Thursday, November 13, 2008
Our trip is nearly at an end. Hard to believe we’ve been in country for 10 days already. On one hand, the time has flown by. On the other, feels like we’ve been here forever. It’ll be good to start home tomorrow. Another 23 hours on airplanes!
We survived this morning’s flight on Air Zimbabwe from Bulawayo back to Harare. This flight was much less eventful than the last. Boring is always good when on an aircraft. Flying over the country is disheartening. The land is brown in most areas, and in others, black due to grass fires. You see little green, just a few trees here and there. There are many streams and river beds throughout the country, but all appear to be completely dry – just dirt and clay. You can see dozens of large areas that have been cleared for planting at some time. Unfortunately, the land has not been prepared. There is no fuel for tractors to plow the fields, no seeds to plant, no fertilizer, no water for irrigation. We’re told this used to be the bread-basket of Africa, but for multiple reasons, little will be grown this year, contributing to the food crisis here. During the day, we visited one of the two public hospitals in Harare. This one is the largest hospital in all of Zimbabwe, and people are referred to it from all over the country. The hospital covers a huge area, and has over 1000 beds and in normal times a staff of over 3000 people. Today, this hospital closed its doors. It is accepting zero patients – no admissions, no quick consultations for minor illnesses, no trauma patients, no child vaccinations, no women in labor, none of the growing number of cholera cases. Nothing. They still have some patients in the wards, and they are caring for those folks the best they can until they can discharge them. The hospital closed because it has minimal to zero drugs and medical supplies. It’s staff can’t get to work because the cost of transport exceeds the amount the can withdraw daily from the bank. In order to get the money, they have to stand in line all day. In some instances, the amount of round-trip transport exceeds their monthly wage. This includes staff at all levels, from the janitor to doctors at the hospital. The few folks they have live near and can walk to work. The doctors are leaving as they are tired of being unable to treat people and seeing them die. During the discussion, the staff also talked about how people die and no one comes to claim their body. Families don’t have money to pay for funeral arrangements. The family "disappears" if the patient dies. The hospital announces names of the deceased on the radio for 3 weeks straight to try to get the family to come and claim the body, but if they don’t then the hospital has to arrange burial. Apparently, this can happen in hundreds of instances in a month. The hospital can’t deal with this either. They also talked of babies (sometimes older children) that are simply abandoned at the hospital. The staff then needs to treat the child if it’s ill, and then try to find a home for him or her. This adds one more depressing burden to the staff here.
Sorry for all the depressing stuff today, but can you imagine if the largest hospital in your city decided today to not open? No advance warning, just stop operating, and turn people who show up at its doors away, regardless of the severity of the issue? That’s what happened today. Worse, we drove by the other large referral hospital in the city, and it was dark and had an empty parking lot too. We didn’t stop and check, but we believe they are closed as well.
Time to go finish packing the suitcase and putting a few things together for our final day tomorrow. More general observations then!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Zimbabwe trip
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Today, I’ll share just some general observations about the country. In anearlier post, I mentioned that the inflation rate was a quadrillion percent. I think that was accurate last week, but this week, the paper says the inflation rate is a quintillion percent. Per the paper a quintillion has 18 zeros. One of the hardest parts of operating here is understanding what that means. People who are paid in Zim dollars, basically lose money within hours of receiving it. If it goes to the bank, it becomes basically worthless, as you can only withdraw 100,000 Zim dollars at a time. By the time you get your money out, the time value of money has completely worked against you. Even figuring out exchange rates is difficult. For instance, this morning at the hotel, we were told a small bottle of water was $5 US dollars. This was at both the front desk, and at one of the two hotel restaurants. Tonight, I asked to buy a bottle, but went into the bar vs. the restaurant. In the bar, a bottle of water was $1 US Dollar. All of these places are within the same small space. In fact, you can stand in the lobby and within 20 steps be in the door of any of the three. Even more amusing, the gentleman who wanted to take my $5 dollars at the restaurant walked me into the bar, and filled out the receipt to charge me $1 there. Now picture this for every commodity at every shop in every location in Zimbabwe. Many businesses will no longer accept Zim dollars. These are businesses both licensed to accept foreign currency, and those that are not. There are signs in the hotels that state Zimbabwe law requires foreigners to settle their hotel bill in foreign currency. Imagine passing a law that says if you visit our country, we will only allow you to pay in a currency other than ours. Checks are no longer accepted, nor are credit cards. It’s too great a risk for the business due to the inflation rate. Plus, the business couldn’t cash the check, as they can only withdraw a small amount per day. As close as I can figure now, $1 is equivalent to 1,000,000 Zim dollars. A business can only withdraw 1,000,000 Zim dollars per day. And to do that, they must wait in huge lines outside the bank to try to get in and withdraw the money.
