Hello my adorable Thinkers!
In honor of this past Thursday being Thanksgiving, this week I am releasing the email that I wrote exactly a year ago. Those who received these emails while I was in Zimbabwe, will note that I have changed this one slightly. I removed the words Emily wrote, since I have already explained what I was doing in Zimbabwe. There are also some other formatting changes I have made, but over all it is mostly the same. This email is the sixth of the eight emails I sent while I was in Zimbabwe, with the corresponding pictures.
This whole week we have been preparing for Thanksgiving. When we first got here we told Ishmael about Thanksgiving and he said that he wanted to do it with us. We were so happy because Thanksgiving is one of few American holidays that we celebrate as a family. It has always been a day where we get to spend time with our extended family and enjoy some very tasty foods. Since we are not able to celebrate with our family this year we planned to just have some of our favorite Thanksgiving foods and remember good times. But the week before Thanksgiving Ishmael asked if it was traditional to have guests. We answered yes, and I started to get excited because I love social events. Together, we decided to invite Ishmael’s two brothers and their families who live here in Harare. All week we have been preparing food and how we are going to seat everyone.
Thursday came before we knew it and we made our last preparations. Right as everything was ready, people started to show up. We quickly started to eat and then we played a game called fish bowl. It is a combination between charades, taboo, and a game where you can only say one word to have your team guess what is on the card. It was an amazing Thanksgiving dinner! The food tasted so good and we had a great time with the people.
After everyone left, we cleaned up and went to bed tired, but pleased with the outcome. The next day was Friday so we had to prepare for Shabbat in the morning. By the early afternoon we were done but we had no power so we could not cook dinner. We got some take-out chicken and chips (fries) at a local shop and had that for dinner. It was very tasty! That evening I was able to get a video from my siblings who all said hi while playing with my cousins. It was so good to see them, even though I could not be there. By the time we went to bed the power came back! I was very tired and quickly went to sleep.
Early Shabbat morning my sister left the room and dropped the key through the door like usual. The key hit the floor and woke me up slightly. Usually when this happens, I check my email and then read myself back to sleep. I checked my email, and then sat bolt up-right! I had an email from the midwifery school I applied to! This was the title, “Accepted for Enrollment Tuition Due”. I just about screamed with excitement!! I have been accepted!! I was no longer sleepy at all! I got up and quickly got ready for the day! I all but ran over to the cottage to tell Emily and Ishmael! My voice was about two octaves higher than normal and I couldn’t stop bouncing around! After I told Emily and Ishmael, I immediately called my Mom and went outside to tell her as well. As I bounced on the porch I have been told that my bouncing was shaking the whole cottage. I soon went to pacing instead of bouncing and stomped a trail as I walked back and forth. I had the opportunity to not only tell my Mom the news but also a bunch of my extended family!
I have been on cloud nine all day with this news! Since it is Shabbat, I cannot do anything more for my school yet, but tomorrow I will! God is working all things out for good!
I mentioned last time that I wanted to talk about some of the foods that are eaten here. I have a limited perspective of the foods because Emily and I have been cooking most of the food ourselves. But here is what I do know. Food here is usually carb heavy and light on everything else. Most foods are served with either rice or sadza. Sadza is a thick porridge made of fine cornmeal and has the texture of playdough. The way to eat sadza is to first before any meal you rinse your hands. Without drying them you pull small pieces of sadza off of the big lump on your plate. With your right hand you work the sadza into a soft flattened ball. With this shape, (kinda like a blood cell for those who know) you scoop up whatever is served with it. One of my favorite things to have with the sadza is an egg “soup” that my sister makes. It is made of boiled eggs, sauteed onions, and tomatoes. It is called soup, but it does not have a whole lot of broth in it. It is mostly chunks so that the sadza can be used as a fork/spoon. Another food that I have been able to have is ice cream. Ice cream here is basically what frozen custard is in the states. It is very tasty! Strawberry seems to be a favorite flavor, but I have seen many flavors available. The last food I want to mention is the soda. There are brands of soda that I recognize like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Fanta. But each of them taste different from how they taste in the States. Firstly they are sweetened with cane sugar, not corn syrup. And I am sure that the different minerals in the water also influence the taste, but I cannot prove that one. The number one most popular soda here is Orange Fanta. I have not even seen other flavors of Fanta, just orange. That intense popularity of Orange Fanta confuses me. I have never seen people be so obsessed with it. I guess I will have to taste it and evaluate it compared with my expectation, because maybe it is actually that good here. I don’t know! 🤷♀️ That is all I have for this week!
Thank you for reading and I hope you have had an amazing Thanksgiving with your families! Until next time! ~The Pondering Panda
Panda's Ponderings 