John Keeling

It is with great sadness that we must impart the news to everyone that John Keeling passed away on Friday, 13 February 2009 in the United Kingdom.

John was a very active member of Reps, both on stage and off in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as being a television presenter on RTV in the 1970s. His portrait hangs in the Reps Theatre foyer and one of our trophies, The John Keeling Award for Best Actor in a lead role, is named after him.

He will be sorely missed by all who knew him. We will keep you updated as regards any form of memorial service or tribute.

DOUGLAS LAMB

MEMORIAL SERVICE

DOUGLAS LAMB -

The Memorial Service for the late Douglas Lamb will be held at

Highlands Presbyterian Church on Wednesday, 4th February 2009 at 10am.

Douglas, formerly of Eskbank Farm, passed away on Sunday afternoon, 1st
February 2009.

ZIMBABWE: Anglicans pray outside as Mugabe bishop holds property

February 03, 2009

Click image for detail[Ecumenical News International, Harare] The head of Zimbabwe's Anglican Diocese of Harare, Bishop Sebastian Bakare, says his congregation is looking to divine intervention as renegade former bishop Nolbert Kunonga and a small breakaway faction deny worshippers access to church property.

"We have exhausted all channels," Bakare said in an interview quoted in the privately-owned Standard newspaper on February 1.

Kunonga is a staunch supporter of the leader of Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF Party, Robert Mugabe, who still clings to the presidency in his country despite international calls for him to step down.

In 2008, Kunonga was excommunicated from the Anglican church after he decided to break away from the denomination's central African region over what he said was its sympathy to homosexuals.

As its new head, the church appointed Bakare, who has criticized Mugabe for denying his people human rights and religious freedom.

Kunonga, however, later formed his own self-styled Anglican Province of Zimbabwe with a handful of followers and claimed ownership of all church properties. Late in 2008 Kunonga appointed priests for his church.

Despite several orders including a high court ruling that the Anglican church majority led by Bakare be allowed to share the properties with Kunonga's group, pending a final legal judgment, gangs of youths supporting Kunonga have barricaded church buildings denying access to worshippers.

Some of the faithful resorted to holding church services in the open air, or in buildings offered by other denominations.

"We will only fight through God as he knows what is best for his church and he is the one who can correctly distinguish between good and evil," Bakare was quoted as saying.

"They are conniving with some rogue members of the police force and working in unison to violate the high court judgment," Bakare said of the breakaway Anglican group. "We are not going to fight them. Prayer is the only solution."

REPS SOCIAL EVENTS

INVITES YOU TO AN AFTERNOON OF MUSIC IN THE BAR
FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

WITH
"LIL MISS DYNAMITE"
ILLANA MAY

SATURDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2009

LUNCHTIME ONWARDS

HAPPY HOUR 1 - 2PM

MICHAEL THOMAS BLOODWORTH

DEATH NOTICE

MICHAEL THOMAS BLOODWORTH (M.I.Mech E, C.Eng)

MICHAEL THOMAS BLOODWORTH, beloved husband of the late HEATHER, Devoted
Father & Father-in-Law to ANGELA & ZANE, MALCOLM & TRACI, CHRISTOPER &
MORAG, Loving Grandfather to TAMZYN, DARRYN, OLIVER & BEN passed away
suddenly after a short illness at Athol Evans Nursing Home, Harare, on
Wednesday 29 January 2009.

Mike will be a sad loss to the Tobacco, Tea & Coffee Industries of
Zimbabwe with his design of Threshing Machines, Chain & Screw Conveyors
etc.

A Funeral Service for the late Mike Bloodworth will be held at 2.30pm on
Thursday 5th February 2009 at Athol Evans Chapel, Chiremba Road,
Cranborne, Harare, all friends & colleagues welcome.

Angi Stephen can be contacted on Harare 746623/776451 Cel. 091-2-328315

email: interhol@mweb.co.zw.

In Zimbabwe, a priceless party

This story is so true! We go to visit friends and take our own drinks - a gift of home made preserve or anything we have on the slef - and you know - we all have a wonderful time!

The best gifts are often the most simple.
By Kate Chambers
Never let a lack of cash stop you from hosting friends.
After seven years in cash-strapped Zimbabwe, I'm used to not having much. Food shortages and price slashes emptied shops well before last year. Soon, bread became a hard-to-find luxury.
As the purse strings got tighter, I learned to cook "relish": a stir-fried (and cheap) mush of spinach, broccoli leaves, and other monkey-resistant vegetables from our garden. I devised my own "doughnut" cake made from donated pancake mix, and I chopped cakes of soap in half to make them last longer.
In the last four months of 2008, when protracted haggling over a unity government between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pushed prices higher, we decided on more drastic cutbacks. The first thing to go: dinner parties.
It wasn't just a question of not having enough food. I knew my pantry would stretch to accommodate scrambled eggs for eight. But whoever heard of a scrambled egg party? Besides, I was afraid I'd embarrass my friends, who might feel they had to invite us back – and couldn't.
Instead, we exchanged news in the street – a quick "hello, how are you managing?" and a wave, or a few words thrown out of the car window.
Sometimes I daydreamed of the feast I'd cook for friends when all this was over. I planned my menu in detail: a chicken smothered in oil, rubbed in sea salt and thyme, stuffed with chunks of onion and lemon slices, and slathered in gravy. Then I'll set it on a table with rosemary-speckled roasted potatoes and rice, butternut squash, and salad. I envisaged lighting candles just so my guests could enjoy their flickering flames (and not because the power had gone off for the nth time).
But as the annual inflation climbed relentlessly to an estimated 1 sextillion percent last December, the dreams of my feast began to disappear.
Finally, our friend, Mai Nigel, called. "What are you doing this morning?" she asked. "Come to our place. We'd love to see you properly."
Quickly, I scanned my cupboard. When we used to visit our friends, I'd bring presents from a stash of overseas luxuries: bath soap sent by an uncle or packets of custard powder from my mother. But Zimpost, our public postal provider, hadn't delivered so much as a letter in weeks. Like Old Mother Hubbard's, my cupboard was bare. So my husband grabbed what we had: three mangoes from the fruit bowl.
Mai Nigel's husband was waiting at the gate. "It's been so long," he said.
Inside, we drank water, served in glasses on a pretty doily-covered tray. There were no biscuits, no cake, and no sweets – but I only realized this hours later. My 4-year-old, who's normally so hungry we joke that he has hollow legs, did not ask for food once.
We left well after lunchtime. As we were leaving, Mai Nigel handed me a bag of black grapes from the vine in her back garden.
"Please," said her husband, "come anytime. And next time, don't wait so long to visit."
Those grapes lasted us three days. Each time I ate a cluster, I thought of the hours we'd spent with Mai and Baba wa Nigel and the lesson they taught me.
Sometimes there is no point in dwelling on the things you lack. Instead, I've learned that good conversation and the sheer contentment of being with friends, can be just as satisfying as chicken and chips.

The Children left behind

The situation in this country is such that there are destitute people on all levels. We know of children who have been deserted by their parents who just got on a plane to UK or elsewhere leaving their family to fiend for themselves.

One particular case involved a family of four ranging from 3 years old to about 12 years old who were abandoned in an empty house!

Children have been found wandering around the city centre - their parents having left the country.

These stories are not just isolated instances....this is happening continuously.

It makes one wonder why people have children in the first place - surely their responsibility should be to those children. Instead they selfish decisions - looking after themselves first. All very sad but part and parcel of what is going on behind the scenes. we hear of cholera, we here of starvation but very little about the other sad part of life in Zimbabwe today.