Some businesses like hotels or airlines are now requiring payment up front and in foreign currency. In some instances, the payment is required at the time of reservation. We were talking with a gentleman in the airport on the way here that told us he had reserved a rental car, and had been called the night before and told the rental agency had cancelled his reservation. Their reasoning was that even though he had paid in advance (full amount), the payment was in Zim dollars, and therefore inadequate. They would reinstate the reservation only if he would pay up front in foreign currency. At the time of our discussion, the man did not know if they
company would refund the Zim dollars he had already paid, and he was trying to figure out what options he had. I don’t believe he’ll get that cash back, as it would take weeks for the rental agency to withdraw from their bank accounts enough cash to repay him when they can only withdraw small quantities of Zim dollars a day.
Imagine how depressing this is for people here. They may be paid, but can’t access their money. Businesses can’t pay employees because they can’t access foreign currency or enough Zim dollars to pay their employees. We’ve passed dozens of industrial sites, all closed due to economic
conditions. We complain about our economy and the cost of items, and even though we are paying more for items in the US than we were a year ago, we have a huge advantage. We at least know what the item costs and the cost doesn’t change hourly. We also have some understanding of the reasons behind price increases, and have an economic system that is comprehensible.
Not all of us agree with the increases, or like the current system, but it gives us a measure of stability regardless of our opinion. That stability is completely absent here and is driving people to go to extreme measuresto support their families.
More general comments tomorrow about life in Zimbabwe.
Today, I’ll share just some general observations about the country. In anearlier post, I mentioned that the inflation rate was a quadrillion percent. I think that was accurate last week, but this week, the paper says the inflation rate is a quintillion percent. Per the paper a quintillion has 18 zeros. One of the hardest parts of operating here is understanding what that means. People who are paid in Zim dollars, basically lose money within hours of receiving it. If it goes to the bank, it becomes basically worthless, as you can only withdraw 100,000 Zim dollars at a time. By the time you get your money out, the time value of money has completely worked against you. Even figuring out exchange rates is difficult. For instance, this morning at the hotel, we were told a small bottle of water was $5 US dollars. This was at both the front desk, and at one of the two hotel restaurants. Tonight, I asked to buy a bottle, but went into the bar vs. the restaurant. In the bar, a bottle of water was $1 US Dollar. All of these places are within the same small space. In fact, you can stand in the lobby and within 20 steps be in the door of any of the three. Even more amusing, the gentleman who wanted to take my $5 dollars at the restaurant walked me into the bar, and filled out the receipt to charge me $1 there. Now picture this for every commodity at every shop in every location in Zimbabwe. Many businesses will no longer accept Zim dollars. These are businesses both licensed to accept foreign currency, and those that are not. There are signs in the hotels that state Zimbabwe law requires foreigners to settle their hotel bill in foreign currency. Imagine passing a law that says if you visit our country, we will only allow you to pay in a currency other than ours. Checks are no longer accepted, nor are credit cards. It’s too great a risk for the business due to the inflation rate. Plus, the business couldn’t cash the check, as they can only withdraw a small amount per day. As close as I can figure now, $1 is equivalent to 1,000,000 Zim dollars. A business can only withdraw 1,000,000 Zim dollars per day. And to do that, they must wait in huge lines outside the bank to try to get in and withdraw the money.
Some businesses like hotels or airlines are now requiring payment up front and in foreign currency. In some instances, the payment is required at the time of reservation. We were talking with a gentleman in the airport on the way here that told us he had reserved a rental car, and had been called the night before and told the rental agency had cancelled his reservation. Their reasoning was that even though he had paid in advance (full amount), the payment was in Zim dollars, and therefore inadequate. They would reinstate the reservation only if he would pay up front in foreign currency. At the time of our discussion, the man did not know if they
company would refund the Zim dollars he had already paid, and he was trying to figure out what options he had. I don’t believe he’ll get that cash back, as it would take weeks for the rental agency to withdraw from their bank accounts enough cash to repay him when they can only withdraw small quantities of Zim dollars a day.
Imagine how depressing this is for people here. They may be paid, but can’t access their money. Businesses can’t pay employees because they can’t access foreign currency or enough Zim dollars to pay their employees. We’ve passed dozens of industrial sites, all closed due to economic
conditions. We complain about our economy and the cost of items, and even though we are paying more for items in the US than we were a year ago, we have a huge advantage. We at least know what the item costs and the cost doesn’t change hourly. We also have some understanding of the reasons behind price increases, and have an economic system that is comprehensible.
Not all of us agree with the increases, or like the current system, but it gives us a measure of stability regardless of our opinion. That stability is completely absent here and is driving people to go to extreme measuresto support their families.
More general comments tomorrow about life in Zimbabwe.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Zimbabwe, Part IV
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Well…. Another day with no internet connection. I’m hoping to be able to log on at the office tomorrow to send the notes from the last few days so they can be posted from home. Just finished killing all the bugs in the hotel room and brushing the dirt off the sheets, and reconciling myself to the fact the room is about 100 degrees in room temperature. The A/C has issues, and while there is a wonderful breeze outside, I can’t open the windows, or I’ll have many more small crawling friends sharing my room, some of which bite and can leave diseases I’d rather not be a part of. So now that I’m done complaining, it’s time to sit down, type this note to you, and then get some work done. I’m told by our host that this was once a very nice hotel, but even he is surprised by the changes in just a few months.
