How Many Zeros is that?

It looks like the only internet time I will get will be while I'm on the road. Today we are in Botswana buying supplies for the widows in the Tshelanyemba area, also stocking up on peanut butter for our project and buying hospital supplies. Francistown is a beautiful place. Botswana is a relatively stable prosperous place and compared to Zimbabwe it is booming.

I finished doing the school visits this past week, thats 35 schools in just over three weeks. That is a lot of gravel road, about 500 kms. I use the term 'road' pretty loosely here, many were just paths through the trees. I'm always amazed that people can find their way around in the bush. Our driver Reuben was amazing, he knew every short cut. The situation in all the schools is absolutely desperate. In many of the schools, there was one teacher looking after all the children, sometimes two or three hundred. Teachers would go to town and get stranded with no transportation back, many have left for South Africa and some just don't show up for work, because they don't get paid enough to live. Their wages are pretty meager, they make less than $40 US a month, just to give you some idea of the cost of thing, I bought a bunch of carrots in Bulawayo a few weeks ago and they were $2 US . Needless to say it is impossible to live on $40 a month. There are people that make a lot less than that, some of the general hands at the hospital make about $2 US a month.

Our process when going to schools... we would meet with the Headmaster when they were available (which was rare), then we would go over the school fees for this term, which was always in the billions. We had a set amount for primary schools and a different amount for secondary schools, when they were writing receipts for us, without fail,,, all would say, "Two trillion! How many zeros are there?".

When we were in Victoria Falls last week, we checked out the price of a cheese burger at the Wimpy, it was 1,300,000,000,000, thats trillions. We didn't have a burger......

The Zimbabwe Government has decided to chop ten zeros off their currency, so what was one trillion will now be 100 Zim dollars. This is to be done in the next three days, can you imagine changing your currency in less than a week. Technically they aren't changing their currency, even though they will come out with all new bills, people will have just a few days to get their old money in the bank.

Never a dull moment.

On The Road

Its been just over two weeks in Zimbabwe. Things are changing daily. I've been out doing school visits this past week, I've visited 26 schools with 9 more to go next week. The situation is the same for many schools, many of the Heatmasters have left since last year and in many cases the teachers have also gone. We visited several schools where there were over 300 students with just two teachers. Needless to say they have been very receptive to the donation that we left at the schools. We've paid school fees for 20 students in each primary school and for 25 students in the secondary schools. We also made a substantial donation to each school over and above the school fees. The headmasters were all very appreciative. I gave credit to the many caring Canadians and others that have supported the Silokwethemba Project.

My friend Anne is also visiting now from Vancouver. She leaves next week. If you are familiar with Zimbabwe, you know that you can't come here without a visit to Victoria Falls. So, we left Tshelanyemba yesterday at 5:30am and drove the 7 hours to Victoria Falls. We are staying at the Victoria Falls Backpackers Hostel, I've stayed here before. Its a great place. Six of us travelled here. We are off to visit the falls this afternoon.

All is well here, it appears that the politicians are talking to resolve the situation that has plagued Zimbabwe for the past few months. With regards to personal safety, we have no worries.

I'm heading to Francistown in Botswana next week. Hopefully I'll get another opportunity to update. Take care everyone.

Back in Africa

After days of travel, four flights, a 15 hour layover in London, a six-hour layover in Johannesburg and hours of sitting with a 'droopy' head, I have arrived in Tshelanyemba. Overall the trip was uneventful, even the Zim customs were relatively easy.

It's great to be back in Zimbabwe.

It was just over a year since I was last year. Things have gotten progressively worse since that time. The common sentiment is 'our country has collapsed'. People often mock their own currency and its fluctuations. The last time I was here we exchanged money at $28,000 to one USD, today it is changing at $50,000,000,000 to one USD. YES that is nine zeros as in 50 billion and rising. I am now a 'Trillionaire' and by weeks end maybe a Quadrillionaire. I changed $200 on the day I arrived and got 6 trillion dollars in bills of 50 billion. Prices change daily , and the stores are empty. Even if you have money there is nothing to buy.

I visited the local high school a few days ago to get some indication of school fees. The prices went from 3 billion on Wednesday to 150 billion on Friday. Parents are expected to pay the 'top up' so their children can stay in school. In an environment where there is 80% unemployment this is almost impossible. Life here is very hard. Despite all of this people will always greet you with a smile and welcome you to their country.

We are still without phones in Tshelanyemba, actually there are no phones within 50 km. E-mail will be sporadic at best. I am in Bulawayo today, so I can check email.

I know some of you are concerned about the political situation in Zimbabwe. It is on the minds of everyone here, all are wondering what the final outcome will be. Let me assure you all that we are safe in Tshelanyemba. We are not taking any chances.

I hope to update this blog at least once a week. Feel free to send email to maxwellvincent@hotmail.com