I've just been woken up with coffee - actually it's just about 6am and I'm thinking of Lynwen going into the studio!
It's amazing the electricity is still on here! It's been on for more than 24 hours. My stepmom Miriam says she heard grumblings and groanings in the water pipes as well, so possibly the water may come on today. It's certainly not easy living under these conditions and a good sense of humour is mandatory. Things that get discussed are how many kettles of boiling water you are going to add to your buckets of swimming pool water to warm it up a bit. It's tricky doing that right now because we don't want to put anything in the kettle apart from drinking water and we don't have any left. We'll have to get some today. I do my Bible reading and am again reminded of God's presence all the time. What a great reassurance!
Hour 42: 7-30am to 8-30am
I get up and psyche myself up for a cold swimming pool water hairwash! Oh joy! I get dressed and have breakfast, use the loo, flush using swimming pool water and then head for the bathroom. I wash my hair with jugfuls of cold water. I'm quick and with that done, my brother & I go for a walk. It's another sunny day - the sun and wind quickly dry my hair.
Hour 43: 8-30 to 9-30am
We are now home and enjoy coffee. Discussion commences regarding today's plans. My parents say they can draw $Zim 100 billion per day - we work out how much this is and are flabbergasted to discover that it's the equivalent of R6! How can anyone live on that! We plan today on dropping my brother at a bookshop and meet up an hour later. There are other plans for a visit to a friend who can supply us with borehole drinking water and we also hope to visit a Chinese restaurant for lunch.
Hour 44: 9-30 to 10-30
We head off to face the hairy Harare traffic. I'm amazed at the vegetation here. It's something I have forgotten. It's another positive aspect of Zimbabwe available to all. It's very pretty - Gum trees, Bamboo, Jacaranda Trees, Masasa Trees, Large Granite rocks. This is for all Zimbabweans.
We drive through central Harare. I remember lots of it. We pass the Lady Chancellor Maternity Home – which was it was called in 1964 - it's where I was born there. We quickly arrive in Avondale and drop Julian off at the bookshop. I walk through the flea market. I am, it appears the only shopper! Prices vary. I think I need a new set of table mats, but I don't really want fabric ones. I enquire about the price of 6 and they tell me $Zim 2.5trillion! That's about R200 – R250 a bit excessive I thought, so I decide against them. I feel guilty not buying a thing. I am called from all directions to see the products. My heart goes out to these desperate people. I wonder what the future holds - if things will improve. We don't feel unsafe in Harare – on the contrary in fact.
Hours 45 & 46: 10-30 to 12-30
We are waiting for Julian to appear from the bookshop. He comes with a couple of boxes of books. We head off to Karen's house. Karen lives in a beautiful home with a lovely garden. She has a massive lawn with swimming pool and large well established trees and plants. She runs a business from her office attached to the house. She arranges borehole drinking water for us. The discussion turns to the exchange rate. Karen has been told that R1000 is about 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars. This is scary because the meal the other day was $Zim 6 trillion - it was then about R300. The Zim dollar is devaluing by the day. Everything is instantly getting more expensive. Karen & her husband moved to Zimbabwe 12 years ago and Karen doesn't want to leave. They have resources that make life very comfortable, so there’s no reason for them to go.
Hours 47 & 48: 12-30 to 2-30pm
We leave Karen and head for Chisipite to the Chinese Restaurant. We are alone in the restaurant. Business today is slow. Prices appear reasonable and we can pay in rands, so we order. We have noodles, and bean curd, roasted nuts, mixed vegetables and spring rolls. All very nice. The meal comes to $Zim 10 trillion dollars!! That's R1000 but if we pay cash, they will give it to us at half the price = R500 including the tip. Still a lot more expensive than yesterday and certainly not good value for the meal we had. Very poor in fact. It’s disheartening. How will my parents EVER be able to eat out?
Hour 49: 2-30 to 3-30pm
This time tomorrow we'll be at the airport - and our 72 hours will be over and we will be boarding a plane for Johannesburg. Before we leave Chisipite we walk up Hindhead Ave to St. Aubins Walk and speculate about author Peter Godwin's parents home. We wonder what happened to his mother.
Back in the car and we head home. On the way we pass a nature reserve and that is where we stop. Straining to see between trees and bushland we spot some wildlife. Two giraffe, a few zebra, wildebeeste and buck. This is Harare and we see wild life. 100m down the road, the police stop us. They ask Miriam for her driver's license, which she produces. We are waved on.
Hour 50: 3-30 to 4-30pm
We get home and there is still no water!! Julian and I lug in the drinking water we got from Karen- a 25 litre container. We manage to fill 26 bottles with drinking water. That should sort my parents out for the next couple of days. We put the kettle on and have coffee. And then it's time to type up this journal! That done, I'm off to have my 'swimming pool'cold wash in the shower. This will be my last one. 72 hours in Harare without water!
