Market

Mbere is the name of the area where the real market is here in Harare.  I've only been twice - it's a bit far and a lot bigger than going to the little farmer's market in Asuncion (which I did almost every week).  The first time I went was on a tour that the international school's moms organized for newcomers and I wasn't really prepared to buy a lot.  Happily, my friend Helen offered to take me again a few weeks ago and it was great fun!  It was especially nice to go with Helen because she is African by birth and has a better feel for how to manage an African market than I do.

Her maid, Susan joined us and helped us haul some things back to the car - African style:

(that is my "pocket" of butternut squash on her head)

Helen bought some peanuts and she brought me some which she had cooked, Southern Style (or African Style) - boiled! They were good!

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/

Fields of Cosmos at the Riding Farm

A few weeks ago at a riding lesson I was taking some photos of fields of orange flowers (one of those at the end).  Keri, Arianna's riding instructor, told me to wait a couple of weeks to see the fields of Cosmos, and here they are:

It turns out that the horse farm used to be a Cosmos farm, which the farmer grew to cultivate seeds.

Here's a photo of the orange flowers from a couple of weeks ago - they are now starting to fade:

I love this shot of one of the horses at the farm. 

And also the plaque on the stall for Arianna's horse which I think is appropriately named:

A

Palm Sunday first

We took our own palm branches to church this morning!  I went out to cut them a few minutes before we left for the service.  Not everyone had them, but they certainly make a bigger impression than the single palm strand that we got at church as kids.

Eisteddfod

An eistddfod (Welsh:  [ə(i)ˈstɛðvɔd] plural eisteddfodau) is a Welsh festival of literature, music and performance.  

Okay, so I haven't quite figured out why the National Institute of Allied Arts, Vocal and Instrumental Festival is referred to as Eisteddfod, but it's a tradition that's been going on here for 100 years.  I have to say that I was a bit jaded by some of our previous ventures into some arts activities here that have been lauded by the locals and were underwhelming.  But this one has proven to live up to it's reputation.  It goes on for three weeks and has all sorts of possibilities of (mostly students) entering.  Choirs,orchestras,  native instruments (marimba, mbira), all variety of western instruments, vocal solos, ensembles of any variety, the list is endless.

My experience so far has been as an adjudicator (new experience!), teacher and parent.  It's very well organized and it is quite amazing to think that it has gone on for all these years.  As it turns out, this is the 100th anniversary, but there was a two year hiatus for World War One - which is still a feat given the recent history of the country.  It was quite impressive to see some of the kids come from schools a few hours away to participate.  The orphans that I wrote about earlier participated on violin.

Ivy Decker-Jones, a few HIS students and me!

The early Book One HIS kids getting ready to play!

The older HIS Suzuki students

Orphans

The cellos were the last solo instruments to perform.  There are two more days of choirs and orchestras.

It's been great fun, but like after any big musical event with students, I will be glad to get back to the normal routine.

Lychees

When I was at the New School of Music I was friends with an extended family of Filipinos (and one of them who now lives in NYC gave Abigail some great Skype lessons when we lived in Paraguay).  Another cousin  used to speak lovingly of the fruit from his childhood and I remember his excitement over canned lychees (though it didn't entice me to try them).  When we lived in Costa Rica our neighbor introduced us to the Costa Rican variety which are fuzzy.  But here in Zimbabwe we have enjoyed the more typical version:

The hard skins of the fruit are easy to peel and the insides taste a bit like the inside of a grape (with about the same consistency) for those of you who have never had fresh lychees.  Each fruit has a large pit (for the size of the fruit) as you can see below:

While I have mentioned the high price of imported foods I have to say that it is great to buy such a wide variety of fruits and vegetables at such reasonable prices.  I bought a good size bag of peaches yesterday for about $2.  And this tray of lychees (which was full when I bought it) was under $2.  Not bad for exotic fruit!