Update from Josh

Josh is so good at putting it all down in writing that I am again letting him tell you in his own words below. It is my hope before he leaves that his detailed updates will rub off on Zach and Caleb!

Hello Everyone,

I can't believe I only have a week left. There are things and people that I miss in the States, but I would love to stay here longer and I am going to miss it. I may be able to do one more update here in country after this, but I am not sure what our schedule for the entire next week is yet, but hopefully these few words will keep you in the loop.

We have completely moved into the orphanage house and have a few things in it like kitchen-wear, curtains, beds, and landscaping tools. We have been landscaping the area a couple hours a day. It is coming along. We love having 5 guava trees and a decent garden! Its nice to have electricity even though it goes in and out, but that is common around here. It's the same with the water. It's pretty interesting to have to wash yourself with just a bucket of water. haha, T.I.A. (This Is Africa).

Our local friend and partner Pastor Phillip with his wife, Suzanna and 1.5 yr old son, Tefila will be living here and taking care of the kids along with our Friend and "faithful servant" as we like to say, named God Knows (yeah pretty cool name). Later we may have a widow named Mother Jamesa who has been really helpful and who already takes care of a few orphans help us out with the kids at the house too.

Phillip is currently traveling to South Africa to get some kitchen appliances such as a fridge and stove. We will be getting some furniture next week. We are traveling for things like this because it is much cheaper elsewhere. We are also currently dealing with people to make us bunkbeds for the orphans that will be staying.

We have already identified a few orphans, but we have a few more to identify and they probably will be moving in shortly after I leave and once we have all the furniture, hopefully by next Wednesday. This week we also helped Mother Jamesa pay for her kid to go to school. She has been struggling and was forced to move, so she didn't have any money left. So we grouped it with our "Education Empowerment Program." And like I said maybe a little later she will be living in the house or in our cottage on the property for free as she helps take care of the kids.

My digital camera is still broken, but I have been taking alot with my film camera as well. Even though the camera is finicky at times, I am really excited to see the film shots. Last week we were fortunate and was able to go to "Great Zimbabwe" which is the place where Zimbabwe got its name. It is ruins of an unkown civilization. The architecture was massive and absolutely amazing. Most everything is made out of stones placed together without any mortar whatsoever. They are absolutely solid and super tall structures on hills and flat areas. There was an altar or two and monkeys all around, and well I just can't explain it. I hope my pictures will do it a some justice even though I think its better if you could just see it in person. What is interesting is that no person or artifact has been found. It is completely deserted. They believe plunderers found it ages ago and wiped it clean, so it is really a big mystery. Some say it could be from Solomon of the Bible because of the amount of work, wisdom, and riches it would of taken to build such a place.

I am excited for tomorrow because we are waiting on a few things for the house so tomorrow we are going to Victoria Falls which is the largest waterfall in the world!

Okay, that is all for now and I hope to talk and see some of you soon when I get back. If I can do another update, I certainly will.

Love & Grace,

Josh