Just a quick update to share some recent happenings.

We’ve had some happy activities on recently. Ellie has been making friends at an exercise class near us. We’ve walked around our neighborhood a little more, and are slowly figuring out what is nearby. We’ve had tennis and swimming and waffles and darts with friends. Carrot cake and birthday gatherings, banana bread and family dinners, Sunday lunches after church events. Lifegroups and coffee dates. In short, good food, friends, family, faith and feathered friends.

Did you notice the last thing I slipped into that list? We’ve had some exciting bird news recently. On Saturday, a pair of Spur-winged Lapwings were spotted by Lake Chivero. This is only the 7th record of them in Zimbabwe. We made plans with our friend Ken (pictured above) to head out on Tuesday in the hopes that they were still around.

After some winding dirt roads and a bit of a walk, we found the birds right where they were supposed to be! So very pleasing – God made it easy this time. After seeing some other cool birds, we drove back to Harare and spread the news. Later in the day came a suprise: the birds had chicks! It explained why the one on the other side of the river was rather stationary 🙂 this is an amazing record – they were only breeding as far south as Tanzania until a few years ago, when some moved into a Zambian swamp. So lucky to have seen them here so close to home.

Anyway, that’s all the news for now. Much love, J+E

The year is leaping by! And we continue to feel so blessed despite the troubles here. This last week saw the first rain arrive in Harare, and with it a little relief from the heat and a little hope for the nation’s farmers.

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For us personally, the rain had a few extra benefits. The joy of the first thunderstorm. A good test of our cottage’s waterproofing. Some extra moisture for my beans. And some new birds! Jaap has a list of over 120 species that have been seen in the garden over the years, and it hasn’t been added to at all in the past year. And then, post storm, four new records! Especially fun was the Red-capped Robin-Chat (pictured above) who must have been blown all the way from the Eastern Highlands!

We’ve had some good friend time recently, building deeper relationships and slowly going through our friend list and making sure to see them individually rather than just in group settings. We’ve also broken in our house with a big Thursday dinner, various teas and a carpentry evening + dinner with our erstwhile neighbor Scott.

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We’re beginning to understand our new neighborhood. We have a new food market to go to, new shops, a different location for Ellie’s exercise classes. As for our more immediate neighbors, I’m slowly learning their names. Some of them pictured here:

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Despite appearances, we do also work 🙂 Happily, it doesn’t stop us seeing family, painting with Karen, meeting friends, chasing birds or photographing bugs. So, as you can see, the title of the blog tells the story. Life continues swell.

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.… Psalm 24:1-2

As I was wandering oer the green
Not knowing where I went
By chance I saw a pleasant scene
The cottage of content.

Well, we’ve found it! I mentioned in a previous post that we were looking for a new place to live. Mere hours after I published that post, we found it while visiting Johno’s aunt and uncle, Sally and Jaap. They have a beautiful cottage at the bottom of their property where their daughter (recently emigrated) used to live. We walked into the sunny front room and fell in love. The whole place radiates welcome, simplicity, and contentment. The rent is reasonable, there’s always running water, and Johno gets to finally set up the solar system he’s been dreaming of! While it’s about 10 kilometers away from our old neighborhood, it should be a manageable commute a couple times a week for church and social stuff.

On Wednesday this week we started packing up the (considerable) piles of stuff we’ve amassed during our time here. By Friday we finished moving across, and slept in our new house. We’re both so happy. It feels like the stuff of dreams. A permanent place where we can plant gardens and hang our art on the walls.

I’ll stop talking and just show you some pictures. Johno will say more soon, I’m sure. ❤

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Life continues wonderful 🙂 Jacaranda season is still in full swing, so even walks down to the shops involve treading a glorious purple carpet. The picture above is of a favorite route: from Clare’s house to the Bottanical Gardens, back via a food market filled with tasty goodies. We did said walk again this morning with Alex and Scott, with the stated aim of finding a White-Throated Robin-Chat for Alex. We found it as we arrived, and were treated to lots of other lovely feathered friends to boot.

For a friends birthday, we carpooled out to Domboshawa – a rock ‘gomo’ on the outskirts of Harare that is a popular sundown spot. Unlike many groups on the mountain, we packed more tea than alcohol 🙂 Lovely views, happy people, a friendly dog and a glorious sunset made for an excellent evening.

