Day 1: Monday

Monday. I suppose almost everybody dislikes that beginning-of-the-week feeling. Not that our weekend had been particularly exhausting. It was nice, and even a little busy, but no all-night parties or heavy drinking. Sometimes I feel like we’re getting too old for that…

This Monday looked as if it was going to be busy. Since my return from Tanzania, everything seems to have shifted gears up, with the partner organisations busy and buzzing, and a budget to finish before the end of the year.
Anyway, got up at 6.30, at the same time as Thomas (who has to leave the house by 7am, poor guy). No time for our shared cup of coffee, cause he is off. I linger in the house for another two hours, slowly waking up, reading a Stephen King novel. In accordance to my morning rituals, some capoeira to warm up, I play a game of chess against the computer (with a desperate need for the undo-button in order to win).

Monday is help-day. We have two people who come twice a week: Constance, who washes our clothes and cleans the house, and the gardener. He gets here at 8am. He looks at our pool with concern. Our pool has been tricky. When we just got here, green beyond salvation. After some half hearted attempts to clean it out, we emptied it (about 80.000litres, can you imagine) and left it like that for the July-August months that are a bit cool anyway. We filled it back up (taking four days) beginning of September. So nice to jump in the pool in the morning, and it often served as a handy pool of water when we had no water in the pipes. But, since our stay in Tanzania, it has been slowly but inevitably been turning back to the green side of things. Chlorine, changing the sand of the filter, pH control, the chemicals cost an arm and a leg and aren’t doing much good. Sigh. I always though having a pool would be wonderful, but it is turning out to be quite a hassle and a challenge.

Two minutes after he leaves, Constance arrives. I don’t like calling her the maid. It feels funny having a maid. But still, it is so nice not to have to worry about our clothes, or coming home and finding the house cleaned and the beds made. We pay her 20USD for the month, for 8 days of work. It feels like peanuts to me, but it considered more than a handsome salary here. If you know a full time teacher makes 1,5USD a month (62,000Zim$). And at least it is US$, so she only has to change it when she needs the money, without it losing all its value. Constance lives just around the corner. Often, in the afternoons, her daughter comes and stays at our house, which sometimes worries me. If she breaks anything, or falls in the pool or something... I offered to pay Constance for the school fees separately, as a way to stimulate her keeping the child in school, but she hasn’t taken me up on it yet.
Once Constance is in the house, I can leave. Vanessa, my colleague, calls me up. She is going to see Mavambo, one of our partners. Since they want to send some people to a youth camp, I drop off some money at her place to give it to them.

Then, with the bike to the office. There I am greeted by Carrie, my Belgian colleague who is coordinating the programme on agriculture. We get along well. I am so glad she’s here, cause if not, I would have often been working by myself in the office. And we think along the same lines. And of course, without her help, we would have been lost very often. Illustration: last week, when I ran out of fuel with my motorbike, she was the one I called to come to my rescue, bringing the container we have with petrol from our house. She now brought the container back, all filled up again. Honestly, without a little (actually, a big!) help from your friends, Zimbabwe would be impossible to live in for us. You have to rely so often on others…

Two big things for this week on my professional plate:

• the exchange of six staff members from Harare to the youth camp Thuthuka is organising, just out of Bulawayo. This camp is for street children and is meant as a preparation for them to return to (a) home or family. These transitions are often difficult, and the better prepared the kid is, the more the chances are for it to be successful.
• A training around child rights and protection that we’re planning in Zambia mid-November. It asks for so much time and effort, especially since it is abroad (and has to be in order for us to receive the funding for it). Originally, we wanted to do this with one of the partner organisations also working with orphans in Zambia, Chikankata, an institution that has quite an expertise and good facilities to host this one week training. But the planned week was taken, so instead we have to do it all ourselves. Ourselves, meaning me, and thank god, Kristien, who is based in Zambia and coordinating the orphans programme with the 8 partners there. I wouldn’t have been able to organise it without her, since we really want to have it tailor-made to our requests.

Well, anyway, all of that and a million other things kept me busy. Went home for a quick lunch (left-over rice and tuna from Sunday’s birth day party).

