, a way to feel refreshed. It is already hot and the sun is shining, though there are clouds in the distance that tell us the rains are coming in the afternoon. We were ready to go by 6:15 every morning last year and that habit is hard to break. But with a change of schools for our kids this year, our schedule has relaxed a little - there is less distance to travel, and school starts a half hour later. We pause to pray together over the day and then head out the door, coffee mugs in hand and Nathan’s earphones blaring.
It is a 20 minute drive to Celebration Learning Centre, where I drop Nathan and pick up Teresa our preschool teacher. Teresa has been moved across town by a husband hoping to squash her life as a teacher at the Village, but God has provided an easy ride in us and she thanks us over and over. Ben & Tasha get dropped half way back to the Village 15 minutes later at their new school. On the way we call our secretary on the cell phone to find out which corner she is being dropped at this morning. Virginia used to leave her house at 5:30 to be at work by 8. We have saved her time and transport money, and as she waits at the corner she has stories of the people that ask if they can drop off a resume at the village, because they can’t believe how we pick her up and even wait for her at times, every morning. The gentleman standing between the rows of traffic selling the paper, asks again for a job. Virginia says we preach without speaking. While I have been driving kids and picking up employees, Gord has gone into the village to meet with Pastor Zowa for prayer as he does every Thursday morning.

Three times a week, our village workers meet for devotions, but today is not one of them, so we dive into the work day. As we pull into the village, the preschool kids recognize the sound of the truck and 20 or so of the 35 children that attend fly out of the class to a loud chorus of ‘Teresa, Teresa’ and she is engulfed in a sea of hugs from the waist down. Last year Chipo - my dear friend & mentioned so often in our newsletters - was quickly at my side. She would jump up into my arms for our daily bear hug & squeeze, then hop down, taking my purse and keys to the office where we always went through the routine of her invading my desk and chair pretending to stay for the day with me. I am missing those moments as Chipo is now well enough to attend grade one at Haig Park school. She graduated from our preschool in November, and we had the joy of buying her uniforms and paying her school fees through child Care Plus Sponsorship. So though we miss her, we are so happy for the health that is allowing her to move forward with her life. 12 of these preschool children are new to Child Care Plus, new to our preschool and the Village, and were chosen from a list of 36 needy children in the surrounding community. That one was a tough meeting - to pick only 12 for preschool spots available!

On the way down the concrete sidewalk to the offices, we greet Kerry cleaning the bathrooms; Tete Zharare handing out the mealie meal and peanut butter to the ladies from the plots who have come to collect the food to be cooked for the feeding program that day; Tete Zowa (Tete means auntie) sweeping out the offices bent over with a broom made of bush twigs in hand; and we wave at Sekuru in the distance by the sheds (Sekuru means grandfather - rightly so!). Casual workers are already in the fields yielding pick axes and preparing rows for the next crops, picking and filling orders of vegetables for the day; and watering gardens and lawns. These dear people come from the plots around us and would have little work without what the Village can provide. One of the ladies working has just been diagnosed HIV positive and we had the opportunity to assist her with medical therapy.

As we arrive, so does Mr. Chidhakwa with the Village truck. He started at 6:15 and has already made the rounds to 3 different schools, dropping 25 children off at their respective schools. All of these are sponsored through Child Care Plus, 7 live on the Village grounds. So three times a year I truck off to the schools and spend 1-2 days standing in lines to pay first levy’s then fee’s for each term, and replace uniforms that have been damaged or just shrank magically through the year J. We look forward to the chance to open Cornelius Hope Academy Primary School (CHAPS) on the Village grounds, and reduce the amount of time and money in transport. CHAPS will also give us an opportunity to share Jesus Christ with the children and to keep our numbers down, as the local schools now run 50 children per classroom, sitting 2 to a desk and sharing texts amongst 4 and 5 children.

In anticipation of having 190 orphans on the Village grounds, 490 children in the school, and stretching Hope Community Church’s children program, we have been talking with our management team about how to tackle the challenges that will come with that magnitude of children, and remain effective in their lives on a personal level. This morning, some of those thoughts and challenges will be debated at our monthly meeting, as we make a plan to move forward “to bring hope for today and tomorrow to children at risk, so that they might become independent, contributing members of society” (our Missions Statement). We have no news yet on permission to operate as an orphanage, but continue to move forward on faith. Debra, our house mom, stops into the office to pick up her weekly grocery money for the milk and bread she needs to buy, as well as any fruit and vegetables which are not currently available on our farm.

Gord is at the computer already – answering emails, reviewing and amending policies, preparing new employee contracts and recalculating salaries yet again because of the rapidly growing inflation. I quickly hook up to the printer and get the monthly grocery lists ready to go. Next week I will spend 2 days purchasing the items we need for our children’s home, preschool and feeding program, in bulk for the next month. Christmas money has also come in for some of our sponsored CCP kids, and we make a list of what to buy on behalf of the family and book a shopping day with Mrs. Zowa for next week. We check our books to make sure there is enough money in the account, or is it time to transfer funds from Canada? While I go and check with Virginia that all the bills have been paid this month – Gord is greeting Richard Chimbetete, our Project Manager, and they are discussing the next school block and all it entails – quotes from 3 different builders, the purchase of all the materials required. The timing has to be just right because of the inflation. The moment money is transferred in, it has to be used or it devalues to almost half by the end of the month. The papers tell us that inflation has just hit over 2000%.

