We leave tomorrow (Thursday the 30th) to start off on our road trip. We're meeting up with Jen's sister, Maggie, and her husband, Winston. It's basically the same trip that we took with Jen's mom in October, but with a few minor changes. We'll update once we get back and post pics, but here's an idea of where we'll be.
30th - Stay over at the Bulawayo Club
31st, 1st - Head to Vic Falls, meet Winston and Maggie at the airport, staying at the Safari Lodge
2nd - Canoe/Camping trip on the Upper Zambezi (the river above the Falls)
3rd- One more night at the Safari Lodge
4th, 5th, 6th - Head to Hwange National Park (stopping by the Painted Dog Conservation) and then staying at The Hide
7th, 8th - Drive to Matapos National Park and stay at Camp Amalinda
9th - Drop Winston off at the airport in Bulawayo and then drive with Maggie back to Harare where she'll stay for 2 weeks
We've got lots of things planned, and we've got a new camera for this trip, so we'll be able to share lots of pictures from the trip.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Juno and her cigar
This is for you Will Johnson....
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Update
So I know I just posted pictures from Florence, but I thought I would update everyone on what is going on over here in Africa. We just finished our last week of school in 2010, and we are now off for 3 weeks! As much as Grant and I love our students and teaching here, we realized yesterday that we needed a break just as much as they do. We've realized that with all the inconsistencies with our house here, work is the only place we find solace and consistency. I mean how many people do you know that say that???
We have still been dealing with the house going wrong. What is that movie called with Tom Hanks from the late 80s where he buys this fancy house and it falls apart on them. It's sort of like that. One day recently we walked in and the molding in our bedroom had collasped in shambles all over our room and carpet. We don't have a vacuum so by hand Grant picked it up for about 30 minutes.
*Side note- Poor Rosemary brushes our carpet with a rough little brush....things we take for granted. We refuse to buy a vacuum here because they are like $300 or more.
Then people came the next day on a rainy day and fixed it, but dragged mud into our room. Awesome. THEN a few days later, we came home to our bathroom floor like a bathtub because our toilet overflowed. THEN yesterday we find out our borehole is broken again and we have to get water delivered to our house in order to do anything for the next 3 weeks. I hope you are laughing after reading that, because we would like someone to find comic relief in our African saga.
Really and truly though, with much effort on my part and of course Mr. Always Positive Grant, we have continued to find ways to be positive and look on the bright side.This experience attests to how easy we have it in the states. Make no mistake people, you are lucky over there!
But we are lucky here too. Because people have to go through so many challenges, heartache and hard times here, they are very compassionate, sincere people with tough skin and a big heart. We have met so many amazing people. I mean we already have a full schedule over this holiday because we have been invited to so many things.
We will be here for 2 weeks and then off on our trip with Maggie (my sister) and her husband Winston. We have lots of fun things planned including a caneoing/camping trip on the Upper Zambizi in Vic Falls. Not going to lie, a little nervous about this one because of all the hippos that live in that water and the fact that I just found out we will be in inflatable canoes. Sketchy. So keep us in your prayers and thoughts over the New Year while we are canoeing with the hippos and sleeping under mosquito nets and the stars.
So to sum it all up, we miss all of you. We miss our friends and family every day and talk about it every day. We can't wait to be home with people we love and Twain's, mexican food, brunch, fish tacos, good beer, baseball, good beer, good beer and good beer. We are ready to get fat when we come home!
Hope this update finds everyone well. We love and miss you all and Happy Holidays. Christmas won't be the same here without you all.
We have still been dealing with the house going wrong. What is that movie called with Tom Hanks from the late 80s where he buys this fancy house and it falls apart on them. It's sort of like that. One day recently we walked in and the molding in our bedroom had collasped in shambles all over our room and carpet. We don't have a vacuum so by hand Grant picked it up for about 30 minutes.
*Side note- Poor Rosemary brushes our carpet with a rough little brush....things we take for granted. We refuse to buy a vacuum here because they are like $300 or more.
Then people came the next day on a rainy day and fixed it, but dragged mud into our room. Awesome. THEN a few days later, we came home to our bathroom floor like a bathtub because our toilet overflowed. THEN yesterday we find out our borehole is broken again and we have to get water delivered to our house in order to do anything for the next 3 weeks. I hope you are laughing after reading that, because we would like someone to find comic relief in our African saga.
Really and truly though, with much effort on my part and of course Mr. Always Positive Grant, we have continued to find ways to be positive and look on the bright side.This experience attests to how easy we have it in the states. Make no mistake people, you are lucky over there!
But we are lucky here too. Because people have to go through so many challenges, heartache and hard times here, they are very compassionate, sincere people with tough skin and a big heart. We have met so many amazing people. I mean we already have a full schedule over this holiday because we have been invited to so many things.
We will be here for 2 weeks and then off on our trip with Maggie (my sister) and her husband Winston. We have lots of fun things planned including a caneoing/camping trip on the Upper Zambizi in Vic Falls. Not going to lie, a little nervous about this one because of all the hippos that live in that water and the fact that I just found out we will be in inflatable canoes. Sketchy. So keep us in your prayers and thoughts over the New Year while we are canoeing with the hippos and sleeping under mosquito nets and the stars.
So to sum it all up, we miss all of you. We miss our friends and family every day and talk about it every day. We can't wait to be home with people we love and Twain's, mexican food, brunch, fish tacos, good beer, baseball, good beer, good beer and good beer. We are ready to get fat when we come home!
Hope this update finds everyone well. We love and miss you all and Happy Holidays. Christmas won't be the same here without you all.
Florence
So here is a link to our Florence pictures. For getting a new camera we didn't seem to take that many pictures, but we had so much fun with Grant's parents. It was relaxing and I promise if we had taken more pictures, it would have just been us eating and drinking wine and I'm sure people don't want to see that over and over.
Click here and check them out- Florence Pictures
Click here and check them out- Florence Pictures
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Pictures from Tour de Zimbabwe
So I know this has taken a long time but we have been trying to figure out the easiest way to let you all see all our wonderful pictures from mom's trip to see us. So here it is!!! Just click on the link to Picasa and you should be able to see the slideshow of our pictures! If this works we will attach all our pictures from Italy as well! Enjoy!
Here is the link: Tour de Zimbabwe
Here is the link: Tour de Zimbabwe
Sunday, November 14, 2010
The Road Trip Recap (Finally)
So it's only been a month since we started the road trip... I guess now would be as good a time as any to get started updating about it. We thought we'd be able to upload it all in Florence last week, but between the slow internet at the hotel, and the massive amount of time that I spent eating pizza, pasta, and gelato, well you get the point. So we've got to do all of the uploading from Zim which means that it will have to come in small parts.
The Trip:
Jen's mom, Janet, came to visit us, and we spent a week on the road traveling a good chunk of the country. 8 days of traveling, and it looked something like this:
Day 1 - Drove from Harare to Bulawayo. About 6 hours of driving, and we stopped in Bulawayo only really as a halfway point. There isn't exactly alot going on there... We stayed at the Bulawayo Club, which goes back to old Rhodesia, and it still has rules about where women are allowed, and what they're allowed to wear. My favorite part was the betting books that they have kept for almost 70 years, nice light reading while having a drink at the (most of the time) gentlemen only bar. Jen and Janet were allowed in on that night, and we bumped into some other HIS teachers there as well.
Day 2 - Bulwayo to Hwange National Park. Only about 4 hours of driving, but one of those hours was nice off-road driving. More on Hwange later. On a minor note, Jen did get arrested on the way, only had to pay a 10 fine for missing a lug nut.
Day 3 - Hwange
Day 4 - Hwange to Victoria Falls. Another 4 hours. Stopped at the Painted Dog Conservation. Got into our hotel, registered for the activities, slept (as much as you can in 100 degree heat).
Day 5 - Vic Falls. Rafting, Helicopter ride, jumped off the gorge, sunset cruise on the river. More on that later.
Day 6 - Vic Falls to Matopos. About 7 hours, actually a little more with the number of times we had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting cattle, goats, and random people walking on the highway.
Day 7 - Matopos. More on that later.
Day 8 - Matopos back home to Harare.
The Trip:
Jen's mom, Janet, came to visit us, and we spent a week on the road traveling a good chunk of the country. 8 days of traveling, and it looked something like this:
Day 1 - Drove from Harare to Bulawayo. About 6 hours of driving, and we stopped in Bulawayo only really as a halfway point. There isn't exactly alot going on there... We stayed at the Bulawayo Club, which goes back to old Rhodesia, and it still has rules about where women are allowed, and what they're allowed to wear. My favorite part was the betting books that they have kept for almost 70 years, nice light reading while having a drink at the (most of the time) gentlemen only bar. Jen and Janet were allowed in on that night, and we bumped into some other HIS teachers there as well.
Day 2 - Bulwayo to Hwange National Park. Only about 4 hours of driving, but one of those hours was nice off-road driving. More on Hwange later. On a minor note, Jen did get arrested on the way, only had to pay a 10 fine for missing a lug nut.
Day 3 - Hwange
Day 4 - Hwange to Victoria Falls. Another 4 hours. Stopped at the Painted Dog Conservation. Got into our hotel, registered for the activities, slept (as much as you can in 100 degree heat).
Day 5 - Vic Falls. Rafting, Helicopter ride, jumped off the gorge, sunset cruise on the river. More on that later.
Day 6 - Vic Falls to Matopos. About 7 hours, actually a little more with the number of times we had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting cattle, goats, and random people walking on the highway.
Day 7 - Matopos. More on that later.
Day 8 - Matopos back home to Harare.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Checking in pre-European Vacation
I've guess I've fallen off the blogging wagon. Time to get back on. We'll post a recap of our recent road trip around Zimbabwe with pictures and videos once we are in Italy and enjoying high speed Internet. This will have to do for now.
