I woke up abruptly at 4-30 to the sound of the spin cycle of the washing machine springing to life! It was in the room next door and had just been turned on by Miriam, who was taking advantage of the electricity and water being on. As Julian my brother says, this is a rare occurrence, like an eclipse!! It happens so seldom. I had coffee, did some Bible reading and then went back to sleep. At just before 7am I got up, had breakfast and went for an hour long walk with Julian. We found some small loaves of bread en route and enquired as to the price. $Zim 620 said the bread man... that's the equivalent of R62 for half a loaf of bread!!! Horror! We walked on and on our return saw a young boy with a loaf. We asked him how much he paid. He said $Zim 62. With this new money, that's R6... far more reasonable. So we returned to the breadman and eventually he admitted the price was $Z62. He was trying to rip us off. We bought two loaves and on we went. We arrived home to no electricity but the water was still on!
We freshened up and then at about 9-45am left for the Warren Hills Cemetary where my Dad's private burial was to take place. We arrived in good time and found the grave site. Soon the Greek Archbishop arrived with only his Chaffeur acting as an aide. The service was short - only about 15 minutes. It was mainly in English. I was interested that once the coffin was in the grave, he poured red wine over it as a symbol of the blood of Jesus. Good reminder of the Lord who died for all of us. It was never going to be easy and we were all rather somber when we left. We stopped home to drop off the flowers and collect my brother's suitcase and then proceeded to the airport to drop him off. That done, Miriam (stepmom) and I went to the Italian Bakery in Avondale. Amazingly she saw some Chinese friends of hers and had a nice chat. She also saw one of the managers who she knows and he ordered us free ice cream to end. Very generous! We ordered a chicken / mayo tramezinni each. Miriam had a hot chocolate and I had a cappacinno. The final cost was R100 which I paid for in Rands. The Zim dollar price was $Z1030. We gave a tip in Zim money.
Shortly after our arrival home at about 3-45pm, friends of Miriam's arrived. They have family in Fish Hoek and asked me a the funeral yesterday if I could take a parcel home. Absolutely! Remember I bought a suitcase with 25kg of food! I was going home empty and taking a parcel was not a problem. They came to drop it off. It's not easy days for them. They struggle along in Zimbabwe entirely dependant on their children who are no longer in the country. One thing about being here is that I am entirely out of touch as to what's going on in the world. I haven't seen, heard or read a news story since being here, so I'm not sure about the progression of the Zim talks. We chat about how what is needed is a new government who openly encourages anyone born in Zimbabwe to come back and help rebuild the country. If they don't come back, they are encouraged to invest. The whole economy would start to turn around. We hope things change.
As a thankyou for taking the parcel, they give me money that was never in circulation. Unbelievably, they are 1c, 2c, 5c and 10c ZIMBABWE NOTES!!!! They were printed in 2006 and never used. Apparently they were being sold on E-Bay for $US25 each!! Quite a souvenir.
And that's it for this Zim trip. I have to say that I will be happy if I need not return to Zim for another 23 years...that's how I feel right now but you can imagine that if things improve and once I've got home and settled back into my routine, I may change my mind. But I've certainly had enough of Harare for the moment. One more trip and that's to the airport tomorrow and I will be back to Westernization.
In fact by the time you read this I should be on my way home or if it's late Thursday afternoon, I may be back in the comfort of my own home. Back on air God willing Friday morning bright and early at 6am. Praise the Lord!
Love to you all & thanks for your prayers and wishes. I have appreciated them.