Now, about the title of this post! We have found a place to stay – a cottage on Sally (aunt) and Jaap (uncle)’s property in Chisipete. It’s a slightly different area, and will mean a 10km commute to church and friends, but has it’s own shops and things close by. The cottage is so happy (you’ll see more of it soon!) and it’s going to be so lovely being near family. We move in on Thursday, and you have no idea how excited Ellie and I are to finally be establishing a more permanent home!

Aside from the normal nesting plans (cooking things, what to paint on the walls, furniture, books etc) there are some extra arrangements to be made. As two people who work online, internet is a must – not so easy when their power is only on from 10pm-4am! So I’ve been busy making plans for solar and cobbling together a system to last us until I get paid and can buy batteries and panels proper. I present my electronic masterpiece:

We tested the system this week when our power went out, and it gave us a good few hours of connectivity. At least as an interim measure, this should treat us well. I think it’ll actually be good for us – a time limit on computer use means we’ll do more of the good non-screen things. For example, I’m going to be a farmer! Like good old HDT I have my bean-rows planned and am already dreaming of jars of smooth, speckled beans gracing our pantry shelves 🙂

Alongside the main house and our cottage, our new home features some indigenous woodland, a rondavel known as Oliva (Outdoor LIVing Area) and a wonderful music studio with a pair of grand pianos where various musicians come to practice or perform. There are a few other dwellings full of friendly people and a flock of guinea fowls that get on everyone’s nerves. There’s a veggie plot and some space where we’ll grow maize etc, and a stand of bamboo that I’ve got my eye on for bean trellises. In short, it looks like paradise and we can’t wait to find our place in it.

And now, some creatures for you. I’ll ask Ellie to add pictures of our actual friends in a post soon 🙂

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PPS: Been thinking about restoration of nature a lot (working on projects around reforestation and agriculture). As I met with someone that I’m hoping to collaborate with, they brought up Romans 8:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:18‭-‬23 NIV

The weekend after we arrived back in Zimbabwe, we had tea with a friend, and he asked us a question we’ve gotten numerous times recently. “What would possess you to live in Zimbabwe when you have other options?” Alright, he may have asked more politely than that. But it is a good question. And one that people are likely to keep asking as the situation in Zimbabwe is… not improving.

This can be quickly illustrated by the problems posed by our search for a new place to live. As people who work from home, we need consistent wifi and decent electricity. Most of Harare currently has load shedding for 18 hours of the day. Just recently, municipal water has also become inconsistent, either running dirty or not at all. So wherever we find, we’ll have to make a plan for that. And finally, the fact that getting petrol usually requires queueing for a couple hours means that it would be very nice to be close to church, friends, exercise etc. More about a search for a new home in a later blog post. We’re currently staying with Johno’s parents, and doing just fine.

So why? We’re not really tied to any country yet, by family or property or even jobs.

Part of it, of course, is that neither of us really wants to leave Southern Africa. These cultures, people, even problems are ours. For me personally, Zimbabwe felt instantly familiar when I moved here, resembling many of the places I grew up. I love the culture of respect, the dust, the way everyone gardens in their back yard, the mix of traditional and modern, and the strength of community found in spite (or perhaps because) of the hardships everyone faces.

Another reason is that here it feels like we can make a tangible difference in the problems we see. Both Johno and I crave work that has meaning; here in Zim even everyday life has meaning. Whenever we buy from a small vendor, or give someone a lift, it feels like we’re truly helping someone. Johno gets to put his skills to work on cool projects like reforestation. Even just living here and spending our foreign-earned income boosts the economy. Unlike Cape Town where I’m always overwhelmed by the seemingly insurmountable societal problems I see, here there is hope. I don’t know quite why, but Zimbabweans are hopeful. They’re kind to each other. The big PROBLEMS here are more administrative than societal if I can put it that way.

And jumping from that to one of my personal reasons for loving Zimbabwe: here I feel safe. I can be kind to strangers because I don’t automatically distrust them. I can walk places by myself! I can sleep with my windows open, and just generally live without being afraid. After living in Cape Town, being unafraid feels incredibly freeing.
p.s. For a general comparison of people’s perceptions of crime and safety in Harare and Cape Town, see here.

What else? Well on a practical level, Zimbabwe is a fairly cheap place for us to live. Because we both earn foreign currency, Zimbabwe’s financial troubles actually put us in a fairly strong economic position. This gives us the freedom to work flexibly, and spend time doing other things we consider important. It also looks like it will be fairly easy for me to get a spousal visa here, making the paperwork and logistics significantly easier than anywhere else we’ve considered.

