A long lesson today

Well the French meet and greet at the airport went OK. I looked up what potholes are in French - un nid de poule or hen's nest, as felt I needed to warn the family as they were driving themselves. The car rental Europcar gave them the Big Sky cubbyhole notes book on road fines and dealing with the police - another challenge here. They followed me to Amanzi Lodge and my job was done. Will try keep doing some French with duolingo as preparation for France.

It was lucky I made it to the airport as on Friday when I drove to teach my grade four student, the car started revving a lot and when I got to the gate there was smoke coming out of my engine. My student's uncle had a look while I was teaching and he cleaned up oil that had leaked and which had been burning. He said he reckoned it was coming from the gasket. When I got to the gate my student's cousin said was my car going to blow up and he was reluctant to let me in. Our mechanic came to our house on Saturday. We didn't have any cash to buy parts so I went with him to Kaguvi Street so that I could either pay by EcoCash or swipe. On the way I talked about the cash crisis with the mechanic and we said how in the past we had millions that were worthless and no food in the shops whereas now we don't have any money but there's plenty in the shops.

The mechanic did a temporary measure on Saturday so we could drive the car on Sunday, but today we hit problems with the gasket and cooling. My next door neighbour gave me a ride to and from the home school this morning and then a good friend dropped me at my Chinese student. After our mechanic had worked on the car this morning, my mum was driving to pick me up when the car started seriously overheating and spouting water. I ended up having an extended lesson with my student as we waited at his house for the car to be fixed. He's becoming very creative in building things and now thinks he'd like to be an archiket! We managed to eventually crawl home and tomorrow our mechanic will continue. Hoping to have it sorted soon.

Tonsillitis and French

My favourite Chinese four year old has been really sick this week and from his dad's descriptions it sounds like he has tonsillitis. His dad has been taking him to the trauma centre hospital as they don't have a family GP. Apparently my student wanted me to come yesterday so I went but he only lasted half an hour before feeling grotty again. I was touched that he apparently really wanted me to come and was missing me. I didn't go today but his dad says he thinks by Monday he'll be up to another lesson. Had a long conversation with his dad after the half lesson yesterday and it looks like they might send my pupil back to China to do junior school so that he learns Chinese properly. I might still have a job though as they are open to me doing English lessons via Skype.

Just had a phone call from France from the French travel agent I gave a tour of Harare to last year. He was phoning about the family I am to assist on Sunday. Bit nervous about it and need to do some more practice tonight and tomorrow and Sunday before I go to the airport to help them rent a car and then take them to Amanzi Lodge in French. Eeeek.

Happened to talk to my personal trainer about taking money out the country. At the moment the limit is US$1,000. Apparently you can get an EcoCash card and it works outside the country like a VISA card (most local bank credit cards don't work overseas anymore or have very low limits). Need to find out more about this but am a little doubtful. Another suggestion was to wear two pairs of socks and put the cash between them - I don't know about that either but it is definitely a challenge in Zim at the moment. I feel really sorry for those who are completely reliant on cash and have to queue endlessly with no guarantee of getting anything.

Term end and pottery

Almost at the end of term - I am counting the days. Will be my first proper holiday in a while, as usually I carry on teaching through the holidays. I think my students are ready for a holiday too, a few of them have gone down sick and a couple have been quite grumpy and bolshy. In between teaching I am trying to get ready for going overseas. Have been going along to The Studio with two other friends and then my mum last week and this. Last week my mum accidentally left her iPad behind. My one friend spotted it but wasn't sure whose it was. She sent a message saying had we left a tablet behind. As both my mum, the other friend and I are all on medication we thought she meant tablet in the medicinal sense. The other friend even went back to the pottery place and asked if they had her medication. My mum realised later that she'd left her iPad and went and got it but it was only this morning we understood what my friend had meant when she said "tablet".

At The Studio, 50 Edinburgh Rd

On Saturday we went to go and watch My Fair Lady performed at Reps. Carolin Yule made a good Eliza Doolittle and Kevin Hanssen was well cast as Professor Higgins. There were some new young voices too who showed potential. Well done to Sue Bolt and Meg MacKenzie for directing.

Photo by Mike Wall

Here are some dingbats that I thought were rather clever. See if you get them.

22ltd33MOB

O OBE OBEY

XQQQSMON

A month today I'll be in France

August is fast approaching and with it my upcoming trip to England and France. One of my best friends from when I studied in Cape Town is getting married just outside Paris a month from today. I will stay on after the wedding in an Airbnb in Montreuil in Paris. Hoping to visit Monet's gardens in Giverny, possibly Versailles and the Louvre, and then wander round with my sketch book. I will be in England with my sister before I go to France and then after. Trying to suss out the options for getting around in Paris - there's the carnet but being there for a week might mean a passe navigo is a better option. A friend put me in touch with someone in Paris and they suggested I hire a bicycle - just a bit nervous cycling when I'm not familiar with all the rules and riding on the other side of the road. Nice idea though.

