Wednesday

Wednesday. Nice breakfast with all including Gift Rushumbwa. He called Kaia and I the word for his son’s wife. He said that they do that here. You might call someone “older brother” or mom as Caution Shonai called me. Amai he said and later mom. This is a way of acknowledging the feeling of the relationship. Like son if someone is younger and you have affection for them. It might be the word for your daughter’s husband. Someone feels like that in relation to you.  Ambuya would be grandmother.  Muzukuru would be grandson. Or you can call them friend if they are. Calling someone by their first name is very unusual.

My mbira made by Gift Rushumbwa.  Good sound, wonderful buzz.  He is prolific. Works hard, has a lot to show for his hard work. I took this one from the states and carried it to Zimbabwe. Bought it through Mbira.org.

We went into Harare to try wireless. We stopped at the Apple store but the wireless didn’t work. We then went to Crown Point Hotel and bought a voucher for 30 minutes of airtime. The wireless worked but I could only post to facebook on my first voucher as Facebook loaded very quickly and my e-mail loaded very slowly into my iphone.  John and I shared a second voucher and were each able to send 1 e-mail.

We then piled in the truck and went to pick up more books on the Shona language which had doubled in price since last week. So Erica was going to try another route. We bought “stuff” at the equivalent to Costco called Makro. I bought coffee one kind from Zimbabwe. When we paid in US dollars, since there is no change, if you amount was more than a round dollar amount you had to fill out the rest by getting candy. I owed 12.02 so they just let me pay 12.00 even. The coffee smells pretty stale but maybe I can mix it.

We came back for lunch and practiced our two songs. Now we are waiting for dinner. Singing tonight. I don’t enjoy the singing too much.  Maybe I’ll grow into it.  I want to because the singing adds so much to the complexity of the music.

Sent from my iPhone