We're on a Trip, not a Vacation!

Kyusik and the boys left about two hours ago, so I am all alone in the cottage now. We managed to do one last lunch at Gavas, the Zimbabwean restaurant that we really enjoyed once already.  Their slogan is "sadza with soul." They have lots of outdoor seating, and it's very family friendly. The last time we were there, there was a bouncy house that the boys used. We ordered the whole grilled bream (fish) again because we liked it so much, as well as a roadrunner (chicken) stew, and half of a grilled chicken with chips. The dishes all come with a side of sadza (maize meal similar to polenta), the equivalent of collard greens, and sugar beans. They also bring a little container of house-made spicy sauce. You only need a tiny dollop because it's so hot! Once your dishes arrive, they come by with a metal pitcher of soapy water and a bowl so that they can pour water over your hands to clean them.  Afterwards, Kyusik wanted to drive downtown. There's not a whole lot to s...

     Here’s what I do on a regular day at the cottage. First, I wake up at around eight to nine. Then I start doing my thirty minutes of the math workbook that Mommy got for me. Depending on when Mommy gets up to make breakfast, I either do my thirty minutes of my world history book, or do it after breakfast. After I finish my math and my history book, I get to play thirty minutes of Prodigy. Prodigy is a math game where you battle with magical spells and catch monsters. Sometimes I also have to do a blog post like this one. We usually eat lunch at the cottage, but sometimes we go out to eat. Sometimes we go out to the store, called Pick ‘N’ Pay to buy ingredients. Then, we have to exercise. We do twenty push-ups a day, and either swim laps in the pool or run. The pool is very cold because it is not heated. Then I can play Pokémon or Minecraft. During the day, when we have nothing else to do, we build pillow forts and play around with pillows. We have dinner, and on speci...

 Here’s what I’d do on a regular day at the cottage.First, I’d wake up from seven thirty to eight. Then, I’d get out of bed and start doing my math workbook Mommy got for me for thirty minutes. Once I’m finished, I’d go wake Mommy up and tell her I finished my math and she should get out of bed and make breakfast. And then, she’d tell me she wants more sleep, so I go wait until about nine to ten thirty and come back. But once I get back, she’s on her phone reading NYT articles. Then I have to keep asking her, “Get out of bed! Get out of bed!”. Then she finally gets out and starts making breakfast while I play Prodigy. After I’m done with Prodigy, I’d go have breakfast. Then, Daddy would wake up and have breakfast while I do my other workbook, “Summer Bridge Activities”. Then I'd do my Chinese and I’d go swimming. Then I’d go take a shower, play video games, and go to sleep. Here’s what I learned about Zimbabwe: 1) they have a very corrupt  government 2) lots of people are poor...

    Today we went to a sanctuary called Wild is Life. We stepped out of the car and went through the gate. While Mommy signed the waiver, we ran to see some birds. There were two parrots and two peacocks! Then we sat on a huge swing and watched a baby elephant with an injured leg have a goat jump on top of it to cheer it up. Then, our guide introduced himself. His name was Shawn. Shawn led us up a path to some giraffes, and he gave us all some branches with leaves on them so we could feed them. It was so fun! Then we fed some pigs with carrots, apples, and other fruits and vegetables. Then, we went down to a building to eat. We were given hot towels to clean our hands and led inside. There were cookies and tea, and a bunch of other pastries and treats. We ate most of them. It was very yummy. Next, we walked outside to see some elephants. We learned all their stories and why they came here. Then some workers gave them their milk. The milk bottles were huge, but the elephants fi...

