baking solves all problems…

Well except maybe weigh gain, but come on being chubby around the edges just means you are happy. Right?! Well that’s what I tell myself. This last month I’ve been working hard to get my little well rehabilitation project up and running. And for the most part things have been running smoothly. The materials have been delivered and well locations have been selected.

 

The plan is to rehabilitated 7 existing wells that have fallen into some state of disrepair. We are providing the new pump materials and working together with the District Development Fund (DDF) a local government program who  will provide the labor and expertise to repair the wells.

 

Many of the wells are over 60 meters deep and the length of the pipes that will be replaced are each 3 meters long. So when you do the math… like me all month long (because the plan has changed several times, not due to my poor math skills) you have to order 139 pipes. And when you replace pipes you also replace the rods inside. So that’s also an order of 139 rods.

 

The supply truck that brought all the materials wouldn’t fit in our long drive way, so K led a great team of guys to load up our little trucks and ferry materials from the large truck on the street in front of the house to our garage for temporary storage before it goes out into the field. They worked hard but had a little fun too.

 

The above picture is one of the wells we intend to rehabilitate. As you can see the cement around the well, which protects the water in the well from any kind of harmful element leaking in is in horrible condition. The well still pumps water but only barely. The head of DDF told me he thinks something is disconnected which is making pumping water much harder than is should be. This well is located inside a school yard and is used mostly by school children. They are having to work ridiculously hard to get a small amount of water. We plan to change that.

 

The project was supposed to begin on Tuesday… but there was a flat tire and other complications. And so I went to join the DDF team on Wednesday, but they didn’t show due to other complications. So instead of sitting around and wasting a day we,  my coworker Washington and I worked along side the community gathering stones. Hey, don’t kid yourself its a lot of work. But I had a blast chatting with the wife of the community leader and other community members. The wife of the community leader was quite the woman. She is the one in the blue skirt in the picture above. Her first question for me was to ask me how many children I have. When I said none so far she asked why? Come to find out she has eight children… so yeah she wanted to know why I didn’t even have one.

 

I also taught… or better yet attempted to teach the group of boys who helped collect stones the game Red Light Green Light. Its a good game if you have limited language skills. However, the concept of freezing when I turned around didn’t really work out too well. Most of the boys ran so fast, there was no way to stop in time. So it was like the longest game ever… each time I saw every boy still moving, so they all had to start at the beginning again. But I think they enjoyed it… I loved every minute of it.

And so now I’m hoping the DDF team made it to the first site today. I plan to go out on Friday to assess the progress and or to come up with a plan B. In the mean time I baked… just to keep the stress away and because when working on something that isn’t coming together the way I would have planned I like to bake. I like the satisfaction of finishing something and having the end result turn out well. Its something I started in grad school and I’ve continued it, because it works for me.

 

Of course I needed help eating the goods that I baked, and I’ve got the greatest team to offer up their services.

 

I think the team secretly loves when my projects go a little off track… perhaps I should look into whether these delays aren’t being caused by someone inside my office.

 

Nope, I’ll just keep baking.

 

new endings and beginnings…

The winds of change are blowing. (pretty awesome start to the blog post huh) But its true there is some major change for K and I in the next few months. As it turns out we will be ending our time in Zimbabwe at the end of September. The Zimbabwe team is having to down size due to lack of funding, so K and I are moving on to another adventure. What adventure you ask? Well you are in good company because we are asking that very same question. We aren’t quite done with our international living (sorry moms) so we will continue to pursue other jobs beyond the boarders of the US. K and I have loved living abroad and all the challenges that come with it. Some days are rough because I miss family, friends, and Target, but we both know that we are right where we are supposed to be. I’ll keep you posted as I know things, but for now we are living it up in Zimbabwe. And speaking of living it up, two weekends ago we went camping at Victoria Falls. I used the term camping loosely because we slept in beds, but the beds were in a tent, so it counts. The falls were absolutely amazing and well worth the trip. We went with our colleague who is an amazing photographer and she captured some really great ones of us. I promise we aren’t posing, we just really like each other.   We also went on a sunset river cruise on the Zambezi. K kept calling it the booze cruise, but it was really amazing. We gently cruised down the river and saw amazing wild life. The Hippos were my favorite. And then the next morning we got up and had coffee and this really beautiful hotel that is up on a hill over looking a waterhole in the bush. Elephants often wander through to get a drink. Well we didn’t see any elephants but we did have a special guest join us for coffee. Monkeys are totally unpredictable and often dangerously aggressive. So we were all a little taken back that this mother and baby monkey got so close. And mother monkeys are the worst because they will do anything to protect their baby… but we gave her a little distance and control of the sugar jar and it all turned out okay.

