Trip to Vic Falls

Click here for bigger slideshow of Vic Falls photos

A quick review of the trip:

If it weren't for the 2-hour delay and the relatively steep price ($223 for each kid, $270 for each adult), flying to Victoria Falls instead of driving (10 hours) is the way to go. I can't remember having such a laid back airport experience: no security hassles, no rushing through big terminals, just an hour on the plane, plus free food and booze.

We stayed at the Kingdom which is a huge new hotel complex walking distance from the Falls. It lacks the style of the old original colonial Victoria Falls Hotel or the Vic Falls Safari Lodge where we ended up eating dinner both nights, but we were able to fit the whole family in one room (nice, solid bunk beds for the kids), and the pools were just what the kids wanted all day every day. It's hotter at Vic Falls than Harare, and this is the hottest time of year.

Tickets to the Falls park were $30/person, but with resident passes we got in free, or practically free. The paved path for viewing the Falls was nicely done, safely away from the edge with probably 8 different view points. It took us in and out of the hot sun, through the rain forest created by the spray. The Zambezi River plummets into a huge canyon, and there are lots of different falls to see. Some people even took rafts up the canyon and were bouldering to the base of some of the falls (next time!). Other people were at Devil's Pool on the Zambian side, swimming in water holes right up to the edge of the falls. These are probably activities to do only this time of year. In May, there is 50 times more water pouring over, so instead of a series of amazing falls, it's one hugely wide falls.

High tea at the Vic Falls Hotel, with warthogs and guinea fowl wandering around the garden and a distant view of the spray coming up from the canyon, was a nice way to spend the afternoon. The Boma for dinner was a bit of a tourist trap...large tour groups and expensive buffet of all kinds of game meat. The kids were totally exhausted. Quinn and Eliza fell asleep at the table, but E was roused when the drumming, singing and dancing started.

Next morning the guys went golfing at the Elephant Hills Hotel. Then we all went out to lunch at Mama Africa, a laid back local place with live guitar and baboons knocking mangoes out of the tree above us. The guys took the kids back to the hotel, while the ladies did some shopping. I got a nice elephant carved from a heavy wood. Then we all went on the sundowners cruise on the Zambezi River which was very nice and mellow, a pontoon with open bar and live mbira music from a young man wearing an ostrich feather headdress. We didn't get too close to the top of the falls, and we saw hippos, crocodiles, lots of birds and the sunset. That night we hired a baby sitter for the kids and went out to a great restaurant, maybe the best in the country - a good way to end the trip.

Select Pics

Waiting for her milkshake at a tea shop after school.

Just after he lost his first top tooth, nearly a year since he lost his bottom two.

Keeping Busy on the Weekends

Painting, glitter glue, stickers...a perfect birthday gift. Good thing she got two!

Playing on the iPad...most favored toy of whole family

Trying out the yoga swing at a brunch. The hosts (ultimate frisbee friends) are watching. 

Tennis lessons

More tennis lessons

A New Look

Last night Miles woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and his other big front tooth hanging by a thread. If you recall losing your teeth as a baby, when a big tooth is still attached but by a dinky root, it's ...uncomfortable. There was to be no touching or even talking about the tooth, let alone pulling or twisting it. Miles had caught the fever his sister had last weekend, coupled with the dangling, darkening front tooth...and in the middle of the night...he was pitiful. 

As I lifted the mixing bowl to him when we thought a puke was coming on, he said, "You're being a good mom." Positive reinforcement in action! It gave me just enough energy to stay up with him until he finally fell asleep. In the morning, he felt all better, and the tooth was out!

Now he's enjoying a day off of school: from bed this morning, Can you bring me the iPad? After two hours of Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, he hung out in the little avocado tree sining Ah-bi-yoyo, Ah-bi-yoyo...(he says it's from the book which the music teacher read to them...about a giant who lives in Africa called Yoyo. Ah...this is it! Pete Seeger...who would have guessed.) 