We've both been really busy lately getting lesson plans together for the week of school that we'll miss while we're in PYP training in Florence. This is also report card time, so that is taking up a lot of energy. The report cards here are heavy on the report, not so much on the card. Each "report card" is seven pages long, and that's before any of the specials area teachers add their pieces. They don't involve any actual grades, rather its all performance based. I like the idea of them alot, but I'm not a big fan of writing them out. Everything else at school is going well. We just had our big UN Day on Friday. It begins with all of the students, staff, and lots of parents/guests in the auditorium, lots of little kids singing, some great badn performances, and then they have the flag parade. We had 57 flags carried in by students; definitely a diverse student body here. After the performances there is a tremendous amount of food from all over the world. The parents and different embassies really get into it. In case you were wondering, the US station served Mac and Cheese, PB&J, hot dogs, a chili cook-off, chips, choc. chip cookies, and lots of brownies, and this was all washed down with some Kool-Aid. The rest of the world was filled with some amazing food as well. The children did some educational things, bit I was too busy eating to see much of what was going on. I did use the time to set up a softball game against the Japanese Embassy. I actually think they were serious about being ready to play right then and there. They won't play on school grounds though because they aren't allowed to drink and smoke...
I started playing catch with an American football (I hate that I have to differentiate that word), and kids starting running from out of nowhere to play. I've been teaching everybody how to play, and we've managed several games. We've got pretty big teams now, 5th to 11th grade all mixed, and they're learning pretty quickly. They are learning offense at a much quicker rate: we're averaging way over 100 points a game. We'll keep playing until my arm falls off.
The volleyball regular season is over. The teams head to the ISSEA torunament in Tanzania next week. The top team is amazing when everything clicks together. My team (the second varsity team) is like a Disney sports movie, one kid who can jump out of the gym, but can't spot smashing it into the crowd, students who routinely miss the ball and hit themselves, a couple who get tangled in the net regularly, and a few young guys just learning the basics. We managed to come together, and we actually won our last 2 games. We'll see how things go next year. Basketball try-outs start in 2 weeks.
Juno is getting bigger everyday. She is settling down, and now that she's allowed to sleep in the bedroom with us, she's stopped eating everything that she can fit into her mouth. She got spayed last week, and she's already back to running laps around the house. We get her out as often as we can. Our friends, John and Danielle, have her sister, so they have weekly wrestling matches. There definitely will be no leaving her in Africa when we move back to the States.
So there you go, nothing too new going on. The road trip that we took was amazing, and we'll get to posting that. We are returning to the Falls in January with Winston and Maggie (Jen's sister and brother in law). This time around we've got an overnight canoeing trip on the upper Zambezi, and we'll be going all day rafting on the lower part.
I'll make sure that the next bunch of posts are much more exciting. Jen and I are headed back to hang out at the pool (not normal for us in late October), then going to a Motown music festival, and I'm heading to an Embassy house to watch NFL all night.
We'll catch you from Florence, Italy starting on Thursday.
We've both been really busy lately getting lesson plans together for the week of school that we'll miss while we're in PYP training in Florence. This is also report card time, so that is taking up a lot of energy. The report cards here are heavy on the report, not so much on the card. Each "report card" is seven pages long, and that's before any of the specials area teachers add their pieces. They don't involve any actual grades, rather its all performance based. I like the idea of them alot, but I'm not a big fan of writing them out. Everything else at school is going well. We just had our big UN Day on Friday. It begins with all of the students, staff, and lots of parents/guests in the auditorium, lots of little kids singing, some great badn performances, and then they have the flag parade. We had 57 flags carried in by students; definitely a diverse student body here. After the performances there is a tremendous amount of food from all over the world. The parents and different embassies really get into it. In case you were wondering, the US station served Mac and Cheese, PB&J, hot dogs, a chili cook-off, chips, choc. chip cookies, and lots of brownies, and this was all washed down with some Kool-Aid. The rest of the world was filled with some amazing food as well. The children did some educational things, bit I was too busy eating to see much of what was going on. I did use the time to set up a softball game against the Japanese Embassy. I actually think they were serious about being ready to play right then and there. They won't play on school grounds though because they aren't allowed to drink and smoke...
I started playing catch with an American football (I hate that I have to differentiate that word), and kids starting running from out of nowhere to play. I've been teaching everybody how to play, and we've managed several games. We've got pretty big teams now, 5th to 11th grade all mixed, and they're learning pretty quickly. They are learning offense at a much quicker rate: we're averaging way over 100 points a game. We'll keep playing until my arm falls off.
The volleyball regular season is over. The teams head to the ISSEA torunament in Tanzania next week. The top team is amazing when everything clicks together. My team (the second varsity team) is like a Disney sports movie, one kid who can jump out of the gym, but can't spot smashing it into the crowd, students who routinely miss the ball and hit themselves, a couple who get tangled in the net regularly, and a few young guys just learning the basics. We managed to come together, and we actually won our last 2 games. We'll see how things go next year. Basketball try-outs start in 2 weeks.
Juno is getting bigger everyday. She is settling down, and now that she's allowed to sleep in the bedroom with us, she's stopped eating everything that she can fit into her mouth. She got spayed last week, and she's already back to running laps around the house. We get her out as often as we can. Our friends, John and Danielle, have her sister, so they have weekly wrestling matches. There definitely will be no leaving her in Africa when we move back to the States.
So there you go, nothing too new going on. The road trip that we took was amazing, and we'll get to posting that. We are returning to the Falls in January with Winston and Maggie (Jen's sister and brother in law). This time around we've got an overnight canoeing trip on the upper Zambezi, and we'll be going all day rafting on the lower part.
I'll make sure that the next bunch of posts are much more exciting. Jen and I are headed back to hang out at the pool (not normal for us in late October), then going to a Motown music festival, and I'm heading to an Embassy house to watch NFL all night.
We'll catch you from Florence, Italy starting on Thursday.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Keeping up with the Times....
So I realized how long it has been since we actually updated our blog. I've been trying not to go too long on these things for fear that I will have to write so much. But really our lives have been about as normal as they can be since we last wrote....you know.....moving out of the house so they can update our electric wires so as not to be shocked in the shower again......having no water for a few days b/c our borehole pump wasn't working.....No seriously, other than that life has gotten better and better every day. I will say that Grant and appreciate our home so much more now that we had to move out for over a week to get the electrics worked out. The electrician working on our house said it was the worst he has ever seen of any house he has ever worked on. That's gotta make you feel good. During our time away, we did stay at the bed and breakfast we mentioned in a previous update, and we ended up getting to know Ann, the owner very well. She was born and raised here, her father grew up here. She is about in her late 60s. She is a wonderful, insightful person and took such good care of us. She made us incredible meals, introduced us to some cool people and educated us on the history of Zimbabwe. It is a side of Harare we haven't known yet...the local perspective of life here.
We do work with people from here, but the school provides a sort of life of its own. We liked getting "out of the bubble" so to speak. She has a beautiful plot of land here.
But again...being back home was amazing and being back with Juno was amazing.
The weather has gotten hot pretty fast. The nights are getting warmer and the mosquitoes love Grant at night. We have been just hanging out at home, cooking and walking the dog. Normal stuff.
Our garden is amazing. We have cilantro (coriander here), basil, lettuce, spinach, kale (they call it rape here....not kidding), tomatoes, broccoli, onions and strawberries. It's amazing and so fun to walk out your back door and go pull something out of the garden to eat. We have been really healthy here b/c we eat at home or someone else's home and it's mostly fresh food. Not really any temptations to eat out here. We eat at basically one place out on our Friday night date nights and that's about it.
Last weekend the school had a big volleyball and soccer tournament against a bunch of other schools around here. It was at our school HIS, and it was so fun. Grant's JV volleyball team played pretty well, but mostly it was fun just to be a part of that. There was music and food and lots of people. You could actually hear all the screams from the games from our house. That's how close we are to the school. Unfortunately, the tournament kept Grant from coming on a great overnight trip Saturday night with some of our friends to a place called Mavuradonha (mo-vur-a-donna) and a lodge called Kopje Tops Lodge. We mentioned it in a earlier on update. I went with our friends Russ and Terry and Mouse and Maciej (mach-ay). We basically ate, took a walk to a watering hole, drank and looked for game. It was just rolling hills and lost of dry, tall grasslands. It was relaxing and great....although I did have nightmares a lion was going to come and eat me. I was in a hut all by myself..so give me some credit here. AND Mouse and Russ heard lions way off in the distance in the dark of night. There was no electricity at this place so it's all about the flashlights. But coming home to Grant was nice.
Sunday night we had our most "american" night so far. Some parents of our students work for the American embassy and invited us over for some football watching and grilling out. The embassy provides some beautiful housing and amenities from the states you can't get here. The family had ONE Boston Lager left in their fridge and gave it to me and Grant. We drank it like it was holy water. More Grant than me. We had burgers and watched football on TV. It was quite amazing to feel like we were back home...minus the cooler weather.
We have "Water Fun Day" at school tomorrow where basically the day is spent playing water games and sliding down waterslides brought in to school grounds. Life is tough here.
Then no school Friday and Grant, mom and I are off on Tour de Zimbabwe on Saturday! Mom comes in tonight! I can't believe it! Time is going so fast! We have been waiting for this moment for so long! Speaking of, I must go and get ready for her arrival! I hope this catches everyone up to some degree! We will be writing more as we take all of our wonderful trips!
And by the way....I have been trying to upload my peacock video for 6 HOURS today. I gave up but I will try again tomorrow. We miss you all and think about you all often! Love to everyone!
We do work with people from here, but the school provides a sort of life of its own. We liked getting "out of the bubble" so to speak. She has a beautiful plot of land here.
But again...being back home was amazing and being back with Juno was amazing.
The weather has gotten hot pretty fast. The nights are getting warmer and the mosquitoes love Grant at night. We have been just hanging out at home, cooking and walking the dog. Normal stuff.
Our garden is amazing. We have cilantro (coriander here), basil, lettuce, spinach, kale (they call it rape here....not kidding), tomatoes, broccoli, onions and strawberries. It's amazing and so fun to walk out your back door and go pull something out of the garden to eat. We have been really healthy here b/c we eat at home or someone else's home and it's mostly fresh food. Not really any temptations to eat out here. We eat at basically one place out on our Friday night date nights and that's about it.
