Settling in to Zimbabwe

It's now been three weeks since we arrived in Harare and we're starting to feel more comfortable in our new home. Nikki has been working hard and is already taking trips outside of the city for her job. Jacqui and I have been busy taking care of Ryo and getting the house in order. Ryo is totally comfortable in her new home, and has been focused on eating, sleeping, growing, holding her head up, and avoiding slobber from Hina (who is also loving her new home). We have been lucky enough to have help from Chipo, who will be taking care of the house and looking after Ryo when I am at work and Jacqui is back in the States. Chipo has also been teaching us about the local culture, helping me with Shona (the local language) and introducing us to sadza (a corn-based thick porridge) and rugare (a leafy green veggie – one of many things you can each with sadza). I've also been soaking up local customs from the "Obama Boys" (one of two soccer teams I'm playing on).

We have already received two shipments of things from the US – one of consumables (paper towels, juice, flour, etc.) and one of household items (clothes, baby toys, my bike, etc). We are still waiting on the bulk of our household items, but things are slowly tricking in. We are still without a car, which makes running errands somewhat problematic. I walked several miles through downtown Harare in a quest to bring Internet to our home (after a few bureaucratic hurdles, I was successful – now we can skype!). We have purchased one car from Japan, which is now sitting in Durban, awaiting shipment to Zimbabwe. We have a second car (a Toyota "Funcargo") in Harare already, which is on hold until we are cleared by the local government. Luckily, several of our friends have been kind enough to let us borrow their wheels in the interim, which has allowed us to take a few trips out of town.

Last weekend, we visited a game park outside of town called "Imire," which has been focused on rhino conservation. Jacqui, Ryo, Nikki, and I all piled into a Disneyland-style trailer and fully enjoyed cruising through grassy plains dotted with acacia trees, checking out their semi-wild populations of elephants, giraffes, impala, warthogs, baboons, zebra, lions and of course, black and white rhinoceros. Lunch was an additional highlight, where we enjoyed curry, sadza, and homemade brownies while perched on granite boulders overlooking a waterhole complete with elephants.

On president's day, we hit the road again for a slightly different wildlife experience. At "Wild is Life" just outside of Harare, a friendly woman named Roxy has been accumulating various incredible animals for some time. In the past couple years, she has opened up her home to private tours, where one can meet and interact with cheetahs, lions, and a variety of other animals. Many of the animals were hand-raised in her home. My personal favorites were the African pangolins, which are apparently rare in captivity. The tour has a certain elegance to it, where your wanderings with wild animals are punctuated with breaks for tea and scones and later champagne and brandy. As the day came to a close, we enjoyed our sundowners from the comfort of a lavish outdoor patio, looking out over the kudu, sable antelope, and giraffes, and thought – wow, so this is Africa.

Home Sweet Home Harare

Africa! It's hard to believe that we are finally here. It's only been a week since we arrived in Zimbabwe, but first impressions are of beautiful landscapes and friendly people. The journey was long – 27 hours of total flight time over a period of 4 days, travelling from Maui, to Los Angeles, to Frankfurt, to Addis Ababa, to Lusaka, to Harare. Luckily, Nikki's mom Jacqui came with us to help schlep our 8 checked bags, 8 carry-ons, bulldog, and baby exactly halfway around the world. Needless to say, we weren't travelling light! Incredibly, we experienced few problems – save our stroller being lost in Addis and arriving a few days late.

We already have a number of friends living in Harare, which has made settling in much easier! It was wonderful to reconnect with David and Jillian (our friends from Vietnam), Jean and Ed (from Nikki's foreign service cohort), and Gil and Monica (family friends from Maui). They have been kind enough to show us around town and introduce us to their friends – our first weekend was fully booked with social brunches and barbecues ("braiis"). David has already signed me up for a couple of local soccer teams (we unfortunately lost our first game on Tuesday) and sports seem to be huge here. There are clubs for running, biking, triathlons, tennis, rugby, cricket, golf, hiking, and everything in between. Cultural events also abound. Last night we went to see a concert featuring our friend Comrade Fatso and an absolutely fantastic local group called Mokoomba. It seems our social calendar will be quite full here!

The house we have been assigned is definitely the nicest place that we have ever lived. There is plenty of room to spread out, a pool, and a yard where Hina can run to her heart's content (being a bulldog, she is content with a somewhat limited amount). We are in an upscale, centrally located neighborhood near the botanical gardens and relatively close to the Embassy – which makes our commute to work very easy. We don't have our own car yet, but have been able to borrow one and explore the city a bit. Driving took a little getting used to – hundreds of potholes, lack of streetlights, and of course that whole driving on the left-hand side of the road thing – but we were able to navigate to a few local stores with surprisingly well-stocked shelves. Some items (like cheese) are exorbitantly priced, but we did not encounter the Soviet-style empty supermarkets we had anticipated. The city seems to be generally safe, although our house has a number of security measures and we have been advised against driving at night. On the whole, Harare looks to be a great place to live for two years!

So now we are settling in. Nikki has jumped right into work and I start in a couple of weeks. Jacqui is helping to take care of Ryo while our nanny (Chipo) gets to know her. In the meantime, we are waiting for shipments of all of our possessions to arrive, setting up internet, buying a car, and generally getting acquainted with our new home. Hopefully it won't be long before we have the opportunity to begin exploring this amazing country!