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

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has become my third home. This week my home is experiencing some unrest. There was an election there last Saturday, still no official results. Zimbabwe needs change.

I just purchased my first ticket, I leave for Africa on July 7. It feels strange buying a one-way ticket, I've never done this before. I generally like to have a plan. Not this time. Still trying to sort out my itinerary. I think I've added Uganda to my plan. I was inspired by my friend Pat who spent some time in Uganda, he has an amazing blog, if you're interested you can find it at: www.pmolon1.blogspot.com.

My Africa

My first trip to Africa was in February of 2000, this coming July will be my ninth visit. I say this not to boast about my travel experiences, but to tell you what an impact Africa has has on my life. I think from my first visit there in 2000, I felt the 'pull'.  I have a rewarding job here in Canada, but the rewards I feel there are different. To see the courage it takes for a person to live day by day, not knowing where tomorrow's food is coming from, or school fees for their children... it just has a very profound affect on you. Then to see these same people welcome you into their home and feed you, AND give you a gift before you leave, saying ' this is our culture', wow.... I can't even explain how it makes you feel. I'm not sure if I would be so kind given the situation. I'd like to say that I would be, but I'm not sure. 

While in Zimbabwe, I stay in a tiny rural village called Tshelanyemba. At the centre of this village is Tshelanyemba hospital. It offers health care to a population of about 35,000 people. It has one doctor and many amazing nurses. For some people living at a hospital would be depressing, I'm often uplifted by the many experiences I gain there. More than half of the patients in the hospital suffer from AIDS/HIV, or some related illness. Living in Canada, we are often so far removed from the whole issue of AIDS, its something we read about in a Maclean's magazine. I've been often overwhelmed and sometimes brought to tears to see the 'face' of an AIDS sufferer. I have a friend in Tshelanyemba, her name is Mavis. She was diagnosed with HIV in 1994. She has lost her husband and her 11 year old son to AIDS, if anyone had a reason to be bitter, it would be Mavis. This is not the case, she is a very strong determined woman, never shying away from telling people about her status. She made the very bold move of starting support groups for people living with AIDS/HIV. There is a huge stigma attached to you if you tell the community that you are HIV+, Mavis took the chance and it has had a very positive affect on many peoples lives. She really is an amazing woman.