South AFrica

It has been two weeks today since I left Zimbabwe. I spent the first week in Johannesburg and this week in Cape Town. It was so nice to be near the ocean again. I love Zimbabwe but I do miss the water. I'm a 'coastal boy'.

It has been an interesting time in South Africa. I've noticed more this time than my previous visits the preoccupation regarding race relations. Apartheid ended here in 1992, but some of the issues are still prevalent. There are still very few mixed race couples. Although I've stayed with two of them here in Cape Town, both Canadian wives with 'coloured' husbands. That word 'coloured' sounds somewhat inappropriate, but that is what they are called. Its a race of people that is not black or white. They are NOT a mixture, they are their own distinct race. I have wonderful friends here in Cape Town, although I didn't reallly know them too well before this visit. Now I feel like they are famliy.

Its seems like race enters into a lot of conversations and you hear about racial slurs that are made from one group towards another group. Its all very unsettling. BUT, South Africa has come a long way from when white and non-whites had different bathrooms, taxis, buses, the list goes on. I visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. It was quite a moving day. There is so much to learn.

Tonight I'm staying at a hostel in downtown Cape Town, I'm heading east tomorrow.

Friends

This is my friend Artwell, he was my 'card playing buddy'. He is one of the many exceptional nurses at Tshelanyemba Hospital

This is an amazing group of young people. Dr. Dawn Howse (front right) decided to put off a play for the yearly Salvation Army Congress. It was based on the book of Ruth from the bible. They practiced every day for weeks. It was performed outside in the evening. They did a great job.

This is my friend Anne, she came with me to Zimbabwe to assist in the Silokwethemba Projects. I think her month stay in Tshelanyemba had an impact on here that she won't soon forget. She plans to return next year. Thanks Anne.

The kid next to me is Jabulani, everyone calls him Jabu, he is one very cute kid. He is here with his friend.

This is the Senzeni Kids club. They are a group of local performers. The Silokwethemba Project bought them some fabric for their new costumes. They came to perform for me on my last week, they looked absolutely beautiful.

South Africa

I have to tell you about a trip I went on last week. It was with the weekly hospital trip that goes to town for business. It was in a 15 passenger van, we start the day at 5:30am. Atleast that is the intention, on that day it was well after 6:00 before we got started. The van would not start. Once we finally got going, the van was filled to capacity and more. We were supposed to leave town by 4:00pm, if anyone has ever been to Africa, you will know about 'Africa Time'. In other words, nothing EVER happens on time. I'm sure many of the Zimbabweans that I interact with think I'm rather preoccupied with time. Very few people here wear a watch, so showing up somewhere on time is unheard of. Anyway. Back to the trip. We finally left town at 6:30pm. The ride home was one event after another. I think we had about 19-20 people on the van, one of them had a live chicken. Then we stopped to pick up more people, there were two police officers hitch hiking, and in Zimbabwe you never pass by police officers. One of them had the worst body odour ever, it was absolutely overwheming. Fortunately she only rode about 30 minutes. We went a bit further and we saw a massive bush fire up ahead. The night sky was totally ablaze. No one seemed to be too worried, so we drove straight through it. There was fire on both side of us. It was just one of those days. We drove on, only to hit a small animal of some kind. I didn't even see it, but the driver insisted on going back to look for it in the dark. I asked why, his answer was, "We don't get much meat and that animal would make a good meal". We didn't find it, no meat for supper again. We made it home at 9:30pm.

Yesterday I left Zimbabwe. It was a day of mixed feelings. It's always sad when I leave Zimbabwe, it really does feel like my African Home. I went to a mall today, had a normal lunch with fries and went into stores with goods on the shelves. I have to say I was in a bit of shock. I'm staying with friends here in Johannesburg. I'll probably be here for a week.

Apparently some of you have been trying to leave comments. I've changed the settings on the blog, I think it will work now if you'd like to leave comments.

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........