Today we went to a sanctuary called “ Wild is Life” which apparently had a pangolin. When we got in, we saw a baby elephant with a little baby goat. While Mommy was signing a waiver, we saw a cage full of birds, and past that, we saw two peacocks. Then, Mommy came and said we couldn’t go past the cage. Inside the cage, there were some parrots, and a black bird. Then we saw some swings which we went on. After a bit, a guide named Shawn told us our schedule. Then, we went to feed some giraffes and pigs. Luckily, the giraffes did not really drool like the last time we fed them in Safari West. Then, it was time for a little snack. When we got in, we went to the nearest table and sat down. But it looked better than I  thought it would be. It was a big platter full of sweets. Then, we went to watch the elephants get fed. They were fed elephant food and got to drink a big bottle of milk. They told us about their story’s, but some of them were sad. Like for example, one of them was go...

Since the boys didn't thoroughly document our time in Capetown, I am going to fill in some gaps with this post.  Having suffered through the suboptimal food in Bulawayo, we were thrilled to get an approximation of Thai food during our overnight stay in Joberg. We also picked up some French pastries and other goodies the next morning at the French bakery Paul, which was within walking distance of our hotel, before we departed for our flight to Capetown. Upon arrival, we got our rental car and drove to drop off our luggage at the flat where we'd be staying. It was really lovely with views of Table Mountain, which were often obscured by the clouds as it rained most of the time we were there. It was also exciting to finally have access to a washer, as it had been over 2 weeks since we last cleaned our clothes in a machine rather than the sink! It will be so nice to use a dryer when we get home. Although the electricity situation is not as bad as in Zim, South Africa does do load sh...

Here are some videos of the boys feeding an elephant at Imire. 

The power situation in Zimbabwe leaves much to be desired. My colleagues and Viv have all informed us that it has recently worsened. Fortunately, the cottage has a backup solar powered generator, but during outages, which can last up to 18 hours or longer, we cannot use the microwave, toaster, washing machine, tea kettle, oven, etc. Internet connectivity is also not great. Kyusik and I have repeatedly been dropped from our Zoom calls. There is no dryer either, so we have to hang up all of our clothes on a clothesline outside. At least we are able to use the gas stove, so we have been frying or toasting our bread in a pan and boiling water or heating up leftovers on the stove. It has also been pretty cloudy most of the time, which means that it doesn't ever warm up in the cottage. The only ways to get warm include taking a shower, getting into bed, building a fire (which only warms up the living area), and going for a run. Last week, while I was gone for 2.5 days in Mutare, a city a...

  We woke up at the hut at seven for breakfast, but I still wanted to sleep because the electric blanket was so comfy. Someone came in to give us hot water for tea and coffee, but I didn’t drink any. We got on our clothes, and headed out for breakfast. For breakfast you could choose from an assortment of things. There were blueberry pancakes, vegetable quiche, granola, coffee and tea, and an English breakfast with eggs of your choice, bacon, sausage, beans and toast. At the Bulawayo club, we had to eat the breakfast there because it was included with the stay. Every day we had English breakfast because that was the only thing they had. It was not only boring, but it was disgusting. The butter tasted like blue cheese, the eggs were mushy and flavorless, the beans were watery, the toast was not good and the bacon was barely cooked. Every day at the Bulawayo club we ate that for breakfast, and after two weeks of that, we were all sick of English breakfast. We just wanted to eat anyt...

     Today we went to Boulders Beach, where the endangered African penguin calls home. The admission was expensive, but we had enough to pay. We first walked down a path that led to the beach. We saw lots of penguins and their chicks hiding in the shrubbery. I saw one poop, and their poop was green! They were cute but also very smelly. Then, we read some signs that told you some interesting facts about the African penguins. African penguins are on the smaller side of all penguins, and are the only penguins that live in hot weather. They have two pink glands above their eyes which they use to regulate their heat. The glands get darker as they heat up because they are putting warm blood into the glands, and because the glands are open to air, it cools the hot blood down. They do that repeatedly until they are content. They catch fish in the ocean, and have waterproof feathers. When penguins choose their mate, that is the mate they will have for the rest of their life. The m...

