Hello!
I love an ‘about us’ page and I hope you do too. When I discover a blog that I love, I make sure to read about the person (or people) behind the words because it enriches my experience and helps me connect to the posts and the source of the information. Seeing as this blog is relatively new, I expect to add to it as we go along. I’d love to think that someday, I will look back and think of how many friends I’ve made as a result of blogging and so please pop into my Insta DMs if you’d like to chat!
Who we are
We are Abi, Jason and Judah and we live in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. I know right? Zimbabwe seems like a crazy place to live and for many of you, the question on your lips is, ‘do you have lions in your backyard?’
Rest assured, we do not have lions roaming our streets nor do we live in a mud hut. But, we do have regular electricity cuts, two water tanks to collect the municipal water we receive twice a week, a borehole so we can water our garden, and free-range chickens to keep our ant population down. Living in Zimbabwe is not for the faint-hearted and the state of our economy changes every month.
However, Zimbabwe is our home and so far, we have no plans to go anywhere else in the world. We have had to adapt to our environment and we would like to share what we have learnt with all of you!
At the moment, this blog is something we do in our spare time. Abi works online as a proofreader and copyeditor and runs Tweaked Editing. Jason helps run the family hardware/wholesale business and has his fingers in various entrepreneurial pies!
How we got here
At the end of 2014 Jason and I packed up our goods after being married for one year and left Johannesburg. We knew that we didn’t like living in a big city and headed back Jason’s hometown, Masvingo. And so we started carving out a life for ourselves. It took us nearly three years to afford to move out of a tiny cottage and rent a big old house with a great garden.
Zimbabwe offers many wonderful things but a variety of food in the shops is not one of them. Both Jason and I love a variety of food and so it became my mission to figure out ways that we could make our own delicacies or grow some of the ingredients.
Over the years, I have managed to make my own feta cheese, onion powder, tomato sauce, marinated sun-dried tomatoes, pickled onions, bottled pepperdews and much, much more. As my tummy grew and we planned for Judah joining our world, I became more and more aware of the waste involved in our day-to-day lives. And so we were inspired to begin our journey with cloth nappies, which consequently inspired numerous changes to lower our household waste. Whenever I find another way to reduce our waste, my heart skips a beat.
It has also become important for us to know where our meat comes from, and so Jason has started hunting and fishing to fill our freezers. We haven’t reached our goal of only eating what we hunt, but we are slowly working toward this.
Our current situation (2021)
At the end of March, we bought a house. Buying a house in Zimbabwe isn’t quite the same as anywhere else in the world. There is no such thing as a home loan, most sales are private, and one has to beg to be given terms to pay off the house. Most people somehow find a lump sum to buy a house. We cannot deny that God brought together many pieces of a large puzzle all at the same time and here we are with a gigantic house that is in grave disrepair.
We started renovating it in April and the work is still not complete but we are hoping to move in before July. We’ve managed to get a lot done already but there is still a lot more to do.
4 Fun Facts About Us
- We met as babies on my grandmother’s shop floor. We re-met when we were about 16 and disliked each other immensely. 2 years later, I (Abi) was bedridden and recovering from a serious case of T.B., Jason was getting over an ex-girlfriend after finishing school and we started chatting over Facebook messenger. A few weeks later, I was on a bus heading toward Zimbabwe and Jason was waiting for me at the border.
- We are putting together a playlist of songs that we feel Judah MUST listen to and love. These songs will be played endlessly on roadtrips and hopefully our son will come out the other side with great taste in music.
- On our first date, Jason wore a black suit with sandals to a sushi restaurant. Abi hasn’t let him forget it.
- Both of us would rather be barefoot at all times. There have been many instances of us arriving at shops/meetings/parties without shoes on and having to race home to pick up a pair.
Thank you so much for stopping by our little slice of Zimbabwe.
Follow along for our favourite recipes, zero-waste living tips, hunting and fishing expeditions and the plans we have to live an even more rural life!
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