We visited the field again today, and met with a team at a hospital, a nursing school, and several home based Caregivers. Again, we were welcomed warmly by all, and were shown around their facilities. Their facilities were very clean, but again lacked many basic supplies. The team there is doing great work with what they have, but are impacted greatly by the lack of basic medicines. It is very draining to have people travel 10 or more kilometers to be seen by a doctor, only to be sent home with no medicines as the hospital has limited to no items. During our meeting with the Caregivers, I was again amazed by their dedication and the level of support they provide the community. Key health workers in the community help train them, and they provide essential care to those that are ill, generally those with HIV or AIDS. Here they run the home based care program a bit differently. They work in community teams, treating all patients within a given area. Each team may have up to 30 patients. Travel is hard as they must travel sometimes as much as 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) by foot to care for a patient or to check in at the rural health clinic or district hospital to get supplies.
Today was our last day in the field. Tomorrow we have more meetings in the office, then back to Harare for a final day and a half of meetings. More to follow about general comments about the visit. Hope everyone is doing well!
Well…. Another day with no internet connection. I’m hoping to be able to log on at the office tomorrow to send the notes from the last few days so they can be posted from home. Just finished killing all the bugs in the hotel room and brushing the dirt off the sheets, and reconciling myself to the fact the room is about 100 degrees in room temperature. The A/C has issues, and while there is a wonderful breeze outside, I can’t open the windows, or I’ll have many more small crawling friends sharing my room, some of which bite and can leave diseases I’d rather not be a part of. So now that I’m done complaining, it’s time to sit down, type this note to you, and then get some work done. I’m told by our host that this was once a very nice hotel, but even he is surprised by the changes in just a few months.
We visited the field again today, and met with a team at a hospital, a nursing school, and several home based Caregivers. Again, we were welcomed warmly by all, and were shown around their facilities. Their facilities were very clean, but again lacked many basic supplies. The team there is doing great work with what they have, but are impacted greatly by the lack of basic medicines. It is very draining to have people travel 10 or more kilometers to be seen by a doctor, only to be sent home with no medicines as the hospital has limited to no items. During our meeting with the Caregivers, I was again amazed by their dedication and the level of support they provide the community. Key health workers in the community help train them, and they provide essential care to those that are ill, generally those with HIV or AIDS. Here they run the home based care program a bit differently. They work in community teams, treating all patients within a given area. Each team may have up to 30 patients. Travel is hard as they must travel sometimes as much as 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) by foot to care for a patient or to check in at the rural health clinic or district hospital to get supplies.
Today was our last day in the field. Tomorrow we have more meetings in the office, then back to Harare for a final day and a half of meetings. More to follow about general comments about the visit. Hope everyone is doing well!
Zimbabwe, Part III
Monday, November 10, 2008
Greetings from Bulawayo! Flying Air Zimbabwe is an experience that could make one of our US air carriers look good! We arrived at the airport at 6am for a 7:30 flight, only to find out they’d decided they’d rather fly at 9:00. Apparently this is common. If you call in advance, you may be told a later time, only to arrive and find out they decided to leave as planned. We saw that happen to one couple while we were there. I’ve never flown a Chinese made airplane before, but I’ve decided now that I should never again complain about how loud an airplane can be. And don’t even get me started on the turbulence and landing!
Anyway, we made it here safely, and had an opportunity to visit with a hospital in the area. Again, it is a difficult situation, as there is few medical supplies or pharmaceuticals. We also noticed how young the doctors are in this hospital and the others we’ve been to. I didn’t mention yesterday, but in the afternoon we had a chance to meet with two local doctors that have formed their own local non-profit and have enlisted the help of many doctors and nurses in the area. They go out to rural areas 2 times per month and treat people in those areas. This is done in coordination with the appropriate people in the Ministry of Health. Those two doctors were very young as well. We were told that the country is also suffering from "brain-drain". Doctors know they can earn more money to support their families if they work in another country, so they leave Zimbabwe. They also leave because they get tired of trying to treat patients with no supplies. Basically, they get tired of seeing people die from easily preventable and / or treatable illnesses. We also saw a food distribution today. This is a time when aid agencies deliver food to a specific area of a district and then organize the people living in that area to come and pick up food (cooking oil and grain). The amount they pick up lasts 1 month, and is based on the size of their
families. Our understanding is this is the first food assistance this particular area has seen for some time due to various circumstances. People here are hungry. They can farm their land, but again, have no seed or fertilizer. It’s a hard situation.
One amusing story from today. As you drive along the "highways" here, you go through various police checkpoints. They can ask for a variety of things, but today, the checkpoint was checking for valid driver’s licenses and safe vehicles. As we pulled up and our host asked what they needed, the police officer responded with "I am doing a check for defective drivers and vehicles." Now I realize it’s probably not a good idea to laugh at a police check point in a foreign country, but the idea of searching for "defective drivers" humored me greatly. I think I’ll use this phrase when I return home. It is so much more amusing than just calling all those bad drivers back home "stupid". Anyway, we passed the inspection, allowed the police officer to have a bit of a laugh as well, and went along our way. Only 4 more days to go! Then back to the airport for the long trip home!