 

It was a really great weekend and I’m so glad we were able to visit while we are still in Zimbabwe. Its crazy here but we are loving every minute of it.

friends on a walk….

I went for a walk today. I wanted to check out a place I saw a few days ago where I thought I could ride horses. Its about a 15 minute walk from the house so I planned to take a walk in the early afternoon to check it out. As I was closing the gate to the house I was greeted by two large German Shepards. Both dogs came straight for me and I greeted them with little to no fear. I mean there are dogs wandering the streets all the time so I didn’t really think anything of it. Most dogs stay out of your way and keep to themselves as they wonder. These two however stayed with me as I began to walk down the street. They were curious in sniffing around and checking out things on and off the street but kept up with my pace. At first I figured that they would wonder off and become interested in something else, but as I turned onto a more main street and they followed I began to wonder.

Between 5 and 10 minutes into my walk I began to notice that both dogs would wait for me to cross the street and checked in on me regularly by coming along side and brushing up against my leg. I continued on walking because I didn’t really know what to do, I mean they are two massive dogs and I wanted to maintain a good relationship with them. I was out numbered and shooing them didn’t seem like a good plan. S0 we continued to walk. I received many looks from people passing by. Its not often that you see a white girl and two large dogs walking down the street together. Each time the dogs would wonder off to sniff something I would think, ok they have gone, but then they both would turn and head back to me. I don’t think they ever got more than 30 feet from me without coming back to check on me.

As we neared my destination I also began to wonder what they would do. I walked through the gate of the equestrian center and along came my two friends. Turns out there is a bar at the equestrian center and at 2:15pm on a Saturday afternoon it is the place to be. There were at least 25-30 men sitting around drinking and socializing. Normally, I would have been a bit intimidated to approach a group like this as a woman by myself, but then again I wasn’t by myself. The three of us walked right up to the group and I asked if there was someone I could talk to about going horseback riding. I wish I could have videoed the response I received. Men stood up and began asking who was in charge and telling others that there is a madam who is looking to ride a horse. I was quickly directed to a man who took me back to the stable to speak with someone else. He asked me on the way if my dogs would bite him. I responded by saying “I don’t think so” and laughing it off. But honestly I had no idea myself. We had to go through another gate and I chose to leave the dogs behind. I turned to them and said stay and walked through the gate. 5 minutes later I returned through the gate and there they both were, waiting for me. And so we walked home together.

As we turned onto my street I saw a man coming toward us. The dogs maintained their pace with me and we met this man on the road a few houses away from mine. Turns out the dogs were his… I told him what happened and we both marveled that his dogs stayed with me the whole time. He thanked me for taking his dogs for a walk and took both dogs home, which happens to be two doors down from my house.

Such a strange encounter, but I can’t say that I wasn’t grateful for the dog’s presents at the equestrian center. I felt like I could go anywhere and do anything with those two by myside. With all the crazy stories to be had who wouldn’t want to come to Zimbabwe!

wintertime and the living is easy…

Its winter in Bulawayo and we are freezing. Its not the normal winter that I’m use to, its a sunny clear skys during the day and wicked cold at night. Its funny cause everyone here says its the coldest winter that they have experienced in a long time. When K and I packed for Zimbabwe we did not really pack super warm clothes. So  we’ve been getting creative about layering clothing and I’ve been knitting up a storm to keep us warm. I’ve knitted K a scarf and myself a hat. I can be down right handy every now and then.

