All these weekends

It has been soon two weeks I think since you last had a good report of my life down here, so it’s definitely time for a debrief.

I didn’t tell you about the weekend in Matopos did I? I don’t think so. I would check if I had Internet, but right now I am at home, in a very Internet free environment, writing in Word. Anyway. Not this weekend that we just left, and not the one before that, but the one before, I spent Saturday night at Anglesea farm, which is Jeanette and Marnie’s farm out in Matopos. I think they said something like 600 hectares? Huge anyway. They picked me up around noon and then Jeanette and I spent the rest of the day chatting, chatting, chatting,  drinking tea, making brownies, cooking dinner, watching rugby and eventually what I came out there to do; install Sibelius on her computer. I got to sleep in one of their daughter’s rooms, which was a dream, because it had beautiful purple painted striped walls. I slept in, took a few photos and when Jeanette and Marnie came back we installed a bit more, had lunch and another brownie (soooooo good) and chatted until John and Heather came and picked me up. We went to a very local bar and played some pool, which somehow I always lost. Terrible.

In between all these weekends I have now got eight students and probably another in a week’s time. Anette, Adri and I (and now Vusi as well) go out three days a week and visit the schools and teach the choirs songs that a man named Richard has written. The whole thing is called The Song of The Carnivores and is made up of seven pieces, an introduction piece, then one about each of the five big African carnivores; lion, cheetah, hyena, leopard and wild dog and finishing off with another general piece. The children have so far learnt the first and we are now starting on the one about the cheetah. If I am not having a lesson or am out in a school I am most probably sitting at a computer working in Sibelius or surfing the net. Though the whole of last week was a disaster when it came to Internet, so we had to get some guys here to fix it.

The weekend after the Matopos weekend I did very little and can hardly remember actually. Though John and I did “fix” one of the motorbikes in the garage on the Sunday. All it needed was fuel, even though it is from the eighties. It looks a bit like ours at home, but lower, not as plasticky, better quality and not quite as much as a motocross bike.  It doesn’t have insurance however, so we couldn’t ride it on the roads. John tried to teach me to do a donut, which I didn’t manage, but I have a year. Molly (the bullterrier) when completely nuts when we drove it, so we had to stop quite soon or we would wake up the afternoon sleeping people inside.  Oh, I know what I did on the Saturday, I went to the bendover again, with Anette and two older ladies. Didn’t find much.

A week ago I skipped Pilates (I know, it is so nice, wish I could do it every day) since we had all the Swedish ladies that we know in Bulawayo over for tea and cakes. We were six of us, including Agneta, who lives in Manama. The others meet every now and then and exchange Swedish books and tea and cakes. I had made gewycakemuffins (bra översättning från kladdkakemuffins va?) which, if I may say so, were soooo good. It was great fun hearing all the Swenglish going around. Mostly Swedish though, which was even weirder. After more than two months here I am now flowing so much better in English. Not that I was rubbish when I came, but now I actually think in English all the time (except when I am really cross or read something Swedish on the net) and speak it more and more like I speak Swedish.

This weekend was nice as well, spent Friday night out in town, Saturday mostly reading, Sunday went to the Country Club with John and a gang for a braii, drinks and a lovely dip in the pool. People here are so kind and friendly and open. It’s not like the social distance in Sweden at all.

This morning I dressed in jeans, t-shirts, long sleeved shirt and scarfy knitted thing (bruna stickade runda halsduksgrejen), but couldn’t bring myself to wear socks because that would just be giving in to autumn. I have absolutely no idea how I am supposed to manage through winter here. And then of course it is about twenty degrees warmer in the middle of the day, so I can’t wear jeans anyway, yet. So Peter when you come (I’m counting the days (18)) bring thick socks as well as sunblock!

Now I think you know enough to last you for a while. I try having photos come up on my tumblr nearly every day, so check there if I haven’t written anything, or you want to know what the stuff I’m writing about looks like.

Until next time; Miss you all!