Easter weekend

We have really enjoyed our church here in Harare - Northside Christian Community.  So we were happy to experience Easter here in town - starting with palm Sunday which I posted about earlier.  On Good Friday we attended a morning service that commemorated Jesus' death.  Appropriately somber, but afterwards we were all invited to the pastor's house to share in hot cross buns.  It was a beautiful day and it was nice to see that almost everyone who was at the service went over for the buns!

Easter Sunday service was on the quiet side as many of the regulars were traveling.  The local schools had just gotten out on "term break" and many people go away at this time of year.  In addition to church, we wanted to enjoy a traditional dinner at home, so we invited two families over (one from church/school and the other from US-AID) and waited until Monday to leave for our Zimbabwe trip.  In the afternoon Arianna wanted to go watch a horse show where her riding teacher and a friend were competing (this is a tradition for Easter weekend in the region), so we did that as well.  Happily, we arrived just in time for to see one of my cello students compete:

At times like that I start to feel like a real part of the community!  

We enjoyed a leisurely Easter dinner outside after an Egg hunt for the little and not so little kids:

So nice to have new friends to share the day with (as well as a beautiful day!).  But it reminds me of the Girl Scout song as I miss those of you whom I've shared the day with in the past:

"One is silver and the other gold" - Love you all!

He is Risen!

Excursion - finally!

Explore Zimbabwe - that's what the kids got to do on their school trips soon after we arrived that called just that.  John has been on a few field trips of his own.  Finally, we got to go on one all together.

First stop:  Bulawayo

Second largest city in Zimbabwe.  Home to a Railroad Museum (which we loved) and the Natural History Museum (which is definitely past it's prime and doesn't quite compare to the Smithsonian).  We wanted to break up the long drive out to the National Park, and staying in Bulawayo was the best way to do it.  We had the added pleasure of meeting our friends, the Bishops, for dinner at the Bulawayo Club (they were doing basically the same journey that we were).

Second Stop:  Miombo Safari Camp, outside of Hwange National Park

Well, it wasn't your totally upscale Safari Camp, which would have set us back between $800-1,000 a night, but we did enjoy our stay nonetheless.  There was a camp fire, decent meals, evening entertainment and a nice pool.  Game drives were a la carte with our plan and we opted for 3 of them.  We saw a great variety of animals and even found a lion on our first morning out.  It was definitely worth going with a driver - we saw more and didn't worry about wear and tear on the car.






Third Stop: Victoria Falls
We did this as a day excursion from Miombo, which worked out great for us.  I think after our trip to Iguazu Falls less than a year earlier, we were underwhelmed by the falls - but mostly because it was very wet as it was the end of the rainy season.  There was so much spray that we couldn't see the falls at all at a few of the viewing locations.  I am still glad we went because it's a long drive from Harare, but it made a great day trip from Hwange.  We also really enjoyed our "tea" at the Victoria Falls Hotel.  It was the time for tea, but we all opted for a more American beverage and dessert.  The setting was amazing:

The "clouds" that are closest are spray off of the falls  - the indigenous name is Mosi-oa-Tunya - literally "the smoke that thunders".  This is the view at the hotel.

The falls from one of the drier lookouts.  

Okay, so they are pretty spectacular!  And the amount of water flowing was amazing, which is why we couldn't see much at some points.

For those of you who didn't see more pictures on Facebook and want to, they are on my shutterfly site under School break trip April 2013: http://macysoverseas.shutterfly.com/