Otherwise, I have been asked to take photos at another friend's wedding on the 5th of August. Going to try meet up with a friend who is a professional photographer to get some tips on taking photos at night. Feel honoured to be asked to take the photos. Next Sunday evening I have another job of being a guide to French speaking people coming to Harare. I have to help a family from France with hiring a car at the airport. I am very surprised I got asked again as I didn't feel the last time went well. Am using Lingvist and busuu to try brush up my French. Guess it's useful for when I am in France too.

This last weekend I went with my mum and friend Lucy to Kariba. It's a long drive on poorly surfaced roads with deadly sharp and uneven cambers at the road edges which you have to navigate whilst dodging lorries hurtling along towards you, who are also swerving around potholes on their side of the road. We had an enjoyable and relaxing Saturday though visiting the dam wall and then going on a boat out to Fothergill and Spurwing Islands where we had great sightings of elephants, waterbuck, fish eagles, hippo and marabou storks. On the way home on Sunday we spotted an enormous python that had sadly been run over. I was a little sad at Kariba to think of all the land and wildlife that was flooded. This particularly struck me when we went out to Fothergill from Caribbea Bay as it is a long distance. I wonder what it all looked like when there was still the Zambezi River naturally flowing through the valley.

An interesting take on challah

My little Chinese four year old gave me another gem today while we were having our usual high tea after his lesson. We each had a Chinese bun and he proceeded to take his and said it was challah (he goes to a Jewish nursery school). He covered it with a white napkin and said he must now sing. I was waiting for Hebrew but instead he decided Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was appropriate.

Tomorrow my mum, my friend Lucy and I are setting off for Kariba until Sunday. We are a little apprehensive of the police road blocks that await us. On the way back from La Rochelle we were fined twice. Hopefully we'll be lucky. Lucy has been to Big Sky to check her car is police compliant. I won two nights at Caribbea Bay from a raffle at a Dance Trust of Zimbabwe show earlier this year. We are going to hire a boat for Saturday afternoon.

Went in with a friend yesterday to try and get the re-entry sticker for permanent residents on foreign passports at Immigration. As we were walking to Linquenda House we saw a headline saying the MDC protest was going ahead. This was the first we'd heard about a protest. We carried on though and joined the queue. I got to the front eventually only to be told that I needed to provide school certificates and a water bill (even though I told them it was in my mum's name - they said I still needed to bring it to show I have lived here, sigh). This meant I had to go back today with these. Yesterday the part of town we were in seemed pretty dead and there was no sign of the demonstrations although on Facebook later we saw footage of people burning tyres somewhere. When I went back today they luckily were happy with what I brought and I then proceeded to queue to pay US$100. Thankfully the swipe machine was working - I really didn't want to part with that in cash. They turned several people in front of me away who were trying to pay with bond notes - ridiculous that they won't accept those. I now have to go back on Monday to get my passport back with the sticker hopefully in it. I do feel a tad bit uncomfortable leaving my passport there as people's files do go missing. Just have to hope and believe.

La Rochelle art weekend

This last weekend I packed up my art supplies in a friend's land rover and headed to the Eastern Border Highlands region of Zim for the La Rochelle artists' retreat. It felt like packing for an expedition as I had my tubes of paint, sticks of charcoal, various types of paper and canvas and an array of paint brushes. It was my first time at La Rochelle and it was interesting to visit Penhalonga as it is where my great grandmother came from and where my Greek great grandfather came during the gold rush there.

Cherie Marais' sketch of La Rochelle

Gardens at La Rochelle

We arrived at La Rochelle and the others had already started, so we quickly put our luggage in our rooms and then headed for the botanical gardens in the dell. This required loading up a car as we were a little weighed down with art supplies. We found the others in amongst the aloes and were told to walk around using a view finder and take it all in. We then did some blind contour drawing to get our left side of the brain working. After lunch we made a mini composition with things we had found and used wax resist and water colour with a bit of ink. Sheena Chadwick and Sarah Fynn, the two professional artists running the weekend, were very encouraging throughout and never passed negative comments - I don't know how they did it. On Saturday we played with light and charcoal and then did a two tone study using burnt sienna and ultramarine blue as the only colours on our palette. We were then set the challenge for Sunday of doing a landscape on a square piece of paper that captured the open spaces and slopes of La Rochelle and had a human element somewhere e.g. a path, bench or person. We could if we wanted be influenced by the work of Webster Mubayirenyi. Quite a daunting challenge.

Work by Webster Mubayirenyi

We were given a history of La Rochelle whilst we were there. The Courtaulds who built it were of French Huguenot descent and were wealthy from the family fabric manufacturing business. Lady Courtauld was by all accounts a real character, supposedly having a tattoo up her leg which was scandalous for the 1950's. The hotel was full of artefacts and had the original sliding door glass panes framed as they used to have their guests sign them. One of the signatures is that of Herbert Chitepo. The house is full of orchids from the orchid house and there is apparently one orchid that was given to Lady Courtauld from Singapore and was very rare. It had died back but an orchid specialist from Mutare had managed to get it to grow back from the root. When the specialist was dying the orchid bloomed for the first time in many years and the staff and La Rochelle sent the orchid to be placed by his hospital bed and he saw it the day before he died.

Lady Courtauld's portrait at La Rochelle