This week we hit another milestone as a final inspection was done on the first school block and we were handed a letter allowing us to establish and build the school. Final registration depends on this last report and 3 signatures, so we are closer to opening CHAPS doors!! The floors are polished, the painting is done, the furniture has arrived, the ground is leveled and grass planted in front of this school block. It will take time to interview teachers, to hire, for them to give notice at old jobs. It will take time to purchase text books and supplies, and so the opening of Cornelius Hope Academy is pushed off for another term as we set our sights to May, 2007.

We are interrupted temporarily as Gord meets with a gentleman who sold a span of our sweet potatoes last year, and has offered to help us sell our over abundant onion crop. They haggle over a price and he goes away happy to have some income again. I stop to make a doctors appointment for follow up for Takunda, who was kicked in the stomach while playing with some friends before Christmas and is still having pain. Takudzwa also needs a dentist appointment, and so I make a note in my journal to set that up. And that reminds me that Sandra’s eyes looked swollen and infected when I waved to her yesterday and I walk across the lawn to deliver some eye drops to her dad for treatment, as he weeds the church garden. (The last team left several medicines that have been more than helpful.) Their family cannot normally afford treatment and medication despite the work he has secured at the Village.

In the wee hours of the morning, after making away with several kilograms of potatoes over several nights and jumping our security wall, a thief was at last caught by security, surrounded and removed to the local police station. He has to go to court and be sentenced, so we have to pick up the criminal and the police officers escorting him and drive them to court (in this economy the police have no cars – no money for transport). So Gord goes with the witness and 30 minutes later is on his way to a downtown Harare court with a surprise load of not just our perpetrator, but 15 criminals and 4 police escorts squished into the bed of the pick up J. Our thief needs medical attention as he was caught up in a metal spike in his attempt to scale the wall and is having trouble walking, but the police refuse to allow it until after his sentencing, until after he is out of their hands – these guys have been stealing from a local farmer as well as us and the police say they’ve had enough. Even more discouraging is the fact that the thief is someone who the church has done business with, and has played soccer on our field many times.

Gord returns half way through the morning, and our Management team is ready to meet. Pastor has to leave for a funeral soon, so we whiz through the agenda. Richard’s job has been contracted for the past few months – do we move forward and hire him permanently on faith, despite the pending Registrations? Some of our CCP kids school marks are not great. After meeting with the parents who long to help their children but can’t because of their own lack of education and lack of English, we have decided to move forward with English as a Second Language courses. But lack of resources is slowing us down. Resources drop off every day in Zimbabwe, as those with marketable skills leave the country for other jobs in countries with a more stable economy.

We review the upcoming Short Term Missions Team schedule for our next visitors to the Village from Canada. First Aid training was completed by 12 of our employees in December and certificates were picked up this morning (here Gord’s head injury is fixed by Sekuru). And we are told there is movement on permission for the orphanage as Social Welfare is reviewing papers and have asked for more information on our management team. The last hour of the meeting is spent discussing issues surrounding youth and children as the Village expands – who will hire the youth Pastor when the Village supplies so many of the children, what is the Village’s financial responsibility to the church? We thank God for the awesome working relationship we have with the Zowa’s!

The Zowa’s car is still out for repair from his accident so they borrow our car to go to the funeral. And I am reminded of the story Teresa shared in our last devotions about the Zowa’s daughter, Ropa…. Teresa had recounted the story of the accident to the preschool children and talked of how Jesus sent angels to set the car down softly so the Zowa’s were not hurt. With wide eyes, Ropa asked if this same Jesus that took care of and loved her parents, was the Jesus that also lived in Mr. Cooledge’s heart? Moments like that one, put life in perspective for us, and we pause for a moment to remember that despite all the financial reports, business meetings and policies that have to happen for the Village of Hope to run smoothly, the heart of all this work is the children - affecting one little life at a time!

My half day at the Village comes almost always, before I have finished my ‘to do’ list, and I leave every afternoon to minister to my own children – picking them up from school at 3 different times and transporting them to sports or music lessons in different locations in the city. I run errands and shop for the Village, in between drop off points. The preschool manual and lesson plans we have been working on all year are shelved for another day, yet again.

Gord is at the Village all afternoon, meeting with the architect coming with an updated set of plans for the Village grounds; reviewing the latest applications for employment; writing reports to his own bosses; and walking with Sekuru through the maize field that is suddenly being ravaged by bugs. Before I go, we stop and discuss how much money we can hand to the lady that has walked into our office with a need for medication, a child strapped to her back with an old towel and no job. She claps her hands sideways in the Shona custom, curtsies, grins and says thank you wholeheartedly as she leaves to fill the prescription. And we make plans for the 60 litres of diesel a team passing through from S. Africa will need on their arrival in Harare. Yesterday the gas station was out of diesel in the morning, filling from a tanker truck by late morning, and when we had time to go by in the afternoon to fill our portable cans and our own gas tank, the electricity was off and so the pumps were not working. We are dangerously low in our own vehicles and so with the constant threat of fuel shortages looming over us, a contingency plan is made and a few phone calls later we’ve located someone with reserves in their garage if we empty out altogether.