Yesterday they announced that today was a national holiday. Okay, so it's nice to have a day off come up out the blue (reminds me of snow days when I was a teacher!), but really, we couldn't decide this more than a day in advance? The holiday is for the inauguration of President Mugabe. Who of course has been the president since 1987 and was prime minister before that. HIS (Abigail's school) has been in session for a week, just getting into a rhythm and they find out with less than 24 hours notice that they will be closed for a day. I think this feels a bit of a culture shock moment because I'm in the process of trying to plan my schedule and everywhere I turn I find "well, we don't know what the schedule is yet..."
Oh well, it's a beautiful day and my family's home so I guess I'll just adjust to the situation and enjoy it.
BBC coverage of the inauguration:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23790745
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
School starts - Part one
Abigail's school started a week ago and the good news is that most of her teachers got their work permits in time for the start of school. The school has moved to a Middle Years Program (MYP) of the International Baccalaureate system so there will be some changes to the way things work there. Today is MS Open House so it will hopefully explain things a bit more.
Abigail was a bit disappointed that ALL of the new kids in her class are boys. Not that she has anything against boys, but they lost about 5 girls over the course of the last school year so she was hoping for some new additions to their small grade. Since they had a lot more girls previously the class is actually a bit more balanced now so in the end it may be a good thing.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
General Update
We've now been in Zimbabwe for a over a year! Fun to be back in the same season of the year as when we arrived - it gives a bit of rhythm to life. I am enjoying the dry season knowing that things will be green again before a very long time. And that the Jacaranda trees will soon be blooming!
After a bit of a break from blogging during a busy couple of months I will try to get back to regular posts. Apologies to any of you who check regularly for the lack of recent posts (before yesterday).
Don't know how many of you keep up with the world news on Zimbabwe but let's just say that the good thing about the elections was that they were peaceful. I'll leave the comments on the rest to others....
After a bit of a break from blogging during a busy couple of months I will try to get back to regular posts. Apologies to any of you who check regularly for the lack of recent posts (before yesterday).
Don't know how many of you keep up with the world news on Zimbabwe but let's just say that the good thing about the elections was that they were peaceful. I'll leave the comments on the rest to others....
Monday, August 19, 2013
Making Lemonade Part Three - UK!
Since John wasn't able to join us in Massachusetts for a beach vacation, we decided to do a stopover in England on our way back to Zimbabwe for a family vacation. It was a fantastic week (shout out to some of you who made recommendations) - great weather, great sites, great company (the girls were at a perfect age). First stop was Cambridge and a punting ride on the Cam River:
Do you recognize it? Yes, it's Downton Abbey! We (Abby, John and I) have become fans of the show and so she looked into visiting the castle. On the website it said all tickets were sold out, but we stopped by anyway and fortunately it was raining a little bit and there was no problem getting in. It was interesting to see because the current Earl and Countess live nearby and are still trying to get the financial side of the castle to work - not unlike in the show. So it was not all perfectly manicured inside as a museum would be (older wall to wall carpeting in many bedrooms - even those featured in the show).
After Highclere we headed back to London and had a great few days visiting the sites there. The Tower of London was a highlight for all - we spent the whole day there! One day we split up so that Arianna could get to see the Roald Dahl Museum which was on the top of her wish list but a train ride out of the city. I went with her while John and Abigail went to Kensington Palace and the Science Museum. We joined back up to go see Wicked at the theater that night. It was a great family vacation and we could have visited a few more sights in London but we were also all glad to head home to Zimbabwe at the end of our week.
Then two days in Stratford where we visited Shakespeare sites and spent a day at a castle:
And then on to the beautiful city of Bath where we felt like we were in Rome:
On our way back to London we happily had taken Abigail's advice of stopping at Highclere Castle:
After Highclere we headed back to London and had a great few days visiting the sites there. The Tower of London was a highlight for all - we spent the whole day there! One day we split up so that Arianna could get to see the Roald Dahl Museum which was on the top of her wish list but a train ride out of the city. I went with her while John and Abigail went to Kensington Palace and the Science Museum. We joined back up to go see Wicked at the theater that night. It was a great family vacation and we could have visited a few more sights in London but we were also all glad to head home to Zimbabwe at the end of our week.
Making Lemonade - Part Two Lisa's Surprise Party
Over two years ago (when we were still in Paraguay) my brother in law Artur asked when I might be stateside in summer of 2013. He had started to make plans for a surprise party for my sister Lisa's 50th birthday. When our plans for vacation started to unravel it was unclear whether or not we would make it. Happily, since it coincided with a later trip to the US than we originally wanted, all four of us were able to be there and it was a fantastic evening. It added a bit of stress to our US time (trying not to spill the beans) but it was worth it to see her surprise!
She was VERY surprised.
It was a fantastic party with a big crowd.
Our girls took a turn on the dance floor.
Making Lemonade - Part One Ogontz Music Camp
Referring to the phrase "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". Due to requirements of personnel at the office, John was not able to take vacation when he wanted to this year. While this situation was not happily received by anyone in the family, there were a number of good things that did come out of it.
For years I have pondered going to a Suzuki camp that was in the NH mountains which looked like it would just be a great setting. After our return to Blue Ridge was foiled I looked into the dates at Ogontz (in NH) and discovered that it was the week after our beach vacation in MA. The tales of how many connections there were between this camp and Africa is way too long to go into here. Let's just say it was a fabulous experience and I hope that some of those connections will result in visitors to Zimbabwe....
For years I have pondered going to a Suzuki camp that was in the NH mountains which looked like it would just be a great setting. After our return to Blue Ridge was foiled I looked into the dates at Ogontz (in NH) and discovered that it was the week after our beach vacation in MA. The tales of how many connections there were between this camp and Africa is way too long to go into here. Let's just say it was a fabulous experience and I hope that some of those connections will result in visitors to Zimbabwe....
The cabins for campers
Ogontz Lake in the morning mist
The gathering circle
The African Girls
One of the really cool things that happened was that one of my students from Zimbabwe went to camp with us. It made it easier for our kids - being older first timers at a Suzuki camp can be difficult and having a friend go with them made it work. And I had the fun of seeing someone else teach another one of my student (besides Abigail). The girl on the left is from Tanzania (of German heritage).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)