After some jumping on the trampoline, practicing the hold-one-foot-while-bouncing-on-the-other-foot trick, he has come in here to ask me 1) if I can draw Ingromination and 2) where is Momo (our nickname for Mambo...but he's only asking because that's what King Boomy said in the last episode of Avatar: the last Airbender.) I'm thinking we should get his hair cut!

Abomination, aka Ingrommination, Miles's selection

Wouldn't You Like to Be a Worm?

No. Not really.

Miles's class just finished a unit on invertebrates. In addition to caring for silk worms that became moths, and going on an "invertebrate safari" field trip, the kids worked for weeks to prepare for a big performance. Miles was a worm along with a few others.

H-E-R-M-A-P-H-R-O-D-I-T-E
Come on kids, get it right.
That old greek word, hermaphrodite.
There's no girl, there's no boy.
We're all the same in the earthworm world. 
There's no Mr. There's no Mrs.
There's no brothers. There's no sisters.
Don't you worry. Don't you fuss.
'Cause that's how nature created us!


The first time I heard vague snippets of Miles singing this as he played around the house, I thought, that's funny, it sounds like he's spelling hermaphrodite. And low and behold, he was. This was his (and all the kids, I was pleased to see) favorite song which they performed with much gusto - twice! Gotta love science.

Worms

Miles (with standard issue certificate for excellent work) and his Teaching Assistant Miss Boxter & Eliza

And did you know that worms have 5 hearts?

Sorry, I wish I could post some videos of the performance. Sweet and hilarious. You really can't underestimate the value of a first grade teacher with a sense of humor.

Sweet moment between Miles and his awesome teacher, Mrs. Breathnach

A few more from Eliza's 4th

This is a slideshow of a few more photos from the birthday. I'm experimenting with using Picasa.

Troutbeck - Springhide House

For our first Spring Break in Zimbabwe, we did not head for the beaches of Mozambique like half the families at HIS but headed to the mountains an easy 3-hour-drive to the east for a just couple of nights away. We were lucky to find out about this house from some local friends of ours who have been coming up here for 10 years. You need to bring everything with you from toilet paper to salt & pepper, but there are beds, comfy if a bit worn furniture, and importantly, Rusiya and her husband who are the managers of the estate and who, in true Zimbabwe style, took very good care of us. Rusiya cooked hot meals and took the kids to see her lambs and chicks. Her husband built fires in the fireplace at night when it got cold. We had loads of candles but were lucky that we had power the whole weekend. $15/person/night and half-price for the kids! I hope we can make it up again and bring friends during the month-long Christmas holiday we'll be here.

Springhide House, Nyanga National Park, near the town of Troutbeck

There are 5 single beds, 3 in this kids' room, 2 at the top of the stairs, and

her is one of two rooms with double beds, both with fireplaces.

"World's View" overlook nearby.

Up in the mountains, a lot of people come to fish, but you have to have your own gear. So we just took the kids out on the row boat which was not very easy to manage with the wind and broken oarlocks. (It's always helpful to have a good sense of humor while living in Africa since you are definitely going to find yourself in situations where things don't work quite the way they should.) While David golfed at the Troutbeck Inn, I explored the grounds with the kids. At home, we played board games and less traditional iPad games, and read, wrote, and had our drinks while the kids enjoyed climbing the boulders in the front yard. Even though we are at the tail end of the dry season (it actually rained on our way home and the risk of fire went from extremely high to moderate), it was still beautiful with blossoming azaleas and fresh smelling pines.

Veld fires purposefully set ths time every year everywhere in Zimbabwe

Lake at Troutbeck

Mambo the Kitten (never mind Eliza's haircut)

Eliza turns 4!

I figure this is the last birthday of the early childhood years for us. Five is a big turning point. But let's focus on the here and now.

Who is Eliza at four? Eliza greets guests with a flourish of excitement. She knows how to accept gifts and introduce an immediate activity: Come! Come see the new kitty! She cares about what outfit she is wearing, and it's often her last question to me before she goes to sleep at night: Can I wear the blue dress with the pink flamingo tomorrow? When playing a group game like duck-duck-goose, Eliza wants to be picked over and over, and she runs fast, head up with a serious, determined expression. 

