Johan and the rest of the team arrived at my house from South Africa over the weekend. What an amazing surprise when not only Johan and his team rocked up but the whole family to Surprise my daughter Candice-Ann for her 18th Birthday Party.
My home was so full of life with all the extra people, it was so amazing to have everyone here in Bulawayo to celebrate with us. A full house with lots of helping hands certainly helped while we did all our parcel deliveries. We where also extremely lucky to have received a large donation of woollies from Shawls, Gloves, beanies and scarves. These were going to be a huge hit given the extremely cold winter we were having.
Monday morning, we are all up and ready to go, there was such a crisp in the air and you could almost feel the buzzing excitement as we start loading up the parcels that are to be delivered. The entire team is checking name list and loading boxes that needed to be loaded onto the truck. Eventually the truck was loaded and ready to get on the road with Johan and Frans. Once we had said our goodbyes, they were on the road and it was time for us to start loading the bakkie so that we too could start with all the Bulawayo deliveries.
With the vehicle loaded myself, Angela and her son were are off to Ralstein Home for the Aged to deliver all the bulk Groceries to the kitchen which makes everyone’s meals. We also dropped off the individual care and “treat” parcels for all the residents. I then popped in to see if I could find anyone and it seemed that they were all hiding from me. They had all gone to have a well-deserved snooze after breakfast, so no nice chit chats for me this morning. From there we were off to Queen Mary, not far at all as they are next to each other. We delivered all the bulk kitchen Groceries and very much like Railstein Home for the Aged everyone had gone for a snooze so there was no one to see.
From there we headed down the road towards Masonic Lodge the streets were busy and there was a real hustle and bustle going on. As we entered Masonic you can see all the pensioners sitting on their verandas enjoying a cup of tea and some conversation with their neighbours. We head down towards there little hall and started unloading all the boxes into their hall from which they will all be later distributed. Some of the pensioners came down to greet us and have a quick conversation. One or two of them had a look in their box only to find the Power banks that had been placed into each box. They were over the moon as the power cuts in Zimbabwe have become so extreme. It is always lovely to hear from them and to catch up a little. Everyone was saying how much they are battling with the extreme cold, and as I previously said, it was very nippy. Once we were done at Masonic we head off back to our warehouse to offload all the empty boxes and get home to my extremely full house.
The next morning, we were up early and ready to get started with our mission of spreading joy and boxes to all our oldies. Our first stop at Coronation Cottages was to the office to drop off all the boxes for the outsiders who collect the boxes on their own. It was so lovely to see Mrs Rachel Boshoff as she is normally at work when we deliver. Unfortunately, she shared the story of why she was home and feeling so devastated. She had gone in to work one morning and everything was gone, the owners of the company had packed up everything and just left. It is so hard to try and explain how that little bit of money that some of them earn is essential to their survival.
As we move from Cottage to Cottage you get to spend a few minutes chatting to each of the lovely pensioners. We were relieved that the sun was coming out a little and shining through the clouds a bit more it began to get warmer. As we continue to deliver the boxes to our awesome pensioners, we are constantly being made aware of how absolutely necessary our boxes are. Many of our pensioners say that they would not be able to survive without them. You cannot believe how their faces light up as we deliver and how they giggle when they open the boxes to see what we have put in for them.
Driving through the streets in Coronation Cottages we were delighted to see all the maintenance that was going on. Each block was being painted a different colour and the entire complex was looking amazing. Next we were off down the road to deliver to Mrs Herbst, she was so happy to see us and enjoyed telling us all about what she had been up to. As we continued to drive on to the next pensioner, we could see quiet a few of our oldies walking through the complex. We stopped off by Mrs Jannet Sutherland to deliver her box of goodies and to hear a little about how things had been going, she too was really struggling with the cold. We moved on and met up with Mrs Lorna Hains, as she received her box she was absolutely beaming and couldn’t thank us enough. Delivering these boxes is the most rewarding thing I have ever had the honour of doing. Just the delight and thankfulness on every single persons face is delightful.
We continued delivering throughout Coronation Cottages for the rest of the day, listening to storeys of what has been happening. We finally finished our deliveries for the day and my heart was beaming. There is so much love to be felt from every story you are told whilst delivering. It was truly a long rewarding day. We got so much done and so much love. I dropped Angela and all the empty boxes off at the warehouse and headed home to cook for the family.
