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
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