Greetings from Bulawayo! Flying Air Zimbabwe is an experience that could make one of our US air carriers look good! We arrived at the airport at 6am for a 7:30 flight, only to find out they’d decided they’d rather fly at 9:00. Apparently this is common. If you call in advance, you may be told a later time, only to arrive and find out they decided to leave as planned. We saw that happen to one couple while we were there. I’ve never flown a Chinese made airplane before, but I’ve decided now that I should never again complain about how loud an airplane can be. And don’t even get me started on the turbulence and landing!
Anyway, we made it here safely, and had an opportunity to visit with a hospital in the area. Again, it is a difficult situation, as there is few medical supplies or pharmaceuticals. We also noticed how young the doctors are in this hospital and the others we’ve been to. I didn’t mention yesterday, but in the afternoon we had a chance to meet with two local doctors that have formed their own local non-profit and have enlisted the help of many doctors and nurses in the area. They go out to rural areas 2 times per month and treat people in those areas. This is done in coordination with the appropriate people in the Ministry of Health. Those two doctors were very young as well. We were told that the country is also suffering from "brain-drain". Doctors know they can earn more money to support their families if they work in another country, so they leave Zimbabwe. They also leave because they get tired of trying to treat patients with no supplies. Basically, they get tired of seeing people die from easily preventable and / or treatable illnesses. We also saw a food distribution today. This is a time when aid agencies deliver food to a specific area of a district and then organize the people living in that area to come and pick up food (cooking oil and grain). The amount they pick up lasts 1 month, and is based on the size of their
families. Our understanding is this is the first food assistance this particular area has seen for some time due to various circumstances. People here are hungry. They can farm their land, but again, have no seed or fertilizer. It’s a hard situation.
One amusing story from today. As you drive along the "highways" here, you go through various police checkpoints. They can ask for a variety of things, but today, the checkpoint was checking for valid driver’s licenses and safe vehicles. As we pulled up and our host asked what they needed, the police officer responded with "I am doing a check for defective drivers and vehicles." Now I realize it’s probably not a good idea to laugh at a police check point in a foreign country, but the idea of searching for "defective drivers" humored me greatly. I think I’ll use this phrase when I return home. It is so much more amusing than just calling all those bad drivers back home "stupid". Anyway, we passed the inspection, allowed the police officer to have a bit of a laugh as well, and went along our way. Only 4 more days to go! Then back to the airport for the long trip home!
Zimbabwe, Part II
Friday, November 6, 2008
Today we traveled to a region south of Harare. The area here is different than to the north. It is a much drier region, so less farming and more ranching. The area is beautiful, but incredibly dry as the rains have not started here yet. As we drove, we went over several bridges, but there was no water in the river and stream beds. The beds were totally dry, not even any mud. Just sand and rocks. We saw many head of cattle and goat, but there is nothing for them to eat, so they are incredibly thin. You can see their bones through their skin.
The people are hungry as well. We talked to a nurse today who runs a nursing school in the area we were in. The school is very nice, and very well run. They graduate multiple classes a year, teaching key nursing skills to people who then go and run all the rural health clinics. Unfortunately, she stated she may have to close the school and send everyone home as there is no food for the students or their families. If the students go home, there is no food there either. She doesn’t know what to do, as everyone is hungry and even if they had money, there is no food to buy.
Food is the largest problem here. The community is very forward thinking, very resourceful, and very interested in learning and improving their situation. They have big plans for growing, and the community is involved. It’s the first place I’ve been where the community has presented an entire plan for where they want to go and what they want to accomplish. It was really exciting!The food issues and economic challenges here are the issue, not the direction. We also visited a school, saw some wonderful dancing and heard some great speeches from the kids. At the end, the parents and community Caregivers told us they had pulled their food and made us a meal. This is food they do not have to spare, as they are missing meals most of the time. It is very rude to turn down a meal prepared for visitors, but we did not feel we could eat the food that they so desperately need. We finally convinced them that we were incredibly thankful and very honored, but needed them to use that food to feed their families today. Have a big party in our honor if that makes you feel better, but eat the food. We were allowed to leave with no hard feelings. I’m glad. That would have been a hard lunch to eat.
On our way home, we asked our host about the number of vehicles traveling southbound on the highway. He told us that many of the vehicles were traveling to South Africa to buy food. If someone can get enough money, they still can’t buy food in Zimbabwe, so they have to apply for a visa, travel south (or west to Botswana), buy enough food until they can travel south again, and return to their home. Traffic is heaviest tonight (Friday) going southbound, and then again Sunday morning going northbound as everyone returns. Can you imagine driving 6 or so hours just to get food?
We also learned how frightening it can be to travel at night here. The highway is a two lane road with only a small gravel shoulder. Speed limit is about 100 km an hour. It’s dangerous enough in the daylight, but at night, it’s incredibly worse. People, bicycles, and ox-carts still occupy the shoulder. There are no street lights, and fast moving traffic is trying to travel on the narrow roadway. Now imagine huge numbers of people trying to travel on this road to and from South Africa to buy food over a weekend. You can see evidence of many accidents on this road. When passing, people use their right turn signals (you drive on the left side of the road here), in order to help show oncoming traffic where your car is on the roadway. I’m glad I wasn’t driving!
