Of Coffee With Artemis: Splashdown And Holiday Festivities

If you were having coffee with me I would wish you compliments of the festive season… Tis the season to be jolly. I haven’t seen the traditional Christmas lights in the city yet but the mayor of Harare did the traditional lighting ceremony even if it didn’t get the usual pomp and funfair. Could partly be due to the electricity situation which seems to be leaning towards a rather dark Christmas.

After 25½ days in space and a 2.1-million-km journey around the Moon, Orion splashed down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Sunday the 11^th of December. The capsule then spent six hours in the Pacific Ocean, with NASA collecting additional data and running through some tests before the rescue team moved it. That process, much like the rest of the mission, aims to ensure the Orion spacecraft is ready to fly astronauts to the moon and back and beyond.

With the success of the historic lunar mission, NASA is now preparing for a crewed lunar mission in 2024 which will follow a similar flight path to the Artemis I, flying around the moon but without landing.  The Artemis III mission, currently slated for a 2025 launch, is expected to put boots back on the moon, and NASA officials have said it will include the first woman and first person of color to achieve such a milestone. The spacecraft also carried several “hidden” attributes such as a tribute to Apollo 17 in the form of the number 18 in binary code on the pilot’s seat.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that December is peak wedding season. The ancestors will be back from their November Sabbatical, weddings and other events are in full swing. This month I have been part of the grooms team in a wedding and in the roora negotiation delegation for a marooro ceremony. Roora talks can get dramatic and a tad tense which is why you want an expert negotiator on your team to smoothen things over.

Upon successful completion of the traditional roora ceremony, we started planning for the wedding set the following day. I remembered why I had promised myself after the last wedding I was part of the bridal team that this would be last time I do this… but family right, and as night follows day… So when will be your wedding?

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that weddings are always a learning curve to adulting, like how how service providers can be super tricky while promising you the moon especially tailors ha! I must say though we looked dapper.

And then add unexpected situations like how to handle not having electricity, water and making provisions around that oh and when you have more guests than you anticipated and some just gotta go… But things always work out, if there’s one thing I have learnt from weddings is from the outside people wont even notice the near misses and the saves you had to pull, like magic it turns into a day of beauty.

Courtesy of our electricity situation, I am inviting you to a barbecue, since the fridge got food that can only be salvaged by cooking up a storm. This meat could have lasted into the New Year but with about six hours of electricity in a day cant trust the meat to keep in a fridge so might as well as do old school and smoke it!!

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that government still has not come up with a comprehensive plan on the way forward and instead engaged in some mud slinging, blaming the energy crisis on the former late president which is the politricks equivalent of saying yeah I don’t have an answer yet.

Instead government wants to embark on a controversial scheme to install premium solar systems valued at USD14000 in the homes of top government officials. I mean hello how are they going to come up with solutions when they wont have to endure the difficulties us ordinary people suffer from? Besides shouldn’t top government officials be able to afford their own premium solar installations instead of saddling tax payers with the bill?

Whats been happening in your neck of the woods? Merry Christmas 🤶

~B