ALL WORK AND ALL PLAY

Sunset in the Zambezi River Valley

Two months since my last blog post???  The time is flying by.  Just like that, I’ve been on the job four months and our tour in Zimbabwe is 1/6 complete.  Somehow, the time here seems to be moving more quickly than our time in Belize.  Could be because it takes so much longer to get things done here – things that seem like they should take a day can take a week, so that makes time pass more quickly.  Why do things take longer, you ask?  Alas, the economic and political situation in Zimbabwe presents daily challenges.  Electricity is off for as much as 16 hours a day.  We are lucky because we have a generator to fill the void, but most Zimbabweans are up in the wee hours of the night to take care of chores during the few hours they have power.  Gas (or petrol, as it’s called here) is in short supply.  Most gas stations are closed at any given time, and those that have fuel also have lines stretching for a quarter mile or more.  

This is what a "fuel queue" looks like.

A couple months back, the government announced overnight that U.S. dollars would no longer be accepted as legal tender, but there is also a shortage of physical “bond notes” (the local currency) and the highest denomination of those bills is ZW$5 (the equivalent today of about 25 cents).  Everyone is reliant on debit cards or “EcoCash” – a kind of bitcoin-esque electronic currency – to make purchases, but that can be challenging when there’s no power for the card readers or no cell service to allow for the electronic funds to change hands.  In the last few weeks, traders have quietly gone back to accepting U.S. dollars – often, quite literally, under the table since, in theory, it is still illegal to conduct business in U.S. dollars.  And the government has no mercy on folks who act out against them.  State security agents regularly abduct and torture members of the political opposition and activists who dare to protest against the government.  And my job is to report back to Washington on all these events.  Makes for never a dull moment at the office.  Also makes for a good reason to take advantage of all opportunities to get away from the day-to-day realities… and go on safari!

We had an extra-long local holiday weekend in August, so we headed up to a national park called Mana Pools along the Zambezi River on the northern border with Zambia.  It took a 5-hour drive and a 1-hour boat ride to get there, but it was soooooo worth it.  We stayed at an amazing “glamping” resort right on the river with amazing guides who took us out on game drives in the mornings and afternoons to see all the incredible wildlife.  And we saw everything – lions, leopard, elephants, water buffalo, all manner of antelope and birds.  Fair warning – lots of safari photos below.

Hippos!

Elephants!

Tweety in drag!  (Or a lilac-breasted roller, if you prefer.)

Tweety in flight.

Our guides were amazing at spotting creatures.

Hello, water buffalo.

Awwwww...

Living his best life.

We also visited a few spots closer to Harare, including a little spot called Balancing Rocks that has all sorts of huge stacked granite boulders, and a smaller game reserve called Pamuzinda that has no predators, so we were able to go on foot – and on horseback* – to get much closer to the animals.   

These stacked rocks - or kopjes - are scattered all around Harare.

Yee-haw.

Post-ride gin and tonics - definitely more my speed.

(* First time on horseback for me in probably 30 years.  It was a great experience to walk amongst giraffes and other creatures… but I walked like Hopalong Cassidy for the next 24 hours and was reminded why I hadn’t been on a horse for 30 years.)

Another highlight of Zimbabwe so far is without doubt the weather.  We’ve had one cloudy day in the four months we’ve been here.  The temperature is perfect, no humidity, no bugs!  So in the rare moments that our generator is off and it’s peaceful outside, we get to enjoy our wonderful front porch and yard.  We have a gardener who keeps the grounds in tip-top shape, and he even planted a vegetable garden when we moved in two months ago that is paying off big time.  We’re swimming in lettuce at the moment, and about to be up to our eyeballs in tomatoes.

Best looking vegetable garden ever!

Hopefully it won’t be another two months before I get another post up.  But if so, at least you’ll know what’s keeping us busy.  It’s all work and all play down here.