Blogs from Harare, Zimbabwe, Africa - page 4

Kondwa and Beyond... So for the past three weeks Meg, Ally, Nick and I have been spending our days at the Kondwa Day Center for Orphans doing S.E.E.D. stuff, painting and attending Home Based Care visitations for HIV/AIDS victims. It has been a really positive experience, I have new hope for the world - and a new perspective- more on this later. (character description: Nick is a sucessful rasta painter/ sculptor whom we met at an art gallery. He decided he was in love, Angela hijacked him to come paint at Kondwa, we all became jolly good friends. He invited Meg, Ally and I to come stay at his place, so we moved in.) Our lifestyle in the evenings was unabashedly Bohemian. After the long walk home from the orphanage we would bang on drums, sing, ... read more

First published in The Edmonton Journal, May 6, 2006 The thing the darkness hates most is the light, Zimbabwean commercial farmer Ben Freeth tells me. Ben is referring to the fear and destruction propagated by Robert Mugabe’s regime in a land that was once an African success story. In the past 10 years, Mugabe has destroyed what was once the bread basket of Africa. Zimbabwe had never experienced a food deficit before the former rebel leader began his unpopular land reforms in 2000. My cousin, Ben, and his family are trying to fight the corruption and greed in the Zimbabwean government openly and transparently, but this has proved to be both challenging and dangerous. They hope to hold the Zimbabwean government accountable for its actions and, ultimately, to hold onto their mango and citrus farm in ... read more

Geo: -17.8289, 31.0406Eventually got to visit Uncle Colin (my Father's younger brother), Auntie Chanda and co in Zimbabwe. It was fantastic!After the challenge of how to spend a whole day in Jo'burg we got on the night 'Greyhound' coach to Harare. The 16hr ride was pretty painless as we were still shattered from safari and just slept all the way. Immigration was entertaining. I was quite worried about getting the Zimbabwean visa but it was the most unofficial and run down immigration ever! Got a fat jolly official who seemed quite happy to see us, shuffling through his tracing paper files and popping our 70 USD each into his front pocket! No computers or interrogation. Next we moved onto customs where Rebecca was given a marriage proposal by the cheeky customs officials. Zimbabwean immigration is definitely ... read more

I just managed to get the last few blogs from Ethiopia on the site, so go backwards and find the ones you have not read. I am sorry, but I could only get 2 pictures to load onto the internet. Maybe I can catch up later with more pictures. There was not enough fuel to travel today, but we have fuel for tomorrow. That means I will get out of the city to see some of the countryside. Harare is just like any other city, except there are great shortages of goods. I went shopping in their department stores and the perfume cases contained one or two bottles. This was very strange to see. This city seems very much like those in the states, except, whites who live and work here stand out. More on that ... read more

So, the first day when I have arrived here in Zimbabwe, I made a call back to Zambia to check on the status on of my work permit. The answer that was given to me was that it was almost ready and that I should check back tomorrow. So I spent the day doing a blitz tour of Harare, quickly getting a small feel for Zimbabwe and then the next day, with my bag packed, I gave a call to Zambia. But when I asked them which bus I should take back, they said it wasn’t quite ready and that I should call back again tomorrow. No problem I thought, I get another day to explore the city in a bit more depth. So that’s what I did and the next day, again with a full ... read more