They are Zimbabwe’s trademark product, known globally for their bumper bruising and alignment destroying abilities. They are P-holes which serve as Pond-holes in the rainy season, and road craters which have made our country synonymous with one thing…POTHOLES!
(extract from the speech Potholes, by Nesu Kandiado 2015)
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| MY MOST AUTHENTIC REMINDER OF HOME- POTHOLES |
I cannot quite imagine how strange it looked for my fellow gappies to see my face light up so much at….well a pothole! Though I’m sure at this point they’ve come to realise that Zimbos, if not a special breed of people, are unequivocally unique in their mannerisms.
UP & ABOUT
Whilst procrastination is a trade I have unquestionably mastered over years of doing(well trying to do) assignments last minute and excusing it with the hallmark statement “I work well under pressure”, the genuine cause for my delayed update is purely lack of time to do so, and in the rare case that I did have time, INTERNET WAS DOWN! Yes my dear readers, contrary to popular belief, even in the first world, Internet goes down sometimes…there are definitely “potholes” in the perception some of us have of the first world.
INVERELL
Being part of the Triathlon team, I had the great privilege of attending a “Toughen Up” challenge in Inverell, a town roughly 130km from Armidale. Now whilst visiting a town that is as far from Armidale as Shangani is to Bulawayo, it was my first time being out of Armidale! (and we travelled with a coach like Pathfinder on a school trip 😉 ..but that’s beside the point)
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| Banner in the center of town showing the event was sort of A BIG DEAL there! |
The name of the challenge, “Toughen up”, definitely proved to be more than fitting! In my last blog, I alluded to the fact that triathlon athletes do not get the recognition they deserve, and seeing them in action that weekend only reaffirmed my stance on the subject.
To put it simply, the course was gruesome, though most entertaining from a spectator/supporter’s perspective. The event’s website described it as ..
“… a fun, sometimes dirty and an exciting new challenge for you and your friends. It is an event set to test the mind, body and spirit to see if you are Tough enough!” inverelltoughenup.net
Amongst many others, some of the challenges that really caught my attention were the Commando Crawl, Outdoor Obstacle Course and the running that just never seemed to stop!(poor lads)
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| there comes a time when you just have to dive in |
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| she didn’t sign up for this haha |
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| who’s the king of the jungle… |
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| the run before the long run…struggles! |
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| some people actually pay money for these mud baths… just putting it out there |
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| flipping the tyre…over and over and…you get the point |
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| I was a little concerned about the water wastage though |
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| even the fire brigade was in the mix! |
Above are various pics from the course, visit the site inverelltoughenup.net for better quality ones taken by those individuals that are actually allowed to get up close and personal 😛
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| he gets to wear the HEADBAND on his, muscle-head?idk..
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SCOTTS HEAD
The church I’ve been attending at the UNE campus, St Marks, held it’s annual “KICK OFF” (don’t ask me why) camp this past weekend. Now this is roughly 215km away from Armidale, and I saw the most beautiful landscapes en route! Whilst I really wanted to take some snaps to share, on the way there, by the time I navigated to camera, trees were in the way… and on the way back…well… sleep happened, and you know how that goes.
It was a lovely weekend at the beach and a great opportunity to forge some friendships with members of the Christian community here as well as here some amazing stories of how people came to Christ. The talks were on “The Origins of the Messiah” with reference to passages from Matthew 1-3, and honestly, I struggled to follow! However I did benefit greatly from biblical conversations with people.
The beach was stunning, a true testament of God’s beauty. As if what we saw wasn’t enough, George(gappie) and I went on to find “Little beach” which indeed was little, but absolutely brilliant and tranquil. So much so that it became the venue where Cameron, George and I dined on chicken salted chips and coffee whilst talking about the impacts technology has had on our world.(how’s that for a Saturday arvie at the beach)
What’s special about photos like beach ones, is that even with very little picture taking abilities, the shots just always look stunning!
Locally
On the local scene, apart from my very interesting occupation as a teacher’s aid among other roles, I was able to go watch the school production “Bye Bye Birdie”. It was a lovely performance hosted at the school’s own auditorium and left me reminiscing of the good old days when I too was on the stage. Of course singing is something I could never quite do… so you can imagine the reaction I got from the friends I was sitting with as I …”attempted” to sing along, “we love you Conrad, oh yes we do…” and it’s been stuck in my head ever since!
Still on the theme of productions, I also went to the movies! Now typically this is not blog-worthy news, but my shock I reckon deserves documentation. So firstly let’s keep in mind that a movie back home costs a little over AU$4. I had reached the general consensus that whilst food here is super duper expensive, service related products were fair. Boy was I in for a surprise!! We rocked up to the movies in a group of 5, and as the guy serving me said, “that’ll be $15,50″…I looked at him as if to say… “for all of us?”
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| $16 DEADPOOL |
The movie was good I thought, no question about it, but $16 good?….I’m afraid not!
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| Deadpool acknowledging that his movie is just not worth that much 😉 |
Thank you very much for reading the experiences of this crazy Zimbo, and I hope you’ll pay the blog a visit soon. I reckon it’s prudent to say I’ll write every fortnight, but in the event it’s any sooner, I’ll be sure to inform you through various platforms.
P.S- If there’s something you’d love me to write on which I’m not already, get in touch and let me know!
All good wishes,
Nesu4Jesu
Terry-Nesu 