Our Cat - Just Kidding

She was so cute and so hungry we were hoping we could keep her.  This cutie showed up at our house for several days (remember our house has a tall wall all around it).  But before we took her in permanently I thought we'd better ask around to see if there was an owner near by.  Sure enough, our gardener found out that a family not too far away was missing a cat.

So they sent their gardener:

But the cat wasn't thrilled about this and so in the end the gardener went home without her (she jumped out of his arms soon after the photo and he didn't have a carrying case).  The child who owned the cat came back and by then the cat was traumatized enough that she didn't go to the boy either.  We were getting optimistic when we met the adult owners (whose son happened to go to the international school) and they took a very nonchalant attitude about the whole thing - the cat kept running away from their dogs,  But when we let them know that the cat seemed like she might be injured they became quite concerned and she didn't come back after that.  So now we are left with occasional visits from the orange cat from next door who is not as cute and friendly.

A Video Link

Okay, so this is another old event of another 3rd Annual - Light Up Night at Sam Levy's Village:

Our church band getting ready to play carols.

We could actually hear Arianna on a couple of tunes.

But for the real taste of Zimbabwe, I put a video on my Youtube page.  Hope you can see it - including the Santa and his Elves towards the end....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wvQLENZD_k&feature=youtu.be

Latest News

 Last night we had our 3rd Annual Taste of the Nations.  This, like our 3rd Annual Light Up Night at the Village was a bit significant because it's been a really long time since we've done anything where we lived for three years in a row.  Last night was particularly special because this sweet lady was back in full health.  We had a picture together two years ago and then last year she was undergoing cancer treatment so Taste of the Nations was the first time we had seen her in many months.  It was so good to have her back in good health!

Very very pleased to have picked this today:  Our first Haas Avocado off of the tree we planted soon after moving in.  We weren't sure how many years it would take to produce and there are about 12 of these on the tree - very exciting.

But I've also been eyeing the neighbor's produce.  Can you see what is growing on their tree?

Even though it's pomegranate season, they are still expensive in the shops.  So, I'm trying to get up the nerve to ask if we can have some (they look as if they are just rotting on the tree).  Maybe tomorrow...

More Catching Up - Trip to Ballito

We went to the beach!!  OK, so it was last September and we could use another beach trip now but at least we got to go to an African beach once.  We went to Ballito which is a great beach area north of Durban in South Africa.  Places right on the beach were quite reasonably priced:

We had great weather - and were a bit lucky because it can be temperamental.  We had sun for all but the last day and a half which was when we finally found a particular beach that I had wanted to see which was fun to explore even on our cold cloudy day:

At various points along the coast in Ballito there are tidal pools built.  This one is actually Olympic sized:

This is a smaller one close to where we stayed.

It was fun to stay in South Africa.  We don't normally have a sense of lack in Harare, but when we went to my favorite chain (Fruit-n-Veg) the choice and the prices were amazing.  We did a self catering place and usually I want to go out to eat on vacation.  But we had a grill and a housekeeper and enjoyed lovely dinners at home with two nights out (one good, one bad).

Updating Blog - Thanksgiving

So, one of the reasons that I did not post a lot in the last six months is that my computer died.  Arianna has the oldest computer in the house so it was quite disappointing to have mine die.  For a while I couldn't access my old data, including photos and then I wasn't quite sure where to store new photos on my newer computer.  Finding my photo-less posts to be quite dull I just didn't post.  I finally have gotten around to uploading my photos and so I thought I'd catch up a bit.

We hosted another Thanksgiving dinner complete with Turkeys that that Embassy imported via South Africa:

We had several families over and the crowd included quite a lot of teens:

They had a good time, especially carving our two pumpkins.  Just for the record, they didn't show up in the shop until the first week in November (after Halloween mind you).  However, it was the first time in 5 years that I found real carving pumpkins, so I thought the girls would be excited to see them.  They were, but didn't get around to carving them so it was good Thanksgiving entertainment.

The tall and the small of the younger crowd:

See, isn't it more fun to read when there are photos???

Last College Visit

After three and a half years of visiting colleges with our first born, we are pretty sure we had the last one in December.  We saw four last summer (one of which we had seen two years prior) and when it came time to apply we realized we needed another visit to Gordon College because when we first visited a year and a half earlier Arianna was planning on majoring in Elementary Ed.  Since then she has changed her mind and decided to major in Music Ed.  Gordon has a new head of department and great placement rate so we thought we ought to give it another look.

So, after arriving in JFK last December we rented a car and got up to Connecticut that night.  We spent a whirlwind day at Gordon and enjoyed the visit very much.  Of course we couldn't leave the area without seeing how close the beach actually was to Gordon.  It was a lovely beach in a lovely town quite close.

However, despite a very positive day, Arianna has not made a final decision (and please don't ask her about it!).  She has received scholarships from all of the schools to which she applied (resulting in proud parents) and stands to receive a bit more so is waiting to hear what the final packages are before she makes a decision.

ISSEA Band 2015

Last year HIS (Harare International School) hosted the first annual ISSEA (International Schools of Southern and Eastern Africa) Band Festival.  And yes, all the HIS string players played in the band (mostly covering the oboe part with the violins and the bassoon part on the cello).  Abigail had a great time meeting kids from the other international schools (if you recall, we hosted a Canadian and a girl from India who were from the international school in Tanzania).

One of the hardest things about not sending Abigail to HIS was the fact that she wasn't going to be allowed to participate in this year's festival which was held in South Africa (I asked at about it in January 2014).  Then in December when the plans were being made I finally had a chat with the HIS music director about the possibility of Abigail going.  Originally they thought all the spots would be taken up by current HIS students but in the end there was a spot left on their maximum number of participants.

After much back and forth (emails to the school director, ISSEA director, etc.) it was finally decided that Abigail would be allowed to go!  It was very exciting to have such a positive outcome and Abigail anticipated the event enthusiastically.  She loves South Africa and had a blast seeing some of her friends from last year and just being around the kids for a few days.  They kids all seemed to agree that the festival wasn't quite as good as when HIS hosted it but they all had a blast anyway!  You can see some photos if you are on Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/ISSEA-2015-Band-and-Choir/348125352041802