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Today is a free day. Our hosts picked us up at the hotel and walked around the city of Harare with us. It’s a very strange experience. On one hand, there are hundreds of people walking the streets with a purpose. They appear to have places to go and people to see. In many ways, it looks just like a downtown shopping area. But if you go into a shop, there are no people, and few items. We went into a clothing / shoe store. There were about 50 pair of shoes total in the store, and most looked like they had already been worn.
We asked what everyone was doing if they were not going to work on Saturday and not shopping. We were told that people are walking to the bank and /or were looking for people to exchange money from US dollars or South America Rahn to Zimbabwe dollars. You see long lines outside the banks where people are waiting to get cash. On Wednesday this week, the government increased the amount a person can withdraw at any one time from 10,000 Zim Dollars to 50,000 Zim dollars. Now that may sound like a lot, but as close as I can figure, today the exchange rate is something like 100,000 Zim dollars to $1 USD. I say today, as it appears the exchange rate changes hourly. The inflation rate here is over 1 quadrillion percent (per the official paper, so it may be higher). I don’t know about you, but I don’t even know how many zeros are in a quadrillion, let alone figure out how to do an exchange rate. Many people are paid in US or South African currency, but then have to either use it in stores that are licensed to sell in those currencies, or find a way to exchange it to Zim dollars. People here spend much of their available time either trying to figure out how to get money (and these are people that actually have money), or trying to figure out how to buy basic food staples. We went to a grocery store that was licensed to sell in foreign currency. There were many items on the shelves, but prices were incredibly expensive. Cans of vegetables were $2.50 each. Peaches were nearly $3 per kilogram. We’re told for food items the inflation rate here for the US dollar is almost 100%. I believe it for food items, although we didn’t see that for other items. So enough about the economy… After our walk around town, our hosts took us to the Woodlands Reserve. This is a small game park just outside of the city. We sat at an overlook and saw giraffes, zebras, impalas, wildebeests, etc. It was incredibly peaceful! We were told that we could do a walking safari through the park, but it was a bit expensive, so we chose not to. As we were sitting in the overlook, one of the park employees was telling us about all the snakes (cobras, pythons, and black mambas) and jackals in the park. I got to thinking about that, and wondered about the wisdom of the walking safari concept. I guess it’s environmentally friendly, but sounds like it could be a bit hazardous to your health!
We also went to a park of balancing rocks. At this park, you could get up close and take pictures of rocks balancing on top of one another. We’ve seen these rock formations as we traveled both north and south of Harare. No one seems to have any idea how they formed, so I’ll have to look it up when I can finally get on the internet. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to where they are. You’ll drive through reasonably flat areas, and then suddenly see some of these formations, and then they’ll end, and you’ll be back to flat areas.
So now, back at the hotel, and an afternoon of working and trying to do laundry in the sink. How exciting (not!)! We would go walk around some more, but it’ll start raining soon, and you sure don’t want to be caught outside in a rainstorm here. More tomorrow!
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Went to church with our hosts this morning. It was a very nice service, although considerable calmer than the other church service I’ve been to in Africa. As is customary, when you visit a church here, you are called out, asked to introduce yourself to the congregation during the service, and then required to wear a nametag that says "visitor" for the rest of the service. I think I probably stuck out as a visitor without benefit of the nametag, but wore it anyway.
This church has 4 services each Sunday. They had to go to 4, and considered more, but we noticed there were many open seats. We were told that many people could no longer come to church as they were unable to get fuel to travel to church. I can’t imagine what that must be like for folks here. Church activities and fellowship are a huge part of who they are, so being unable to attend must feel very isolating. Spent most of the rest of the day working. One nice thing about being unable to access the internet is that you can’t get any new work. I am currently believing that I am totally caught up on e-mails. Yes, I realize I am living in an alternate reality, but it seems everyone here operates that way, so I thought I’d participate!
Early tomorrow morning we fly to Bulawayo, which is in the eastern part of the country. Maybe I’ll be able to connect there and not feel quite so isolated!
Today we traveled to a region south of Harare. The area here is different than to the north. It is a much drier region, so less farming and more ranching. The area is beautiful, but incredibly dry as the rains have not started here yet. As we drove, we went over several bridges, but there was no water in the river and stream beds. The beds were totally dry, not even any mud. Just sand and rocks. We saw many head of cattle and goat, but there is nothing for them to eat, so they are incredibly thin. You can see their bones through their skin.
The people are hungry as well. We talked to a nurse today who runs a nursing school in the area we were in. The school is very nice, and very well run. They graduate multiple classes a year, teaching key nursing skills to people who then go and run all the rural health clinics. Unfortunately, she stated she may have to close the school and send everyone home as there is no food for the students or their families. If the students go home, there is no food there either. She doesn’t know what to do, as everyone is hungry and even if they had money, there is no food to buy.