I’ve been told that this is the coldest it gets here. I’m hoping that’s the truth. Its true dessert temps around here which is making me a bit worried about the summer. Its gonna be hot. But enough about the weather. Let me introduce you to the Medair Bulawayo base.

We have work hard play hard policy in the Zimbabwe team. Its been way too cold to play in the pool since we moved here but I intend to put in a lot of pool time later on when the temps allow.

This guy came with the pool. I call him the pool pee-er. At home peeing in a pool is an unforgivable offense, but here you can pee anywhere, the side of the street, parking lots, if you can think of a place to pee you can pee there. All you have to do is turn your back to the place that has the most traffic and you can pee all you want. Peeing in the pool is just another connivence of living here in Zimbabwe.

Here is the backyard. We’ve got a huge avocado tree that is just pumping out avocados and a lovely small veggie patch that K and I are dreaming of making quite the garden. There is also loads of little basil plants all over the yard… its like it was made for me. (Can you see my little crafting area off to the left side of the picture?)

This might be my favorite feature of the Bulawayo house. The Herb Tub! Its full of so many herbs… meals have become so flavorful with all the herbs! I’m in heaven.

So here is our little room for two. Actually its quite spacious and has beautiful sun light. It looks a bit messy but I promise you its so much more organized that it was earlier today. We don’t have any closets so we are working on how to store things.

I’ve been dying to have a reason to use a pallet. And our shoe neatness was the perfect reason (or excuse) to convince K to bring a pallet into our room. It works super great… and even K is pleased with the results.

The room itself it all white, so K and I were trying to figure out a way to bring a bit of color into the room. We bought a blue duvet cover to bring out the blue in the currtins. I’ve also been working on collecting paint chips and I strung them together to make a little banner. I think it turned out well.

I love having to be creative in my crafting. I’ve been spray painting bottles and wrapping them in yarn. I’ve also got big plans for a toilet paper roll wall art. Its gonna be awesome. We are settling in and discovering all the coffee shops and markets in Bulawayo. (there are not many but trust me if they are out there we will find them) We are still waiting for the official go ahead on our rainwater harvesting project, but we are hoping to hear by the first week of July. I know I’ve told you a deadline date before and the date has come and gone without any movement on the project… trust me I know. But we are hopeful that come July we will have funding. And come July I’ll be another year older… 30 really has been quite the year. Who knows that 31 has in store.

moments of inspiration…

I get in these moods. Moods of inspiration to create something. One of these moods came upon me on Sunday as we sat in the “Wovles” cafe in Joburg on our last day of our visa trip.  I was looking up different blogs and catching up on all my interwebs work. (Don’t kid yourself it’s alot of work keeping up with the interwebs.) And I stumbled on several pictures of watercolor paintings that really got me excited to pick up my paint brushes that I brought from home.

This picture of blue watercolors is what started the whole inspiration. How can you not want to play around with different colors after taking a look a the beautiful blues in that picture.

Oh how I love art that started as a mess. I plan on making lots of messes in the days to come.

And finally my hope is to create something close to these watercolor flowers. Are they not so amazing? Don’t worry I stocked up on painting supplies in Joburg. Happy painting!

We are back in Zimbabwe, STILL waiting to find out about funding… but we are still hopeful. (Secretly, I don’t think we will ever know… its my punishment for something I did  in my childhood.) We are back in good health and marveling at how we are half way through the year and will be back in the states for Christmas in a mere six months. (Should I start my paper chain yet?)

 

moving day…

Wednesday is moving day. We are moving six hours outside of Harare to Bulawayo. We still haven’t heard for sure about funding for our next project but we are moving anyways.

Our whole team is driving the six hours to our new home tomorrow after the moving truck is loaded. We are taking six cars… yes that means I’ll be driving. Driving a standard… across the country… awesome.