Last weekend the school had a big volleyball and soccer tournament against a bunch of other schools around here. It was at our school HIS, and it was so fun. Grant's JV volleyball team played pretty well, but mostly it was fun just to be a part of that. There was music and food and lots of people. You could actually hear all the screams from the games from our house. That's how close we are to the school. Unfortunately, the tournament kept Grant from coming on a great overnight trip Saturday night with some of our friends to a place called Mavuradonha (mo-vur-a-donna) and a lodge called Kopje Tops Lodge. We mentioned it in a earlier on update. I went with our friends Russ and Terry and Mouse and Maciej (mach-ay). We basically ate, took a walk to a watering hole, drank and looked for game. It was just rolling hills and lost of dry, tall grasslands. It was relaxing and great....although I did have nightmares a lion was going to come and eat me. I was in a hut all by myself..so give me some credit here. AND Mouse and Russ heard lions way off in the distance in the dark of night. There was no electricity at this place so it's all about the flashlights. But coming home to Grant was nice.
Sunday night we had our most "american" night so far. Some parents of our students work for the American embassy and invited us over for some football watching and grilling out. The embassy provides some beautiful housing and amenities from the states you can't get here. The family had ONE Boston Lager left in their fridge and gave it to me and Grant. We drank it like it was holy water. More Grant than me. We had burgers and watched football on TV. It was quite amazing to feel like we were back home...minus the cooler weather.
We have "Water Fun Day" at school tomorrow where basically the day is spent playing water games and sliding down waterslides brought in to school grounds. Life is tough here.
Then no school Friday and Grant, mom and I are off on Tour de Zimbabwe on Saturday! Mom comes in tonight! I can't believe it! Time is going so fast! We have been waiting for this moment for so long! Speaking of, I must go and get ready for her arrival! I hope this catches everyone up to some degree! We will be writing more as we take all of our wonderful trips!
And by the way....I have been trying to upload my peacock video for 6 HOURS today. I gave up but I will try again tomorrow. We miss you all and think about you all often! Love to everyone!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Weekend Update September 18/19th
Nice and easy weekend in Zim. Nothing big going on. Our tigerfishing trip feel through, but we're going next weekend now, so we should have some great pictures to post.
Nice dinner out Friday, followed by running into friends at a pub.
Saturday we went out to the Borrowdale Manor to check it out. We'll be staying there for a week or two while our house gets rewired. No more electric showers. Jen and I will be using the same toilet that the Queen Mother and Prince Charles used during their stay in Zimbabwe. Ann, the owner, walked us around the grounds and pointed at trees planted by various dukes and lords, I don't remember a single one of them, but she seemed very impressed. She's letting us bring Juno, and she's a great cook, so we'll be taken care of. It happens to be right around the corner from an Irish pub that I have been trying to find. It is the one place in Harare that has Guinness. I had to control myself walking in. There in the middle of a beautiful bar was a giant Guinnes tap. I walked right up and ordered the largest Guinness I could get, and was then told that they haven't had Guinness in over a year, and that they wouldn't be getting any for a long time. At least this place has wings, and several nice TVs. I'll have to make do watching rugby and soccer, and drinking beer that I can see through.
Today was brunch, shopping to get ready for Jen's mom coming in October, and then the pool, grilling, and crashing.
We just wanted to point out how things here can be very much like home.
All of the high school and middle schools are leaving today to go on their week long field trips. My trip heads out next Monday. We're going to Jabulani.
There should be alot more to post in the upcoming weeks.
Hope all is well back home.
Nice dinner out Friday, followed by running into friends at a pub.
Saturday we went out to the Borrowdale Manor to check it out. We'll be staying there for a week or two while our house gets rewired. No more electric showers. Jen and I will be using the same toilet that the Queen Mother and Prince Charles used during their stay in Zimbabwe. Ann, the owner, walked us around the grounds and pointed at trees planted by various dukes and lords, I don't remember a single one of them, but she seemed very impressed. She's letting us bring Juno, and she's a great cook, so we'll be taken care of. It happens to be right around the corner from an Irish pub that I have been trying to find. It is the one place in Harare that has Guinness. I had to control myself walking in. There in the middle of a beautiful bar was a giant Guinnes tap. I walked right up and ordered the largest Guinness I could get, and was then told that they haven't had Guinness in over a year, and that they wouldn't be getting any for a long time. At least this place has wings, and several nice TVs. I'll have to make do watching rugby and soccer, and drinking beer that I can see through.
Today was brunch, shopping to get ready for Jen's mom coming in October, and then the pool, grilling, and crashing.
We just wanted to point out how things here can be very much like home.
All of the high school and middle schools are leaving today to go on their week long field trips. My trip heads out next Monday. We're going to Jabulani.
There should be alot more to post in the upcoming weeks.
Hope all is well back home.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Updating as usual...
So the post before this shows you at least a little bit of our house. We will be making more short videos to show you. I figure videos help you see the house more easily. Would you believe it took me 40 MINUTES to upload that 30 second video? So you see why we don't do that often. Although I will try and upload the video with peacocks tomorrow. It's fun for you all just to see us in our element. We are starting to plan all these trips now and can't wait to get out of town. Here are a few:
In 2 weekends we are going to Lake Kariba with some friends
In 3 weekends we are going to Mana Pools with the same friends.
In 4 weeks my mom comes and we are going to Vic Falls, Hwange National Park and staying at this amazing place called The Hide which I am most excited about and going to Matopos and staying at this really cool place called Camp Amalinda.
In about 8 weeks we head to Florence, Italy for our PYP (Primary Years Programme) training and staying at a really cool hotel. Grant and I will be gone for a week because we took some personal days to enjoy Florence.
In about 3 1/2 months, we will be going to meet Maggie and Winston in Jo-burg, picking them up and then heading to Kruger National Park and the Drakensberg Mountains. We are still trying to figure out where we still be staying, but we have all been working to research places and find the best! I think we are definitely checking out Sani Pass in the mountains. My travel agent Belinda (without whom I don't think I could have done several of these trips) has been awesome getting all this together.
In about 6 months, Kristin and Will are coming and we have been talking about doing something along the Zambizi River and Botswana, but that is still a work in progress.
So....check out all the places we get to go since I linked them all so you can just click on them and it will take you directly to the websites to learn about all these places. We can't wait for those adventures to begin. Our adventure of learning about how to get around in Harare and feel more settled, has started to calm down. We feel happier each day, and I will be the first to admit that there have been some very hard moments for us here. This opportunity had really forced us to make the best of things, have the upmost of patience, and work together even when we didn't want to in order to stay positive. It is amazing how a place can change you.
So...everything else is good. Work is great and the kids are even greater. We love them more everyday. Juno is getting so big already and we love her so much, although she has managed to be a very naughty puppy by tearing up quite a few things. Our house will be getting better by next week because it will be completely re-wired as it was not completely grounded before. We found this out by me getting electrocuted (mom wants me to say shocked because it sounds better, but I want to be profound in my point here) when I got in the shower. Water and electricity are not supposed to go together. Grant didn't believe me until I made him put his feet in there. It was not fun and I felt the after effects later that day. But Grant was my night in shining armor. He marched right to our bosses and put on his serious face and got it worked out. Other than that, we have mostly had power this past week and we have slept beautifully.
We miss all of you, we love all of you and until next weekend, please keep up the emails! A personal shout-out to Aunt Mary Mahony for sending us our first package of fun (Red Sox flip flops and a picture frame with us in it) and it got here in less than 3 weeks!!!
In 2 weekends we are going to Lake Kariba with some friends
In 3 weekends we are going to Mana Pools with the same friends.
In 4 weeks my mom comes and we are going to Vic Falls, Hwange National Park and staying at this amazing place called The Hide which I am most excited about and going to Matopos and staying at this really cool place called Camp Amalinda.
In about 8 weeks we head to Florence, Italy for our PYP (Primary Years Programme) training and staying at a really cool hotel. Grant and I will be gone for a week because we took some personal days to enjoy Florence.
In about 3 1/2 months, we will be going to meet Maggie and Winston in Jo-burg, picking them up and then heading to Kruger National Park and the Drakensberg Mountains. We are still trying to figure out where we still be staying, but we have all been working to research places and find the best! I think we are definitely checking out Sani Pass in the mountains. My travel agent Belinda (without whom I don't think I could have done several of these trips) has been awesome getting all this together.
In about 6 months, Kristin and Will are coming and we have been talking about doing something along the Zambizi River and Botswana, but that is still a work in progress.
So....check out all the places we get to go since I linked them all so you can just click on them and it will take you directly to the websites to learn about all these places. We can't wait for those adventures to begin. Our adventure of learning about how to get around in Harare and feel more settled, has started to calm down. We feel happier each day, and I will be the first to admit that there have been some very hard moments for us here. This opportunity had really forced us to make the best of things, have the upmost of patience, and work together even when we didn't want to in order to stay positive. It is amazing how a place can change you.
So...everything else is good. Work is great and the kids are even greater. We love them more everyday. Juno is getting so big already and we love her so much, although she has managed to be a very naughty puppy by tearing up quite a few things. Our house will be getting better by next week because it will be completely re-wired as it was not completely grounded before. We found this out by me getting electrocuted (mom wants me to say shocked because it sounds better, but I want to be profound in my point here) when I got in the shower. Water and electricity are not supposed to go together. Grant didn't believe me until I made him put his feet in there. It was not fun and I felt the after effects later that day. But Grant was my night in shining armor. He marched right to our bosses and put on his serious face and got it worked out. Other than that, we have mostly had power this past week and we have slept beautifully.
We miss all of you, we love all of you and until next weekend, please keep up the emails! A personal shout-out to Aunt Mary Mahony for sending us our first package of fun (Red Sox flip flops and a picture frame with us in it) and it got here in less than 3 weeks!!!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Hello again!
So I am going to write this fast because you never know when zesa will go out. I hope you all like the pictures of Juno. We will continue to post pictures of her! Currently I have snuck away from our Family Fun Day here at HIS. There is a pretty good turn out and luckily no dunking of teachers like we have had to be a part of at Nesbit in the past. Although Gran tis right now playing volleyball, adults against the kids. I think the last game was won by the kids. They have really impressive face painting, food, soccer games going, sack races and such to do with your parents, water slide and jump castle. So it's a beautiful day here and lots of happy people. I think I need to get better about bringing my camera because it's funny how much this looks like a Family Fun Day at Nesbit. The only difference is the music. They are playing some American rap and not with certain lyrics taken out. Our director had to ask for them to keep it G-rated. Pretty funny.
