Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley has had a long journey since leaving his comfy classroom of Ms. Haskell's in the Midwest. He had been on a few airplanes, first landing in Washington DC, then Addis Adaba Ethiopia, and finally Harare, Zimbabwe. Enjoyed the bright new shirt and shorts he was given by Abbi, his 3 year old new caretaker! They have had many adventures together already!

First, he was introduced to the beautiful Plumeria trees here in Zimbabwe and even got to climb one!

Then, he was learning how to pump water from "borehole," which is like a well. This is how people here get their water - a lot of them don't have faucets and sinks. So, they may walk long distances and fill a bucket with water. Then, they walk home carrying that bucket of water on their head!

Flat Stanley has come to Zimbabwe with us to serve and help people at a hospital. Here is the view from our hospital gate. Very beautiful!

Here's Abbi introducing Stanley to his job as a missionary at this hospital - Serving God and Serving Others. Stanley is excited about this great opportunity!

Stanley was then taken to the Pediatric Ward here, where we thought he would enjoy visiting with the children. We won't take you inside today because many of these children are very sick right now, and we try to be careful about where we go.

Stanley did have to get used to sleeping under mosquito nets, like this one in the hospital. It protects him from mosquitoes at night that could give him an illness called Malaria. It took a little while for Stanley to get used to sleeping under these nets, but it made it more fun when we pretended like it was a "tent!"

Stanley really enjoyed visiting with the patients at the hospital - he had lots of fun taking pictures with them, especially the babies!

Later in the day, we took Stanley up to the local school and visited the 1st Graders as well as the Preschool. Stanley liked being in the familiar setting of the classroom and saw that these kids were learning similar things to the kids in Ms. Haskell's class. He was able to jump in on some spelling and math lessons!

He did notice that all of these children wear uniforms and walk a long way to school!! They speak a language called Shona, and English is a second language for most of them.

But no matter how different these kid's lives are from the kids back home, they still love to laugh and have fun!

We ended our day with a hike to visit one of our friends, Mrs. Grace's home. She lives in what they call a "musha." This is a round home built of bricks with a straw roof. She is one of our friends who helps cook food for kid's club. Stanley loved getting to visit these kind people and seeing where they live. He had fun with the chickens, cows, and dog running around. We also showed him their storage bin of corn, which is their main source of food. They grind it up into a substance called sadza - kind of like mashed potatoes.

Stanley has had a big trip already and really loves helping us in Zimbabwe! He misses his friends and family back home, but he is so thankful for this opportunity that God has given him and is enjoying every day here!