Food is the largest problem here. The community is very forward thinking, very resourceful, and very interested in learning and improving their situation. They have big plans for growing, and the community is involved. It’s the first place I’ve been where the community has presented an entire plan for where they want to go and what they want to accomplish. It was really exciting!The food issues and economic challenges here are the issue, not the direction. We also visited a school, saw some wonderful dancing and heard some great speeches from the kids. At the end, the parents and community Caregivers told us they had pulled their food and made us a meal. This is food they do not have to spare, as they are missing meals most of the time. It is very rude to turn down a meal prepared for visitors, but we did not feel we could eat the food that they so desperately need. We finally convinced them that we were incredibly thankful and very honored, but needed them to use that food to feed their families today. Have a big party in our honor if that makes you feel better, but eat the food. We were allowed to leave with no hard feelings. I’m glad. That would have been a hard lunch to eat.
On our way home, we asked our host about the number of vehicles traveling southbound on the highway. He told us that many of the vehicles were traveling to South Africa to buy food. If someone can get enough money, they still can’t buy food in Zimbabwe, so they have to apply for a visa, travel south (or west to Botswana), buy enough food until they can travel south again, and return to their home. Traffic is heaviest tonight (Friday) going southbound, and then again Sunday morning going northbound as everyone returns. Can you imagine driving 6 or so hours just to get food?
We also learned how frightening it can be to travel at night here. The highway is a two lane road with only a small gravel shoulder. Speed limit is about 100 km an hour. It’s dangerous enough in the daylight, but at night, it’s incredibly worse. People, bicycles, and ox-carts still occupy the shoulder. There are no street lights, and fast moving traffic is trying to travel on the narrow roadway. Now imagine huge numbers of people trying to travel on this road to and from South Africa to buy food over a weekend. You can see evidence of many accidents on this road. When passing, people use their right turn signals (you drive on the left side of the road here), in order to help show oncoming traffic where your car is on the roadway. I’m glad I wasn’t driving!
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Today is a free day. Our hosts picked us up at the hotel and walked around the city of Harare with us. It’s a very strange experience. On one hand, there are hundreds of people walking the streets with a purpose. They appear to have places to go and people to see. In many ways, it looks just like a downtown shopping area. But if you go into a shop, there are no people, and few items. We went into a clothing / shoe store. There were about 50 pair of shoes total in the store, and most looked like they had already been worn.
We asked what everyone was doing if they were not going to work on Saturday and not shopping. We were told that people are walking to the bank and /or were looking for people to exchange money from US dollars or South America Rahn to Zimbabwe dollars. You see long lines outside the banks where people are waiting to get cash. On Wednesday this week, the government increased the amount a person can withdraw at any one time from 10,000 Zim Dollars to 50,000 Zim dollars. Now that may sound like a lot, but as close as I can figure, today the exchange rate is something like 100,000 Zim dollars to $1 USD. I say today, as it appears the exchange rate changes hourly. The inflation rate here is over 1 quadrillion percent (per the official paper, so it may be higher). I don’t know about you, but I don’t even know how many zeros are in a quadrillion, let alone figure out how to do an exchange rate. Many people are paid in US or South African currency, but then have to either use it in stores that are licensed to sell in those currencies, or find a way to exchange it to Zim dollars. People here spend much of their available time either trying to figure out how to get money (and these are people that actually have money), or trying to figure out how to buy basic food staples. We went to a grocery store that was licensed to sell in foreign currency. There were many items on the shelves, but prices were incredibly expensive. Cans of vegetables were $2.50 each. Peaches were nearly $3 per kilogram. We’re told for food items the inflation rate here for the US dollar is almost 100%. I believe it for food items, although we didn’t see that for other items. So enough about the economy… After our walk around town, our hosts took us to the Woodlands Reserve. This is a small game park just outside of the city. We sat at an overlook and saw giraffes, zebras, impalas, wildebeests, etc. It was incredibly peaceful! We were told that we could do a walking safari through the park, but it was a bit expensive, so we chose not to. As we were sitting in the overlook, one of the park employees was telling us about all the snakes (cobras, pythons, and black mambas) and jackals in the park. I got to thinking about that, and wondered about the wisdom of the walking safari concept. I guess it’s environmentally friendly, but sounds like it could be a bit hazardous to your health!
We also went to a park of balancing rocks. At this park, you could get up close and take pictures of rocks balancing on top of one another. We’ve seen these rock formations as we traveled both north and south of Harare. No one seems to have any idea how they formed, so I’ll have to look it up when I can finally get on the internet. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to where they are. You’ll drive through reasonably flat areas, and then suddenly see some of these formations, and then they’ll end, and you’ll be back to flat areas.
So now, back at the hotel, and an afternoon of working and trying to do laundry in the sink. How exciting (not!)! We would go walk around some more, but it’ll start raining soon, and you sure don’t want to be caught outside in a rainstorm here. More tomorrow!
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Went to church with our hosts this morning. It was a very nice service, although considerable calmer than the other church service I’ve been to in Africa. As is customary, when you visit a church here, you are called out, asked to introduce yourself to the congregation during the service, and then required to wear a nametag that says "visitor" for the rest of the service. I think I probably stuck out as a visitor without benefit of the nametag, but wore it anyway.
