Today is my dad's 76th birthday. Usually I would wake my dad up singing happy birthday, but I was beaten to that! At 5-45am my step mom, Miriam woke me up with a cup of coffee. The reason for this is that the electricity often goes off early and she wanted to make sure we got our morning coffee! I've got no problem with waking up at this time! I woke up a few times in the middle of the night trying to think what could possibly be positive about Zimbabwe. It was one of my aims before coming here to try and find 5 good things about this country that benefit all the population. One is undoubtedly the weather. One can hardly call THIS winter. It's beautifully warm, a dip in the pool would have been welcome. The Retirement Village has had no water supply for several days. There is a swimming pool in the complex and residents use buckets of this for washing clothes and dishes and themselves! Drinking water is from a friend's borehole. As I have heard about and now experienced first hand the hardships of this country, another thing came to mind regarding the positive. They may not know it and they may not care about it, but the Zimbabwean population is certainly reducing their carbon footprint. Most don't even know what that is! Even though last night was really busy on the roads and there were a surprising number of cars, especially considering that all fuel has to be paid in foreign currency, generally there fewer fumes pumping into the atmosphere. The masses walk, ride bikes and hitchhike. Zimbabwe cannot be accused of burning a hole in the ozone layer. And with that I'm going back to sleep!
Hours 17 to 19: - 7-30am to 9-30am
I wake up after more sleep and my brother and I sing Happy Birthday to my dad & give him a big hug and a gift from my sister in Johannesburg. We had bought loads of goodies and he had enjoyed many of them last night, and so got his gifts from us early. I have breakfast and a wash in the swimming pool water (bought in to the bathroom in a bucket). Then to my horror I discover I have left my sunblock at my brother’s home in Johannesburg! For me this is awful. I can't stand one day without sunblock... to think of another 3 is really bad. My family think I'm strange! Anyway, nothing to be done about that. I dress and my brother and I walk to the nearby shops. We hope to see some of the famous empty shelves. The Spar is closed for renovation. There's not much else going on here, so we head home and miss our turn off! The sun is already warm and I can feel the sunburn!! I have flashes of memory of places and roads I'd cycled or ridden a horse along, but generally it all looks very foreign. We get home warm and thirsty. Can't get too sweaty here because remember there is no water... no lovely showers!
Hour 20: 9-30am to 10-30am
The neighbour comes to meet us. She teaches at a prominent boys high school. She's been teaching there since 1982. It has 1700 boys. She teaches full time and I imagine that without this income she would not make ends meet. I ask her how she will cope when she retires. She says she gets paid peanuts and is already dependent on her son in the UK, who assists her financially. We ask her how much she earns. Last month's salary she tells us was 1 trillion Zim dollars. Our meal last night was 6 trillion. We work out her salary is equivalent to about R100 per month. We have an animated conversation about whether it is worth her working at all. She is tired and would like to retire but she doesn't. Much discussion is hand about how to proceed in Zimbabwe in a most efficient and comfortable way.
Hour 21: 10-30am to 11-30am
We are now off to deliver goods to a lady called Ros. Her sister in Johannesburg has asked us to deliver much needed cat food and a few other goodies. After stopping at the Post Office, we drive through a largely industrialised area. Driving is difficult in this town. Potholes everywhere, cars dodging them and each other, thousands of people milling everywhere. With 80% unemployment they have no where to go and nothing to do. They don't seem to complain. Even this morning we weren't approached for food or help on our walk to the shops. Ros runs a creche. She has 180 pre-schoolers on her books and 8 teachers. She has a waiting list of 70+. Her school fees at the moment are 3 trillion dollars a month. Things are getting more and more difficult in feeding them, but she gets by. She is really pleased with the cat food and other gifts we've bought.
Hour 22: 11-30am to 12-30pm
We leave Ros and travel to a nearby shopping centre to meet a young gentleman who has come to Harare from Bulawayo to meet my brother. He wants to leave Zimbabwe and join his mother and sister in Jo'burg. My brother may be able to employ him, so he has come for an interview. In this shopping centre there is no coffee shop to sit and chat. So the interview is conducted in a rather unconventional way - on the street! Currently, this young 23 year old man works in a pharmacy as an assistant. Last month he got paid in rands for the first time - his monthly salary R550! The negotiations complete we stroll through a nearby Trade Market - a large supermarket - only many of the shelves are empty. Chips, alcohol, soya, dehydrated vegies and a few odd toiletries are spread out across the empty shelves. It's all very sad. We decide to buy 4 chocolates, but we don't have Zim dollars. We ask if they will accept rands, but they don't, so we leave & go find a restaurant for lunch.
Hours 23: - 24: 12:30pm to 2-30pm
We settle on the Italian Restaurant in Avondale. Avondale used to be the real in place to have an apartment! Now it too needs some updating. The Italian restaurant is popular with the Iocal Italian population and several parties are there. We join them and order a lightish lunch. Portions are not huge. We have a couple of rounds of coffee and 2 desserts and the cost comes to around 5trillion Zim dollars. We give them R400 and they give us the change in billions and billions of Zim dollars! That was for 4 of us.
Hour 25: - 2-30pm to 3-30pm
We've been here 24 hours!! 48 hours to go. I'm imagining how good it's going to be to be back in Cape Town! I can taste the fresh sea air and feel the warm embrace of my husband! We leave Avondale and head off to meet a Chinese acquaintance of my parents. We are told he may be able to help my parents in very trying times in Zimbabwe. He is the director of a few businesses in Zimbabwe. We pitch up at his office with no appointment. No problem! He sees us immediately and we talk to him about my parent’s needs. He is happy to assist and tells us not to worry. He will take care of them. We are reassured. We discuss how business is going in Zimbabwe for him and he talks of how difficult it is. He tells us the official exchange rate is $Zim150 billion to $US1. We imagine trying times are ahead and we are going to need to go the extra mile for my parents. They need groceries and foreign currency. Something has to be done. They have family who can assist them. Millions have no family that can help. They are the breadwinners themselves and they are starving.
Hour 26: 3-30pm to 4-30pm
We get home and I type up this email and send it off. A quiet evening lies ahead. We are expecting the electricity to go off any minute, so will get this going and look forward to an evening of quiet conversation and perhaps a bit of candlelit reading.
