Hoping for Change

My time in Zimbabwe is down to its last week. It has been a challenging time. It's hard to recognize the desperation of people unless you live with them. Even that's not a fair comparison, I know I'm leaving here. It's been heartbreaking seeing people cling to hope for change. People are hungry, poor and unemployed. Can you think of a worse combination of circumstances? Zimbabwe made history this week, it's the first time in 28 years that President Mugabe has decided to share power. I was with about 100 people on Wednesday watching the news conference on TV of the signing of the power sharing agreement. People in the room were cheering, one older lady was weeping. For Zimbabweans, this is the hope of change that they have been waiting for. It's going to be a long road back to economic recovery for this country.

Last week I got to take part in a few surgical procedures. I use the term 'take part' rather loosely. I didn't cut anyone or even hold a retractor. I was the theatre 'runner.' I got to open sterile gloves, place needles and scalpel blades on the sterile table. I know it all sounds easy, but there is a particular process you have to go through to maintain a sterile environment. OK .... it wasn't a real important job, but someone had to do it and it was fun. The procedure was a c-section. Dawn asked me if I wanted to take the baby, I said 'NO WAY' ... it was all slick, imagine if I dropped it.

This will probably be my last blog from Zimbabwe. I appreciate all the emails of support.

Road Trials

I arrived in Francistown, Botswana yesterday. It was an eventful day. I was driving on the way to the border, and was going through a very rough patch in the road, and the truck just stopped. I thought first I stalled it. When I went to restart it, it was DEAD. In the vehicle was myself, Dawn, and three others. All of which are about as mechanically inclined as I am. We lifted the hood and fiddled with the battery and amazingly it started. We made it safely to Botswana. We are camping on the lawn of a big hotel, I know it sounds kind of funny but it happens here all the time. Once we set up our tents, I went to move the truck.. same problem. So, this time we got all serious about the problem, taking the contacts of the battery and cleaning them up with sticks. While reattaching them to the battery there were a few fire works, but we had a doctor and two nurses with us, so I'm sure someone could have resuscitated us if anything went wrong. Once again we fixed it. We were all puffed up, thinking we could handle just about anything. THEN we lost the keys to the truck. I was convinced I gave them to Dawn, she was convinced that I didn't. So, we looked everywhere. I climbed in through the back window of the truck just to see if they were in the truck. NO LUCK. We eventually found them in one of the camping bags, where Dawn had dropped them while putting something away. We were all very relieved. Then it was time to eat, when we realized that we had left all the camping utensils, plates, mugs in a crate back in Zimbabwe. So, it was 'finger food' all the way. WOW... what a bad first day.

I'll be leaving Zimbabwe on Sept. 24. I'm visiting with some friends in Johannesburg for a week then taking a train down to Cape Town. From there, I'm not sure, I think I'll just wander around the coast of South Africa all the way east to Durban. I'll likely spend about 4 weeks in SA before making my way to Tanzania.

It has been a great stay in Tshelanyemba, Zimbabwe, as it always is. Lots have happened. The situation in the country hasn't improved any. The government is now setting up stores where they will sell good using forex. Imagine going into a store and not being able to use the money from your own country to buy things. Seems ridiculous. The big problem is that the 'regular' Zimbabwe doesn't have any US dollars or South African Rand, so once again they are left out in the cold with nothing to eat or buy. They are resilient people that remain hopeful.

Money Matter

I have been without internet and phones for over two weeks now. The hospital is doing fewer trips into the city because of diesel shortages. I did get an opportunity to send e-mail last week from the local police station. I had to ride a bike that wasn’t functioning properly, it was stuck in one gear and the chain fell off. To top it all off the ride was often in sand. Have you ever tried to ride a street bike in sand, it isn’t easy. But I made the 8 km ride without any serious incident. The police men couldn’t have been more accommodating.

Money matters continues to be a huge struggle. The general hands at the hospital made 5 trillion this month, which sounds really good. The bus ride into town to get your money cost 3 trillion each way. It serves no purpose to save your money, because next week it will have drastically reduced in value. Also, the bank this week was limiting your withdrawal to 3 trillion each day, so you really couldn’t get enough out of the bank to pay your way to town. Many transactions are done in foreign currency, people work with the Rand from South Africa, Pula from Botswana, the Pound from the UK and the US dollar. Conversions from one to another and into the Zim dollar is boggling even for the most astute math mind. Just to add to the confusion people are preferring the old currency to the new currency, I guess you feel richer having 100 billion rather then $10. Even though they are valued the same.

The weather seems to be changing, although the official beginning of ‘spring’ isn’t until Sept. 21ish, temps in the middle of the day often hover around 30 and above, night temperatures still go down to around 14-15 degrees. My kind of ‘winter’.

Africa Border Crossing

I'm sure many of you have crossed borders between countries before, but until you've crossed an Africa bush crossing, you've missed out. When returning from Botswana, we went to a 'bush crossing', it really was in the middle of nowhere. Getting into Zimbabwe was easy but took forever. Both Anne and I had to buy visas again, so they made us wait about 20 minutes, so they could process everyone else. When we finally made it in there, we got our visas, by this time there were more people lined up behind us. So, he made us wait again to get our receipts. We were sent off to customs to make out our claims for goods that we were bringing in. On my claim, I had food and electrical listed. The customs agent asked me what electrical I had, I said a solar panel and some welding rods. His response was, 'what's a tourist doing with a solar panel and welding rods', it was a good question. Dawn Disney, the hospital Bursar was there to assist me in saying that I bought them for the hospital, which in itself is also 'illegal'. You're not supposed to purchase for other people. The Customs guy was great, he just jokingly said, "I caught you". Then we had to go back in line at Immigration to get our receipt. All of this took place in a little shack that was seperated by a door with a string across to differentiate between Customs and Immigration. The whole thing took about 90 minutes. I love traveling... African style.

My internet time is running out.... sorry if there are spelling mistakes........

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