Last night Grant had a bunch of guys/men over to grill meat and drink beer while I went to a friend's house with all females and drank wine and had Indian food. That's how it's done around here. I get back home to all the guys sitting in the dark (because there was no zesa) around the fire and approximately 5 empty beer cans below each guy's feet. Oh, and an empty glass from which they were enjoying whiskey. Again, why did I not take pictures? They were all laughing at Grant's always interesting stories. So despite no zesa, they were having fun. Tonight we will go watch a rugby match at a bar and then head home early to get some sleep. SO my point in telling you all this is that it isn't much different from how we would spend a weekend at home (except rugby would be football).
I will say that always going over to each others' houses instead of going out with friends does create quite a nice bond with people. We have gotten really close with a lot of people very fast. It's nice.
I guess I will go rejoin the crowd and watch my students slide down the waterslide and watch my future husband play some soccer. Everyone have a great long weekend and to my Chattanooga family if you read this.....I will be thinking about you all today when you are playing in the Bosco cup and then having a great time at mom and dad's house. My first time to miss my family reunion. Ouch.
Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to upload the peacocks hanging out by my room. You people just have to see it to believe it. Love to you all, Jen and Grant
Last night Grant had a bunch of guys/men over to grill meat and drink beer while I went to a friend's house with all females and drank wine and had Indian food. That's how it's done around here. I get back home to all the guys sitting in the dark (because there was no zesa) around the fire and approximately 5 empty beer cans below each guy's feet. Oh, and an empty glass from which they were enjoying whiskey. Again, why did I not take pictures? They were all laughing at Grant's always interesting stories. So despite no zesa, they were having fun. Tonight we will go watch a rugby match at a bar and then head home early to get some sleep. SO my point in telling you all this is that it isn't much different from how we would spend a weekend at home (except rugby would be football).
I will say that always going over to each others' houses instead of going out with friends does create quite a nice bond with people. We have gotten really close with a lot of people very fast. It's nice.
I guess I will go rejoin the crowd and watch my students slide down the waterslide and watch my future husband play some soccer. Everyone have a great long weekend and to my Chattanooga family if you read this.....I will be thinking about you all today when you are playing in the Bosco cup and then having a great time at mom and dad's house. My first time to miss my family reunion. Ouch.
Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to upload the peacocks hanging out by my room. You people just have to see it to believe it. Love to you all, Jen and Grant
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Grant's update
So first I want to add that we did not have zesa (electricity) all weekend and into yesterday. We were disappointed becuase we want to show you all our puppy, Juno, so you could all see how cute she is. It is pretty much impossible for us to upload any pictures or videos during the week unless we wakled to school in the pitch black late in the night and did it then. So....we have to wait until the weekend to show you pictures. I also have a small video of thepeacocks that chill in front of my classroom. I'm most excited about posting those. So I have attached an email Grant sent out to his family so you all can see another update on what we have been up to! Check out the websites he put on here of the places we get to go to in the coming months.
Here it is:
Maguanani!
Yesterday marked a month that Jen and I have been here in Zim. We had sort of a perfect celebration of that by having over Russ and his wife Terri for dinner. Russ is the principal of the middle and high schools, and he is the person that we spent our time interviewing with in Boston. I cooked dinner (the food turned out very well, I successfully drove to 3 different grocery stores in different neighborhoods, and Jen was able to enjoy a yoga class, these were all great signs of us settling in), and we sat on our patio by our new grill/firepit and talked about the adventure. It’s amazing to think how far we’ve come since February. We shared our experiences with the interviews, and the decision making process, and I felt something change as we sat there. I felt the strong realization that we had chosen where to go, and what to do, and that we had made the right choice. We’ve experienced ups and downs, and been through plenty of challenges, but it feels like we’ve finally arrived. I think back to the week in February all of the time, and last night it just kind of clicked with me that this is what we’re supposed to be doing. The teaching is like it’s supposed to be. The life is quiet, and there is adventure out there to be had. Best of all, there is a GREAT community of teachers and parents, and we’ve really been over whelmed with their generosity. We got our first excursion planned. We’ll be going with Russ and Terri, and some other teachers to the Kopje Tops Lodge the second weekend in October. We are really looking forward to testing out the 4x4 driving, and camping equipment (although we’ll be staying in a tree house lodge). I am taking my fifth grade class to the Imire Safari Ranch for 3 days and 2 nights in the end of September. It should be quite the experience, and it’ll be something totally new for me. I wouldn’t have taken any of my classes from Nesbit, but this bunch of kids have been well versed in this sort of travel. In case you’re looking through the Imire site, we’ll be staying at their bush camp. Yesterday was also our Open House. Jen and I both got to meet almost all of our parents, and it’s pretty amazing to see where they’ve all come from, and why/how they’ve ended up here. It’s definitely an interesting place to live, and the parents spent awhile talking with me about the settling in process (and how I’ll be teaching their kids).
Onto the 1 month up-date:
House
Everything is coming together nicely. It’s starting to feel a lot more like home. We have been working hard to get the yard looking nice (ok, actually Benson our gardener has been doing the work, but we took him to the nursery, and we’ve been talking about it a lot). OUR SHIPMENT ARRIVED! I can’t tell you how fun it was to go through the boxes. Having our own bedding, pots, pans, and other “home” stuff really makes a huge difference. The school supplied us with a starter kit to hold us over until the shipment arrived, but this is a big step up for us. We spend most of our nights with a fire going, and I’ve really gotten into the South African wines, Jen’s been helping me try and figure it all out, but so far I’m not too great at telling the differences. Our garden has been planted, and we’ve got fruit trees in the yard. So far we’re only harvesting kale, but we’ll have a lot more in a few months. The guest bedroom is coming along, still trying to find a way to make it comfortable when people come. Jen’s mom is coming in October, and then her sister and brother and law are coming for the New Year. We’ve got an office, and another bedroom that is basically our store room for now. We’ve got a ton of toothpaste, ketchup, soap, pasta, beans, and other things that we’ll use. Most of the things that we sent will be helpful, but it’s hard to know exactly what to pack. Still trying to figure out why we sent so much chocolate syrup… We’ll have some pictures posted soon.
Car
So far, so good on the car. I feel fully comfortable driving during the day, at night is another story. There are no streetlights, and the folks around here have a tendency to walk in the middle of the road, and wear dark clothing. They also tend to be African. So, combine that all together, and it can be tough. Jen has been driving more, she’s doing a great job. The pictures of the car, known as Frankenstein, are up on the blog. We’ll get the front end fixed up at some point, and the bird poop has been cleaned off. Having the car has made a huge difference. We were starting to get a little cabin fever. We can walk to a set of shops, but it’s nice to be able to get to other places/restaurants/cheaper stores. I’m looking forward to testing out the bush-crashing.
Dog
We got a puppy. Actually our friends got us a puppy. It worked out nicely, we were talking about getting one, and the next day they happened into some great puppies. She’s mostly Rhodesian Ridgeback, also known as African Lion hound. They bred these things to hunt lions… so they are really good dogs to have around the house. She’s great with us, and once she gets to know new people, she’s great with them. We named her Juno (after a friend suggested it for the Roman goddess- protector of the home). She didn’t like being kept out in the grandma cottage the first 2 nights, but she’s been great in the house.
School
The first month has been primarily spent at school. We’ve both been busy planning, and trying to learn the new ‘models’ that we use here at H.I.S. I really think that we both lucked out with the teaching partners. There are 2 teachers on each grade level, so that has been a big change. My partner, Jeanne, and I get along great, and we’ve been able to plan a lot together, and the same thing can be said for Jen and her partner, Stephanie. They have also gone out of their way to help us with the outside of school things. The whole staff has been welcoming, and we’ve had lots of home cooked meals at their homes. They’ve lent us cars, and house supplies, shown us around, and taught us the little things that are important to know around here. I’ve started coaching volleyball, and that has been a lot of fun. I’ve got kids who are amazing, and I’ve got kids who continue to get hit in the face. I’ve had to help kids untangle from the net twice… the first game is on the 8th of Sept. so we’ll see how that goes. Luckily the other varsity coach has done volleyball for a long time, and he’s really good with the drills. When I’m not releasing kids from the net I do more of the one on one and clipboard breaking.
Zim
I wish that we had a little more to add here, but the month has been packed with school, and local trips. So far I have nothing but great things to say about the people. Everyone is friendly, I feel safe everywhere that we have gone, and we haven’t encountered any issues related to safety. There are challenges here, but we’ve been relatively unaffected. Buying things is a challenge. Different stores can have wildly different prices, and things are there one day, and not the next. We’re getting to know places better, and we’re marking places to take people to when they come. There aren’t really any places to go out. I miss Twain’s something fierce. There are a few “pubs” here, but nothing great. Smoking is big here, so they’re all pretty smoky. The beer here is an issue. It’s all pretty bad. We have gotten together at some of the pubs and watched some rugby. It’s not quite like sitting around on a Sunday watching the Pats and eating wings. That’s been the hardest for me so far. The weather here makes up for it all though. There have been a few “chilly” nights (by Georgia standards, not New England). The days have all been mid seventies with no humidity. I got in the pool last weekend, and it’s a little bit away from being swimming temp, but it’ll be really nice in about 2 weeks I’m told. October is supposed to be really hot, and then the rains come and the weather goes back to being nice. We’ll be going to Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park with Jen’s mom in October, so we’ll have more to say about the country. Everyone that we meet is very proud of their country, and they’re all happy to tell us more about places to go.
Let’s see, what else is new?
Our school uses the International Baccalaureate program, and the elementary version the Primary Years Programme. We were supposed to be trained on that before we came. The training would have been in New Jersey, and not the Jersey Shore. Just Princeton, NJ. We tried to get the school to set that up several times, but they didn’t get around to doing it (we found out later it was budgeting). Anyways, this is required training, and it has to be done this year. After looking at the list of possibilities, we are limited to one. Friggin’ Florence Italy! UPGRADE! We’re waiting for final approval of the budget, but we should be going to Florence for a month in the beginning of November. Tough stuff, I know.
Anyways, it’s been a great month. We’re feeling settled, and we’re anxious for more. There are things we miss (family, food, beer), and new things that we’re picked up. We’re looking forward to being able to share it, whether here or by video and pictures. The blog will be updated this weekend.
