What time is it?  What day is it?  Does it matter?  We’re in another time zone on the other side of the earth, and at some point keeping track of the time and the seasons just doesn’t matter anymore.   The sun is shining and it’s early afternoon, and we are drinking juice at the Kenneth Kuanda Airport.  The suitcases made it too!  This vacation is off to a good start.

What’s the best way to get over jet lag?  The experts agree.

Did we ever figure out if Mosi was the “smoke” or the “thunder?”

We are so excited to have Mimi and Dede here, to listen to their stories and hear the news from home, and to get caught up on who they’ve become over the last year and a half.  They are full of life, traveling all over the place to visit family and friends, hosting book clubs, practicing the art of photography, and learning more sign language all the time.  I feel like Mike and I do all we can to keep up with our life, but they remind us there is so much more life yet ahead, and so much more still to learn!

And so many more memories still to make with Mimi and Dede!

Every day when we came home from work/school, Mimi and Dede could be found outside showing us how “enjoying an African backyard” is done.  It’s really lovely this time of year, with the sun shining so bright through the leaves of the avocado trees.  The guava tree is also ripe and dropping its fruit, although we’ve found that guavas smell a lot better than they taste.  I guess the ants can have those.

The water and weather were perfect for a few afternoon swims.  There’s Mike under the water (under Jake), and Dede doing the Dead Man’s Float.

Eli likes to hang out by the pool filter, a.k.a. bug-catcher, and find out what was trapped inside.

It was also great having someone around to help make tunnels for the train set!  Thanks Dede!

Thanks Mimi!

Mimi was also on Bread Duty with Eli…

And Cocktail Drinking Duty with me!  Finally somebody who is interested in my recent cocktail inventions, the favorite right now being a combination of Campari, white wine, and Cointreau.  I’ve also perfected the Zambian Iced Tea, a mix of Maker’s Mark, Averno, Cointreau, and Schweppes Bitter Lemon.  Cointreau fixes anything.  Although the ants sure like it, so we have to make sure to wipe off the bottle to keep the ants away.  If there’s anything worse on your counter than a bunch of ants, it’s a bunch of drunk ants…

Grandparents are also pretty good at Story Time.  Every night, the boys would climb into bed with Mimi and Dede to read stories.  For a few nights, they even had both Grandmas here.  What heaven.

They were there every morning to give kisses and see the boys off to school,

And home every day when they got off the bus.  Jake even “forgot” his after school activities a few days.  We had to have a little discussion about telling the truth after that.  He’s very cute, you know.

During the last week, Eli was sick with scarlet fever and had to stay home.  He timed his illness just right to be able to stay home with Mimi and Dede.  Scarlet fever sounds scary!  But it isn’t really, just strep throat with a rash.  And even though this sounds weird, I thought it was so interesting to watch it evolve up close like that.  Not quite like the way the book says it will, a little backwards because the rash came before the fever, but that is only more interesting!  A great learning experience for me… Morbid Mommy…

In between cuddling, Dinosaur Train, and playing Birdie Fly, the three of them had some fun staying home from school.

Oh, and you can’t forget the cooking lesson!  Piles and piles of pumpkin leaves, with piles of piles of nshima, cooked over and over again for lunch…

What an amazing cultural tradition for Ms. Hilda to honor Mimi and Oma with her cooking.  She never cooks for me, so I think it must be a cultural thing.  Maybe because they’re older, and so it’s her job to take care of them?  Wow, what must she think of me?  I serve leftovers and a bad, undercooked tray of cold samosas.  Maybe you will need two suitcases on your next visit :)!

We love you guys!!

And tomorrow, we are waking up for our next adventure….