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.

Peacock

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!