A funny thing about Zimbabweans

Zimbabweans, and I guess I'm talking mainly about the whites here, let their children walk around everywhere with their shoes off. Have I mentioned this before? I mean, I'm from the South, but rules (laws?) about wearing shoes in restaurants and stores and such are pretty well enforced...or rather, there seems to be a general consensus that it's a good thing to wear shoes.

But here you will see moms taking their kids grocery shopping in proper grocery stores with no shoes on (gross!). Or in the nicest neighborhood steakhouse, you will see families having Sunday lunch, and the kids will be walking around in the restaurant...in and out of parking lot, back yard playground and bathrooms!...with no shoes on! (Double gross!)

It never ceases to amaze me.

Another funny thing about Zimbabweans is that pretty much all the kids wear uniforms to school, and in the case of big high school boys, they are still wearing what amounts to a short-sleeve button down, with a tie!, tucked into a pair of elastic-waist cotton shorts made from the same material as the shirt, and I'm talking above the knees shorts, knee socks the color of the shirt and shorts pulled up to the knees (always!), and brown or black leather shoes. And kids put up with it! Can you imagine anything more humiliating for a strapping 16-year-old young man than to wear that? Girls have sensible, cute little dresses, but the boys look like total idiots.

And what's even a little sad is that a lot of grown men continue to dress that way. Having been in Muslim countries for 5 years before coming here, I still cannot get used to seeing a man in a pair of short-shorts...at work! Even shopping, I'll just see a grown man out of the corner of my eye, his big belly almost completely concealing what is probably his old school boy shorts. It's too much!!

But it's just the way things are here.

random man at work lunch... You should have seen the other guy.

From Global to Local: UN Day & Halloween

...does Halloween count as local?

Harare International School Celebrating UN Day 2010

This was our first UN Day at the school. A big part of it is a giant food festival with parents from all corners of the world setting up festive tables with favorite dishes from their country.

As a member of the PTO, I volunteered to take on an additional little project for the elementary school. There had been complaints...can't we do anything that is related to the UN or is somewhat more educational than experiencing food? Thus, the UN passport project was born.

It's funny how a little idea can turn into a month-long endeavor involving hundreds of people. We made fake  little  passports with each page being a flag of a country represented at the school.

We set up immigration stations with middle and high school volunteers who represented a few countries each and had flags waving. The kids had to find the flag that matched the one in their book and answer three questions: 1) on which continent is this country? 2) what language do they speak there? and 3) what is a typical dish you could eat there? Either they got the answers themselves or they got a little help from the immigration officer. Then they got a stamp in their passport and moved on to the next flag in another area of the world/campus. There were different passports with different flags, so there were nearly 25 different countries. After visiting 6 countries and getting 6 stamps, they came back to passport control for a prize which was a small gift from the embassies like flag pins or origami kits or whatever.

And every child got a t-shirt...it was pretty cool, if a tad bit chaotic. More than 150 kids participated, and they really seemed to enjoy it which was frankly luck...who knows what kids older than mine like these days?!

In addition to the food and passport game, there was a flag ceremony in the auditorium where a flag from every country represented at the school was carried in by a student from that country who then went up to the mic and said "hello" in their native tongue. Not sure why, but it is strangely moving, especially for the adults who were fighting back tears. Me, too. Funny.

Halloween was celebrated on that same day. We went straight from school to a friend's house for a quick beer and to change into costumes before heading to the Marine's House. Luckily, we were invited by our "buddy family" (Sheryl & Vaughn) to the marine's halloween party which they throw for kids of embassy staff. Yes, the marines. They provide security for some of the embassy staff.

(One of Miles and Eliza's friends from school is the daughter of the head marine. And yes, I do find him a wee bit intimidating. One of his marines bar-tending at the party said he'd almost rather be in Afghanistan where you are ready for danger. "Here, people get complacent and let their guard down." "Right, can I have another beer?" Sheesh.) 

The marine house brought back memories of fraternity houses, except this one had zebra skins and POW banners in addition to the foosball table where Miles spent most of his time until the contortionist/magician showed up. Talk about cringe-worthy. Nothing like a bunch of small children watching a man pretend to make another kid (his assistant) swallow a large object that then magically popped out his rear. (Don't try this at home!)