October 28

We wave goodbye to the French people who are off to Victoria Falls and Hwange.  They will be back on Thursday for a night.  They are very nice, love the cottage and think Rolo is wonderful. When they speak to him in French, Rolo becomes like putty in their hands.  We had Italian bikers stay once.  When they left, they said goodbye to us and then spent about half an hour saying goodbye to Rolo: 'Bene, bene. Ciao, Rolo!'  Rolo, who hates motorbikes, could not understand how such wonderful people could possibly turn up on the back of these huge noisy beasts and desisted from barking at them when they left. We helped the French people get fuel for which they are very grateful and they promise to recommend us to their friends in Harare.

A couple of months ago, we had Sian and Ellie's passports renewed and we now need to have the permanent residency stamp put in them.  We have completed all the usual masses of forms and provided all the information in duplicate.  Zimbabwe has this thing about duplicate, and sometimes triplicate, copies of everything.  Besides a covering letter, we had to supply: a biography, letters from their schools to say they really do attend them, photocopies of the old and new passport picture pages, photocopies of every page used since the residency stamp was put in and a utility bill.  They also ask for a copy (or two) of the girls' birth certificates and it is here that we meet our problem.  Sian was born in Zimbabwe and therefore has a Zimbabwean birth certificate, but Ellie was born in Zambia and therefore her birth certificate is a Zambian one.  This is not acceptable, apparently.  Ellie must get an 'external' Zimbabwean birth certificate which says she was born in Zambia.  This is bizarre to say the least.  I wonder if all the Chinese people you see in the permanent residency queue at the airport have to do this.

In the afternoon, I go to my yoga class.  I find yoga helps me immensely both physically and mentally and I always feel better after it.  I think of all the people I would have murdered had I not taken up yoga. When I get home, I am greeted by John who is just leaving.  He has just found out that he and Ellie have to be at the pantomime practice tonight. Sian, my dad and I have supper together.  Sian is very down and asks if we can go and live somewhere else.  Living here certainly does take its toll on everyone.  I had a very different childhood in many ways and I do not remember it being stressful in this way.