This church has 4 services each Sunday. They had to go to 4, and considered more, but we noticed there were many open seats. We were told that many people could no longer come to church as they were unable to get fuel to travel to church. I can’t imagine what that must be like for folks here. Church activities and fellowship are a huge part of who they are, so being unable to attend must feel very isolating. Spent most of the rest of the day working. One nice thing about being unable to access the internet is that you can’t get any new work. I am currently believing that I am totally caught up on e-mails. Yes, I realize I am living in an alternate reality, but it seems everyone here operates that way, so I thought I’d participate!
Early tomorrow morning we fly to Bulawayo, which is in the eastern part of the country. Maybe I’ll be able to connect there and not feel quite so isolated!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Zimbabwe
4 November 2008
Greetings from Zimbabwe! Boy, does it take a while to get here! 23 hours of flying time and 9 hours of layovers, but arrived here smoothly and am now trying to stay up long enough to get adjusted to the time zone. We arrived a few hours ago, and went straight from the airport to the hotel. Don’t have much to share with you today, other than Harare seems to be a bustling city, lots of people and activity. Right now, I’m listening to the US elections on BBC news. You’ll be glad to know that all the way here (Heathrow, Johannesburg, and Harare), the election was front and center on every newspaper, and it appears to be the only thing happening in the entire world on the major news networks (CNN and BBC). Very different perspective when you hear about it from outside the US.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Harare is a very interesting city. It’s very western in terms of architecture. The hotel is in the downtown area, and there is lots of activity here from early morning until late night. You see many people walking and driving to work, shopping, etc. However, you hear on the local radio about water issues, and a cholera outbreak outside the city. This is in one of the areas we’ll be going in the next two days.
The folks here are very friendly. They have a huge faith in God and are very resilient and resourceful. Everyone we met is looking to the future and to times when they will get through the issues currently facing the country, and into better times. They are an amazing group of people! Not much more to share today as we spent most of the day in the office. Tomorrow, we’ll be outside the city, and I can share more about our travels there. Just a few other interesting facts –
· you can go to a good Chinese restaurant anywhere, even in Zimbabwe
· internet service is difficult to impossible (the reason why you are getting this well after the fact!)
· Everyone here is very interested in the US elections and are all very excited that our election has confirmed President-elect Obama. We even saw t-shirts reflecting this today! They see it as a great thing for not only the US, but many other countries as well. One quoted a saying "When America sneezes, the whole world catches a cold", and then said we had just been given a dose of cold medicine to keep the US from sneezing. Now that’s a whole new way of looking at it!
More tomorrow!
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Today was spent in a location a few hours north of Harare. You get a very different perspective of Zimbabwe when you travel outside the city. You see evidence that at one time, there were many farms, small houses made of brick, stone, or concrete. You see small town areas with banks(called investment centers) a general store, a butcher shop, and maybe a few other businesses. Today, these areas are like ghost towns. Most of the farm areas are not prepared. We’re told there is no seed or fertilizer for the fields, nor fuel for the tractors, so only small garden areas are prepared if anything at all. In the small towns, the shops appear to be vacant. Some of the buildings are now suffering disrepair. We stopped in one small area, and walked into the grocery. Only a handful of items were on the shelf, where we’re told at one point, the shelves were stocked full. None of the items were key food items (corn, flour, other staples).
We traveled out to meet people in a school and clinic in the area. The people amazed us! They are resilient, hardworking, caring, and smiling! I don’t know if I could smile if I lived as they are currently living. All look forward to a time when things will improve, and they believe that time will be soon. It’s hard to believe when you see schools with few to no books, libraries with only a handful of books. But the children at the school put on a performance for us, and they clearly showed they are learning incredibly well. They are smart, articulate, and ready to learn more to help their country.
The clinic was more difficult to see than the school. Very knowledgeable, competent nurses run the clinic. However, they have no tools to treat their patients. There were few drugs at the clinic we saw today, and they see up to 200 patients in a day, serving an area of maybe 7000 people total. They have no electricity, no communication, and the nearest water source is 2 km away. If they have a patient that has to go to the district hospital many kilometers away, they would have to walk, or be transported by ox drawn cart. The clinic cannot call the hospital, and cannot evacuate emergency cases. They simply treat the patient as well as they can, and pray for the best.
In the last few days, the area we were in has seen an outbreak of cholera. There have already been many cases, and they are afraid there will be many more. There are no drugs to treat the illness on hand. We were all cautioned to not shake hands with people. This was difficult for the people here, as properly welcoming visitors requires handshakes, smiles, and greetings, often followed by welcoming songs. A greeting without a handshake feels like no greeting at all! But after a few forgetful moments, and gentle reminders from the district ministry of health official traveling with us, people remembered to either touch fists or elbows as a sign of greeting.
On our way home, we took a slight detour and our host took us to see where some of the business people in the area live. What a difference! Many of these homes are 2 – 3 times the size of our homes in the US (maybe more!). The disparity between even middle class and the very wealthy in Zimbabwe is amazing, and when you compare it to the area we were at today, it’s even harder to comprehend.