I’m hoping my truck is slightly less full than the above picture… but come on its great use of space. Of course you have to be pretty trusting of the driver not to stall out or jerk to a stop… like I said my car will be slightly less full.

This will be K and my third move in the last six months… I wish it was as easy has just lifting up a house and putting it on a truck. It looks like a lot of work but I swear packing in boxes and organizing it all takes more effort.

I should have thought to just grab a few close friends to help with the move. I could have ordered pizza and played music… it would have been a party. I’ll carry the pizza and radio and everyone can grab a corner. (Someone has to be responsible for the pizza and music and as the host of this moving party it falls to me.)

Send us your love tomorrow as we move… oh and I forgot to mention that Kris has Strep Throat… can’t talk… he is organizing this move in totally silence. Awesome. When it rains it pours. Happy Moving Day!

a billion reasons…

This last week in Harare the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) has been in full swing. K and I have been extremely fortunate to be able to attend the opening evening show as well as hang out during the day on Saturday listening to some great local musicians, eat great food, and check out some really beautiful crafts. (We all know I’m a sucker for a good craft market)

Its been a really great time to experience the culture and art of Zimbabwe in a way that we don’t normally see in the rural locations that we work in. I have found myself falling in love with Zimbabwe and it’s people. Zimbabwe is just coming back from economic collapse and many are still struggling to support their families. I often see the hardships and struggles in people’s lives here. And let me just say that I feel its important not to be naive to those hardships and struggles. That’s why K and I are working with Medair. It’s why we are in Zimbabwe. We aren’t blind to the struggle for basic needs in Africa and around the world. We are passionate about bridging the gap between those who have and those who do not.

However, just because there is a large gap does not mean that there are not things to be joyful about or that life here isn’t at all beautiful. This week at HIFA I was reminded that there are a billion reasons to be believe in Africa. “A billion reasons to believe in Africa” is actually the slogan of Coke a Cola in Africa. The slogan was on signs and posters everywhere on the grounds of the festival. I read it over and over through out our time at the festival, and something really clicked within me. This slogan really resounded within me as I watched the dancing groups, and listened to musical groups. I”ve always had a place in my heart for Africa, even before I first visited. I remember standing on the beach in southern Spain, looking across the water and knowing that I was looking in the direction of Africa. I was only 18 years old but some how then I knew I would visit and maybe even live there.

The video above is a song that was done for the Coke a Cola ad campaign in Africa. Yes,  the video is trying to sell Coke, but honestly it really shows the unity and pride Africans feel for their home.  At HIFA K and I were able to see the man who sings this song live. He sang this very song at the festival and it impacted me more than I can say. I had never heard the song before the festival but I’ll be honest to say I was singing along with the whole crowd at the end of the song. People were up from their seats dancing and everyone was singing “I love you Africa”. It was a moment where I felt like I belonged here because I share the same love for Africa. I love the bright colors, I love the passion and inhibition that allows for people to begin to dance at any time. I love that people hold hands to show that they are friends, I love the culture of calling the older generation mother or father as a sign of respect. There are a billion reasons to believe in Africa… and a billion more for loving Africa. I feel extremely grateful for the chance to experience each reason.

I love you Africa. (I think in my heart I’m becoming a Zimbo)

while we wait…

We’ve been told we will have an answer regarding our future project funding within the next 14 days. But in the mean time we took a day trip out to a lion park and hung out in some amazing landscapes and saw incredible animals.

This guy and his friend decided to join us for a Braai. (South African BBQ) Don’t you just want to touch him?

Lions are the most amazing animals ever. The end. We happen to be at the lion park during the meal hour and let me tell you it was amazing. The growling noises and aggressiveness while food is involved is frightening.

This guy is a bit grumpy that another lion is so close to him while he eats. He was giving a little feed back to the approaching lion to steer clear. It was his goat’s head and he wasn’t giving it up. I wouldn’t mess around with that kind of look.

