Touchdown Zim

Photos 🙂

Hello again Zimbabwe!! 😀 I will never be able to tell you the rush of joy I felt as I  stepped out of the plane in Bulawayo and knew that I was back. Tears of pure happiness was running down my face 🙂 Nozi picked me up at the airport and drove me to Berkeley Place, my Bulawayo home. Nomsa, (the lovely woman working at Berkely) didn`t know I was coming back, so it was such a good surprise! I was completely exhausted from the traveling, so I just got something to eat, and then went to bed.  Coming from a different time zone I was so jetlagged, and woke up at 5 am, and couldn`t sleep anymore. Great. I came during the weekend, so I had some time to try to get used to Zim time. And that was good, cuz by 6 pm I was down and ready to sleep again, but I had to try to keep it going until the night.  Nozi and her sister came and picked me up in the afternoon on Saturday and we dropped Nozi at school before roaming around Bulawayo for a couple of hours. It`s always someone to meet, someone to help and someone who needs a lift. So at 5pm we were going to dinner. But then we needed to pick up a friend. 30 min later we were going to dinner. But we had to stop by the liquor store. Of course we met someone we needed to chat to. 1 hour later we were going to dinner. But then we needed to pick up Nozi. 15 min later we were going to dinner. But then we needed to find their friend and take her to the train station. 2 hours later we were going to dinner. We actually drove to the place we were having a braai (barbeque) , we couldn`t get in with the car unless we paid 10$. I offered to pay, but no. Drove around  for 30 more minutes only to go back cuz their friends were there and they had food. FOOD! Going back to the braai, leaving the car outside. The food wasn`t ready. 1 more hour and I ravished on chicken and sadza like there was no tomorrow. And by this time I was exhausted, so by 10 pm and two beers I just had to go and sleep. Ah, love being back on African time 🙂

The next morning I went with Nozi and her friend to church. And that was an experience I can tell you. Out in the rural areas of Bulawayo, and when I say church I mean a house. A broken down one, with some benches and cheesy music playing before they started. The minister spoke in English, so I could follow the most of it. It was something of an experience: speaking in tounges, healings and a halleljula every two second, singing and PREACH! Hehe, I loved it! 🙂 After church we went back to town, had some lunch and then I went to our office to hang there while Nozi was studying.

Monday morning, and finally back at the office to meet the rest of the guys again! It didn`t feel like I had been gone for more than three months, I was so happy to be back! 🙂 This time around I`m helping out on the sponsorship for Sabona, but I wont to into details on my everyday job. But what I can tell you about is how it works in Zim with school fees, and why there is a big need for sponsors. Even though most schools are run by the government, they still have to pay fees to go. The fees vary from 15 $ per semester for primary, but the further up you go in the system, the more expensive it gets. Now, 15$ might not seem like a lot of money, but when you have nothing, it`s everything. And by nothing, I literally mean nothing. Because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic there are a lot of children in the area who are orphan. They might be living with one or two grandparent, most of which are unemployed. Their source of income, if any, would be to sell whatever they can grow or make their own. But then you have years like this one, when the rains failed to come. If there is no rain back home for a couple of month (which rarely happens) we applaud it and love it. If the rains fail to come here, you are facing serious food shortage. It will in the end be so bad that there is no food left, for people or for animals. As a result of the water shortage the bigger animals come in to the villages and eat what they can find, that means they are eating what the people are supposed to eat. And so the circle never ends.  If a child is lucky to have both parents, chances are that they are not employed, as 90 % (yes, 90. Let that sink in) of the population in Zim are unemployed. So, much are those 15 $ now worth you think? And to top it, they need uniforms, shoes and book. So the need for sponsors is BIG. And I do suggest that if you don`t have a child you sponsor (Sabona or otherwise) sign up for one here 🙂

After the first week in Bulawayo I went to Matopos for the weekend. I was picked up by Josh, Anette`s boyfriend. Sadly Anette had gone home only a week before I came after staying here for three months working for Sabona. I love love love Matopos, it is such a beautiful place! I described the park the last time I was there, so I won`t bore you with facts. I came just in time for lunch, and afterwards I just sat down with a book and took in the view. It`s winter in Zim now, but winter here is a warm summer day back home. It gets kinda cold at night, but nothing too bad. Later that day, me Josh and Pierre ( a guy from Belgium living in Congo visiting Zim) went up to one of the hills and had a couple of beers with a camp fire. It is SO nice to just sit with a Castle light and take in the scenery and talking about life. I was in heaven. And when it got dark all the stars came up and I don’t think I`ve seen such a beautiful sky in my life. The Milky Way was so clear and gorgeous, and could just sit there forever. We went down for dinner a little bit later, talked and had fun until it was time for bed.

Pierre and I had agreed to walk up to the hill behind the lodge for the sunrise, and I was up and waiting for him by 5.30am. After ten minutes he hadn`t showed up, so I went back to bed, put in my earplugs and went to sleep again. It was still dark, and there was no way I would walk up to that hill alone with snakes and other animals around. He had knocked on my door 5 min later of course, but I was fast asleep. After breakfast I sat down with my book again, waiting for Pierre to wake up so we could go up the hill in daylight. It was just a short hike up, and it was the most amazing view of the park. We had a 360 degree view of the whole thing, and it was just unbelievable. We could see over to Cecil Rhode`s grave, the place I went to the last time. That place is called World`s View, but I think that ours was way better. After the hike I went back to my books, as Pierre and Josh where going to town so Pierre could catch the train to Vic Falls. He never did, so they both came back in time for dinner. After a few beers and talking, I was done for the day and went to sleep.

Sunday, warm and sunny and time to work on my fading tan. I borrowed a book from Josh, which his mum has written and I highly recommend to get a feeling about Zim (Sibanda and the rainbird), and was reading about Hwange, village life, rural life, wildlife and was getting more and more excited about going to Dopota very soon! It was Mother’s Day in Zim this Sunday, so there were a lot of people coming for lunch. I met Josh`s parents and listened to stories about their lives in Hwange and Motopos. Everybody I meet down here are so welcoming and nice and kind, I`m just amazed by it all. During lunch be started talking to another family and they were just so incredibly sweet, I had such a good time!
Josh drove me back to town after that, and when I got back to Berkeley I sat down with Nomsa and Jonas and showed them pictures from Nepal and told them about my journey. Those two are taking such good care of me, and we have so much fun together that I`m not lonely to a second 🙂

The following week was rather uneventful, I just worked on what I needed to do and helped Su with a few errands. Both Nozi and Sibonile were out on study leave, and Thomas was in Harare for a couple of days, so Su and me had the office to ourselves. I tagged along for a visit to the hospital to give one of our patients on the helpfund her chemotherapy. She is suffering from breast cancer, but after only one treatment she was showing signs of improvement, and so we are hoping that the tumor will shrink more so her treatment won`t be too hard on her body.

On Saturday, Nozi was finished with some of her exams and could take the weekend off and hang out. We went out to her house and while she was resting I was sitting in the garden and soaking in the sun. She lives about 30 min out of Bulawayo, and so it`s quiet and beautiful. When she woke up we made lunch, and her boyfriend came to join us for food and a few drinks. A few turned into a few more, and so we went to town a little later and went out in Bulawayo. It was boring, so we didn`t stay long.  On Sunday it was 17^th of May and Norwegian constitution day! 🙂 Which I never got a feeling of and thankfully I wasn`t homesick.  But I still felt like I needed to celebrate it in some way, so I brought Nozi and her boyfriend out for a dinner and a beer 🙂

Next up, going back “home” to Dopota 🙂