Harare - Restez à l’abri aujourd’hui, la pluie est au rendez-vous.

Well Facebook's advice to me today became a reality as on the way to teach the home schoolers my car went through a puddle and then konked out luckily on the same road I am house sitting on but frustratingly wasn't simply a wet engine but rather appears to be a faulty fuel pump. We have not been doing well with the car as of late. My mum is loath to invest in a new one with the current political situation but it really is becoming a problem with us sinking money into repairs which seem never ending and with my work being affected like today. The mum of the home school kids was understanding and in chatting to her we decided I will start teaching beginners French from next week which will be fun. I have made a plan to get to my Chinese student at 2 but will probably have to cancel my form three which is annoying. Some sort of solution for tomorrow will have to be found with the old girls' lunch and tour guiding.

There's going to be an exciting photographic workshop next week organised with Hivos, the Dutch Embassy and the Zimbabwe Association of Female Photographers on visual literacy and documentary photography. It will be run by Sophie Boshouwers from the World Press Photo Foundation and then Chris de Bode, who specialises in documentary storytelling. I am quite excited about it. In 2013 I took part in a project with the ZAFP and Hivos, taking photos in the run up and during the elections and had one photo bought by a Dutch newsagent. I don't know if there'll be a similar project for next year. Little bit more nervous taking political photos with my larger camera - my little Olympus allowed me to do it way more discretely.

My photo that was sold which was taken at Makombe Building.

Have to go see my psychiatrist on Monday. Am doing fine mentally but I am experiencing hair loss and am not sure if it's the higher dose of lithium. Had blood tests done and my GP didn't contact me after so am presuming my thyroid is fine but my psychiatrist said to come in and see him. Was a bit alarming when I washed my hair the other day and handfuls of hair came out. Saw my therapist at the Turkish pianist on Tuesday and she said it might be a good idea to touch base with her before I meet up with my sister in Cape Town so that I can deal with some frustrations a bit better and avoid any major fall outs. Have started getting messages from my Dad again. I didn't in the end have the courage to see him face to face when I was in England.

Thunderstorms and Hail

Well one of our team at the Amanzi quiz late night predicted that based on a weather report he'd seen it would rain at precisely four o'clock this afternoon. It started raining before that, but at 4pm it hailed. I was round at Polish friends' and we watched hail stones the size of molar teeth come hurtling down. I went on to teach my form three student and the sky darkened to an inky blue.

It has been an interesting few days politically in the country and some people were waiting for a potential coup. We discussed it at my art class and one of the ladies talked of her experiences of living through two previous coups in other parts of Africa. There has been some trouble in town but in the low density suburbs we continue living in our bubble for the most part. Apparently though US dollars in cash are trading on the black market at an 85% premium as of yesterday and it keeps going up. I went to a talk on Bitcoin with a friend yesterday and it could potentially be one solution. The way that it could affect macroeconomics was particularly fascinating to me.

We went along to Gulsin Onay's second piano recital at St Johns College on Tuesday. When she played Beethoven's Piano Sonata no 32, my mum and I were surprised that the syncopation had an element of jazz to it and we thought surely not for Beethoven?! A friend who is a musician however informed us that this piece was one of the first precursors to jazz. Who knew! Yesterday the old girls committee for Convent had our last meeting before the annual lunch on Saturday. Despite the rather dire state of the country's economy, local businesses have been very generous with prizes. I will have to try make a hat between now and Saturday. Am going to try use my prefect basher as a base.

Have been helping my form three with unseen poetry pieces. Tonight we were analysing Refugee Mother and Child by Chinua Achebe. I found the final line very moving. Previously we had looked at The Bereavement of the Lion-keeper by Sheraq Omar, which is also beautiful. My favourite five year old wanted to go back to dinosaurs tomorrow as a topic but I have managed to talk him into the story of the Trojan Horse and then a trip to Australia with Aboriginal art and animals. It's going to be a busy weekend. Am going to two art exhibitions tomorrow after work and then on Saturday there's the old girls' lunch and I then have to head to the airport to meet and greet French tourists and assist them with car hire in French.

Interesting times in Harare

Things are definitely heating up politically here. I really wish I could vote next year but claiming dual citizenship will require waiting in endless queues and giving up a day or more. I just don't have the time to. It sounds lame. I remember when I signed the document giving up my Zimbabwean citizenship when I was 18. It made me very sad and I cried. Maybe I can try do it in the holidays but unfortunately I think voter registration will have ended by then. I am not sure how much hope I am holding in regime change and any form of democracy next year even with the biometric system. There are some new comers but in a way they need to all join forces to stand against our despot.

