That time of year

when people are leaving.  Thankful that it's not our turn!  And that here in Zimbabwe we've made a lot of friends who aren't on the US embassy cycle (which here is only 2 years for State Department, though it's 4 for US-AID).  Really we only know one family with our embassy that is leaving (in part because we really don't know many embassy families here!).  But we have met a lot of other international workers as well as teachers at HIS, and they too are on cycles, so we begin the goodbyes.

But our saddest goodbye was our missionary friends who were so good to us when we first moved here and who spent Thanksgiving Day with us last year.  They were not granted renewals of their work permits and so had to leave the country quite suddenly last week.  We will miss them and hope they can return!

Amazing trees

One Tuesday morning a few weeks ago I noticed what looked to be cherry trees in bloom all over the place.  It turns out they are!  Kind of strange since it is the beginning of winter here.  Can someone explain that to me?  They weren't the same variety of trees as DC, but they were pretty spectacular:

Right about the same time the poinsettia trees also started blooming and they are just amazing.  Do these things grow in the US??  Florida maybe...

My photos don't really do them justice - I just took these at a friend's house when we were there for a party.  When I am driving around I marvel at the color that I see all over the place.  Too bad there aren't any in our yard!!

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.