The next morning it was a little warmer and the birds were singing as I head out to the warehouse to load up for our long day of deliveries to some of the other homes and pensioners. At garden park I was feeling a little sore after my operation earlier this year and so I stayed in the bakkie while we delivered the boxes. It was after breakfast and a lot of the oldies were taking their morning walks with their nurses or those who can still walk alone were walking along casually. As they walked passed the bakkie they stopped for a chat and some of those conversations left me very close to tears. One of the ladies that walked past stopped and was telling me how extremely grateful she is for the work that we do even though she doesn’t receive a box because she doesn’t need it. She is one of the very lucky pensioner’s that has her family that look after her and pay for her to stay at Garden Park and support her in every possible way. It is so special to hear that there are still some oldies who are looked after and financially supported by their families.
Another pensioner that was walking past with her nurse stopped a the bakkie for a chat and she is one our oldies that we do support. She was telling me how she is dependent on the box that we supply. It is always so special to hear from the oldies and to know that what we are doing is so greatly appreciated.
Next we were off to Barbera Burrel which is the home for our oldies that are visually impaired. I absolutely love visiting this home and having chats with everyone that lives here. Unfortunately, they were totally understaffed and everyone was running like crazy. Homes like this rely heavily on financial support and with the cost of everything in Zimbabwe constantly increasing it is becoming more and more difficult for them to keep everything going. We tried to stay out of their way so unfortunately, we had no option but to do the delivery and get out their way. I will pop in again in a week or so to have a visit with all the oldies. We then started delivering to a few of our outsiders, these are pensioners that do not live in a home.
As we drive up and down the streets of Bulawayo we notice the roads are getting so much worse and all the traffic lights that are off is making it so difficult. One of our first stops is by Mrs Bernadette Barns, she was so excited to see us and to receive her special grocery box with her power bank inside. The thought that she can now make sure that there cell phone is always charged regardless of zesa being on or not was a huge relief for her. Then we were off down the road to continue our deliveries. As we drove from house to house we were delivering not only their food parcels but all the beautiful woolly goods that were sent up here by some amazing donors in South Africa. It was a bit warmer by now and the sun was actually out and shining. We had a lot of pensioners to get to and we then delivered to Bernard Bartlett, Jenny Broughton, and Rob Enslin who received a lovely scarf. Each of them sharing how things have been going. A lot of the pensioners share how heartbroken they are after working their entire life to have a good pension and savings to look after themselves when they got older and how they now have nothing. It is really sad when you think about what they have all had to go through. We delivered woollies after woollies to most of our outsiders as on previous trips we had given a lot of winter goodies to the actual homes. .
On our very last day we drove out of town to Kinghaven Moth Cottages in Esigodini to deliver the boxes to the pensioners out there as well as a few outsiders. It is such a peaceful looking home being out of town. The pensioners were so very happy to receive their boxes. It is truly such a rewarding feeling to have the opportunity to deal with these pensioners. Each of them has a story to tell you and things to show you. We managed to leave a few lovely winter items that could be split up between all our lovely pensioners here. We had a shawl, 6 pairs of fingerless gloves, 8 beanies and 4 scarfs. We continued to deliver for the rest of the day from one side of Bulawayo to the next.
I would like to say a very special thank you for each and every donation that we receive as it makes a huge impact on our pensioners lives. For years I knew what my Father (Hannes Botha) was doing and knew how happy it made him to be able to do it. I never knew how absolutely amazing it actually was until I started doing this after his passing. Some of the stories that the pensioners tell me about my dad makes me smile as I remember him.
As we creep closer to Christmas I would like to urge every one of you to get involved, to donate whatever you can to make things extra special for our oldies. Every little bit helps and is appreciated.
Head office South Africa contact details:
Linda Schultz – linda@zpsf.co.za / zpsf@zpsf.onmicrosoft.com – (C) 079 6082676
Johan Schultz – johan@zpsf.co.za – (C) 082 4979328
Section 21 Co Reg. 2007/034036/08; NPO Number 096733; Section 18A PBO No 930031642
