Jenn Power

Our friend Jenn Power has been visiting us since Thursday afternoon, and it's been a delight to have a friendly face from home. Ever since we came, we've been having a lot of electricity. I thought it was perhaps because of her surname, but then someone told us about an ad that was in the paper from ZESA (Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority) - saying that due to some glitch, they have been supplying more electricity than normal. They were apologizing for any inconvenience and saying they're trying to rectify the problem! What a country...

Thursday we had a mini birthday party for Jenn - sharing some brownies with Alice, Mac and Gogo. Then Friday we celebrated our anniversary with pizza and a movie (Music & Lyrics - very cute - great music!) When we got home, John lit some candles (by choice, not because of lack of electricity - trust me, it makes a difference to the mood!) played some music and we danced. What a romantic! Saturday we went to Mukuvisi Woodlands to go horseback riding. We got SO close to the giraffes. There's something very magical about looking into the eyes of a giraffe... it's a beautiful thing. In the afternoon we had a "cockroach extravaganza" whereby we attempted to attack all of the cockroaches in our kitchen. Jenn was very brave. I suppose it was an odd "guest" activity - but we wanted her to get the full Zimbabwean experience! Yesterday we attended a farewell service for some friends, visited a lady in hospital and then drove to Mutare. Our friend Hope is starting university tomorrow, so we were dropping him off. Mutare is lovely, and on the way back Jenn got another Zimbabwean experience - standing in a bread queue and then experiencing the victory of getting bread (and eating half a loaf as your lunch/supper). God is good, and we are thankful that Jenn came (and brought chocolate!)

Anyone else is welcome to home... we don't make ALL of our visitors kill cockroaches... :)

5 years

Today John and I are celebrating 5 wonderful years of marriage. August 3, 2002 - best day of my life, for sure! To have my family and friends there and then to see John looking hot in a kilt and then to get to MARRY my dream man!!! Marrying the right person is one of the biggest decisions of your life, and it can make your life SO happy. I know our (Canadian) culture is against commitment, and about half of marriages in North America end up in divorce, but it doesn't have to be that way. Before we got married, people told us that we'd have to work at our marriage, and I was like, "whatever! If you're in love you don't need work." But of course you need to work at your marriage, and nurture it - but it's fun work! I have never taken our marriage for granted, because I know it's special and beautiful. I'm so crazy in love with John! We even skipped our run this morning to stay in bed and celebrate (ok, ok, too much information - I know!) :)

Monopoly money and ketchup

I told you that Sunday night we taught some of our friends Monopoly. It was interesting to play with them - of course they insisted on having a blackmarket! As a kid, you feel all thrilled that you get to hold a $100 bill or a $500 bill. Of course, now these notes seem quite small. John was actually commenting that it would be cheaper to use Zim money than to replace the monopoly money. In Zimbabwe, a $10,000 bill won't buy you too much these days (if you can find anything to buy!) I carry around $100,000 - just in case. Imagine! Money is scarce these days though - it's hard to find, and maybe this is the government's way of trying to stop the blackmarket. It feels so unsettling though - first the food was gone, and now cash is going. I must say, I am impressed by how shops are attempting to make their shelves full. We went to one shop that had this massive, beautiful display of ketchup. And there's still a lot of toilet paper. Trust me - you can use toilet paper and ketchup to give the illusion that your store actually has goods! Someone suggested we join a sugar queue this morning, but they were saying we'd have to stand in line for 4 hours to get sugar - and we had to come to work. Ah, life is interesting here...