Today we went shopping for food. At one point, we went shopping at Pick n’ Pay to get some food. Now you might think this isn’t important about the story, but it actually IS. So we got some snacks like Cheas Naks and some other chips. Then we went to Cape Point and we saw a baboon in someone else’s truck. The moment we opened the trunk, the lighting fast baboon went straight for our food. It took a bag full of Mommy’s stuff and the Cheas Naks, but the good news is, we got the bag of stuff back. Bad news is it got away with the Cheas Naks. So now we hate that baboon and we want to get our revenge on him ever since. We then started hiking up the peak. Apparently it was where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. Also, it kind of looks like the different oceans have different colors but it has not been scientifically proven. We looked around a little more and then we saw a little  lighthouse. THE END

We just returned from an incredible overnight stay at a rhino conservancy, which is about a 2 hour drive southeast of Harare. I’m hoping the boys will write about it tomorrow. We have a lot of catching up to do with this blog on what we’ve been doing ever since we left Bulawayo, arrived in Capetown and are now Harare. In fact, I failed to document the visit we made to the 3rd of 5 UNESCO World Heritage sites here in Zim. The other two we visited were Vic Falls and Matobo National Park. The Khami ruins date back to the 15th century, rising to prominence after the fall of Great Zimbabwe (another UNESCO site). Fashioned similarly to Great Zimbabwe, the stone walls at Khami were built as retaining walls for terraces upon which huts were built. Similar to the walls in Cusco, Peru, these walls were impressive in that they were built by bricks that were carved to fit together rather than held together by mortar. The Khami walls were also decorated in layered check, chevron, herringbone, and o...

Today I woke up, got out of bed, & walked down the hallway, just when Mommy & Daddy said that we were going on safari again. I thought that we were going to have to take those awful malaria pills which I was sick of. But luckily we didn’t. They told me that I had to go put on my clothes so I would be ready. Then, I went all the way back to my room just to put on my clothes. I put on my clothes & went back to the table so I could have breakfast. After we finished breakfast, we got into the car with some things that we packed, & 2 bags of chips. We had to go pretty fast because it was about 2 hours away. Once we got pretty close, Mommy told us to look out for a sign so we could turn. We eventually saw the sign, but I guess we were going too fast, because we couldn’t turn in time so we had to keep driving straight for a bit. We finally got to turn around and go back to the sign. After we turned at the the sign, there was a dirt road which went for a few miles until we saw ...

This post is for our food and price obsessed readers. Given the dismal exchange rate we got at the grocery store, 500 g of butter was $12 (imported from South Africa), while the 750 ml Italian olive oil bottle we bought was $11. The fresh produce is reasonably priced if it’s local, but the package of garlic cloves I bought (equivalent to 2 bulbs at most) cost $3. While in South Africa, we should have bought 8 lbs of pasta rather than the 10 bags of snacks, as well as butter, rice, and flour. I felt silly buying 3 huge loaves of bread the morning we left Capetown but am now so glad I did since we’ve already blown through 1 loaf. Kyusik was up all night preparing for a board meeting today. At home, I was getting up at 5:30 or 6 am for early morning calls with Zim but can now do them at a more humane time of 4 pm.  Viv has been a fabulous host to us, even exchanging $200 for us at a much better black market rate of 700 Zim dollars and giving it to us as an Ecocash card (compared to th...

The cottage where we are staying is really lovely and spacious. We are here until the end of the month. It is a relief to settle in for a while since we've been living a nomadic life for close to three weeks. There is a long hall way connecting the 3 bedrooms. The boys are enjoying not having to share a bed anymore. Viv, the owner lives on the property. It is in a quiet area and is secured with an electronic fence and a heavy duty gate, for which we have an opener. As such, it comes with housekeeping services every day except Sunday. Joyce makes the beds, changes the towels, washes the dishes, and cleans. The only downside is that it is not heated. We do get a small bundle of firewood free of charge, which we used today, and it made a big difference in the living area. Since Kyusik and I were trying to work, the boys did their workbooks today. In the afternoon, I forced them to go swimming. As you can see from their faces, they are not terribly thrilled about the temperature of the...