In the hot, dry, impalpable dust of October blue sky days it is always so encouraging to see the trees put on their new leaves in readiness for the rain. It’s a picture of acting in hope and expectation. It is how we too need to act.
Tsedeq and I covered nearly 40 km today. It’s wonderful to be with him out in the bush on this long prayer ride. Mostly, due to the severe El Niňo drought, the grazing is minimal so I am hardly riding him at all. We are walking together.
Sadly the international journalist who was coming in to do a story on this ride was given a hard time by the Zimbabwe authorities and was followed. The journalist decided to leave the country in a hurry.
Please continue to pray for justice and righteousness.
(Left) Drought conditions provide minimal grazing; (Right) Bed for the night!
It was cold this morning (about 8 degrees centigrade) and Tsedeq was fresh. I found a borehole well with a hand pump and put my trusty hat under the water spout to fill it with water while I went to the long pump handle. There was nothing to tether Tsedeq to and the tether wasn’t long enough to leave him by my hat and pump the handle at the same time. So I let the tether go as I have done a hundred times before and started to pump. I don’t know whether it was the noise of the pump or the movement of the handle, but suddenly Tsedeq took fright and headed off back the way we had come. It was quite thick bush and before long I started to lose sight of him, despite running as hard as I could. There were just little bush paths and there was nobody about. I think I had only seen two people in the previous hour and a half of walking. Suddenly a man shot past me on a bicycle and said: “I will catch your horse.”
I tried to follow but Tsedeq was going too fast for my very poor tracking skills and I lost the tracks. So I decided to back track and find my way back to the well and my trusty hat. Fortunately, my tracking skills allowed for this and I soon found the well and my hat!
As I was contemplating my next move and thinking that it might take an awful long time to find Tsedeq - if ever - two men arrived on bicycles, very excited and out of breath. “Your horse! Your horse!” they cried.
I followed them at speed and before long there was Tsedeq, all fine, tied to a tree.
The man on the other side of Tsedeq is called Brian. He was the angel on the bicycle!
Isn’t God good!
Today I was so proud of Tsedeq. We had to cross a big river. We could not find any ford so it meant wading through a very rocky and slippery stretch of water for quite a long way to get to the other side. It was shallow enough not to be troubled by crocodiles, but Tsedeq is a Matabele boy and, coming from Matabeleland province, which is much drier, he doesn’t like water. He doesn’t even like to get his feet wet! The alternative was a very long detour.
I went forward and let him drink, then after a while started walking forward, leading him. He followed straight after me and we crossed the river without incident. I was so pleased with him; and he was thoroughly pleased with himself.
On the other side, after 20 minutes or so of walking along a winding path I came to a small house. I asked directions and the man said he would show me the way. I said that he didn’t need to do that but he insisted. He walked a whole hour to take me to a dirt road. He then had to walk all the way back.
A little further on, I was going through thorn tree vegetation and a small, loose thorn tree that had been cut down hooked onto my trousers. Tsedeq thought that the thorn tree was fierce and fast and fearsome ̶ and was chasing him. So he decided to outpace it and spurred himself into a full gallop. The thorn tree hung on to my trousers tenaciously for a while but Tsedeq’s pace was no match for it in the end and the thorn tree got tired!
I, up on top, was meanwhile ducking and weaving like an unfortunate boxer who had been put in the ring with Muhammad Ali. Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough for a lightning-fast jab from another thorn tree ̶ but I got off very lightly in the end with two scratches across my face. Tsedeq was very pleased that he had such lightning pace that he could outpace even the fastest of thorn trees!
Shortly after that I was invited to stay with that rarest of breed in Zimbabwe, some white farmers still surviving on their farm in the back of beyond. They were driving past on the very remote dirt road I was on and I was drying out my socks from the river crossing a couple of hours earlier. I would say perhaps less than 5 percent of white farmers still survive on their farms in Zimbabwe. It is amazing to experience such wonderful hospitality, and to eat well, sleep in a bed and get to know them. What a Godsend!
Unfortunately my lovely woollen blanket from my mum went the way of so much in Africa. It got stolen. The black people along the way lamented this factor in Africa too. Theft is such a major problem.
A quick nap while Tsedeq grazes close by
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