Friday April 29: second last day Harare

I didn't make a walk this morning. Oh well. I am too fat at the moment, and look forward to the make over in India in June!! I met Anette, Carrie's charming friend at her lovely condo just around the corner, taking her some goodies from Carrie. A very lovely lady indeed, really into the arts. Then I went to buy milk tarts from Willomead Junction. Carrie and I took off after 10 for St. Georges to see the Prince Edward Marimba Band. They played under the trees, and I was very impressed with their playing. Most were A level black boys but there were a few younger juniors too. Their playing was excellent. I have a video of them if anyone is interested when I return. I chatted to them. They are an award winning marimba band, and I will see if there are any arts groups in Edmonton that would sponsor them coming out to play for us. Excellent technique, dramatic touches, dancing while playing, excellent coordination, dynamic control. I love the buzz of the marimbas, so Zimbabwean. Marimbas originate in Zim, as far as I know. Wish they could have donned authentic African skins, body paint instead of the Prince Edward jackets. I am an old Prince Edward boy.

Carrie and I met Don at the Aroma cafe, a great Italian restaurant in a lovely garden with an impressive gum tree. Super food, super company. Zim has top quality food, make no mistake!! Great service. I will miss Zim!!!!!!!!!

 Above: Yesterday Don and I waiting for the lawn tennis to begin. Johnny Anderson, where are you?

 Above: 7 legged spider. Carrie said he  last a leg in an altercation with a cockroach.

 Above: the bass marimba, and below tenor marimba

 Below: Prince Edward marimba band

 Below: younger player

 Below: marimba under the trees

 Below: so informal. They guys posed for me. They are REALLY good!!!

 below: the charming tree where Don, Carrie and I had Italian lunch

 Below: Carrie with her new head piece, against a big palm tree trunk

Well there's more! After 4 pm Gillian Layard, an old friend I haven't seen for 47 years, arrived. What an amazing story of courage and survival she has had over the years of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. It is a story of achievement, and great success. My mom taught her piano many years ago. She is right now in the midst of dealing with her brother's illness. At 6 PM Carrie and I took off to Iain McDonald's art show. We had a good time, looking at art, socializing, eating, and I bought his book too. What a great day! Tomorrow I leave Africa, sadly!

 Above: Don's bantams roost in a shrub! Cute!

 Above: The Teapot....available on air bnb

 Above: the lawn tennis court

 Above: Gill.....what an amazing lady!!

 Above: at the art show....magnificent protea display: pincushion proteas, king proteas, white proteas. Below: the art exhibition.

Thursday April 28 Harare:The day of tomatoes and tortoises!

Tea in bed!!! I went for an hour's walk. After reading and relaxing, Don asked if I would like to come with him to pick up tomatoes from his supplier.

On the way we encountered the pothole guy. There was a cardboard sign in the middle of the  road."PLIZ HELP!" The guy was to be found further down the road filling up the potholes. The roads need lots of attention in Harare, and many guys take it upon themselves to fill them up. Grateful motorists give them a tip, so this creates employment. Many potholes are filled up with red bricks!! You see patched potholes all over the place!!

We arrived at the tomato lady's home. She opened the gate to a huge property and gave Don a bag of tomatoes. Don asked if we could see her tortoises, and she agreed. Many many trees were to be found here. I took a pic of the lovely flowering cherry tree. She rears tortoises, and then lets them go in national parks. There are two kinds of tortoises that she kept: leopard tortoises and bell hinge tortoises ( named after the shell near the rear that kind of hinges!) Some were very small , and the slightly bigger ones five years old. Tortoises live to a ripe old age. She feeds them on hyena poop ( if she can get it), lettuces, prickly pear fruit, and egg shells ( for calcium). There was a bone in the enclosure and the babies chewed on it ( part of an elephant skull she said!) The pics say it all.

Then she took us on a tour of her huge greenhouse with six foot high organic tomato vines. Very impressive indeed!! We sampled grape tomatoes, hot from the sun and they were delicious! There were two workers in the greenhouse, picking and doing other jobs. I learned that tomatoes and tobacco are the same family, and subject to the same pests. At 3:30 PM Mary Jane, and her two wards arrived and Don, Carrie and I played lawn tennis. Great to play barefoot. I enjoyed it despite my severe lack of skill!!

 Above: Vimbai kneading dough for bread!!

 Below: different patterns on the shell denote the type

 Below: the underside looks like a basket weaving pattern of shell

 Below: a different underside

 Smile!!

 Below: Aubergine tomatoes

 Below: add some yellow to aubergine

 Below: pure aubergine tomatoes.....first time I had seen them

 Below: in the greenhouse

 Below: grape variety that we are familiar with

 Below: the owner, and tomato lady

 Below : the worker has green tomato oils on his hands!!

 Below: gorgeous flowering cherry tree, ornamental , probably doesn't yield fruit?? Bees were a humin'

Wednesday April 27 Harare

Bed tea to start the day 6:30 AM. I went for an hours walk to keep my circulation going!! After breakfast Don and I went to the market for a while and did various chores. We did fit in a pleasant coffee too. Don dropped me off at my old school, Prince Edward School, and I walked around memory lane, taking pics of various parts of school life that I remember. There was a school's rugby tournament going on, as schools are officially on holiday till the end of the week. I went back to see Beit Hall, where I remember participating in a Gilbert and Sullivan production, the school chapel, where I was the organist at the time, Selous House where I was a boarder, and Founders Dining Hall! I had left Fort Victoria ( Masvingo) to go to Salisbury ( Harare) to do A levels, which were not available at the time in Masvingo. Nowadays, you can do A levels in most centres in Zim!