I hope all is well. When you get a chance, let me know how things are going back home.
Cheers, (that’s the proper sign off here)
Grant
Here it is:
Maguanani!
Yesterday marked a month that Jen and I have been here in Zim. We had sort of a perfect celebration of that by having over Russ and his wife Terri for dinner. Russ is the principal of the middle and high schools, and he is the person that we spent our time interviewing with in Boston. I cooked dinner (the food turned out very well, I successfully drove to 3 different grocery stores in different neighborhoods, and Jen was able to enjoy a yoga class, these were all great signs of us settling in), and we sat on our patio by our new grill/firepit and talked about the adventure. It’s amazing to think how far we’ve come since February. We shared our experiences with the interviews, and the decision making process, and I felt something change as we sat there. I felt the strong realization that we had chosen where to go, and what to do, and that we had made the right choice. We’ve experienced ups and downs, and been through plenty of challenges, but it feels like we’ve finally arrived. I think back to the week in February all of the time, and last night it just kind of clicked with me that this is what we’re supposed to be doing. The teaching is like it’s supposed to be. The life is quiet, and there is adventure out there to be had. Best of all, there is a GREAT community of teachers and parents, and we’ve really been over whelmed with their generosity. We got our first excursion planned. We’ll be going with Russ and Terri, and some other teachers to the Kopje Tops Lodge the second weekend in October. We are really looking forward to testing out the 4x4 driving, and camping equipment (although we’ll be staying in a tree house lodge). I am taking my fifth grade class to the Imire Safari Ranch for 3 days and 2 nights in the end of September. It should be quite the experience, and it’ll be something totally new for me. I wouldn’t have taken any of my classes from Nesbit, but this bunch of kids have been well versed in this sort of travel. In case you’re looking through the Imire site, we’ll be staying at their bush camp. Yesterday was also our Open House. Jen and I both got to meet almost all of our parents, and it’s pretty amazing to see where they’ve all come from, and why/how they’ve ended up here. It’s definitely an interesting place to live, and the parents spent awhile talking with me about the settling in process (and how I’ll be teaching their kids).
Onto the 1 month up-date:
House
Everything is coming together nicely. It’s starting to feel a lot more like home. We have been working hard to get the yard looking nice (ok, actually Benson our gardener has been doing the work, but we took him to the nursery, and we’ve been talking about it a lot). OUR SHIPMENT ARRIVED! I can’t tell you how fun it was to go through the boxes. Having our own bedding, pots, pans, and other “home” stuff really makes a huge difference. The school supplied us with a starter kit to hold us over until the shipment arrived, but this is a big step up for us. We spend most of our nights with a fire going, and I’ve really gotten into the South African wines, Jen’s been helping me try and figure it all out, but so far I’m not too great at telling the differences. Our garden has been planted, and we’ve got fruit trees in the yard. So far we’re only harvesting kale, but we’ll have a lot more in a few months. The guest bedroom is coming along, still trying to find a way to make it comfortable when people come. Jen’s mom is coming in October, and then her sister and brother and law are coming for the New Year. We’ve got an office, and another bedroom that is basically our store room for now. We’ve got a ton of toothpaste, ketchup, soap, pasta, beans, and other things that we’ll use. Most of the things that we sent will be helpful, but it’s hard to know exactly what to pack. Still trying to figure out why we sent so much chocolate syrup… We’ll have some pictures posted soon.
Car
So far, so good on the car. I feel fully comfortable driving during the day, at night is another story. There are no streetlights, and the folks around here have a tendency to walk in the middle of the road, and wear dark clothing. They also tend to be African. So, combine that all together, and it can be tough. Jen has been driving more, she’s doing a great job. The pictures of the car, known as Frankenstein, are up on the blog. We’ll get the front end fixed up at some point, and the bird poop has been cleaned off. Having the car has made a huge difference. We were starting to get a little cabin fever. We can walk to a set of shops, but it’s nice to be able to get to other places/restaurants/cheaper stores. I’m looking forward to testing out the bush-crashing.
Dog
We got a puppy. Actually our friends got us a puppy. It worked out nicely, we were talking about getting one, and the next day they happened into some great puppies. She’s mostly Rhodesian Ridgeback, also known as African Lion hound. They bred these things to hunt lions… so they are really good dogs to have around the house. She’s great with us, and once she gets to know new people, she’s great with them. We named her Juno (after a friend suggested it for the Roman goddess- protector of the home). She didn’t like being kept out in the grandma cottage the first 2 nights, but she’s been great in the house.
School
The first month has been primarily spent at school. We’ve both been busy planning, and trying to learn the new ‘models’ that we use here at H.I.S. I really think that we both lucked out with the teaching partners. There are 2 teachers on each grade level, so that has been a big change. My partner, Jeanne, and I get along great, and we’ve been able to plan a lot together, and the same thing can be said for Jen and her partner, Stephanie. They have also gone out of their way to help us with the outside of school things. The whole staff has been welcoming, and we’ve had lots of home cooked meals at their homes. They’ve lent us cars, and house supplies, shown us around, and taught us the little things that are important to know around here. I’ve started coaching volleyball, and that has been a lot of fun. I’ve got kids who are amazing, and I’ve got kids who continue to get hit in the face. I’ve had to help kids untangle from the net twice… the first game is on the 8th of Sept. so we’ll see how that goes. Luckily the other varsity coach has done volleyball for a long time, and he’s really good with the drills. When I’m not releasing kids from the net I do more of the one on one and clipboard breaking.
Zim
I wish that we had a little more to add here, but the month has been packed with school, and local trips. So far I have nothing but great things to say about the people. Everyone is friendly, I feel safe everywhere that we have gone, and we haven’t encountered any issues related to safety. There are challenges here, but we’ve been relatively unaffected. Buying things is a challenge. Different stores can have wildly different prices, and things are there one day, and not the next. We’re getting to know places better, and we’re marking places to take people to when they come. There aren’t really any places to go out. I miss Twain’s something fierce. There are a few “pubs” here, but nothing great. Smoking is big here, so they’re all pretty smoky. The beer here is an issue. It’s all pretty bad. We have gotten together at some of the pubs and watched some rugby. It’s not quite like sitting around on a Sunday watching the Pats and eating wings. That’s been the hardest for me so far. The weather here makes up for it all though. There have been a few “chilly” nights (by Georgia standards, not New England). The days have all been mid seventies with no humidity. I got in the pool last weekend, and it’s a little bit away from being swimming temp, but it’ll be really nice in about 2 weeks I’m told. October is supposed to be really hot, and then the rains come and the weather goes back to being nice. We’ll be going to Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park with Jen’s mom in October, so we’ll have more to say about the country. Everyone that we meet is very proud of their country, and they’re all happy to tell us more about places to go.
Let’s see, what else is new?
Our school uses the International Baccalaureate program, and the elementary version the Primary Years Programme. We were supposed to be trained on that before we came. The training would have been in New Jersey, and not the Jersey Shore. Just Princeton, NJ. We tried to get the school to set that up several times, but they didn’t get around to doing it (we found out later it was budgeting). Anyways, this is required training, and it has to be done this year. After looking at the list of possibilities, we are limited to one. Friggin’ Florence Italy! UPGRADE! We’re waiting for final approval of the budget, but we should be going to Florence for a month in the beginning of November. Tough stuff, I know.
Anyways, it’s been a great month. We’re feeling settled, and we’re anxious for more. There are things we miss (family, food, beer), and new things that we’re picked up. We’re looking forward to being able to share it, whether here or by video and pictures. The blog will be updated this weekend.
I hope all is well. When you get a chance, let me know how things are going back home.
Cheers, (that’s the proper sign off here)
Grant
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Our new car
 |
| Not going to put a plow on this, not going to? Chee! (sorry, that's for NH folks only) |
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
A few pictures from our first game drive
Nothing too special, having some camera issues, but if you like looking at the back end of ostriches, it's your lucky day. The shots of the rhino didn't come out clearly at all, I'll do better next time, maybe get out of the car and chase it down. A kind of cool shot of the sun coming through the clouds, and then the new teachers hanging out of the cars looking at the rhino... more to come.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Satellite view of the house
Go the the school's website:
www.his-zim.com
Enter the website, then click on 'Campus' on the left side.
You'll see a satellite view on the campus which you can click on and then bring up the 'Hybrid' view which will overlay streets onto the map.
If you pan directly North of the school we're on Westcott Rd. at the intersection of Moorgate. If you zoom in there, we are the 2nd house on the right (on Wescott)
You can see the pool in the front yard, the garden in the back, along with the "domestics'" place in the back right of ours.
There's alot to see around us as well, the school, the neighborhoods, shops, golf courses, and then the city down south of us.
I just wanted to put away the idea that we were living in a mud hut, or spear hunting for dinner (not to say that won't happen...)
(for reference, click on the red spot near Quorn Ave. The Arundel Shops are where walk to for groceries, coffee, and most anything we would need. It's expensive, so it's more a convience, but there are much cheaper shops a short drive away).
www.his-zim.com
Enter the website, then click on 'Campus' on the left side.
You'll see a satellite view on the campus which you can click on and then bring up the 'Hybrid' view which will overlay streets onto the map.
If you pan directly North of the school we're on Westcott Rd. at the intersection of Moorgate. If you zoom in there, we are the 2nd house on the right (on Wescott)
You can see the pool in the front yard, the garden in the back, along with the "domestics'" place in the back right of ours.
There's alot to see around us as well, the school, the neighborhoods, shops, golf courses, and then the city down south of us.
I just wanted to put away the idea that we were living in a mud hut, or spear hunting for dinner (not to say that won't happen...)
(for reference, click on the red spot near Quorn Ave. The Arundel Shops are where walk to for groceries, coffee, and most anything we would need. It's expensive, so it's more a convience, but there are much cheaper shops a short drive away).
Our contact info:
I can't understate how nice it is to hear from home. We're loving it here (more or less), but it's nice to hear from you folks, and get an idea of what's going with you all, what's new in sports, or what the latest entertainment gossip is for Jen... priorities.