My mum delivered the leftovers from my braai on Saturday that I over catered for to street kids at various road intersections and they were apparently extremely grateful. Glad it didn't all go to waste and did feed people who needed it. The lack of cash means people who were reliant on selling airtime vouchers for a living are in dire straights and people who rely on public transport are still expected to pay in cash which is wicked. On a positive note though, this morning when I was driving to the home schoolers, vendors at the Second Street Extension lights had taken it upon themselves to direct traffic as the robots were out. It's things like that that give you a good feeling that things will somehow be OK.

Despite all the doom and gloom above I am actually doing pretty well mentally. The high dose of lithium has kept me on a steady keel for almost a year now. I haven't had any major dips and I seem to not be as sensitive to things. I possibly may be less compassionate and caring though - I don't know if that's the meds. There are a few irritations with my sister that I may need to go see my therapist about before they bottle up and come out in an angry burst.

I am really going to miss my Chinese five year old when he goes back to China in January. He has such a delightfully inquisitive mind and surprises me all the time. He enjoyed castles to an extent today but wanted to go back to space and dinosaurs as topics. I have said we're going to look at Greek and other myths and legends - might help with his use of gender. Losing him next year means I seriously need to look for more extra work as my salary is going to drop as I see him everyday. There are a few things I am applying for and otherwise will just have to advertise more. Zimvine on Facebook helps a bit with finding people. I would like to try do the National Institute for Learning Difficulties course next year to help with things like dyslexia and ADD. Otherwise I need to maybe look into doing a masters in education or at least get a postgraduate certificate in education. Full time teaching though is not necessarily what I want to do as I enjoy being flexible and teaching on a one to one basis. It does mean though that I don't always earn a salary in school holidays and don't have a dependable regular income.

Delonix regia

Flowers of flame line streets with familiar names.
Scarlet and yellow set against pubescent green,
royal in bearing and so called the same.
My heart rises at your sight and the kindling is set alight.
Sunny days warm my soul and leave a yearning for more.
Petals flutter to the pool and ripples set them askew.
The year is ending soon but still much to do.
Where has the time gone and where are we headed to?
In a glass house we sit, waiting, pretending
until the stone is thrown and shatters the wall.

Cycle of support for learning differences

The workshop organised by the school counsellors in Harare and the Gifted, Talented and Learning Disabled Students committee at Bishopslea was interesting yesterday. The counsellor from the International School talked about the Individual Education Program in the States and how you monitor children's progress with feedback. Sas Kirk spoke on how the current educational system in Zimbabwe and the rest of the world is outdated and is derived from the model suited to the industrial revolution which creates a hierarchy and tailor made answers that don't allow for different learning styles and ways of processing information. Finland was mentioned as being the most progressive. Dr Jonathan Brakarsh touched on how to tackle bullying as often children with learning difficulties get targeted. I though of one of my previous students who was getting bullied at home and at school. It ended with how you can use mindfulness to tackle ADD and ADHD - I found it very hard to focus and stay on the present (my mind was wondering to what I had to still make for the braai yesterday afternoon). Apparently we spend 47% of our life thinking about the past and the future. Focusing on the past can potentially cause depression and sadness, whilst too much pondering on the future creates anxiety and in extreme cases possibly insanity.

Well I made food for 15 people and only 5 people came to the braai but it was more intimate and we had fun. I have a surplus of salad and stuff though - might make boxes and give it to street people at the traffic lights. It was lovely to enjoy the flamboyants from Lawson Ave that are visible from the garden and to sit around the fire afterwards.

Off to a concert by Gülsin Onay at St Johns just now, which is part of the Twelve classical music series that brings musicians to Harare. Apparently Onay is one of the top 100 pianists in the world and she originates from Turkey. The lady I am house sitting for sends photos from her travels around Turkey every day. It looks amazing and colours of spices, ceramics and pomegranates are intoxicating. I would love to visit there. Shame, sadly the aunt had to put the cat here down yesterday. It had cancer and wasn't doing so well but deteriorated this week.

