As the trip was approaching, we continue running like crazy to attempt to get enough stock here to be able to pack the boxes for our more than deserving pensioners. It is way colder than usual and it is kind of hard to get the body moving when it is almost frozen but the thought of what we are doing for all the pensioners keeps us going. As the stock starts to arrive we all gather at the warehouse to get going on our packing of the boxes. Firstly, it takes some time to get all the pallets out to make sure that our boxes are raised so that they don’t get wet when it rains. Then we started placing the boxes for each and every pensioner on the pallets and double checking that no one was skipped and unfortunately removing anyone that may have passed away. Then we were onto bringing our stock through to our packing area. As you can imagine, this is a very time-consuming process but it has to be done.
Johan and the rest of the team arrived at my house from South Africa on Tuesday evening ready for the trip to get started. It was a little late in the week but we can make this work. We had Neels and Frans ready to climb into the truck and to get started on the round trip, but we had to get the truck loaded first. Wednesday 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 Neels 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.
Because we are short on time this trip we had put out a call on Facebook asking for any volunteers that were willing to get involved and assist us in delivering parcels. We only had one person offer to help and what an amazing lady. Rose Blair had offered to give us a hand for the rest of the week. What a remarkable lady with such a big heart, going out her way to assist us and to spend some time with our oldies. A huge thank you to Rose for her time and dedication, we and our oldies appreciate it more than you will ever know. With the vehicles loaded myself and Johan were 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 for us to visit with. Our next delivery for the day was Barbera Burrel, these oldies are so amazing. It is one of my favourite homes and everyone is always full of smiles We then continued to deliver to many of our outsiders until it started to get a little late and time to head home for the evening.
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.
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.
As we continued to drive on to the next pensioner, we could see quiet a few of our oldies
walking through the complex. 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 stories 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. We then head back to offload boxes at the warehouse we also loaded the boxes that had to go to and headed home to cook for the family.
The next morning Johan and myself were up early and on the road to do our deliveries at Muus Cottages and from there we were off to Boggies Trust in Gweru. As we chatted to all the oldies that were around their smiles and conversations were so inspiring. The was how we ended our trip and it was a lovely drive there and back. We got back into Bulawayo and we were just in time for an afternoon of bowls at Hillside Bowling club in Bulawayo. The truck was still on the road so we had some down time. It was an amazing evening out and we all had lots of fun and enjoyed a bit of time socializing with all the lovely folks that were there.
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 our next trip 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. In addition, we are still looking for warehouse space in Bulawayo. Should you know about anything please feel free to give me a shout on 077 6749 749.
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
Head office South Africa contact details:
