Couscous, billions and babies

John is still quite jetlagged. Yesterday he made couscous at 2:30am and it was delicious!

I'm getting back into the swing of things at THQ. I'm trying to implement a project that we got money for before I was here - it's training people in using puppets to teach about HIV/AIDS and other social issues. It's a taboo to talk about sexual issues in mixed generation situations, but no one seems to mind if puppets talk about them. I put together a budget for 15 people to eat and sleep for a week and buy some basic supplies to make the puppets - $1.5 billion. I never in my life imagined I'd be working with this kind of money! I brought the budget to the finance secretary and she asked me if I was serious. There's a cash shortage, and people can only get $5million/day, and here I am asking for $1.5 billion. But this is only for basics! I guess we'll see...

I also got to go see a brand new baby in the hospital yesterday. The mother was really expecting a boy, so this (their 3rd girl) is wrapped all in blue! A friend was expressing sympathy at the birth of another girl, and offered to sleep with the new mother's husband (since she has had success herself in producing boys). Generous...

Life in Canada is easier, but life in Zimbabwe is more interesting.

Resolution: no oreos for 2008

Back to life in Harare... yesterday at lunch we went to the shops to check out the situation. We were delighted to see that some of the shelves had food on them (pig heads, chicken parts, powdered milk, laundry soap, cookies, cheese - not bad, not bad!) but the prices were incredible. The equivalent of $12US for dish soap or $22US for a box of oreos (and these are US equivalents at the parallel rate!) But one shouldn't complain - at least these items are back on the shelves, right?

We came back to some new bearers' cheques (like cash, but not real currency) - $250,000 bill, $500,000 bill and $750,000 bill. A loaf of bread is $2.1 million now, so I'm thinking we need some higher value notes. But what do I know about economics?

Oh, and our backyard is a jungle. It has been raining like crazy and the grass is so tall. Our corn is getting tall too, though, so that's exciting. To me it's so sad that there is drought in parts of the country and flooding (declared a national disaster) in other parts. Couldn't God distribute the rain a bit more evenly?

Back home in Harare

We made it home to Harare yesterday afternoon. We're still tired and jetlagged, but happy to be back. It was really hard to leave, but now that we're back, we're back - you know? They did search our bags at customs, and asked a lot of questions about clothing we were bringing back into the country (I really hope they don't ban clothing - nudity just doesn't suit everyone!) but overall things went smoothly. The plane from Amsterdam to Nairobi was almost empty (I guess a lot of people have been canceling vacation plans to Kenya recently) so I got 3 seats to myself and had a lovely nap. Again, I have to say that the 40 hour journey is exhausting, but important - because it's like going from one planet to another.

Needless to say, we had an incredible, wonderful, refreshing holiday in Canada. We loved being around family and friends. We loved eating a great variety and volume of food. We loved seeing the snow (I even helped my dad shovel!) We loved being at our home church (although, sadly, a young man was murdered in Regent Park - our old neighbourhood - right before the Christmas pageant). It was marvelous just to walk around Toronto. I dragged my sister from Yonge & Bloor to U of T down to the waterfront. It was good to see people celebrating Christmas (although I was reminded of the insanity of materialism and gift giving anxiety that people feel). It was good to ride the TTC. It was good to get hug after hug after hug.

I have to make special mention of New Years because it was memorable. We spent New Years Eve day at Paul & Liz's and had fun with aunts, uncles and cousins. My cousin Jesse got a "wii" for Christmas and so we all had a turn. I must admit that I felt like I was visiting from the African village - and amazed at this new technology. We also did some old fashioned/non-computer screen involved games which was good for me too! On the way home, Mom, Dad, Johnny, John and I stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's and that was great. Then we drove back to my parents' and we were waiting for the rest of the fam. Our friend Matt came to the door and explained that he was trying to find a dance party for developmentally challenged people, and got lost. He wondered if he could bring his friends in to dance at our place. My ever-gracious-hostess-mom agreed of course. So, Matt came in with 4 friends, Dad McAlister let us borrow his Beatles CD and then we danced. Johnny took one look at our party and suggested he'd rather go downstairs and watch a movie! Joel, Kirsten, Josh ("I feel like I'm on acid!!!") and Mirriam were confused as they came in to the 60s dancing, but then they joined in and supplied some great moves. We also had to have an early countdown at 10pm so they could get back early. I truly love the random-ness of my family!

Hopefully photos will be posted soon...