Last, but certainly not least, there are so many people here that we love! Johno’s parents, a wonderful church, our Thursday dinner crowd and our life group, the wacky group of women I exercise with, various other relatives and friends… Despite the relatively short time I’ve been here, people have welcomed me with open hearts, and have found their way into my heart, too.

This concludes my attempts to answer that frequently asked question, at least for now. But if you read our blogs going forward, I’m sure you’ll see illustrated many more reasons why Zim is the right place for us to be. 🙂

Besides Potjie contests and procrastinating blogging, what else have we been up to? I’ll let my phone gallery tell the tales.

Last weekend, the family was invited to participate in a Potjie competition in Chegutu. For the unaware, this is the town where my parents will be moving at the end of the year! A chance to meet some of the community, make some friends…. And of course, and opportunity to show them who makes the best potjie around!

The competition was held in a lovely farm garden. We arrived early (this is serious business after all), after a long drive. But what’s this? We weren’t the first! One team had been there since 7:30! An indication that this was going to be a tough contest.

As more teams arrived, our suspicious were confirmed. My dad hadn’t over-prepared. In fact, he was probably only halfway up the over-the-topness scale! Fortunately, with the judging at 3pm, there was plenty of time to scope out and intimidate the competition 🙂

Besides meeting the friendly locals, we got to enjoy some of the local birdlife from the comfort of our chairs. Orioles, bushshrikes, robin-chats, brownbuls….

We ended up being beaten by the earlybirds, but much tasty potjie was had by all, and I suspect that my parents will have a happy place to live if the day was any indication. And we’ll get to visit them – a cheerful prospect indeed. And who knows? Maybe next year we’ll win the coveted ‘Potjie Champion’ aprons 😉

Hello dear readers 🙂 Our time in SA is drawing to a close. Home in a week! Looking forward to seeing friends and family back in Zim, and starting to think about packing. For now, though, we’ve been making the most of our time here. Which leads me into my first story:

Sea Birds

I (Johno) had a special treat last weekend. As the sun rose, I met some other birders in Simon’s town and boarded a boat that was heading out to sea in search of seabirds. This was a totally new world to me – I have only ever dreamed of seeing the birds of the deep ocean, and this Pelagic cruise was the perfect place to make those dreams a reality.

The penguins in Simon’s town harbor were a happy start, and soon after that we met my first ‘lifer’ – a sooty Shearwater. A squeal from the lady next to me was encouraging; I wasn’t the only who would be excited by the more ‘common’ birds we’d encounter.

The Sooties were soon followed by White-chinned petrels, both Giant Petrels, four species of Albatross, terns, Skuas, gannets and gulls galore. We found a fishing trawler 30km from the coast, and followed in its wake marvelling at the avian life around us. A Manx Shearwater had even the guide excited, and the Pintado Petrels (my favourite, and the one I was most hoping to see) brought joy to all.

I was seasick, but pushed away any proffered sympathy with a grin and a number: my “lifer-to-chunder” ratio. 16 birds that I have never seen before. 16! I’ve forgotten the nausea, but I’ll remember those Pintado Petrels for the rest of my life.

Intermission: non-bird activities

We have such great friends. Games with Hannes and Anna to break in their new flat. Zumba with Cath and Damon. Hanging out with Ben and David (the younger brothers). Featherless bipeds can be interesting.

In other news, I found some tardigrades!!!!!! Been staring into microscopes for tens (hundreds?) of hours searching for these little cuties, and I was finally rewarded:

More birds

Yesterday, Ellie and I took the day off and went to the West Coast National Park. It’s about 100km from Cape Town, and combines spring flowers, gorgeous fynbos and lots of shoreline in one happy package.

The park is especially interesting for us twitchers – it is far enough away from our usual haunts that it hosts a whole new set of species. We saw ~80 over the course of the day, with about 25 of those being new ones for our year list, many of those new to our life lists!

Despite getting the timing of the tides a little wrong, we managed to see some waders at Geelbeck hide. These birds can be tricky to tell apart, especially at a distance. If you don’t believe me, Google for images of greenshanks and marsh sandpipers. Thankfully the greenshanks we saw were noisy and made sure to let us get a good long look and listen so that we could have a positive ID.

It was a wonderful day out. So blessed that we can do things like this together, and it’s amazing to have someone like Ellie to share wonder and excitement with. We took turns driving slowly around the park, stopping to peer at larks and pipits or leaping out the car to get a better look at a harrier overhead.

