our friend ryan

yesterday we said goodbye to our first official visitor from the states - ryan. he and dan met 2 years ago, the first time dan went to mti and have been great friends since. he now works for nmsi in the media division, specifically in the video communications department. he came to zim on a month long visit to east & southern africa to visit a few of the missionaries and ministries that nmsi has in this part of the world. we had the lovely privilege to host him for two weeks so that he could get footage of the work the three families do here in zim and spend some personal time with us. it worked out perfectly for us because we got to join him on some of his visits also getting to know the work that we have heard about but not seen first hand. we were so excited to spend time with the Edwards' family and learn about the work of Ebenezer Agricultural Training Center in the southern part of zim. they have a great blog. ryan also has a great blog if you want to check out his thoughts about zim. and while we didn't do many grand things we did enjoy lots of fellowship and normal life together. my most triumphant moment was when we successfully took two buses to meet dan in kuwadzana one afternoon. i have only taken the bus there once and it was the first month we lived here and with shona friends showing us the way. i was quite proud of myself that i could do it without constantly having to ask for help. we also had the bonus of being in the most packed bus i have ever been in- a record or 26 where one would think only 17 could ride safely. we did manage to take him on a visit to a cave that near by and actually remember to take photos.

finally a baby bump! (you have to look hard)

the cave has an amazing blue pool at the bottom!

doesn't ryan look official?

-m

introducing...

Mambokadzi! our new cat. her name means queen which she holds very well. she is still very shy because until last week she lived on her own outside but now she lives in our little flat with us! she is about 5 months old so she is very different from our last kitten who was totally dependent on us. she is quite happy to spend her day hiding under the bed or behind the curtain. she has warmed up enough to let us pick her up and she will stay on our laps if we are petting her. i think she has figured out that we are the hands that now feed her. there are two funny things about her that we both really enjoy: 1) when dan picks her up she spreads her front paws and "hugs" him 2) she is mostly black with a few orange specks but the tip of her tail is orange stripped!

a pile of shoes

there is a pile of small shoes at our front door that belong to the 7 to 10 children (some are running in and out) sitting in our living room playing uno. it is awesome! and i wish i had our camera but i can't find it right now!

-m