The internet works s l o w l y here, thinnk early dial up days, minus that sound. I'm not complaining, we've got acces to the internet, but we kind of have to pick and choose what we try to keep up with.
Our school emails are the best way to reach us:
jhorton@his.ac.zw (that's Jen's)
gknowles@his.ac.zw (that's Grant's)
We've got cell phones set up now:
Grant: 263-4-091-242-3489
Jen: 263-4-091-225-2891
Our home landline has been set-up. You can call us at:
011-263-4-369001
Our physical address is
18 Westcott Rd.
Mt. Pleasant
Harare, Zimbabwe
Our mailing address is
66 Pendennis Rd.
Mt. Pleasant
Harare, Zimbabwe
In case you wanted to send snail mail, a care package, or some good beer (more on that later)
The internet works s l o w l y here, thinnk early dial up days, minus that sound. I'm not complaining, we've got acces to the internet, but we kind of have to pick and choose what we try to keep up with.
Our school emails are the best way to reach us:
jhorton@his.ac.zw (that's Jen's)
gknowles@his.ac.zw (that's Grant's)
We've got cell phones set up now:
Grant: 263-4-091-242-3489
Jen: 263-4-091-225-2891
Our home landline has been set-up. You can call us at:
011-263-4-369001
Our physical address is
18 Westcott Rd.
Mt. Pleasant
Harare, Zimbabwe
Our mailing address is
66 Pendennis Rd.
Mt. Pleasant
Harare, Zimbabwe
In case you wanted to send snail mail, a care package, or some good beer (more on that later)
Jen's email #4
Today was my first day with the kids and let me tell you how the day started. Last night was basically a windstorm that seemed to shake everything in our house. All the windows were open and I couldn’t sleep. Grant couldn’t sleep b/c I couldn’t sleep so in order to help me sleep, we got up in the freezing cold that was like a blast of wind each time you passed an open window, and closed all the windows . Didn’t help. Then outside of our bedroom window a fuse blew and it was like 4th of July fireworks. It woke me up again and then the electricity went out so no sound machine, just silence and dogs barking and wind. I was wide-eyed and so tired, and I think I finally got about 2 hours of sleep. Then we woke up and tried to run the generator so we could take showers and turn on lights, but to no avail. It wouldn’t work b/c a fuse had blown. So I am not clean and the wind is freezing and there is gloomy weather. I made us eggs on the gas burners and off we go, a little stressed and leaving much later than we wanted to. So we get here and there is a peacock standing by my door.
*Side note-Yesterday, the same one sat on the table outside my door and while I tried to put stuff on my door for the parents the next day, he just sat there and stared at me. I would run out and tape something, then run back in. I have no idea why I am letting these animals get the best of me. When I close the door they just sit outside my door like they want to come in. So freaky.*
Anyway, we get to school totally frazzled..Long story short….I was a mess this morning, one of my students took a huge number 1 in his pants while sitting on my carpet and no one came to clean it up until now (6 hours later), my room spelled like pee all day, a peacock tried to come in my room and we had no power in our house until just now, and my scavenger hunt with my students to learn about the campus went totally wrong b/c it was so cold and they all wanted to go home. Fun day.
Positive note: I have extremely smart kids, 14 students, so cute and funny. They made me laugh all day. I had 2 straight hours of break. Apparently the entire elementary school stops teaching from 9-9:30 for a tea break and so the kids can play outside. So each grade level has assistants who watch the kids, and all the teachers have morning tea together. Weird. Grant and I both are now drinking tea. Then they have 2 specials in a day and my schedule today had them back to back right after my tea break. Rough life. At lunch the assistants eat with them so we have a 45 minute lunch break too where we all sit at tables outside. Jealous teachers???
I traced my hands , cut them out and put them on my calendar area for reminding them of left and right. One of kids said “Ms.Hdjadsa (b/c they can’t quite pronounce it yet), you have tiny hands.” Hilarious.
So here are some of their cute little names…let’s see if you can pronounce a few….Enyonam, Big (that shouldn’t be too hard and he is the cutest thing I have ever seen), Bersabel, Tadiwa, Emelon.
All in all the day started out like my room smelled today…not good. But it ended great. All the parents wait outside your room right before dismissal and pick their kids up and talk to you and hang out. It’s fun. I have great parents.
I hope you enjoyed my story.
P.S. The bird I mentioned in my previous email with the cool African beat for a birdsong….yeah…it’s a dove. So that’s a let down.
*Side note-Yesterday, the same one sat on the table outside my door and while I tried to put stuff on my door for the parents the next day, he just sat there and stared at me. I would run out and tape something, then run back in. I have no idea why I am letting these animals get the best of me. When I close the door they just sit outside my door like they want to come in. So freaky.*
Anyway, we get to school totally frazzled..Long story short….I was a mess this morning, one of my students took a huge number 1 in his pants while sitting on my carpet and no one came to clean it up until now (6 hours later), my room spelled like pee all day, a peacock tried to come in my room and we had no power in our house until just now, and my scavenger hunt with my students to learn about the campus went totally wrong b/c it was so cold and they all wanted to go home. Fun day.
Positive note: I have extremely smart kids, 14 students, so cute and funny. They made me laugh all day. I had 2 straight hours of break. Apparently the entire elementary school stops teaching from 9-9:30 for a tea break and so the kids can play outside. So each grade level has assistants who watch the kids, and all the teachers have morning tea together. Weird. Grant and I both are now drinking tea. Then they have 2 specials in a day and my schedule today had them back to back right after my tea break. Rough life. At lunch the assistants eat with them so we have a 45 minute lunch break too where we all sit at tables outside. Jealous teachers???
I traced my hands , cut them out and put them on my calendar area for reminding them of left and right. One of kids said “Ms.Hdjadsa (b/c they can’t quite pronounce it yet), you have tiny hands.” Hilarious.
So here are some of their cute little names…let’s see if you can pronounce a few….Enyonam, Big (that shouldn’t be too hard and he is the cutest thing I have ever seen), Bersabel, Tadiwa, Emelon.
All in all the day started out like my room smelled today…not good. But it ended great. All the parents wait outside your room right before dismissal and pick their kids up and talk to you and hang out. It’s fun. I have great parents.
I hope you enjoyed my story.
P.S. The bird I mentioned in my previous email with the cool African beat for a birdsong….yeah…it’s a dove. So that’s a let down.
Jen's email #3
School: So since I last talked about work, we had our first staff teacher workday on Thursday of last week. There are less than 100 staff members so it was a little weird going to something so small. The conversations were a little different as well. The meeting started off by our director telling us he was having a party after school that day starting at 3 until 7 and everyone should come over after work. Then the conversation went into which staff members were the best bartenders and how wild these parties can get. Not your everyday work conversations. They made all the new teachers stand up with a microphone and tell a little about themselves and something interesting about yourself. Of course I immediately start sweating b/c I am not cool in these situations. To make matters worse, Grant went before me and had the whole staff laughing with his charming humor. Whatever, I made it through. So that day we didn’t get much done b/c all everyone wanted to do was socialize. Grant and I walked home for an hour lunch break and before we knew it, it was time for the party. So…um these teachers can drink and be merry. I wish I could describe the party after school. It was catered with Zimbabwian snacks and alcohol. It was a chance for teachers to get to know each other and let loose. I think the walls came tumbling down at that party and we saw all kinds of personality. A lot of the teachers here have great stories and actually most of them are not from the states. Grant and I can’t think of too many places that aren’t covered. Mostly from the Americas, Europe and Africa. So work is going nicely and we have our rooms looking much better. We got our class lists and these are the countries that are represented in my class so far: Ghana, Congo, Zim, Belgium, Macedonia, Pakistan, Denmark, Canada, US. What a class!!!! Grant’s is about the same but also Japan, China, Israel and he has a few students who speak no English.
Home: Our home is coming along as well. We have made a lot of efforts over this holiday weekend to buy things to make it cozier. We have been told that our shipment has docked and we should get our boxes within the next 2 weeks. We had a meeting with our housekeeper Rosemary and gardener, Benson about our contract with them. It is really strange to sit down with people and have a conversation about what you would like done around your house. They are great people though and we are trying to help them as much as possible. I think we will give them a pay raise and pay for their daughter’s schooling. We will also buy them groceries once a month and cover medical issues as they come up. We went to a flea market the other day and found some really cool things for our house. Each morning I wake up to a bird singing a very specific beat. I swear Africans got their musical talent from birds. Every time I hear this bird I can’t stop myself from dancing to it’s beat. I think of Laura (my sister) each time b/c I know she would be dancing along with me.
Adventures; So the after the above mentioned party with teachers ended, we decided to go over to some teachers’ house to have some more fun. We only stayed about an hour and then some of us got tired. We have made very good friends with a couple that are also new teachers: John from Scotland and Danielle from Ireland. We decided that we could get ourselves home (about 10 minutes away) b/c we had a map. Well, that was not the case and it was very dark. They don’t have street lights really so it’s pitch black most places. We were lost for an hour and a half driving around in circles. I mean that literally b/c at one point we were driving around a roundabout for 5 minutes not knowing where to go. We were also laughing so hard b/c we just could not get left. It made me think of National Lampoon’s European Vacation. Anyway, we finally found our way somehow. It was a good bonding moment for the 4 of us and we have been hanging out together since. Continuing to get lost.
Everyone around let’s you borrow their car. Several staff members have come up, introduced themselves, and then offered to loan out their cars. We’re still in the process of car shopping which is both more fun and less fun than you would think. We’ve decided to hold out until we find something that we really like. Anyways we borrowed a big Land Cruiser for the 4 day weekend, and we’ve been getting around town pretty well. Grant is doing all of the driving, on the left side of the road, manual transmission, and with people that tend to walk in the middle of the road. It’s been an adventure, but we have been able to pick up larger items for the house like carpet, plants, yard tools, and more fun stuff. We wandered into a nursery yesterday that was filled with amazing plants and sculptures, all beautiful, and very cheap. We walked around for a long time, and we can’t wit to show it off. They’ve got lots of sculptures from local artists. We went home with a warthog and ostrich made of scrap metal. They’ve got lots of furniture made there as well, all very cheap, plus a coffee house and Belgian chocolate.
Everywhere we go we think about taking visitors. We hope all is well at home, keep us updated.
