'Difficult days'
in Matabeleland
"Just tell them I'm Serena," she said to Bishop Peter Price as
he took a photo of a group of sixth form girls at St. James School
Nyamandlovu.
It was a
difficult day for the pupils of this bush secondary boarding school. After a
long term, with the girls all ready to leave for home, an instruction had come
from the Education Department that all were to stay at school for another week.
It was politics - and petty politics at that - but the victims were for the
most part the children.
Bishop Peter
comments "Dee and I visited Matabeleland at the beginning of
August to
strengthen the link between our two dioceses. We were to experience many of the
realities where the innocent, the little ones suffer from other's failures".
"Life in the
townships has changed little since independence. People still live in
inadequate housing - though the government is proud of its housing record.
Space is limited - crime is a constant daily reality and the increasing rate of
inflation means that the poorest find it hard to buy daily bread. Indeed during
our stay there was a hike in the price of bread, leading to unrest in the town.
"AIDS remains
the major curse. Little is done to change the reality above poster campaigns
encouraging "No Sex before marriage. Faithfulness in marriage." Good enough in
itself of course, but when, as one priest reported on a visit to a school where
he was to talk on AIDS, the local haematologist told him ninety percent of the
blood samples taken from pupils was contaminated - it is obvious something more
needs to be done."
The Diocese of
Matabeleland plans a Mission for the Millennium - there is a recognition that
the gospel offered must address not only the need of personal salvation, but
also the gospel option for the poor, and a context in which to address the
message of the gospel to a society slowly self destructing with AIDS.
Oh! Serena -
well she's eighteen, she wants to be a lawyer; her class mates want to be
pilots, accountants, teachers.
Adds Bishop
Peter, "With all my heart I wish them success, and a long enough life to
achieve these things. But for many there is too much reality - and may be as
few as one in four will make it till they're forty".
While Bishop Peter was in Matabeleland, ten youth exchange
people from Southwark were visiting our three link dioceses in Zimbabwe. A
report of their visit follows....
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