I have just put together a lesson for my five year old for tomorrow on castles. Thought we should expand his vocabulary beyond space and dinosaurs - he does know words like nebula and palaeontologist now but perhaps we need to cover more ground on simpler things. I hope he enjoys tomorrow's lesson. From there I am thinking of possibly doing Egyptology (I won't call it that). I think he will remain fixated on space and dinosaurs though for the foreseeable future. Have told him there are real dinosaur bones at the Natural History museum here in Harare and also moon rock at the Geological Survey Museum. Perhaps we can go on an excursion but he does say he's seen a huge dinosaur in China so the bones here might not be as cool, although it would be something different for him.

More art

Painting by Mercy Moyo, Zimbabwean artist.

At art this week I learned about an artist I hadn't come across before, Mercy Moyo. She does great portraits and I love the way she collages in fabric in some of her pieces and uses her brush strokes to great effect to create contrast and movement in her work. In our lesson we were attempting a landscape from an aerial view. Mine is still a work in progress - it is not quite how I want it, although Sarah suggested I stop so I don't overwork it. For next week I've got to prep to create an extreme high vantage view. I possibly may use the book "You are here: Around the world in 92 minutes" by Chris Hadfield for ideas. It was a gift to my mum and I from my sister and it has images taken from the International Space Station of Earth. I used it in my lesson with my five year old today before I went on to George and the dragon.

This afternoon I went round to see two of Mercy's paintings that one of the people in my art group has just bought. As an art group we may go to this group member's farm in Mvurwi to paint. There is also talk of possibly putting on an exhibition. I'd better complete some of my unfinished pieces that I'm not happy with.

Piece from Wednesday of an aerial landscape. Still to finish.

Tomorrow I have a workshop until 2 at Bishopslea on learning differences in children and how you can support them. At four I've got people coming round for a braai so I have been doing some cooking this evening. Going grocery shopping I noticed how prices have gone up and also things that are disappearing from the supermarket shelves. I did bump into several people I knew though which is one of things that makes Zim, Zim - you know people and you cross paths with people you know well daily and even if you don't know people you still chat to them in the supermarket and they are generally friendly. Just seen though that there has been the first arrest of someone for posting something political on social media. It was on Twitter, which is quite a public platform, but still!

You are not a palaeontologist

Well my Chinese five year old surprised me with two things today in his lesson. First off he announced he knew what the biggest dinosaur was - the Argentinosaurus. Not having heard of it and wondering if he had it right I googled it and lo and behold he was dead right. When I said I didn't know about it he promptly replied, "Well you're not a palaeontologist" - I had taught him that word. We then went on to look at outer space and stars. We were talking about telescopes and satellites when he came up with a great question - "How do satellites keep going round the earth? Why don't they run out of (as he put it) "oil"?" I am going to have to look that up now. Pretty impressive to come from a five year old I thought. I had a bit of time between finishing the lesson and my next student so I agreed to play with my pupil. He had us both running up and down the garden with Bado the dog bounding after us and with me being issued tickets which were blades of grass.

It has been a busy week. Went to the opening of Helen Lieros' exhibition at Gallery Delta. There were works on display from across the 50 years of her career, including sketches for her frescos in the Greek orthodox cathedral in Maputo. I used to go to classes with Helen in the year after I finished high school in the amphitheatre behind the gallery. It was special to be there and see samples of her life's work. The priest from the orthodox church here in Harare opened the exhibition and there was reciting of prayers in Greek and a tribute to all that Helen or Helene as he called her, had achieved. Went to two quizzes this week too. A musical quiz straight after the exhibition - I missed the memo that you were supposed to have dressed up for Halloween (would have looked a bit funny at the exhibition if I had) and then one at Amanzi on Wednesday. We came first and second accordingly.

Have been quite tired from the hectic cardio gym session on Monday. Today was a strength class with weights, lots of arms and lunges. The dachshunds come out and lick my face as I'm doing chest presses and the like. They are becoming very affectionate and come charging down the passage when I get home. They know when it is biscuit time in the evening and start hinting. After biscuits and lights out they trot off to their giant bean bag and I tuck them in for the night.

Had an interesting conversation with the aunt of the person I am house sitting for. It started off on care for the elderly but then touched on reincarnation. The aunt was in the middle of telling me how some young men in Korea have been found to have memories of wars they couldn't have lived through when she suddenly said to me, "You know there is spinach in the garden?" I sat there trying to figure out what that had to do with reincarnation and young men in Korea and then realised we weren't still talking about that.