Here is a guy I was willing to pet. There weren’t many at this park that I would want to extend my hand to touch. We were told that this guy was roughly 300 years old. He was a bit moody but if you were 300 years old I think you’ve earned that right.

Last weekend we went on a little hike with some friends. We hiked up to these balancing rocks. They are pretty awesome, and the view was stunning. I think Zimbabwe is really starting to wedge it’s way into my heart.

On our hike we passed by some prehistoric rock drawings. I have to say it was super impression to think that these drawings had been there for something like a gagillion years. Pretty great.

Speaking of great, let me introduce you to Debbie and her husband Delan. Debbie works in our Medair office in Harare and Delan is the optometrist aka miracle worker who was able to get me eye drops when I had my run in with the bug. Debbie and Delan took us out for a hike to see some of Zimbabwe’s great views. It really is a beautiful country.

While waiting is hard we are doing our very best to enjoy each day in Zimbabwe. Cause who knows where we will be living next month!

the great eye debacle of 2012 part two…

That knock came about 4pm when K phoned and told me he would not be able to make it home that evening. Several thoughts ran through my head. “What!” “No drops?!” (At this point I was freezing empty soda cans and placing them against my eye to numb the pain… needless to say I was really looking forward those drops) I tried to play it off that it was no big deal, cause I knew that K wanted to get home as much as I wanted him home that night. It just wasn’t in the cards. Driving at night isn’t recommended here inZimbabwe. Highways are extremely dangerous due to poor vision and car hijacking road blocks. Our team as a rule does not drive at night. So when K was doing the math on the hours he still had left to travel and the time the sun was due to set he knew he just wasn’t going to make it. I’m proud of him for making the right call… but at the time I was having a hard time seeing… literally I couldn’t see so much out of my right eye.

But being the strong independent type I told him to be safe and I’ll be just fine alone for the night. Now I’ve spent the night alone many times. I used to house sit all the time for friends and never thought twice. But of course it’s different when you are living inSeattleand can call a friend or my cousin Kenny to come spend the time if you get nervous about being alone at night. K knew I would get a bit nervous so he suggested having our housekeeper stay the night. Perfect idea, except I had just seen two women walk by with suitcases on their head heading for our housekeepers house; she had over night guests staying with her. (For the record I’ve never once seen her have overnight guests, but Wednesday night she had a full house.) And I had a very empty house. But I kept myself entertained with bad TV shows and perfecting my frozen soda can rotation so that my eye was always numb.

I went through the evening routine, greeting the guard that comes at 6pm (its always wise to be nice to the guy who guards your house at night) turning on the right lights and locking doors and closing windows so that bugs don’t come in. (I mean the bugs come in just at a slower rate if you close the windows) I was feeling good, the electricity gods were on my side because the power remained on the entire evening and I didn’t have to mess with the generator. (thank you electricity gods) It was getting close to 8:30pm which I’ve determined bedtime. (Not time to sleep but just time to be under my mosquito net in bed, don’t judge the night life in Gokwe is pretty chill, like there isn’t any)

I curled up in bed with my computer and began watching more stupid shows and listening for anything out of the ordinary. I was growing tired so I decided to turn of my computer and go to sleep. Besides the dreams of hatching bugs inside my body the night passed without any excitement. (which I am grateful for) K arrived just after 7:30am which stories I’ll leave for him to share. But I began the drops for my eye and saw results in the color and felt relief from the pain.  I had one last trip to visit some government officials on Thursday so I quickly thanked K for the drops and hopped in the car to set out for the day.

That evening we packed the remaining belongings of our little home and prepared to leave the next morning. We laughed as we compared our last move from our condo inSeattleto our move from Gokwe. Each move was stressful and eventful in its own way. I did miss all our friends coming over and helping pack like they did in ourSeattlemove. But we had way less things to pack in Gokwe.

