Our Very Own Chatsworth

Rubwerumwe
When you approach Chatsworth from most directions,
this is the first natural landmark you see. 

Zimbabwe is no longer describable as a jungle or even bush. Chatsworth is urban but far from a town. When you approach Chatsworth from most directions, the first natural land mark you see is Rubwerumwe, a single pillar of stone rising from a nearby hill with a precariously sitting stone on top of it. Rubwerumwe (Single Stone) was there long before Chatsworth was a twinkle in it's dad's eye. I have often thought the site of this stone should be utilised for recreation of some sort. Its an amazing place.

Recently we have had the new Communication tower, the most technological installation at Chatsworth. It has taken over as the most prominent landmark. We are proud to have it and we are thankful to the telecoms companies for considering Chatsworth as a suitable location for this tower. For us it is a new chapter in our lives as we are now able to connect with the outside world a little more efficiently using mobile phones, the only phones worth having in Zimbabwe. The land lines are almost a thing of the past.

New Telecoms Tower
A welcome development

The new tower means we are able to communicate with anyone anywhere on earth. This was not possible before the tower was installed. Those fortunate enough to own a cell phone can help the rest of the community on different levels of communication. This blog in only possible because of this tower.

Sometimes the electricity supply is affected by what they supplier calls LOAD SHADING, and affect all our lives from lighting, to cooking, to communication, to water supply. However, we are still thankful for the tower, however many hours it works per given day.

You can see this tower from a long distance away and it gives confidence that you have arrived at Chatsworth. At night there is a sentinel light on top of the tower, marking the presence of Chatsworth and its residence under the tower's jurisdiction. It is a reminder to us of the generation of change. Under this generation changes in global communication have and are taking place and Chatsworth is able to belong to all of us, who advocate progress. We are able to take part in our own progress with help and advice from you all.

 Once you arrive, one of the original buildings is this, the first supermarket at Chatsworth, built by the Morabhai Family, originally of Indian heritage. It served as a supermarket till business was disrupted by the war of independence and the supermarket closed in the mid 1970s. The buildng was never used again as a supermarket ut was bought by the Golden Spiderweb company, which was a knitwear enterprise employing hundreds of people in the area and using the building as their factory. This was the only time we had a functional factory in Chatsworth, and it was a golden time for employment. The building is in need of new paint and possibly new future.  If you stand at the bottom right corner of the picture and look past the building on the right, you see the Police Station at the end of that path, and the Post Office building on you right, directly opposite the GSW building.

If you stand on the bottm left of the picture, and turn left, you walk along 200 metres north, then another 200 metres west, then another 200 metres South, and 200 metres back to where you started, you will hve walked round the town centre of Chatsworth. You will have seen

The Police station
The Post Office
The 8 Shops
The Petrol Station
The Railway Station
All the Road and Rail exits from Chatsworth

The supewrmarket. 

The supermarket is a well valued building and business. It is one of the original buildings at Chatsworth, and was build as a supermarket.

If you walk in front of the building, past the parked truck, you cross the dust street and get to the Golden SpiderWeb building and past that to the Police Station.

To the left of this arre three more shops and a petrol station.


Chatsworth is a small hamlet of less than 4000 people but it is growing  and has many social, educational, health, and spiritual needs which we all work together, sometimes in a co-ordinated manner, to cater for. The churches are some of the providers of social and spiritual gatherings. The main religion here is Christianity, accounting for around 60% of the belief systems.  The next biggest belief system is the indigenous ancestral worship based, which looks up to generations of family elders long dead, and accepts that their spirits take care of the living. You also find some traces of Islam and also some who mix all these to form a singular multi-faith belief system taping into all possibilities.

Christianity is split into a number of sub groups some worshipping on Friday, some on Saturday and some on Sunday. Faith issues are generally accepted to be of the heart and according to personal convictions. There is never any animosity or ridicule between people of different faiths. Indeed some people belong to different faith groups at different stages in their lives. Also, it is common to find different members of the same family belonging to different faith groups without any friction at all.

Most groups work for the community interests and take part in the general goings on. Its at weddings and funerals that you find most of these groups working together to create a successful events. The owners of the event choose which church they want to lead out in the event.

There is a small clinic which has dedicated nursing staff who work as nurses and as doctors. It is very rare that a doctor visits. The nearest government hospital is in Masvingo 70km away, and it does not have enough doctors itself so cannot afford to loan out any to rural clinics. Chatsworth clinit is one of the better clinics in the country and is a welcome facility to our community.

There is very little employment at Chatsworth and most families rely on running small business projects. The biggest employer is the government who employ police officers, teachers and health workers, in that order of numbers.

Living at Chatsworth is very cheap compared to living in the city. Rent for a two bedroomed house is a low as  USD35.00 per month. However, that is a very difficult amount of money for a family to raise at Chatsworth.

Electricity and water supplies are both erratic, sometimes missing for days. This makes it hard to do business based on either of these two.

The council does not collect rubbish and it is left to each resident to clean up around their houses or business properties. It is not surprising that the little town is dirty most of the time. The health workers and community leaders work together to encourage cleaning up.

There is no banking facility so people need to go to Gutu, about 35 km to the east or to Masvingo, about 60 km to the south.

Chatsworth is easily accessibly by road or rail. A train passes by once per day going north and once going south. By road you can arrive from north, south, east, or west. Many also arrive via small bush paths either on foot or on bicycles.

Chatsworth is alive and well and very interesting to anyone who is passing, who stops and looks at us. In this context, our Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church operates, with 11 adult members, 7 regular visitors and more than ten children. Our main work is to:
1 Support families in their spiritual well being.
2 Support families in their family life needs, parenting, childcare, schooling, etc
3 Support families in their Dieting, designing balanced diets and sourcing different foods locally.
4 Working with other support groups to improve health and welfare.
5 Working with our former residents now living elsewhere to help train our young people.
6 Ensuring that any work in Chatsworth is offered to our people where possible. This includes building and farm labour in nearby farms.
7 To raise awareness of any threats to health, such as contaminants, potential diseases, sexual health, etc. For this we work with other interested parties.
8 Working with government and other organisations and encouraging community members to attend meeting about subjects of interest.
9 Preach the health message to the whole community.

All of us are volunteers and have to balance these activities with our own need to work and raise enough money to care for our families.

We thank you for your support, wherever you are. We have really benefited from support from those who have visited us and understood how a small help can do wonders. We need tools, skills books, manuals, suggestions, and where possible, profitable projects we can take part in to increase both employment (whether part time or full time) and welfare, especially of our children and young people.

Make Chatsworth a "Must Visit" place for your lifetime. We have no famous sites for you to see, but we still think Chatsworth is worthy of your visit. To visit Chatsworth in person, Email us on chatsworthsda@gmail.com  and we will prepare a nice welcome for you. 
Come and have a look and bring your friends with you.  

Show your friends this blog. We thank you.