Two nontrekkers creating outrageous goodness: What a difference a day makes

Well, folks, after 48 hours of exhaustion, lack of sleep, and achy legs due to flight cancellations and delays, we finally made it to Harare, Zimbabwe. The good thing that I came out of traveling for 48 hours is that we got to see the top of Mt Kiliminjaro from the plane and we also got a view of Victoria Falls which the pilot purposely circled around for us to see. We arrived yesterday evening to cold Harare given that it is their winter right now. The weather is basically San Francisco weather (around 50-60 degrees), so luckily we are used to this type of cold, but after coming from humid Accra, it was quite a shock to our systems. As we drove to the hotel with our colleague, we admired the difference between Harare and Accra. Zimbabwe was also under British rule and gained it's independence in 1980. There are many British people here and people drive on the opposite side of the road, which surprisingly was not the case in Ghana even though they were under British rule as well. You might recall our description and pictures of Accra, and we can safely say that Harare is quite the opposite. It actually reminded us of some older cities in the east bay and the Midwest that aren't thriving. There are big, tall buildings in the downtown area with shops around, but a little deserted. There is also a lot of land everywhere with greenery all around, something that Accra did not have. This city is definitely quite developed compared to what we have seen in other places. We arrived to our hotel, a lovely hotel at that. It has this beautiful garden court with chairs and tables amidst trees and flowers. After settling into our hotel room with no heater, we quickly ran to the hotel bar where there was a lovely fire going, so we were able to keep warm and catch part of the Brussels vs Russia soccer game. We then got some traditional British food (fish and chips) for dinner which was just perfect given the long journey we had had to get here. As we strolled back to our hotel we felt a sense of peace, grateful. We switched on our space heater, threw on several layers of clothes, climbed into bed and passed out.

This morning, we woke up to a nice cold room and had a traditional English breakfast. It's kinda cool because even though we aren't in England, we are experiencing some of the culture here. We were then off to our training grounds. The Director of ICRI Zimbabwe and her assistant picked us up and we went. The streets of Harare are lined with Trees and vendors selling their wares. As we pulled up to the training site, we realized the training was held in a lovely home that looked like a traditional quaint cottage, that is now used for a pre-school. We smiled at each other, knowing that we were both thinking about the drastic difference this place was from where we had trainined in Ghana. Trees lined the property. The inside felt like an English family home in the countryside. The inside had lots of preschool toys, books and tables for children and the ICRI office was in the back. The backyard was filled with swings, slides and jungle gyms for children.

By the time everyone arrived, it was clear, today's group was going to be small - 13 teachers all together. But, that was no problem for us. We kicked off the day with a song and dance to warm us up in the chilly room and began our training. It took a while to warm everyone up, but by the afternoon, we were getting the teachers to laugh and smile through our exercises. We were fortunate to have a traditional Zimbabwean meal! Some of the teachers cooked for us. We had rice, chicken, vegetables and their staple food called Sabza, which is basically corn meal that you traditionally eat with your hands to scoop the vegetables. It was so delicious!!! We had moved from the chilly room to outside where we sat in the sun to get warm. The teachers had practiced their demonstrations before lunch and after lunch, the teachers presented to the group. Role playing really makes this part of the training fun. Everyone breaks out of their shell at this point and the group just laughed and laughed.

The teachers really understood the concepts and they were able to demonstrate what they learned so well. Given that it was a small group of people, we were able to get through the presentations today and we believe that having a smaller group helps the teaching be more intimate and effective, allowing us to really make sure each person understands the concepts. Today was such a great day and it was such a nice compliment after all the trekking we did to get here!

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arrival. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." - Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

With gratitude,

Giulietta and Melanie