Eliza is into painting but still prefers abstract design to anything recognizable. She wants to do things on her own terms and is not interested in writing anything other than her name (and forget about the letter z). She's into shopping and is always up for an outing with mom. One of her favorite birthday gifts is a pink heart-shaped purse with jeweled handle that is a musical jewelry box complete with the small ballerina that turns around in front of a mirror.

Eliza is fascinated with cutting hair, but doesn't care much about the finished product. She can't quite grasp that if you cut your hair very short, you can't wear pony tails or braids. Eliza knows she shouldn't grab the kitten around the middle and bounce him up and down, pretending he's a bunny, or dress him up in doll clothes, or hold him by his front paws to make him dance...but she can't help herself. She likes Tinkerbell and princesses, but she knows how to fight and play super heroes with the boys. One minute she's pretending to fly (Tinkerbell), the next dancing (ballerina), the next water-bending (Katara of Avatar: The Last Airbender - love it!).

Like her brother, Eliza is unafraid of strangers. Sometimes at a first meeting, she will refuse to be polite. She'll pretend she's shy and cling to her mother's skirt, but that has more to do with her refusal to do what's expected than unfriendliness. Within minutes, she will be climbing up the pants leg of that stranger demanding to be swung around or listened to. In school, she's doing well, but she tends to be talkative (don't know where she got that from!).

Eliza and Emma with their hair cuts.

I actually got tears in my eyes when I saw this cake. Bridget the Baker is an artist.

waiting to cut the cake 

I want the unicorn's head!

Reading the first clue on the treasure hunt.

Recent Happenings

Miles and Eliza, wearing Ethiopian formal-wear from Mercy Corps friend Amanuel, aka Dibaba

Tarisai Day at HIS, celebrating Zimbabwean culture and showing their Warthog pride

Eliza with Cindy, our tortoise. Cindy is shy.

Eliza wearing a mask Miles made for her

With Emma, Eliza's new best friend, at Emma's bday party...before Eliza cut their hair

At Hoggerty Hill Country Fair, Eliza in ecstasy brushing a horse's mane with her new pink brush

At the fair, Miles shooting a paint ball gun to win prizes

Damage done. Eliza's third attempt at cutting her own hair...less and less to cut.

Hair on the ground...not so obvious here but looked like a real salon...except longer pieces of hair.

My lemon, the Camry, and muscle boy.

First sleep over! Miles and Vaughn looking at Spiderman comic books.

Catching daddy at lunch...this was after the real hair trim and before her own trim.

Ngomakurira Rock Paintings

view on our hike to Ngomakurira

Ngomakurira or "Mountain of Drums"  is an hour or so north of Harare and home to some of Zimbabwe's best rock paintings. We had been before to another location nearby called Domboshawa. The huge, bald granite rock-face was the sit of Eliza's "christening"  in one of our early day trips here. In the dry season, the landscape is browner but still as beautiful.

Our HIS "buddy family" (a project initiated by the PTO - whoot whoot - to help new families find their way) came along: Sheryl and Vaughn, Miles's classmate. They're American and recently from DC but lived in Kenya for years.

Other than us, there were no tourists climbing on the hill or in the valley shadowed by the tall sheer face of the rock where we saw the paintings. The few guys we passed on the trail were just taking the shortest route between villages. One group were barefoot old men dressed in the long white robes of the Apostolics. They were singing in perfect African harmony, the deepest bass vibrating in our hearts as they passed.

view about half way there...kids walked the whole way

It had been Miles's idea to go there. He talked for days about the spirits of the people he imagined were there, which made Vaughn less enthusiastic about the trip. We were all the way up the hill (see above) before we came across the arrows indicating the way to the paintings...and letting us know we were headed in the right direction. The kids loved hunting for the arrows and leading the way.

MIles, Vaughn & Eliza

at base of this high, sheer rock-face are the paintings

archaeologists estimate they are 4000-13,000 years old

Miles with the zebras