Today has been a quiet day of doing the blog. This afternoon Carrie and I went to see one of her artistic friends, and we bought Don a lumbar pillow. It was a very pleasant experience in a very lovely environment. All the pics for this day were posted on April 26 by mistake....too tired to change this....check back.....thanks for checkin in.

Tuesday April 26 Masvingo to Harare

Don and I had a great breakfast with our charming hostess, Helen, the chick lady. Helen raises day old chicks and sells thousands daily all over southern Zim. She has trucks, office etc and it is all scientifically done. She has carved a valuable niche that really helps Zimbabweans. Her home is lovely, and overlooked Kyle Dam, which has sadly shrunk to 20%. Her husband is a legendary bass fisherman, and has amazing stories to tell. He produces and sells veggies. Thanks to Don, this was a really rewarding experience talking to farming folk who lived through the war, lost part of their farm, and have an amazing story of survival. Joe is the cook and does a great job, but really Helen loves cooking, and makes amazing meals, chutneys, jams and delicious meals. Every evening we had a sundowner with them....a real African sundowner, as shown in my pic of sunset over the mountains in the distance.

I digress. Cheryl, Roy Miller's wife came with us on our trip back to Harare. We took the short cut route from the Mutare road to Chivu ( Enkeldoorn) . I took pics of kopjes to show the amazing rocky outcrops that characterize Zimbabwe. We noticed a snake as road kill, and Don actually saw a live one on the road. At Chivu I took some pics of locals and a local market. We were stopped several times by police for one thing or other but they couldn't really find anything to fine us for!! The police wait along the roadside at many points along all Zim roads. When in Harare, a black lady ignored a police signal to stop, and was probably fined for that. We dropped Cheryl off in Mabelreign and got back to Willomead Lane, Don's place with the familiar brick wall. We had a quick lunch.

After a short while, Carrie and I took off on a very interesting trip. We went to an AIDs clinic, and picked up a charming black lady, Eleanor, and Eleanor's nice, Chakunde, who raced up to Carrie and hugged her. She is a lovely young girl. We all went to a home in another part of Harare to pick up fabric scraps, and drove to an African high density suburb called Tafara. It was good to see how most Zimbabweans live in the cities. I took a pic of avocados growing on a tree, and we got to Risi's home. She is a grandmother. Eleanor showed us the home. Risi greeted us on all fours. ( She has some back issues, I guess). She screamed with joy when she saw Carrie! She managed to get up and sit on the bed. Risi has few teeth, but became very animated. She is the lady that knows how to make the rag rugs and will teach others how to do it. Risi made sure we could spell her name, and scratched it out on her arm! This shows on black skin. Carrie and I bought a rag rug each. Risi again was overjoyed with getting some money for her rugs. After a visit, Eleanor, young Chakunde, Carrie and I left in Carries car, and drove up the dirt road to Eleanor's home. She has the only garden in front of her house. She had planted a pomegranate shrub, which had grown from pomegranate Carrie had given her!! We met Eleanor's kids, and her brother,  Ellard and his two boys. Check out the pics!! All the kids Eleanor and I took the many garbage bags of fabric scraps to the front of Eleanor's home. The kids were delightful. Then we went around the back. Eleanor had some chickens there that she was raising. Don had helped Eleanor set up her chicken business, which is successful. She had a dog, but could not let it out, as she said locals would poison her dog. We entered the home from the back, and it is very charming. We sat down, and chatted. Ellard, her brother is very talented as a scrap metal sculpture/artist. He has shown his work at various shows here, and been to California to demo his work. I thought it would be nice to see if I could get him to Edmonton if our local Art Gallery were interested. So many Zimbabweans are so creative. You see many sculptures outside made of hard stone. In the old days they were soft soapstone but not now. Carrie has two of Ellard's  sculptures in her large garden. Carrie and I said goodbye to Ellard ( he is now a Facebook friend) and Eleanor, and drove back to Don's place.

In the evening we went to a Portuguese restaurant for Don's birthday and peri peri chicken!! I met Don's daughter Sarah, and her daughter Hannah. It was a great meal. We all sang to Don, led by the black waiters, and they are great singers!! It was good to me Heather, who had originally introduced Don and Carrie!! A great day ended with a quiet walk. Thanks for checking in!!

 Above: Eleanor, Carrie and Chakunde

 Above: Eleanor holding Risi's rag rug

 Above: Risi ( grandmother) Eleanor and myself

 Above: all the kids at Eleanor's home

 Above: I joined in

 Above: Ellard , a very talented scrap metal sculptor

 Above: Hannah, Don and Sarah ( Don's daughter)  for Don's birthday

 Above: on right, Wayne, Sarah's husband at the Portuguese restaurant

 Below: my old school

 Below : Beit Hall, Prince Edward School where I participated in G& S musical

 Below : The school chapel where I was organist when a student

 Below: rugby training on the school field

 Below : my old boarding establishment, a bit the worse for wear. Rugby guys staying there

 Below : in the school grounds

 Below: rugby kids in school gym tracksuits

 Below: young rugby players

 Below: flowering tree

 Below: the Bull, Ellard made this of scrap metal: at Don's place