I haven’t talked about the hotel we are in yet. It is rated as one of the best hotels in the world, according to all the signs in the lobby. It’s been here since 1915. Everyone is very nice, but technology seems to be a bit beyond the team here. So far, no access to the internet, which is why you all are reading a bunch of these notes all at once. Hopefully, I’ll be able to log on and post them soon.
Greetings from Zimbabwe! Boy, does it take a while to get here! 23 hours of flying time and 9 hours of layovers, but arrived here smoothly and am now trying to stay up long enough to get adjusted to the time zone. We arrived a few hours ago, and went straight from the airport to the hotel. Don’t have much to share with you today, other than Harare seems to be a bustling city, lots of people and activity. Right now, I’m listening to the US elections on BBC news. You’ll be glad to know that all the way here (Heathrow, Johannesburg, and Harare), the election was front and center on every newspaper, and it appears to be the only thing happening in the entire world on the major news networks (CNN and BBC). Very different perspective when you hear about it from outside the US.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Harare is a very interesting city. It’s very western in terms of architecture. The hotel is in the downtown area, and there is lots of activity here from early morning until late night. You see many people walking and driving to work, shopping, etc. However, you hear on the local radio about water issues, and a cholera outbreak outside the city. This is in one of the areas we’ll be going in the next two days.
The folks here are very friendly. They have a huge faith in God and are very resilient and resourceful. Everyone we met is looking to the future and to times when they will get through the issues currently facing the country, and into better times. They are an amazing group of people! Not much more to share today as we spent most of the day in the office. Tomorrow, we’ll be outside the city, and I can share more about our travels there. Just a few other interesting facts –
· you can go to a good Chinese restaurant anywhere, even in Zimbabwe
· internet service is difficult to impossible (the reason why you are getting this well after the fact!)
· Everyone here is very interested in the US elections and are all very excited that our election has confirmed President-elect Obama. We even saw t-shirts reflecting this today! They see it as a great thing for not only the US, but many other countries as well. One quoted a saying "When America sneezes, the whole world catches a cold", and then said we had just been given a dose of cold medicine to keep the US from sneezing. Now that’s a whole new way of looking at it!
More tomorrow!
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Today was spent in a location a few hours north of Harare. You get a very different perspective of Zimbabwe when you travel outside the city. You see evidence that at one time, there were many farms, small houses made of brick, stone, or concrete. You see small town areas with banks(called investment centers) a general store, a butcher shop, and maybe a few other businesses. Today, these areas are like ghost towns. Most of the farm areas are not prepared. We’re told there is no seed or fertilizer for the fields, nor fuel for the tractors, so only small garden areas are prepared if anything at all. In the small towns, the shops appear to be vacant. Some of the buildings are now suffering disrepair. We stopped in one small area, and walked into the grocery. Only a handful of items were on the shelf, where we’re told at one point, the shelves were stocked full. None of the items were key food items (corn, flour, other staples).
We traveled out to meet people in a school and clinic in the area. The people amazed us! They are resilient, hardworking, caring, and smiling! I don’t know if I could smile if I lived as they are currently living. All look forward to a time when things will improve, and they believe that time will be soon. It’s hard to believe when you see schools with few to no books, libraries with only a handful of books. But the children at the school put on a performance for us, and they clearly showed they are learning incredibly well. They are smart, articulate, and ready to learn more to help their country.
The clinic was more difficult to see than the school. Very knowledgeable, competent nurses run the clinic. However, they have no tools to treat their patients. There were few drugs at the clinic we saw today, and they see up to 200 patients in a day, serving an area of maybe 7000 people total. They have no electricity, no communication, and the nearest water source is 2 km away. If they have a patient that has to go to the district hospital many kilometers away, they would have to walk, or be transported by ox drawn cart. The clinic cannot call the hospital, and cannot evacuate emergency cases. They simply treat the patient as well as they can, and pray for the best.
In the last few days, the area we were in has seen an outbreak of cholera. There have already been many cases, and they are afraid there will be many more. There are no drugs to treat the illness on hand. We were all cautioned to not shake hands with people. This was difficult for the people here, as properly welcoming visitors requires handshakes, smiles, and greetings, often followed by welcoming songs. A greeting without a handshake feels like no greeting at all! But after a few forgetful moments, and gentle reminders from the district ministry of health official traveling with us, people remembered to either touch fists or elbows as a sign of greeting.
On our way home, we took a slight detour and our host took us to see where some of the business people in the area live. What a difference! Many of these homes are 2 – 3 times the size of our homes in the US (maybe more!). The disparity between even middle class and the very wealthy in Zimbabwe is amazing, and when you compare it to the area we were at today, it’s even harder to comprehend.
I haven’t talked about the hotel we are in yet. It is rated as one of the best hotels in the world, according to all the signs in the lobby. It’s been here since 1915. Everyone is very nice, but technology seems to be a bit beyond the team here. So far, no access to the internet, which is why you all are reading a bunch of these notes all at once. Hopefully, I’ll be able to log on and post them soon.
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