Sixteen Strings at HIS has Talent 2013!

HIS has Talent 2013

It was a great show and I was one proud mama (and teacher).  Above are the members of Sixteen Strings who wowed the HIS talent show audience with Viva la Vida by Coldplay.  The girls mostly rehearsed by themselves so I am the proud teacher because all of them except Arianna are my students.

In the second half of the show I had the pleasure of accompanying Arianna on a couple of fiddle tunes (which she played on her viola).  This was a dream of mine ever since listening to the awesome duo Alisdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, but it was a bit nerve wracking.  You can't really play fiddle music very convincingly with music in front of you so I did it without - which is not my favorite way to perform.  I was confident that Arianna would be rock solid (and she was) so I was thankful that I didn't mess her up!  The show director wanted parents, staff and faculty involved in the show so it wasn't strange for me to play along.

It was a long night (with a long dress rehearsal the day before), but in the end it was absolutely worth it!  Especially to hear shouts of "Go Abby" and "Go Arianna" from the audience.  Now to get ready for the Eisteddfod Festival (more on that later), but before I go, one last photo of Abigail in the choir while they were getting set up:

Kidzcan

At church today and at HIS last Friday, there was a sea of orange.  Because in honor of World Child Cancer Day on February 15th various organizations pick a day to wear orange to raise money for the local NGO called Kinzcan. This is an organization that was started by a woman in our church who was a childhood survivor of leukemia.  She spent three years of her childhood in the hospital before the days of tv and dvd's with limited visitation from her family.  So, Kidzcan started as a visitation group and quickly discovered various other needs (medicine, diagnostics, transport for families since there is only one child oncology ward in the whole country, etc.).  If you happen to be looking for a good organization to whom to make a donation I would recommend considering this one since the money goes directly to treatment of cancer patients.  http://www.kidzcanzimbabwe.org/

First Dance!

Abigail went to her first dance last night!  They had a Valentine's Dance for the middle school students and she enjoyed herself.  They had a good turnout and it sounds like the kids had fun.

Have you read this?

A couple of people recommended this book before I came to Zimbabwe and now I know why.  It read like history and I had to keep telling myself that the author is younger than I am and what I was reading happened during MY childhood years.  I guess that is history, but not very old history.  And then I look around at all the people I've met and realize that they've lived through the same time period too here in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia).  The book is not exactly upbeat but it does give an interesting picture of life here.  I went to a concert last Sunday which took place at the chapel of the school where the author ended up going for her last few years of high school.  I do recommend it if you'd like to know more about life in Zimbabwe.

Flowers by Juliet

Lately we've been experiencing some challenges to life here:   John not getting to take vacation when he wants to, finding that trying to travel within Zimbabwe is SUPER expensive (think $800/night for the family), Arianna not enjoying her experience at HIS.  But, above are a couple of examples of things that are awesome about living here.  These are flowers that our housekeeper Juliet cuts from our garden and arranges for us!  I only mention a few of the bad things to balance out the many perks so I don't cause any jealousy..

PS - since writing the first draft of this I've been finding out how to travel like a local so there's hope that we will get to see this country.  I was beginning to wonder...

Prices follow up

Yes, if you look closely that is $12.79 for a package of 8 tortillas!!  You can see why I've learned to make them.  Now the only problem is that Abigail prefers the homemade ones to the store bought ones (we brought a couple of packages back from the US on our last trip).  The locally made ones are a bit less expensive, but there's only one brand, they are huge and they fall apart when you use them.  We were warned that there wasn't any Mexican food here.  Well, now there is, but we aren't buying it here!

Fruit trees

 If you've been reading the blog for a while you may remember a post last year about mangoes (which we love).  It is even more exciting to have them in our own yard!  They are very good - just wish there were more of them.

Another fruit tree:

We aren't sure what this will be when it's ripe, so I'll keep you posted.

This is our very own paw paw (papaya) tree which looked horrible when we arrived.  It is doing much better and has quite a few blooms on it so hopefully it will produce some fruit.

Our gardener just brought cut down another bunch of bananas so we should have some of those ready to eat soon, but they are a variety that only I like (my friend from Sierra Leone calls them finger bananas), so our housekeeper and gardener will get the majority of those.  They are small and sweet and I've been surprised at how many different varieties of bananas we've encountered in our travels.

My friend Helen (the one from Sierra Leone) and I were out walking and came across a pomegranate tree that was full of fruit.  That was a first for me.  We also spotted a baby chameleon.  I took photos on my phone, but they didn't turn out very well so in the future I'll try to take a regular camera on some walks!

Favorite Restaurant for Date Night

When John and I were celebrating our anniversary last September (#20!) we enjoyed two dates.  The first was at lunch time at a nice French restaurant and we had made plans for another restaurant for dinner but were too full to have another full meal.  So instead we opted for an appetizer and dessert at this place - called Amanzi.  It was such a nice place that we eagerly awaited the chance to go again for a full dinner.  We finally had the chance last night and it was delicious.  

 As is often the case in Harare, the restaurant is in a former home.  The grounds are lovely (it was too dark for a good photo) and seating is indoors and outdoors (also very common).  The place reminds me of our honeymoon spot in Jamaica which is nice since we never made it there for our 20th anniversary (as we had hoped).  Maybe we'll just have to make it up with a lot of trips to Amanzi since there were many more dishes on the menu that I wanted to try!

Thankful for our consumable shipment!

Can you see that price tag under these marshmallows   Yes, it is $9.49.  I know that we can all live without marshmallows (I personally can't stand them), but Arianna likes to make fondant out of them for cakes, so I am really glad that we have our own supply from our shipment...

Here's another sticker shocker:

In case you're wondering, 500 ml is about a pint (and the comma is instead of the decimal in the British system)!  We haven't broken down and bought any, but are glad that we have an ice cream maker for when we really want some ice cream!  The less expensive local brands are still expensive and in our opinion not very good.  Cream is also expensive (as is butter), but still it's definitely cheaper to make than pay $14 a pint!

NYC in December!

When we were planning a visit to the US in December of 2011, Abigail requested a visit to NYC to see the stores at Christmas time.  We didn't get there that year, but we were fortunate to have a beautiful December day in 2012 to see the sights:

Of course, Macy's was a top priority!! 

The store front windows did not disappoint.

I remember my father taking us to Chinatown when I was a teen.  I think we found a little more upscale restaurant this time around and we enjoyed a delicious lunch.

We enjoyed a stroll through Little Italy and a small sample of the famous pastries!

We decided against actually skating in Rockefeller Center, but it was fun to see the rink!

And the famous tree.

It was fun to see the actual buildings all decorated too!

Rainy season beauty

Well, these are pretty blurry because they were taken from a moving vehicle, but it does at least give you an idea of what it looks like on the way out of Harare during rainy season!  

 Can you see the double?

 We had some good rains in early January (more than "normal"), but it's been dry for the past two weeks, so I hope the rains come again soon.