Gotta go, peacocks are trying to sneak into the room…
Love Jen and Grant
Home: Our home is coming along as well. We have made a lot of efforts over this holiday weekend to buy things to make it cozier. We have been told that our shipment has docked and we should get our boxes within the next 2 weeks. We had a meeting with our housekeeper Rosemary and gardener, Benson about our contract with them. It is really strange to sit down with people and have a conversation about what you would like done around your house. They are great people though and we are trying to help them as much as possible. I think we will give them a pay raise and pay for their daughter’s schooling. We will also buy them groceries once a month and cover medical issues as they come up. We went to a flea market the other day and found some really cool things for our house. Each morning I wake up to a bird singing a very specific beat. I swear Africans got their musical talent from birds. Every time I hear this bird I can’t stop myself from dancing to it’s beat. I think of Laura (my sister) each time b/c I know she would be dancing along with me.
Adventures; So the after the above mentioned party with teachers ended, we decided to go over to some teachers’ house to have some more fun. We only stayed about an hour and then some of us got tired. We have made very good friends with a couple that are also new teachers: John from Scotland and Danielle from Ireland. We decided that we could get ourselves home (about 10 minutes away) b/c we had a map. Well, that was not the case and it was very dark. They don’t have street lights really so it’s pitch black most places. We were lost for an hour and a half driving around in circles. I mean that literally b/c at one point we were driving around a roundabout for 5 minutes not knowing where to go. We were also laughing so hard b/c we just could not get left. It made me think of National Lampoon’s European Vacation. Anyway, we finally found our way somehow. It was a good bonding moment for the 4 of us and we have been hanging out together since. Continuing to get lost.
Everyone around let’s you borrow their car. Several staff members have come up, introduced themselves, and then offered to loan out their cars. We’re still in the process of car shopping which is both more fun and less fun than you would think. We’ve decided to hold out until we find something that we really like. Anyways we borrowed a big Land Cruiser for the 4 day weekend, and we’ve been getting around town pretty well. Grant is doing all of the driving, on the left side of the road, manual transmission, and with people that tend to walk in the middle of the road. It’s been an adventure, but we have been able to pick up larger items for the house like carpet, plants, yard tools, and more fun stuff. We wandered into a nursery yesterday that was filled with amazing plants and sculptures, all beautiful, and very cheap. We walked around for a long time, and we can’t wit to show it off. They’ve got lots of sculptures from local artists. We went home with a warthog and ostrich made of scrap metal. They’ve got lots of furniture made there as well, all very cheap, plus a coffee house and Belgian chocolate.
Everywhere we go we think about taking visitors. We hope all is well at home, keep us updated.
Gotta go, peacocks are trying to sneak into the room…
Love Jen and Grant
Jen's email #2
Hello again! So I’m here giving you another update on things here. I think I emailed you all on Thursday. Well on Thursday night we went over to our boss’ house for pizza and getting to know everyone.
|Friday we went to our little shopping center where you can buy groceries. It’s a cute little shopping center. Looks like it belongs out west, it’s all wood buildings and very quaint. It was not at all what I imagined. The grocery store was very nice, but expensive. $20 for olive oil and shaving cream!!! Insane and we stuck to veggie oil and soap. Then Friday night, we went over to one of the administrator’s house for dinner. Grant and I have become pretty close with him. He invited all the new teachers and their families over for a true zimbabwian dinner. We had chicken, sadza (it’s a type of cornmeal cooked and look like mashed potatoes from afar but is very mealy…probably a bad description), cooked kale and some sort of amazing gravy. And it’s traditional to eat with your hands so that was interesting. Everyone talking with food covered fingers and licking fingers throughout the conversation. That will create close relationships. It was fun though. We all sat around and talked and had African wine until about 11:30. We got an ok night’s sleep that night. Probably from the drinking.
Saturday, we went to the area called sam levy village. It was a strip of shops, restaurants and grocery stores. It’s so cute and outdoors. Very nice. Not what you are thinking with like chickens flying around everywhere and people yelling at you in the street to but their product. It’s nice stores and very quiet. We had fun. Then Friday night was grant’s and my first night alone in the house. We had no power all day Saturday. So when we got back from our day of shopping we found things to talk about. It’s weird when you have no distractions like tv and computers to take away from each other what you find to talk about. So we sat around and then cooked a dinner on our gas burner that we have when power is out. We made okra and cherry tomatoes and chicken with mushrooms. We had to cook before 6 b/c after that it gets dark. We ate at about 545. Had a lovely dinner outside on our patio furniture with amazing weather, watched the sunset, drank south African red wine…..so romantic. Then it got dark, still no power and we looked at each other and started laughing b/c we didn’t know what to do. So we sat in the dark for a while talking about what we wanted to get for our house. We got a decent amount of money to start getting our house to our liking and we talked about what else we could buy……..then at 8 we got bored and decided to turn on our generator so we could watch a movie. Grant made me watch the ghost and the darkness. He thought it would be a fun, spooky movie to watch since it’s a true story about the African wild. But it just ended up being a cheesy Michael Douglas movie from the 1980s. but it passed the time. So we went to bed and for the 2nd night in a row we both woke up at 11:30 at night wide awake. So we sat in bed and watched reruns of the Jersey Shore on grant’s IPOD until it died.
So yesterday we woke up and walked down to the spar(the grocery store shopping area) since it’s really close to us and had breakfast and bought water (big commodity here). Then we came to school and met all the new teachers for a fun day of adventure. We went to this bird sanctuary and had lunch and sat there for about 1 ½ hours just relaxing. There was a huge lake there. So nice. Then we went on a game drive through a protected park about 45 min from Harare. It was so cool. We saw zebra, antelope, warthogs, ostriches, impalas and a rhino. Apparently rhinos are becoming extinct here. One is killed a week and there are only about 100 of them in zim right now. They actually have men who follow rhino families around in the wild as their job to keep them safe from poachers. Crazy! Alright so that brings us to today. We had work related orientation most of the day and went car shopping. We are going car shopping again tomorrow as well. Grant wants to get us something big and fun. We shall see. I love you all and will keep you updated!
|Friday we went to our little shopping center where you can buy groceries. It’s a cute little shopping center. Looks like it belongs out west, it’s all wood buildings and very quaint. It was not at all what I imagined. The grocery store was very nice, but expensive. $20 for olive oil and shaving cream!!! Insane and we stuck to veggie oil and soap. Then Friday night, we went over to one of the administrator’s house for dinner. Grant and I have become pretty close with him. He invited all the new teachers and their families over for a true zimbabwian dinner. We had chicken, sadza (it’s a type of cornmeal cooked and look like mashed potatoes from afar but is very mealy…probably a bad description), cooked kale and some sort of amazing gravy. And it’s traditional to eat with your hands so that was interesting. Everyone talking with food covered fingers and licking fingers throughout the conversation. That will create close relationships. It was fun though. We all sat around and talked and had African wine until about 11:30. We got an ok night’s sleep that night. Probably from the drinking.
Saturday, we went to the area called sam levy village. It was a strip of shops, restaurants and grocery stores. It’s so cute and outdoors. Very nice. Not what you are thinking with like chickens flying around everywhere and people yelling at you in the street to but their product. It’s nice stores and very quiet. We had fun. Then Friday night was grant’s and my first night alone in the house. We had no power all day Saturday. So when we got back from our day of shopping we found things to talk about. It’s weird when you have no distractions like tv and computers to take away from each other what you find to talk about. So we sat around and then cooked a dinner on our gas burner that we have when power is out. We made okra and cherry tomatoes and chicken with mushrooms. We had to cook before 6 b/c after that it gets dark. We ate at about 545. Had a lovely dinner outside on our patio furniture with amazing weather, watched the sunset, drank south African red wine…..so romantic. Then it got dark, still no power and we looked at each other and started laughing b/c we didn’t know what to do. So we sat in the dark for a while talking about what we wanted to get for our house. We got a decent amount of money to start getting our house to our liking and we talked about what else we could buy……..then at 8 we got bored and decided to turn on our generator so we could watch a movie. Grant made me watch the ghost and the darkness. He thought it would be a fun, spooky movie to watch since it’s a true story about the African wild. But it just ended up being a cheesy Michael Douglas movie from the 1980s. but it passed the time. So we went to bed and for the 2nd night in a row we both woke up at 11:30 at night wide awake. So we sat in bed and watched reruns of the Jersey Shore on grant’s IPOD until it died.
So yesterday we woke up and walked down to the spar(the grocery store shopping area) since it’s really close to us and had breakfast and bought water (big commodity here). Then we came to school and met all the new teachers for a fun day of adventure. We went to this bird sanctuary and had lunch and sat there for about 1 ½ hours just relaxing. There was a huge lake there. So nice. Then we went on a game drive through a protected park about 45 min from Harare. It was so cool. We saw zebra, antelope, warthogs, ostriches, impalas and a rhino. Apparently rhinos are becoming extinct here. One is killed a week and there are only about 100 of them in zim right now. They actually have men who follow rhino families around in the wild as their job to keep them safe from poachers. Crazy! Alright so that brings us to today. We had work related orientation most of the day and went car shopping. We are going car shopping again tomorrow as well. Grant wants to get us something big and fun. We shall see. I love you all and will keep you updated!
We're here (2 weeks after arriving)
First off, WE'RE HERE! Sorry about the delay in posting, but it's been a little busy... The first few posts will be the massive emails Jen has sent to the fam, so they should give you a good idea of what has been going on. We're in the process of video-ing the school and the house, and I think we're getting a car on Monday, so we'll be able to show you a lot more.
first off, there is no need to worry about anything. we feel very safe and everyone here at the school and around our house have been so friendly.
when we got here: russ and paul, the 2 men that hired us were waiting for us and the new principal of elem school and her daughter. they picked us up in a small bus and took us straight to our houses. when we got there we were introduced to our gardener and housekeeper. then we were left there to relax and settle in for a minute. the manger of all the houses came by to go over everything with us like the generator and alarm system and such. then we were picked up a few hours later to go over to the director paul's house and have pizza and meet all the new teachers. there are many young couples that are new and wonderful people.
about the house: we are about a 2 minute walk from school. you come out of our gate, take a left and walk right about a football field length and you are at the back entrance of the school. it's great. we have a wall all around our house with a working electric barbed wire on top of it. we have an electric metal door that opens up to the driveway and a metal door to walk out of to walk onto the street. we have an alarm system but probably won't use it much (i'll explain in a minute why) AND a panic button in case of an emergency. so i think we are set.
our house is very old and outdated. the yard is huge and beautiful and our living room and bedroom is nice, but the kitchen and bathroom are more outdated than my decatur house bathroom. we will adjust though. grant tried to make breakfast this morning and burned the eggs. he tried and it was still good. they had some food set up for us in our fridge and cabinets until they take us to the store today. very nice. you basically leave the windows and doors open all day. it's perfect weather with a perfect breeze. it will take some getting use to the old house. we slept terrible last night. no sound machine, just silence. grant woke up at about 10:45 thinking it was 4 in the morning and watched reruns of the jersey shore on his ipod for hours. We both had intense and aggressive dreams where our life back home and where we are here were overlapping. It was weird.
