Get Served

On May 8, 2009 ground was broken on the new Central Dining Room up on Smartie-box Mountain by the Dvudvusi BMS Orphan Homes. The Central Dining Room (CDR) is a building which centralizes the feeding program in Bulembu. This allows breakfast and dinner to be served to BMS’ children in one place instead of having to deliver separate parcels of food to all the different houses.

“Right now it is a logistical nightmare to take food for 150 kids, divide it into 20 parcels and take it to 20 different houses,” says Rolly Anderson, BMS Director of Community Service. “The CDR will streamline the feeding process.”

Beyond the building being a centralized feeding station the CDR has the capacity to hold functions for the 180 children that will eventually be up in the Dvudvusi Orphan Homes. “It is a multipurpose structure,” Anderson says. “The kids can come and do homework here after school, they can watch movies projected up on the big walls, or they can have a place to come play inside on rainy days.”

Structurally the CDR is now complete but BMS is waiting on a shipment of tables and chairs to complete the project. The shipment is expected to arrive in mid-December and the first meal is slated to be served by Christmas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Udder Transformation

During the time of the Mine the fields at the far end of town were home to the Havelock Mine Golf Club. These days the 15 hectares of fairways have been plowed and replanted, the trees have been cut down, and the clubhouse gutted and renovated – all of it now home to Bulembu Dairy. 

Renovations on the old Club House began in March 2009 and by the end of August 25 cows had taken to pasture. Headed up by Dairy Manager Colin Lovely, the cows are milked twice a day at 6:00 am and 3:00 pm and produce approximately 330 liters of milk each day.

The milk goes directly into bulk cooling tanks where it is cooled to 4 degrees Celsius and then processed into emasi (sour milk that is popular in Swaziland) or as fresh milk. Since the herd is TB and Brucellosis free and the dairy runs a very hygienic process the milk is left unpasteurized.

Currently the milk is being sold for 7R/liter in Bulembu and is also sold in Pigg’s Peak for a similar price. Any excess milk is sold to Parmalat, a dairy processing company in Swaziland.

The dairy’s future is bright. With a goal of having 45 cows at pasture by the middle of 2010 Lovely hopes to have close to 200 cows in 2020 to coincide with the 2,000 orphans that will be living in Bulembu.

Let’s do the math: 200 cows x 6.6 liters of milk per cow per milking x 2 milkings per day = 2,640 liters of milk produced each day. Got milk? We sure do!

 

 

Bread There, Done That

 

A month ago the Bulembu Country Lodge hosted the Havelock Mine Reunion. Many old Mine Managers came back to their old stomping grounds with their families for a weekend of good food, good friends and good stories. While they were here many of them gave us photos from the time of the Mine. We will post them as the weeks/months/years go by, but for now take a look at how bread distribution in Bulembu has changed over time...or has it?


If you have a history with Bulembu and have photos or stories we would be interested in, please email them to leigh.boyle@bulembu.org. Thank you!

Can You Picture It?

A central feature of Bulembu’s landscape is the massive, dilapidated building up on the hill that houses the remains of what was once the world’s longest cableway system. Built in 1939 the cableway stretches between Bulembu and Barberton, South Africa and was used during the time of Havelock Mine to ship asbestos into South Africa for market and to bring coal back to Bulembu to power the town.

Today part of the structure has been renovated for honey manufacturing and part of it is being transformed into a central kitchen for the orphan care program, but most of the station remains untouched. Old cable cars sit overturned atop piles of wood and garbage on the concrete floor, the mouths of open coal shafts remain open despite over a decade passing since they were last fed, wires hang loose, walls crumble and wheelbarrows lay on their sides – long since forgotten.

But this space, with its vaulted ceilings and midtown location caught the attention of Bulembu’s owners long ago as the perfect location for a museum. Today, six years later, a team of construction workers, cleaners and painters led by one of the world’s leading Swazi anthropologists, Bob Forrester, are turning vision into reality.

Renovations and construction on this project are slated to begin in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more photos as the transformation unfolds. 

Let Them Eat Doughnuts

After just four days of baking fever, the front counter of the Bulembu bakery is littered with tasty treats. From jelly doughnuts to glazed twists, rye bread to sweet muffins there is something for everyone.

Let's Break Bread

After much anticipation the Bulembu Bakery opened its doors yesterday afternoon to throngs of eager customers. As the sweet scent of freshly baked bread and scones wafted down the main street Bulembu's managers and workers gathered together to celebrate the first 38 loaves out of the oven. For years the ministries and people in Bulembu have depended on bread deliveries from Piggs Peak - over 45 minutes away on an unreliable dirt road. The construction of the bakery began just over six weeks ago and and since then the building has been gutted, renovated, painted, wired, plumbed, and filled with bakery equipment.  Townspeople are now able to go to the town center, just beyond the old Bulembu Supermarket and purchase a loaf of bread for E6.70. Delicious Chelsea Buns (cinnamon buns), rock buns and rye bread are also currently available. We've got our fingers crossed that the bakery will bust into the doughnut market soon!