Hello my adorable Thinkers!
Wow! It has been a while since I have been on here! Since my last post we have celebrated Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. We also got to surprise my Grandfather for his 80th birthday. It has been a crazy but amazing season of life! I am finally getting back into the swing of things and catching up on what I had to put aside.
Appropriately todays email is also about the time I skipped two weeks when writing my emails. For those who received my emails you will note that I took the story of why I want to be a midwife out. I am going to share the whole story later so I didn’t want it to be repeated here.
With that said, here is the fifth of the eight emails I wrote while I was in Zimbabwe, with pictures.
Two weeks ago we did get to go to the nature reserve! It was so much fun! The three of us hung out with Ishamel’s brother and his family. We had delicious food until nobody could eat anymore and we got to see some of the animals.
I had the honor of introducing American potato salad to everyone (my mom’s recipe) and it was a big hit! When I took my first bite it was kinda strange because it was like I was transported back to my Mother’s kitchen. She would always have one of us kids taste the potato salad to make sure it was seasoned properly. I have never had a flavor transport me like that before. (To be fair, I lived in my parents’ house until I got here)
Seeing the animals was really cool since they were just living their lives and we were the ones in a “cage” (the car). We saw two kinds of animals, wildebeest and zebras. They looked like normal wild animals happily living their lives.
They are shy of people and definitely not pacing around like they want to leave. I guess since I have been to so many zoos, I did not know what to expect. Overall the picnic was a whole lot of fun and I am so glad that we got to go.
The next big thing that happened took up ten days. I needed to write an essay for my application to midwifery school but I was not given the deadline for that, they just told me that ten days before it was due they would email me and let me know. So I started on my research phase which was where I was last time when I mentioned this essay. Last Tuesday was when they said that I had ten days. Thankfully I had all the research I needed and I got to work. I wrote the essay one way and was done four days before it was due, that would give me plenty of time to have some people look it over and get it back to me. The next day when I logged back into my computer, the essay was gone. It does not make a whole lot of sense that it would be gone like that, but I believe it was God working yet again. When I looked back over the rules, the essay I had written before was completely not what they wanted. So I wrote it again, this time I kept close track of the format and design they were looking for. I got the essay done about eight hours before it was due and I sent it to be reviewed. I planned to get up super early the next morning two hours, before it was due, and work out whatever I had received the night before. But I was told to stay up for a little bit and then, at almost the same time, everyone sent the essay back. (These people were not in contact with each other so that was for sure a God thing) I “strangely” was not super tired and immediately got to work revising it. I was done for the second time five hours and twenty-five minutes before it was due. Since there was no reason to hold onto it, I submitted it right away. That extra time was a double blessing because not only was I a few hours away from the deadline, I could sleep in for the first time in over a week. I did sleep the next morning and got up at almost 8:30 (instead of my usual 5:30-6). It is such a relief to have that done, and since they are all probably going to read this. Thank you to all my editors, and those who wanted to be my editors. Your encouragement has been a huge blessing to me and helped me not get discouraged when the first essay disappeared.
Friday we took a trip into town. Emily and I had to get our visas renewed anyway so we took the time to do a little shopping for some things we need. That was pretty cool to see all the different shops and walk here and there to find what we were looking for.
We got some things for the kitchen and some clothes for me and Emily since both of us only brought the bare minimum of what we needed. I always enjoy shopping so it was a very enjoyable time. When we got back we had to quickly get ready for Shabbat and make dinner. Thankfully Emily and I had started dinner the day before so it wasn’t a huge ordeal.
Today has been a chill day, I slept in again (but not as late) and have been writing this email all morning. I am glad for chill days especially after the stress of the last two weeks. Hopefully sometime soon I will be able to describe what food is like here. It all depends how much I have to talk about next time! If any of you have questions about the culture or customs here, I will either tell you what I know or go find out the answer for you. (Since I have connections now) Here are two facts for you today. 1) Since Zimbabwe is a former British colony, cars stay to the left. What I did not expect was that when walking, you pass on the left as well. 2) Light switches here are the opposite as they are in the States. Here down means on and up means off.
There you go! I am going to need to come up with posts in the wings pretty soon since I am running out of emails to share! Hopefully I will have time to write again next week!
Until next time my adorable Thinkers! ~ The Pondering Panda
Panda's Ponderings 