Harare trip, initial impressions

Arriving, I was reminded how much Harare reminded me of Boise, in both size and formality level. Even coming in through customs, it's pretty relaxed. The airport is even smaller than Boise's, despite being one of the international ports-of-entry. Driving across town to Mount Pleasant took between 20 and 30 minutes.

During the drive, I noticed that roads are a mixed bag - the major roads were in decent shape, but most of the smaller roads we took needed a fair amount of repair work, either on the edges or for potholes. There was some evidence of prior repair work (patches, etc) but plenty remains to be done. The cars on the road spanned the gamut, from very shiny and new looking station wagons and sports cars to disreputable looking fume belching pickups and VW vans.

Upon arriving at Jeff's house, I was impressed at the grounds, both in the size and in how beautiful they looked. Last time I was here was in March, just at the end of the rainy season. I had assumed some of the verdant lushness then was due to all the rain just having been dumped on the country. However, it looks very much the same now, lush and green everywhere.

Jeff's main house has a beautiful kitchen, 4 bedrooms and a guest house. There is an effective extra room in the patio outside, being bounded on three sides by the house, a storage room, and the guest house. On the other side is the pool. I could easily see coming home to this, though it definintely feels dreamlike right now! :). Jeff commented that their house is probably on the older end of the spectrum for houses the school has. Because it's one that the school owns rather than rents, they have a large garden.