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Last night we were greeted at the visa stop by Snyx - super sweet! - who kept us company through baggage claim until we walked out and met Dennis, and 2 of Brenna's cousins: Ben (21 yrs, "handshake" kind of guy) & Dan (18 yrs, "I don't even know your name but you get a hug :D " kind of guy). Then we packed up the cars with our 6 suitcases (including donations) + carry ons. During the packing process Daniel pulled off to the side as to not block traffic. He was approached by a cop who said they were going to give him a ticket because he was in "taxi only" parking, despite Dan's protest and explanation of trying to be out of the way. The officer walks off and Dan turns around, looks at his aunt Bonney (Brenna's mom), and says "Welcome to Zimbabwe!" then they zoom off then Snyx calls someone in our car (Dennis or Ben) saying what was happening real quick and tells us us to book it because the copper was on their way to our car. It was a great first impression of Zim traffic and respect(?) for law enforcement. On the way to the house (about 40 minutes from the airport) Brenna commented that she felt like she was in Florida because it was warm and dry - but dark so with the street lights it apparently looked like FL. Ben and Dennis laughed and said "Just wait till morning..." . Once we got to the Deuschle house they boys told us where to go as they brought in all the suitcases. We met Mr & Mrs Deuschle (Zim side, obviously) and got a run down of what to expect tomorrow, met Dr. Jessica - who gave us quick neck adjustments, then we swiftly unpacked while each other showered real quick, each took a melatonin, then hit the sac around 11:45p.
We woke up this morning at 8a to "be ready" at 10-10:30 & it was a whirlwind thereafter. We were introduced to some people at the house, Aunt Sophie (maid) and Leonard (chef) then out front we met some of the boy's friends - Simon (training in DC to be a Navy Seal), Keegan(Navy Seal, I think), Austin (photographer), and Andrew(goes to school with Keegan) - who had the same itinerary as us today. We also met Pastor Taz (PT), who was our driver for the day. We all caravaned out to Mbare where we passed through the ghetto where 6 - 25 people share single room flats using curtains for walls and 1 common bathroom per floor/every few rented rooms. On the outside of the buildings - which were framed with clothes lines and tons of people begging each other for money, work, spare food, whatever whatever - you'd see busted and rusted pipping where sewage had backed up and broken through the old building's system then molded over in the heat. I wished so bad to have my camera with me today, but Aunt (/Pastor) Bonnie said not to look like a tourist, so I left it at the house. We got to Mbare which is a lot like - but not as nice as - Hartsbesport (SA posts): bartering market. We left a couple people from our group (locals) to watch the cars and the rest of us took off after Aunt Bonnie speed walking as her "little ducklings" in a row behind her, up and down and in and out all the stands on a mission! At one stand, the boys were talked into buying a bag of worms, I don't know what they're planning to do with the whole bag, but if offered I'd have to help by consuming one. I'd be game to try it just to add to my weird foods list... whatevs. Another place we stopped was the stand of a witch doctor. He had a hook of lamb's fat hanging from his roof as well as a mix of all sorts of weird "remedies" for what ales you.
After Mbare we went to Celebration Ministries International (their church), which is about 10 minutes past the house in the other direction, where we watched some short clips about the history of the organization, were guided on a walking tour - including stopping in on Grade 2 in the Celebration School, watched the 30 year tributes to Mr./Mrs. Deuschle respectively then were sent to lunch in the coffee shop, Connections.
After all that excitement we jumped into the car where we rode out to the rurals (bad, bad potholes + bumps) of Hatfield where we met our second driver/pastor's daughter + in-laws (who he is abnormally staying with whilst his wife is in school out in downtown Harare). This pastor has an incredibly adorable daughter! His mother in law was very nice + hospitable - especially for someone who was not expecting house guests. In the heat of awkward silence Ms Mom commented on the bowl of peanuts on the table in the kitchen on the moderately sized on-a-few-acres-of-rural-land house to which was responded "Oh yes, those are 'peanuts' -- let me cook them up for you on the fire outside!" "Oh no thanks," Brenna responded. "We are still very full from lunch." "Oh, yes please I will heat them up for you" * "Ok! That sounds great :) " replied Ms Mom - who explained once the family and PT stepped outside conveniently that *it is very impolite to turn down food in someones home. Anytime you have a guest over it, expected or not, it is custom to offer them some sort of orderve. The mother in law came back inside and sprinkled salt over the lot but before bringing them inside for everyone we learned how to wash hands: Tea kettle of warm water + bowl = youngest person in the room (in this case me .minus the baby of course.) pours the water over the next youngest hands to rinse them and so on through the eldest present until every one's hands have been rinsed/washed then the next capable youngest person (Brenna) turns and pours for the youngest. We complimented on her home roasted peanuts a lot in hopes to make up for the refused the first time around, which I think worked out because we all took a couple pictures before leaving after seeing some of their land, pets - pigs, dog, chickens, few cows - and crops. We said our goodbyes and went on our way back to the house where the whole time Ms Mom was talking about the dynamics of her family-in-law for Pastor Taz...
So we finally get home but are only here for about half an hour before going back to the Celebration Centre (not misspelled) for Youth [Group]. Worship was cool because Daniel leads it and most of the songs were written by his family & they were pretty good. The speaker (who's hand we got to shake on his way out) was the ambassador to Zimbabwe from the States, sent by Obama himself, who shared some of his personal life, past/present ambitions + goals, along with some advice for the youth of Zimbabwe in attendance. He spoke a major point along the lines of "Where you come from does not represent who you will grow up to be, as a person or in your personal life..." "You can be ANYthing + ANYone as long as you have enough perseverance in your heart + mind to get you to each milestone you need to hit in order to achieve the greatness set in front of you..."
Afterwards, we all went downstairs to Connections again where we met a handful of people. Brenna + Daniel had lots of childhood flashbacks, and - apparently in order to embarrass some kids - shared our 1. Parents' first names 2. Our middle names... cuz apparently names are a fascination here. This was when my whit was complimented because I kept up better than Brenna (to be fair she is way more jet-lagged than I am) and apparently, I got some laughs so my cynical sarcasm is appreciated out on this side of the world as well! haha. Following this we scolded Ben for ditching us with the 16-18 year olds - he figured we didn't want to feel babysat, which in turn kind of turned US into the sitters... whatever it was fun haha. Seriously though - after table fellowship we went to the shell station for local teen Friday night fun including "Cheers!" For every sip of your $0.50 bottle of CokeACola ( straight from the bottle = best ever) at a random in-store tall table where we all went in a circle saying something totally random to cheers... This next week I will be thinking of something really good to say for the next time because I couldn't think of anything tonight, and trying to find the kid who bought for us to say thanks... On the ride home, Simon decided that my new nickname is now "Zipper" - except he says it with his cool accent of course. When I asked why, he said he didn't know. Now while I'm writing this down I can't help but wonder if I was being too loud/sarcastic/open/?? or just being annoying so he meant to shut up. Anywho, somehow I scored a nickname on the first day here [which ended up being my Skype name once we set it up a couple days later] Welp now it is midnight and time for bed!
Every so often one of the rats that lives in our ceiling with scamper across from one side of the cottage to the other; this sends chills down my spine and a disgusted look to my face. However, on the plus side everything else in the cottage is good ---> including our "Welcome to Zimbabwe fruit basket!" Come on, who else can raise their hand to say they've been given one of these before?
(The stuff in the carton tastes like it is straight from Jamba Juice!)
The theme of this day is without a doubt "Roots", full of flashbacks for lots of people in our different groups throughout the day.
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