Rosemary and benson are our lovely couple who live on our property and take care of our house. They have a 1 yr old boy who is attached to the back of rosemary at all times with a blanket and an 8yr old daughter. She is in 2nd grade. They are the cutest family and have lived on the property since 2000 and we are the 3rd family to live there with them. Benson works so hard on our HUGE yard all day and on the pool. Rosemary works in the house. We got a list of cleaning stuff she will need from us to clean the house. Weird. And grant and I woke up this morning to rosemary cleaning the kitchen. Apparently she has a key to get in the house which is why we probably will not be setting the alarm at night. It was funny b/c grant and I were like “should we get up and go talk to her?” after breakfast, she cleaned up after us. This will take some getting used to. I feel bad just dropping off plates in the sink and leaving it there. But she was patiently waiting.
Grant asked her what she did for fun this morning and she looked at him like “what?” she looked at me and asked what he meant. I don’t think fun times is in her vocabulary. She told him she goes to “shash” on Saturdays. Grant said “is that the market?” she was saying church. It was funny.
So virgin lost one of my bags with all my undergarments and bathing supplies so I am patiently waiting for that. It’s hard not having a phone. I’ve had to rely on other people to find out about my bag. They also lost grant’s backpack. BUT, there only redeeming quality at this point is that when we were checking for our 11 hr flight to jo-burg, I jokingly asked to be upgraded to the funny lady when we were getting on the plane and she said done! So grant and I sat premium seating on the plane. It was heavenly.
Patience: so lastly, apparently we won’t be getting our boxes for possibly a month so all our things that make us feel a little more comfortable will have to wait. They gave us temporary sheets and towels but it certainly is not comforting. At this point it isn’t euphoric, but more the mentality of ‘do what you have to do’ and get through the day. At least we have each other though and we’ve been laughing at stuff a lot. I think it will all get a little easier when we start work on Monday.
So tonight we will eat at one of the administrators house a ‘true zimbabwian meal’. Tomorrow they will take us to the market where we will use our 2500 dollars in cash they gave us to buy things for our house and dinner we are on our own. Then Sunday they are taking us to a reserve to check out some African animals.
We will try to update our website soon with video of London and our house.
I miss you all very much but once we get to work I will be able to communicate with you all a lot more frequently. It looks like we can skype from our classrooms so that’s cool.
The school: we walked down here this morning and walked around. We saw our classrooms. They are big and nice and windows all around with a skylight. So cool. Everyone who works on campus has been so friendly and nice. The campus is very green and beautiful. There are peacocks everywhere on campus which is weird. Baby peacocks are ugly. We walked up to my classroom and of course all the peacocks are chilling on the bench next to the door of my class. Not cool.
Okay so I think that’s it for now. I love you all so much and miss you!
first off, there is no need to worry about anything. we feel very safe and everyone here at the school and around our house have been so friendly.
when we got here: russ and paul, the 2 men that hired us were waiting for us and the new principal of elem school and her daughter. they picked us up in a small bus and took us straight to our houses. when we got there we were introduced to our gardener and housekeeper. then we were left there to relax and settle in for a minute. the manger of all the houses came by to go over everything with us like the generator and alarm system and such. then we were picked up a few hours later to go over to the director paul's house and have pizza and meet all the new teachers. there are many young couples that are new and wonderful people.
about the house: we are about a 2 minute walk from school. you come out of our gate, take a left and walk right about a football field length and you are at the back entrance of the school. it's great. we have a wall all around our house with a working electric barbed wire on top of it. we have an electric metal door that opens up to the driveway and a metal door to walk out of to walk onto the street. we have an alarm system but probably won't use it much (i'll explain in a minute why) AND a panic button in case of an emergency. so i think we are set.
our house is very old and outdated. the yard is huge and beautiful and our living room and bedroom is nice, but the kitchen and bathroom are more outdated than my decatur house bathroom. we will adjust though. grant tried to make breakfast this morning and burned the eggs. he tried and it was still good. they had some food set up for us in our fridge and cabinets until they take us to the store today. very nice. you basically leave the windows and doors open all day. it's perfect weather with a perfect breeze. it will take some getting use to the old house. we slept terrible last night. no sound machine, just silence. grant woke up at about 10:45 thinking it was 4 in the morning and watched reruns of the jersey shore on his ipod for hours. We both had intense and aggressive dreams where our life back home and where we are here were overlapping. It was weird.
Rosemary and benson are our lovely couple who live on our property and take care of our house. They have a 1 yr old boy who is attached to the back of rosemary at all times with a blanket and an 8yr old daughter. She is in 2nd grade. They are the cutest family and have lived on the property since 2000 and we are the 3rd family to live there with them. Benson works so hard on our HUGE yard all day and on the pool. Rosemary works in the house. We got a list of cleaning stuff she will need from us to clean the house. Weird. And grant and I woke up this morning to rosemary cleaning the kitchen. Apparently she has a key to get in the house which is why we probably will not be setting the alarm at night. It was funny b/c grant and I were like “should we get up and go talk to her?” after breakfast, she cleaned up after us. This will take some getting used to. I feel bad just dropping off plates in the sink and leaving it there. But she was patiently waiting.
Grant asked her what she did for fun this morning and she looked at him like “what?” she looked at me and asked what he meant. I don’t think fun times is in her vocabulary. She told him she goes to “shash” on Saturdays. Grant said “is that the market?” she was saying church. It was funny.
So virgin lost one of my bags with all my undergarments and bathing supplies so I am patiently waiting for that. It’s hard not having a phone. I’ve had to rely on other people to find out about my bag. They also lost grant’s backpack. BUT, there only redeeming quality at this point is that when we were checking for our 11 hr flight to jo-burg, I jokingly asked to be upgraded to the funny lady when we were getting on the plane and she said done! So grant and I sat premium seating on the plane. It was heavenly.
Patience: so lastly, apparently we won’t be getting our boxes for possibly a month so all our things that make us feel a little more comfortable will have to wait. They gave us temporary sheets and towels but it certainly is not comforting. At this point it isn’t euphoric, but more the mentality of ‘do what you have to do’ and get through the day. At least we have each other though and we’ve been laughing at stuff a lot. I think it will all get a little easier when we start work on Monday.
So tonight we will eat at one of the administrators house a ‘true zimbabwian meal’. Tomorrow they will take us to the market where we will use our 2500 dollars in cash they gave us to buy things for our house and dinner we are on our own. Then Sunday they are taking us to a reserve to check out some African animals.
We will try to update our website soon with video of London and our house.
I miss you all very much but once we get to work I will be able to communicate with you all a lot more frequently. It looks like we can skype from our classrooms so that’s cool.
The school: we walked down here this morning and walked around. We saw our classrooms. They are big and nice and windows all around with a skylight. So cool. Everyone who works on campus has been so friendly and nice. The campus is very green and beautiful. There are peacocks everywhere on campus which is weird. Baby peacocks are ugly. We walked up to my classroom and of course all the peacocks are chilling on the bench next to the door of my class. Not cool.
Okay so I think that’s it for now. I love you all so much and miss you!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
SO...we definitely hit a snag heading to London to see Winston and Maggie. I promised we would be good about keeping up so...since Saturday, our last night in the states (so we thought) we have had A LOT going on. We had a great dinner with my parents and Grant's family Saturday night in Atlanta.
We headed to Chicago from Atlanta on Sunday with all kinds of excitement to end up sitting on the plane for an hour and a half because the steering wouldn't work. That was awesome. This delay caused us to miss our flight to London from Chicago. When we got to Chicago and were told that we missed the ONLY flight with Virgin that day to London, I cried like a child. In my defense, I was tired and emotional.
Then United (who the our flight to Chicago and caused us to miss our London flight) tried to send us to London later Sunday night, BUT Virgin would not release our ticket to United so we had to wait to leave Chicago until the next day.
SO....THEN.....United felt bad for us. Grant would not let me near any employee of any airline as my crying turned into rage and irritation. He's a lot nicer than I am. SO he worked his patience and charm and got United to put us up in a hotel and give us a food voucher.
SO....THEN we were fortunately put up in a nice place and I had many wines and he had many beers and then we passed out from exhaustion.
SO...finally we woke up refreshed. Went to see Inception at a nearby movie theater because we were bored and wanted to kill time. AND THEN we got to the airport, hopped on our flight and here we are in London.
Mags took us to breakfast, we walked all over London until Grant couldn't take it anymore and here we are at Mag and Win's flat while Grant takes a much needed nap. I hope this is exciting to all. Tonight we're going to a restaurant where servers who are blind serve you "dinner in the dark". Tomorrow night it's off to Zimbabwe.
So this has not been the most relaxing of days, but this is typical. We seem to like challenges wherever we go.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
The shipment has been sent
Our boxes were all sent off yesterday. 13 boxes in all. Sending in May should hopefully get it there by August when we arrive in Zimbabwe.
Just in case you wanted to know, the inventory included (not listed in order of importance):
camping equipment
clothes
blue box Kraft Mac and Cheese
push lawn mower (we have a huge yard, and a gardener, but no yard tools...)
sheets, pillows, and comforter
spices
pool floats
pictures
pots and pans
stuff to eat on/with
peanut butter and ketchup
poker set
yard games
books
and a whole lot more...
I was a real pain of a process, but it feels great to have it done.
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