Now we are inHararejust waiting to see if the proposal we submitted to OFDA will be approved. OFDA has given us a timeline of 4-6 weeks until we hear back on a submitted proposal. IF we get the green light then K and I will be moving down to a small town called Plumtree with a college of ours and we will be starting another rainwater harvesting project. If we get the red light well then we will have some decisions to make. Plans are very much up in the air right now but we are enjoying our adventure one day at a time.

goodbye Gokwe, goodbye Charlotte…

Friday morning K and I loaded up the two Medair trucks with all our belongings and said goodbye to Charlotte and to Gokwe. It was kind of surreal to know that we would not be coming back to our little house in Gokwe Center. We have officially closed down the Medair base in Gokwe and completed our project. Even writing it down and re-reading it seems strange. For the last three months K and I have been working day and night to finish this project. But the finish date always seemed to be out there somewhere in the distance, yet when we rolled into Harare at lunch time on Friday and was greeted by the office staff we felt a large weight lift off our shoulders. The project is completed and we finished well. But let me tell you it was not without some complications and a few twists that were very unexpected.

What twists you ask… well it all started with an innocent walk on the previous Sunday evening. K and I had been apart for several days while I was doing an assessment visit in another city in Zimbabwe so we decided to go for a walk on Sunday to chat about our week. As we were chatting away I was focusing on my footing careful not to twist my ankle or fall on the uneven path. As careful as I was being, I was not prepared for the bug that decided to fly straight into my right eye. It took a moment to register that there was indeed a bug fluttering around in my eye;  but once that moment passed I looked to K and with a bit of panic in my voice told him “there is a bug in my eye… get it out!” Amazing man that he is he went straight for my eye and held it open while I squirmed around and envisioned this bug laying eggs around my retina.

K was calm and collected. He kept telling me to blink and let my eye tear to flush out the bug. After a long minute or so I didn’t feel the bug and looked to K who told me the bug was gone. I regained my composure and laughed nervously saying “well at least I didn’t panic.” K was kind and agreed I handled that experience with ease. (We both knew I didn’t, but some facts just don’t need to be said out loud)

We returned home, happy and hungry for dinner. The evening passed without too much excitement. We had left over pizza for dinner and then settled in to watch a movie. I dozed off sometime in the first hour of the movie, not really anything new or different about that. But when I did wake up I found myself rubbing my eye and realizing that there was something very different. While I slept my eye began to swell and leak out thing strange mucus. I looked in the mirror and saw that my eye had gone totally red and was beginning to ache. I called out to K to come check out my eye. He took one look and went straight to his computer. I thought maybe I had contracted pink eye. “Can bugs carry pink eye?” “Are you kidding bugs carry all kinds of diseases.” “Quick Google bug and eye diseases.” You can image the next half hour’s conversation and Google results.

Seeing as how we were in Gokwe with nothing really to be done about my eye that night, we just went to bed and hoped for the best. Well the best did not come Monday morning. Nope, Monday morning brought more like not the best. I woke up only able to open one eye due to the fact the other was glued shut with the juice my eye was leaking the night before. Once I pried my eye open, I kind of wish I hadn’t… it was bright red and hurt to blink. I don’t know if you realize how much one has to blink… but you become quite aware of how many times and how often when there is pain connected to the action.

But you know the show must go on… like I had schools to visit and government officials to meet with. So I proceeded with work as usual… well as best I could with a leaking, red, throbbing, right eye. Monday and Tuesday passed without much change in my eye situation. And again thoughts of bug larva hatching in the back of my eye played around in my thoughts. But you know I kept it together. Finally, Wednesday rolled around and  K had to go with the moving truck that was sent with all our office equipment and things to storage. The storage location is about 4-5 hours away from Gokwe so he was planning a long day of travel. However, he was going throw the second largest city in Zimbabwe… full of pharmacies.

With the help of a co-worker whose husband is an eye doctor in Harare I was able to get the name of two eye drops that would most likely help my poor eye. I quickly texted the name of these drops to K who responded quickly telling me not to worry I would have my drops by bedtime tonight. Oh but then there is always another twist that just knocks you down just as you think you’ve gained your balance.

I’m gonna make this a two part blog post… who knew I would get so long winded?