ZimbabWEcare

We are postponing our March 2025 trip.

To all who were planning on coming on our trip in March, I am sorry to say we are pushing it back to 2026.

I am changing positions at my work again first of the year and will be unable to make the March 2025 dates work so we have decided to push the trip back to 2026. While this is unfortunate I do hope it will allow more of you to put plans in place to join us in 2026 for our next trip to Zimbabwe.

As always thank you for your interest! I hope to see you in 2026!!

We are still looking for people to join our 2025 team March 21- April 4.

Total cost is $4000 which includes RT flights from JFK to Harare.
First deposit of $2000 is due Nov 15th second $2000 due Feb 1.

This trip will include both Medical and Humanitarian so a great trip for families.

Please spread the word- DM for details.

2025 Mission Trip!!!

Pulling dates together for the end of March / beginning of April 2025.

This trip will be very similar to our last trip mix of humanitarian and medical, based on the Blueberry Farm in Marondera so a great trip for families and or friend groups.

No medical necessary but we always love having providers come with family members.

Mark your calendars!! Cost is $4000 per person including round trip flights from JFK to Harare. First deposit due November 15th with remaining portion due February 15th.

This promises to be another great trip- come with us to celebrate ZimbabWEcare’s 10th anniversary!

DM for details.

So impressed with how well our black Recreation Outlet Workhorse Duffles hold up- trip #5 to Zim, each loaded to 50lbs, and just starting to show wear and tear.
Love these Duffles!

One final adventure on the way home, ZimbabWEcare doesn’t allow easy…
So after the delay in Lusaka, missed connections, delay on rebooked flights, folks scrambled to book alternative flights, finally getting to Miami only to find more missed connections and canceled flights- everyone finally made it back home late yesterday (more than a day later than expected).

So now it’s back to work and start to process all the things we saw and did and hopefully somehow use it to be better humans than when we left.

I’m no different in that respect, this was a good trip, an important one from the perspective of could we manage and plan from a new home state. There are always challenges but things always work out in the end.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, Thank you. And while we will still have challenges to face, we will make a plan and figure it out.

Until next time, Eric

Final day at Vic Falls- what a great place. The falls never disappoint and everyone had a nice day doing activities and shopping.

On our way back home, made our flights just fine but had a mechanical delay leaving Lusaka for 3 hours so missed our connection in Doha to Miami.

But we are in Doha and rebooked on next flight to Miami. Close to being home!

I would like to thank this group, they were really a very solid team and everyone pitched in and pulled together even when the plan changed. It was a great group to work with and appreciate very much those who were back with us again, it makes such a difference having team members who know what to expect and help guide others through the process.

Great team, great work, great accomplishments.

Thank you ZimbabWEcare 2024 team! I would take you all back again!!!

Of course no trip to Vic Falls is complete with a trip to my favorite burger place Three Monkeys Restaurant.

I may have eaten lunch and dinner there today…

Chobe, Botswana safari day.

Nice cool weather for our Safari day. Good animal sightings and fun side trip to Bots!

Couple pictures from the river cruise from last night.

New rooms for next two nights!

Well we made it to Victoria Falls for some much needed R&R.

We went straight from the airport to lunch at Baines Restaurant overlooking the Zambezi River and what a lunch it was! Thick T-Bones, Fish n Chips, or Pasta Bowl. It was a fantastic!

Then we were off to our adventures for the afternoon.
Most went to the elephant encounter to learn about these magnificent creatures and get up close and personal with them.
Steve Terry and I (who had done the elephant encounter before) had a golf outing- which was spectacular!

Evening was finished off with a Zambezi River cruise and then to bed.

We did get our camping experience for the trip… looking for something with 4 walls for tonight…

All are well, albeit still a little tired. We are off to Chobe Botswana this morning for a day of Game viewing/ Safari!

Nice easy morning where we got to sleep in a bit before we were off to do a clinic at the local villiage, ZimbabWEcare style!

It was nice to be out in the open again and to run a Bush clinic line we do.

We were late into the evening handing out items to the locals, but always a great experience to hand out items one on one.

Up early and to the airport for our rest days in Vic Falls, though rumor has it has a great schedule planned for us while there.

Another super busy clinic day in Kotwa. This was the 3rd day of seeing roughly 1000 patients in a day. It was hot, sweaty and a lot of work but we were all very happy to have spent the time and work on treating all these patients.

We had some good experiences and really enjoyed all the time we got to spend together.

In case I forgot to mention the accommodations were fantastic, true luxury with breakfast and dinner every day, air con, brand new beds and everything. It was a great way to relax after busy days.

In true ZimbabWEcare fashion after a full day and waiting accommodations we decided to bypass the hotel and jumped in the bus and made the push back home to the farm.

All tired, but sharing experiences over popcorn and hot chocolate.

Another clinic day planned for tomorrow.