I’m thankful for these opportunities – how wonderful that we can glory in God’s marvelous creation!

Ellie’s highlight was a good look at a Pelican! They seem like a made-up bird, and so seeing one in the flesh and appreciating the scale of these quirky birds was precious. For my part, an unexpected sighting of a Pied Starling and a good look at some Grey-winged Francolin were both happy moments.

Back from church and sitting by a fire, with a nice lazy Sunday stretching ahead of us. Which means it’s time for a lazy update post 🙂 We’ve both been sick, but somehow we’ve still managed to have all sorts of fun the last few weeks. This might turn into another ‘pictures with captions’ post, but I’ll start off with the titular tale of a happy encounter.

Cousin Lauren messaged me on Thursday, asking for David’s number. They thought we were in Zim, and we thought they were in Joberg. We were both in Cape Town! I met them for lunch with Granddad, and then they joined Ellie and I for an afternoon in Muizenberg complete with beach walk, putt-putt (Jason is a champ), tea, games and plenty of time for Lauren and I to examine each-other’s spice spouses spoose chosen life partners. Think we both picked well 😀

As mentioned, all sorts of fun has been had. This has included lot’s of good friend time. We’ve had Kirstenbosch with Claire and the family, evening hangouts with Damon and Cath (friends here in CT), road trip with my good friend Hannes to Stellenbosh to see our friend Nicky (Zimbo friend), board games with our neighbors, boating and chilling with the Bisters (family friends), I got to see my brother David, seeing Lauren… So blessed by all the wonderful people in our lives. Now, as has been mentioned before, I’m bad at people pictures so here are some happy photos that (trust me on this) were at least taken in close proximity to many humans that I love.

Kirstenbosch with family and Claire (and a green lynx spider):

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Stellies

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Ellie by the fire:

A snail:

And finally, some cookies we made, inspired by the Zindi logo. These made my work friends so happy, and were a ton of fun to make (baking with friends for the win).

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, despite the lack of coherence. My goal for the next one is to say one thing well, as opposed to throwing in a grab-bag of updates because we haven’t posted in a while. Maybe I’ll pester my dear wife to write one in the meanwhile to give me a little more time.

Bye for now,

Love,

J

We went for a pelagic birding expedition off the coast of Cape town today and decided to enjoy the view a bit while we waited for some boats to reach. Luckily, a family member decided it was time to leave the family and spend the day enjoying the area. In the end we caught a beautiful whale dive as it swam out to sea and we were able to catch some great views and to soak up some sun when the sun was getting quite strong and dark.

We stopped for some whale watching on another day, not sure what it is about it but this particular whale looked more like a dolphin or octopus so I thought it was fine to go for it on that day. There is actually a little island nearby which is pretty nice for a whale dive that we found out about from a friend who owns a whale boat so I guess we got something out of it!

I just love to sit on the beach listening to the sound waves coming down and watch whales as they approach me. That was really cool that in Cape Town there are different whale species, one being the blue, brown and red whales which is the closest we can relate to the real whale.

I got myself a really nice white whale mask which was made especially for me during my whale diving trip. As someone who loves whale watching, I am a bit envious of those who get some of the best sightings.

In other news, we’ve been enjoying our new church membership with a mix of students and older adults. For the record, many of us are very excited for the upcoming semester of classes in history and theology next year. (My brother and I will both be taking graduate courses in the field next year, and I’m thinking of going, too.)

I had a chance to talk to an elderly lady named Ruth, who’s been my neighbor for a quarter-century, which has left her in a pretty nice place. She and her husband had just purchased their house recently, and she told me about the many years she’s been working at the church. One thing she reminded me about is how often she comes home from work to a house that’s not exactly what she pictured, and all these children playing outside her front door. “This seems wrong, but it’s what God wanted!”

And it’s true. God always wanted people who like being outside, and He gave us the best environment possible when He brought us out of darkness to the light.

I hope we both feel a little bit better by the time spring rolls around. We certainly want to spend lots of time together and spend some of our time together.

For those of you wondering what on earth is going on, don’t worry. We haven’t seen whales and neither of us are going to be studying next semester. Everything except the text in bold was written by a computer program, designed to finish sentences without sounding too crazy. Pretty cool huh? That plus a sprinkle of random pics from my phone is what passes for content these days 🙂