
The cool of the Zimbabwe evening after the hot day was settling in through the msasa trees, where the scruffy creasted Barbets were quarrelling with the Babblers. The red earth and grass was still warm beneath my bare feet. We heard the “Khoh-khoh-khou-khou..” of the purple-crested Turaco, an unusual bulky bird clad in deep purple, blue and green with a fantastic purple headdress. I felt the “Go-away” bird was trying to tell me something – time for me to go. Venus was radiant between the clouds as the Evening Star.

The evening before I had brought Tanya outside into the deep dark African night to gaze on the alignment of the planets: brilliant Jupiter high adjacent Orion, reddish Mars below, Venus next to the sliver of the moon, and faint smudge of Saturn low in the west. I was feeling that all my stars had aligned for this trip. We had managed a few thousand kilometres of travelling, much on roads which should be better classified as glorified trackways. No accidents, no major illness or problems beside the rattling radiators and locked doors.
But all this has been possible because of the incredible people along the way, and the amazing kindness I’ve received. All those who have opened their homes to me – Bryan in Kwekwe, Rob and Jane in Bulawayo, Errol and Daryl in Masvingo, and Tanya in Harare – huge thanks. To the A-Team and supporters – well done for holding on during all the travel and training and bad jokes.
However, it is primarily due to the people on the ground, in the communities, who are bringing the water project to life. They are the seeds for transformation, hope for the future.
375 Million years ago the Earth was going through a period of major climate shifts, similar to today. It is known as the Devonian Extinction event, and led to the end of many species. However, with the changing sea levels it led, in some strange way, to a fish-like creature adapting to surviving out of the water, using its four limbs to crawl on the land, learning to blink to keep its fish-eyes moist. The Tiktaalik (or similar) became the ancestor of all land vertebrates – including reptiles, dinosaurs, and mammals – and us!
Similarly, around 6 to 8 Million years ago, the East African forests were shrinking due to shifts in the climate and movements in the Rift Valley, and a small gracile species couldn’t compete with the large apes in the forests. This species had to learn to walk for distances over the savannah, and eventually run. It had to adapt dramatically to new circumstances, and eventually Australopithicus evolved further to become Homo Sapiens over millions of years. The large apes which dominated the forest have evolved into gorillas and apes, but we have become the dominant species now, threatening their habitat.
Our last 10,000 years since the end of the last ice-age have seen cities and civilisations come and go, the invention of farming and writing and bronze and steel and iPhones. We call this period The Long Summer, with only minor fluctuations in temperatures, very unusual in Earth’s history. All that is now changing. Over the next 100 years this stable period will disappear as the Earth heats up and a new order will emerge.
I am convinced that the future of our species, and perhaps more, is not found with the Elon Musks or Jeff Bezos and powerful oligarchs of our age, or even with the “civilised” western cities, but here, in the lost corners of the forgotten continent, among the marginal and vulnerable people. They are the ones who know how to find food in a drought, which leaves are edible, what roots to dig up and boil, and how to trap a small rabbit. How to survive.
We in the west fall apart when our internet goes down, when our car fails to start or the rubbish collection is late.
This, I think, was recognised by Jesus and other mystics when they challenged the accepted order of things. “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” Somehow, the process of transformation, the process of healing and growth amidst breakdown and collapse happens on the margins, in the unexpected places. Here I see the divine sparks of new life, where we can find light in the darkness, and hope for a new earth. I don’t think that Jesus was trying to sell personal Life Insurance Policies in the hope of a Paradise in some future mythical heaven. But I do think he was pointing to a transformation which will be required to bring a new harmony to the Earth, a new way of living and being, and it involved love and reconnection with each other and the Earth.

The word change normally refers to new beginnings. But the mystery of transformation more often happens not when something new begins, but when something old falls apart.
This change always includes a disconcerting reorientation. Travelling in Zimbabwe to these schools, orphanages, and remote communities has once again shaken my sense of Up and Down, Good and Bad, and hope. And the amazing people taking the “longest stride of soul man ever took…”. Here transformation is really happening.
The human heart can go the lengths of God …
Dark and cold we may be, but this
Is no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks and begins to move;
The thunder is the thunder of the floes,
The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.
Thank God our time is now, when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take,
The longest stride of the soul man ever took.
Affairs are now soul size
The enterprise is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes
So many thousand years to wake…
But will you wake, for pity’s sake?
(Christopher Fry, The Sleep of Prisoners)
Times are changing. To quote Teihard de Chardin, “Above all, trust in the slow work of God … “
Venus and Jupiter are up again tonight straddling the waxing moon, with red Mars and the faint smudge of Saturn. The distinctive call of the nightjar , “dear lord, deliver us” whistles through the night air. I am now out of the country and my prayers and thoughts are with those who must now continue the work. I would ask for yours too.
Thank you for reading and your support.
Sandy Elsworth 2 February 2025
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