Day two at Kotwa clinic with Angel of Hope.

The drive from Marondera to Kotwa was a pleasant 4 hours all on pavement, and we all enjoyed the scenery and the time to catch up. We were pleasantly surprised with 5 star accommodations for most the team and a few of us in decent if not a bit of a steps down.

We spend Wednesday in a full day in clinic - figured we saw roughly 1000 people. Fortunately we were joined by a robust team of local doctors and nurses. It was a hot and busy day!!!

Day two was mush more of the same but possibly even more busy- 1300 people seen and still planning a full day for Friday.

Highlights: Myleigh assisting her dad (Shawn) with a wound care.
Team looking out for each other in the hot sun, making sure we stayed hydrated (a couple of us needed some additional help there).
Much singing and dancing with the team with Claire and Shannon doing the splits and impressing the world!!

Day two was a fun one:
Up at 6am to go meet school kids and provide them some breakfast as they headed off the school, we got to had out some fun items for them as well.
We did get some of our meds sorted and bagged as well as all the supplies ready to pack for an early morning departure for clinic days.
Afternoon was spent helping at the school project site sorting bricks - and putting in a little labor for the day.
Big activity for the evening was a swim in the 67° pool. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of folks who joined in that activity!

Tomorrow morning is an early departure for Kotwa for a couple days clinic with Angel of a hope foundation where we will all be helping with clinic.

May not be able to send out updates for a couple days but will when we are back on Friday.

All well and happy!

What an awesome arrival and first day:
Met at airport by Rachel and friends who helped get all our bags loaded onto carts and through customs without issues.
We arrived and Marondera and happy I say we are all in beds for this portion of the trip though some of the men are in tents.
We had a quick bite for lunch and then had a special treat of a sundowners on top of a mountain with ruins, awesome first sun set.
The back to the farm for a debrief on the weeks activities including a surprise clinic with Angel of Hope so we will spend the day tomorrow sorting out more supplies.
A fantastic dinner and some unloading followed by most of us passing out by 8ish.
Busy prep day planned for tomorrow then off to the fish for a 3 day clinic stint.
All tired but happy to be here and ready to get to work.

Do you see your loved one? All present and accounted for!

We made it! Doha layover was great, that airport is very nice!!! Good rest, good food, hot shower and early morning departure and arrived early here.
43 bags all in safe and sound, beautiful new airport here in Zim!

Tired but ready to work!

Let’s go!

Made it Qatar!
Headed to the hotel and then back here for our 2AM departure.

But not without some good dinner - burgers of course.

We are off! All present and accounted for and none too worse for the wear. 43 bags checked and 21 people (we meet Morty in Doha) boarding our long flight.

Headed to Doha!

And yes we got 22 duffels packed into a midsized SUV- well 2 on top, but we made it!

See you in Doha!

Down to the final days- we are very excited to meet the team in Miami for our international flights Friday evening.

We have a great trip planned with some great work to do, good people to help, and some good times planned as well.

Stay tuned, we will be posting updates from the trip through out the next 2 weeks.

See you on the other side!

Final preparations underway for our departure in 9 days. Always a last minute scramble to find treats to bring to our dear friends there in Zim.

Looking at you Mfana Ray Raymond Tonderai Tsuro see you soon!

IYKYK…

Happy Mother’s Day to all those mothers who have helped with ZimbabWEcare!

2014 Brandi and I went to South Africa to visit my Parents on thier mission, it was a result of that trip that we started ZimbabWEcare.

My Mom has been there helping us pack for every trip and has been our biggest cheerleader.

To all the Women who have supported us, gathered items for us, packed for us, planned with us, fed us, MacGyver’d with us, and kept us safe- we know we couldn’t do this without you acting as our Mothers! We love and appreciate all you do for us!

Brandi- Let’s just pack 2 duffles tonight.
Eric- OK

Eric- Grabs 3rd duffel…
Brandi- we are packing them all aren’t we?!

And just like that, packing is done! Well, almost- just a few more items and we are good to go.

3 weeks from now and we are in a plane bound for Doha.

And yes- we packed a coat, let it go already.

As we get closer to our trip this year- 24 days and closing- I am grateful for all those who have gone on these trips with us in the past.

Brandi and I were reminiscing about past trips and how initially we always had to purchase extra baggage to get all our supplies down; as our group size has grown over the years we have not had to purchase extra bags but have in fact been able to bring more with us due to our team size and the generous folks who come with us.

Humble beginnings with just 6 of us on that initial trip in 2015- to a team of 22 coming this year!

Enjoy this look back. Give a shout out in comments to those you see!

First rule of ZimbabWEcare: bags are meant to be packed, unpacked, re-packed, and unpacked again.
Same goes for loading them, multiple times a day.

But how good do they look when full and right at 50lbs a piece?

5 weeks till take off!

Momma, I’m Coming Home!