Heading Home

Kristen and I are now in Gaborone, Bostwana (A) and will be heading back to SA today. 


We'll be with my dad by this evening in Ladybrand (B), and then to Cape Town (C) on Monday next week.

Some friends we met along the way... Haus (the guy directly behind Kristen was our lovely couchsurfing host in Harare)

Teaching some grade 7's about Cape Town and the rest of the world! :)

I taught them about Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther, and the Pyramids in Egypt

Kids from the Zimbabwe Baptist Convention's Project in Mberenga, Zimbabwe

More Zim dollars than I can count!  The inflation caused a one hundred trillion dollar bill to be produced!

Leen getting a Zimbabwean hair cut

Helping out along the way... towing a broken down car on the way back to Gweru

Happy Birthday Seb and Midlands State University

Happy 18^th birthday Seb (Leen’s brother).  We tried and tried to call you today – none of the internet cafes had headphones, my SA cell phone wouldn’t connect to the network to call out.  So, sorry for not speaking to you, but know that we are thinking of you and wish you the best birthday yet! J

We also spent part of the day visiting the Midlands State University in Gweru, Zimbabwe.  Of all the universities we’ve visited, this was the least organized and most difficult to navigate.  We had a look at the computer facilities, some classrooms, and chatted with the acting chair of the Computer Science department.  She was more interested in asking Leen about getting a spot for a PhD at UCT than in speaking to us about the specific of her department. 

We also met up with a group of students who were really keen to chat to us and ask us about life in South Africa and in the US.  They were (for some reason) impressed at our academic backgrounds and were encouraging us to come teach at MSU.  I don't think we'll take them up on it, but we enjoyed the tours they gave us around campus.

Bulawayo Music & Dance

5^th April

7am and our alarm went off. The road to Bulawayo is only 150km from here, but we wanted to have an early start. The Baptist Convention drove us in their minibus to the taxi pick-up point, and from there we caught a taxi to Bulawayo. 2 hours, front seat, with a friendly and talkative taxi driver. He even shared his packet of chips with Kristen.

We arrived in Bulawayo, found a take-away joint and shared rice and beef stew (Kristen is by now a little over sadza), and then called up our couch surfing host.

It turns out that Mpho is a musician playing the Marimbas in a 4-man-band. He’s Zimbabwean born, married to a Canadian born woman, and they’re expecting their first child in June. 

 source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinrXfiTUiEdagnTd6I6DrzbLGGbgbjzexv5Tih0v3ub-1qCqCauNMgeSX0fZjNZ93vMRANJg1rZqKGu4nN0j8pu6BC1kLWwLtLoW_Q3JfjgMueskALe72zi5M1QDqMf0tzNlX0GJmRBJpc/s1600/marimba2.gif

 His band is planning on touring Canada and some parts of USA for 6 months, and in preparation his wife just left for Canada (now at 7 months), a week ago. He’ll join her there on the 1^st of June (just before the baby’s born!).

Kristen enjoyed an afternoon nap, and in the evening we enjoyed the company of Mpho and his friend Tswa, a script writer for plays. Well that’s what they called themselves to begin with, but it turns out that they both do everything from writing and singing to organizing creative events around town. They invited us to a Slam Poetry afternoon (2pm – 6pm) on Saturday. We’re both looking soooo forward to it.

source: http://www.couchsurfing.org

 It was really revitalizing to be in the presence of experience-taught, artist/performers. While Kristen and I have been formally trained by tertiary education institutions, these two are taught from experience. They are now starting to pick up formal training here and there, but here’s the interesting thing: neither of them would have it any other way! For them they have no regrets playing the “experience” card before the “formal training” card.

If the next 4 days is going to show me anything, it will show me how people from any background can meet, chat and share their successes with each other. Now that’s a curve-ball for me.

Zimbabwe Baptist Convention

Participated in the longest church service that I have ever attended today (3.5 hours)… and that’s not an April Fool’s Joke J

We have been staying at the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe’s Guest House.  They have a service here on Sundays that starts at 9am and ends between 12pm-1pm.  Despite the length, it was probably one of the most enjoyable services I have ever been to.  I’ve never been made to feel more welcome as a visitor of any church before.  Everyone in the congregation (about 30 people) was asked to shake our hands and welcome us to the church during the greeting portion of the service.  There was a great emphasis on worship and singing and probably half of the service was spent singing and dancing in the aisles. 

After the service the youth pastor asked Leen and me to help out with the youth service that happens directly after Sunday service.  We agreed and had a nice interesting chat about using your skills to serve the needs of your community (using James 1 and the faith without deeds concept).  Really nice and we learned a lot from the students too!

Great Zimbabwe

We visited the Great Zimbabwe ruins today just outside of Masvingo.  The ruins were built around 1100AD and were constructed of stones stacked on top of each other without the use of mortar or cement to hold them together.  Much of the Great Enclosure structure is still standing today.  Little is known about the specific uses of the structure throughout history or the architects who designed and built it.  The ruins were actually named ‘Great Zimbabwe’ even before the country adopted this name.  The acropolis of the monument also has statues of birds that have become the national emblem of Zimbabwe.

Mutare to Masvingo

We took a minibus/taxi/commuter from Mutare to Masvingo, which wasn’t an incredibly long distance (approx. 250 kilometers), but took us a very long time.  The minibus is a popular mode of transport in southern Africa, which enables budget travellers and locals to share transport costs by cramming 15-30 people into a mini-bus.  Yes, 15-30 – it’s a pretty big difference.  The smaller minibuses (think something along the lines of an average church van in the US) are only registered to carry 15 people, but typically fit something closer to 20 and the larger minibuses can cram up to 30 people (this particular trip, for example). 

Just a note about petrol/gas prices – Americans always complain about the cost of gas/petrol going up and up, but you don’t realize that gas/petrol in the US is probably the cheapest in the world (with the exception perhaps of Gulf states).  In southern Africa petrol is distributed by the liter (it takes about 4 liters to equal a gallon) and in SA and Zim the cost is around $1.40 per liter – making the cost about $5.60 per gallon.  Think about that the next time your complaining about the cost of fuel prices in the US.