Happy birthday Bobba

Mike and I spent a few days with Bobba the Bear (aka mom and grand mom) in Boca. And no, Bobba wasn’t standing in a hole and Mike and I are not giants :-)

Carpe Diem.

The latest Zimkids update

Thanks Dennis.

"Hello friends! It’s been a great few months at Zimkids thanks to your continuing support. I just arrived back in the States to begin meetings with our friends across the country. Here’s the latest news!

Over the past two months, we’ve built the welding training program into a serious operation. We’ve now constructed a covered welding area, with the donation of our good doctor’s metal carport. Our boys and girls over 15 years old are becoming great welders. And they just finished Zimkids’ first commercial welding job: the construction of railing, a bookcase and wardrobe for a private client, using her old railings as the materials.

Meanwhile, the older boys and girls also built a stunning obstacle course, complete with a tunnel made from enormous old tires, balance beam, swinging tires, hanging rings, a tightrope, and a climbing structure.

As if they weren’t busy enough, Foster and Collen who joined Zimkids 7 years ago, who were a big part of our building team and are now on staff installed an electric fence to further secure the property, thanks to the continuing generosity of private donors and the Independent Pilots Association. Foster and Colin, also installed our solar array under the guidance of a local solar energy contractor, needed no guidance this time. The contractor was so impressed that he asked if he could train them to install solar hot water heaters for his company in the hope that he can spin them off into their own business, to serve as a subcontractor for him.

They’re facing some pretty serious choices since we’ve enrolled them in professional courses, Colin in electricity and Foster in boilermaking. For the moment, they’ll work at Zimkids during the work, take their courses on Saturdays, and work for the solar company as needed, which gives other Zimkids coming up time to hone their skills and replace Foster and Collen as they set out on their own. You can imagine how proud we all felt that our plans for these young people are turning into realities. Our dream to enable our kids to gain myriad skills and eventually go into business is becoming a reality. We are thrilled.

Meanwhile, Sithabisiwe is continuing her counseling training with Contact, currently interviewing HIV-positive teenagers to develop her technique. Week by week, we’re watching her understanding grow – and being brought to bear with our own kids.

The new program we began for children ages 3-7 years is thriving. The kids are clearly gaining weight and energy thanks to the feeding program. They are all now happily playing games on our computers and beginning to write as well. The incredible Julie Tazzia of Michigan sent underwear for the girls, none of whom had ever HAD underwear. We could use more underwear for both girls and boys, all sizes. (Contact me at dennis.gaboury@yahoo.com for further information)

We had another amazing clothing moment with a 6-year-old boy named Francis who lives with his 78-year-old grandmother and grandfather. He just joined ZImkids and always appeared in the same rags every day. So we reached into the suitcase filled with clothes dropped off by a donor from London and outfitted him in bright lime green soccer shoes, red shorts, a yellow T-shirt, and a bright yellow fleece hoodie and his first pair of underwear. As he walked home that afternoon, the neighbors all began cheering. He’s a different boy now, not hiding in a corner but smiling and playing with the others.

Our garden has fully recovered and is yielding bountiful tomatoes, chimulia, butternut and spinach. We use our drip irrigation system in the greenhouse and upturned 2-litre soda bottles to water vegetables that are planted in maize meal sacks to conserve water.

We’ve been receiving an increasing amount of local support, which is extremely gratifying. A local NGO that is installing water tanks – and delivering water to fill them monthly – offered us the same water supply. Drought conditions continue so this will help a lot. Then a church in northern Zimbabwe sent us a full set of marimbas – musical instruments that are sort of wooden xylophones – and Energy Maburutse, the former lead marimba player for the band Liyana and one of our trustees, will be spending part of his summer break from Lynn University in Florida teaching our kids to play. Drillwell, the well digging company, appeared with more playground equipment, this time monkey bars to add to the swings, see-saw and merry-go-round that they’d already built for us.

The biggest news about local support came from the foundation funded by Strive Masiwa, the owner of Econet, the largest cell phone company in Zimbabwe. They are coming to install Internet at the site and are giving us the money to pay for it for three years. So now our kids can skype schools in the States from the site, receive and send emails, learn to google and see the world.

In January we shipped 68 boxes of books, sewing equipment, games, sports equipment, etc and it will be arriving at the center the last week of May. So it will be a big holiday when they arrive!

I’m leaving, then, filled with pride, excitement and a little bit of exhaustion. But mostly, I’m relaxed, knowing that things are moving ahead beautifully, thanks to a fantastic staff and extremely loyal donors.”

Carpe Diem.