Welcome to our blog, where we will be sharing photos of our travels. Stay tuned for travel musings from the boys! We finally got an appointment with a travel nurse. She was very flustered by our complicated travel itinerary and put us on hold at one point to talk to her supervisor. We will all need the typhoid vaccine, antimalarials, and antibiotics just in case. At the moment, Kaiser doesn't have any openings for our vaccine, so hopefully they can squeeze us in before we depart on Friday. We are also hoping to meet Aunteater at the international departure terminal as she is in town for a whirlwind 3-day trip. I just learned today that in addition to the Rocca Fellowship from the UC Berkeley Center for African Studies, I also got a Simpson ABD (All But Dissertation) Fellowship from Global, International & Area Studies! We have been pretty frustrated because we have had to rebook three of our flights at the last minute when the airlines cancelled our flights with the onl...
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...
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...
Neat!
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