Zambezi Kiwi

So after a couple of weeks in Vic Falls I feel like I’m finding my feet.

I can find everything I need for the immediate future, and we are starting to think about what comes next.

Things like sourcing furniture, stuff for an office, and how to make our house look like home.

I’m even driving both my car and Will’s, whipping around the local roads avoiding potholes, other drivers reversing from any angle, animals, pedestrians and humps.

We’ve learnt that the loud ‘CRACK’ followed by a thud is a Tik tree pod exploding and falling to the ground.

We have learned to expect the sound of helicopters carting tourists over the Falls most days, and the Steam Train hooting throughout the evening as the drivers earn spare change letting tourists into the drivers’ seat…who would do that?

We know that jumping in the deep end of our pool will result in body freeze, despite the 30+ degree Celsius temperatures (tragedy). We have been told in hot season (next month), we will be glad for it being a “colder pool” (read FREEZING!!!).

We have even contemplated murdering our Guinea fowl at 2am when they wake us up squawking. In the end we gave them back to their old owner.

We have had our first, honoured guest in Will’s Oupa, and even caught up with Uncle Tertius and Aunty Erica who live 20 mins across the border in Livingstone, Zambia.

The best thing about Aunty Erica is that she always exclaims ‘sherbert!’ because she doesn’t swear, but she is a blackbelt in Karate.

But perhaps my favourites discovery, after our garden, is these babies:

GIANT AVOCADOS!! We have basically eaten them non-stop for lunch since we got here, since they are 99 cents per KILOGRAM.

It’s probably about time to show you around the house and garden next, so stay tuned.

Soooo many pets. But no dog. We are still waiting for a labrador to have puppies, so that we can collect one for Kepler.

In the meantime we do have plenty of animals to keep us going.

First up, Shylock the Tortoise. We so named him for his tendency to hide whenever he senses, well, us. To be honest I’m still wondering if we shouldn’t call him Sonic for his ability to rapidly disappear.

Next, Penelope, Clarence and Josephine the Guinea Fowl.

They are ridiculous.

Will also managed to catch a picture of our elusive Trumpeter Hornbill’s, Donald or Melania. It is hard to tell which is which from so far.

Technically, these guys aren’t pets, but they basically live here so I’m claiming them.

Finally, we have some fruit bats, also elusive, that tend to serenade us to sleep with a rhythmic squeak that sounds like, in the words of Oupa, someone is trying to blow up a bicycle tyre.

They are not really pets either, but they haven’t left the property since we got here, so I’m claiming them too.

That’s our collection so far, not to mention the ants whom I have been battling since we arrived, with success, because I remembered them from my Ivory Coast days. If it fits in the freezer or fridge, it goes in the freezer or fridge. From flour to fruit to biltong.

To be fair, we were warned. For days we had been watching the queues outside the two (official) fuel stations in Vic Falls grow.

But, we reasoned, queues in Africa are kinda part of everyday life.

This is me at the supermarket, for example:

Will had heard a rumour through his contacts that fuel was about to run out, but he thought it was…just a rumour.

Turns out it wasn’t, and that alongside the dramatic drop in water pressure each evening, the surging power/power cuts and the touchy hot water supply to our house that we haven’t quite figured out, we need to think about fuel.

As it happened, by the time our first guest had left (Will’s Oupa), we hardly had enough in my car to move it…and just enough in Will’s Pajero for me to go to the airport and pick mum and dad up!

(That’s Will twinning with Oupa below, and Will’s aunty and uncle visiting from Zambia).

Apparently, these fuel shortages aren’t too rare, although the trucks make it up within a few days so life can carry on as normal.

So, technically, this wasnt THE great fuel shortage, it was just the one that taught us about them!

Because just as my car hit the red light, Will’s starter motor gave up the ghost!

For two days we were essentially trapped at our property with mum and dad (fortunately jetlagged and unwilling to do anything). We were, (also fortunately), well-stocked on the food front thanks to my supermarket dash the day mum and dad got here (see above queue).

Finally, Will got word through one of his contacts that both petrol and diesel had arrived, so he set off to fill my car.

Two hours later he returned, with 20 litres in the tank…the petrol was rationed!

All of this has been happening alongside a minor crisis in our residency status, which still hasn’t come through thanks to a stuff up from our team.

That means our container can’t cross the border without generating a big tax bill…and the container is due in a few days.

Suffice to say Will spent most of the time in the petrol queue praying, and if you are the praying sort, feel free to join us.

In the meantime, I will be hoarding as much food, water and (eventually) fuel as I can!

As you may recall one of the first ‘culture shock’ moments I had here involved fresh produce.

I don’t know why. Perhaps my cheese and chocolate addiction hid a secret obsession with healthy food.

The point is, I did find it terribly discouraging…until the next day when Jackie arrived.

This lady is sort of one of the heartbeats of Vic Falls. If you need something, she can source it. If there is a battle to fight with council over corruption, she’ll fight it. If there is a tree to be saved, she will save it (actually kinda essential in this hot climate).

Jackie knew I was new in town, and knew I would be facing some, well, differences.

She decided to give me a whirlwind tour of the place, and honestly, by the end of our morning I was almost singing with joy.

First stop was a fresh veggie FARM!

That’s right. Row upon glorious row of FRESH PRODUCE!!! So flipping fresh you actually walk along and order it to be plucked from the very soil for you. And it is stupidly cheap.

Lettuce, herbs, strawberries, tomatoes, the list goes on. The only catch is the need to get it home and into the fridge asap, because it will literally wilt in your hands.

I cannot tell you how delariously happy I felt to realise my produce would be fresher than I even imagined.

I’ve even discovered one just around the corner from us!

Next up, we whipped around Chinotimba, which I will tell you about another time, and discovered an electrician, general house wares store and butcher (also the supplier of fresh milk in town..it is all UHT here).

As we whipped around in her old Mazda pick up, which Jackie swears she will be buried in, she told me how she had wanted to give me the tour just to ‘soften the blow’.

There it was; another moment where I glimpsed the kindness and consideration of people here behind their tough, Mazda-driving exteriors.

Finally, up we whipped around the supermarkets and I got a closer look at exactly what was there.

Suffice to say I arrived back home armed with way too many veggies (lucky we have so many animals, more on that in the next post), and extremely, over-the-moon happy.

The building at Shongwe Lookout is well underway!

We had our first visit the other day, and Will was champing at the bit to get into things.

About 30 builders seemed to be on site, all kitted out in matching construction gear and ALL going for it.

The foundation for the office and reception area is close to being laid, as are the foundations for all of the rooms.

Yet to be touched is the main house, which still has renters living in it, and the dining/bar area.

Kepler had a blast running around barefoot climbing mountains of sand or whacking everything he could with giant ‘sticks’…until mum ruined the fun.

Keeping shoes on that child is proving to be an exercise in futility.

Anyway, it was wonderful to see Will come alive again. He is slipping back into his African groove no worries, and is already thriving on the idea of the challenge ahead of him. It is very cool for his wife to see!

We are both starting to feel a little more oriented now that we have internet and an idea of where to get everything, which I’ll enlighten you on in my next post.