In the evening we had two people over for games. Always a bit of a gamble, since we’re never sure to have power and some games just ain’t the same in the dark. Since both our days had been running late, it meant a quick meal or getting something delivered. After a couple of phone calls around, we saw that chances of getting home delivery were very slim in nowadays Zim. So, instead, we decided on a wok. Only vegetables, cause Faray is vegetarian. Loads of soja sauce and it tasted great. We definitely have discovered the pleasures of wokking here…
As for the game, I improvised our local version of Party & Co (a sort of mixture of taboo – pictionnary – charades/hints) and it was great fun. Around 23h30, we bid Marcel goodnight and I drove Faray back (he lives really close to our offices, so only 5 minutes away). Another full and fulfilling day…

And the climax: the wedding in Jambiani

The past two nights we have been in Jambiani, and it finally feels really like a holiday in paradise. Dar was just another city, Stone Town is pictoresque but still a bit rushed, but now we're in a little bungalow by the beach, with nothing to do but chill and chat, exceptmaybe the snorkelling, looking for sea shells... 

Shirley and Mick's family has been arriving druppelsgewijs and we have started taking on our task of translating. Shirley's family is of chinese orgin living in the USA and Mick are all from Bretagne, France, and neither know much of the language of the other group. So we often try to facilitate comprehension, though can't say it is very exhausting so far. Everybody is very pleasant and wanting to get along. 

But the ending seems already so near, just two more days...

Chilling in Stone Town

After a hectic run and quite the rush at the harbor, shiedling off the wanna-be offers for the ferry (took us 20US$/person and 3.5hours to cross), we were on our way to famous and fabulous Zanzibar, that perfect sounding place for honey mooners and place to relax after the hardships of Africa. It is funny, neither me nor Thomas would have thought we would have been going to Zanzibar in the near future... 

 

At our arrival on the island of Zanzibar, we got into Stone Town, an old, very arab like city, with narrow streets and alleys. There we met up with Mick and Shirley, who introduced us to two of her friends, Julia and Shirley 2, both living in New York, with whom we hung out the next couple of days...

Giant tortoise at Prison Island, this one over a hundred years old (and then she gets two Beglians sitting on her ;-) Kidding, she wouldn't even notice it...

The sunset from Stone Town, a classic 

Dar Es Salaam

We stayed for three days with two Couch Surfers, Farshi and Ahoo, in Dar Es Salaam. Where else then through CS could two Belgians meet two Iranese youngsters living in Dar. It meant lots of talking and exchanging, about work, life, development, futures and values. Dar was pleasant, nothing more, nothing less. Pretty developped though, and we didn't get hustled too mkuch on the streets, which was a pleasant surprise.We bought a couple of things, including sandals and a lot of tissues, to lay on the beach or dress ourselves with. But mostly we just hung out. Through Farshi and Ahoo, we also met a Canadian qnd his Kenya wife. In a way, it was a bit sad. 

They have a lovely two year old son. He looks reall y interesting, ex-professor and is doing research into death, as on the water or on the road. Very knowledgeable, but also drunk soon and a bit bitter and angry. Afraid his sons get hurt during the night because of witch craft from envious neighbours.  Thinks keny will explode during the next elections and everybody is so angry. It is sad to see how some people turn after they spend a lot of time in Africa. Hope we'll never get to that point.

Off to Zanzibar, Tanzania

I know, I haven't been that disciplined writing on the blog, sorry. Just to drop a line to say that the next ten days, till the Monday 20th, I will be with Thomas in Tanzania. We are flying into Dar Es Salaam, spending four or five days there, then taking the ferry to Stone Town in Zanzibar.

Reason for this little trip is that Shirley, a good friend of mine from Haiti, is getting married to Mick there, on the 18th. We were invited, the invitation said: wedding on the beach, shoes are optional, so we were hooked. But also, our tourist visa is once again expiring, on the 8th, so we have to leave the country again. Let's hope that when we get back, we can use our brand new passports and start sorting all of this out ourselves...

Anyway, details and pix will follow ;-)

Our very first visitors: two Germans going from Cape to Cairo

Till, a volunteer we met during our time in Plett, South Africa, is currently travelling from South Africa to Cairo. Since he knew we were in Harare and was reminded of that fact once more through CouchSurfing, he dropped us a line and came to spend last weekend with us, together with his backpacking buddy, Daniel.

It was funny, seeing our lives through the eyes of two back packers, especially since I also used to travel around like that. And though most of the time they just tagged along with our 'normal' life here, we also got to do some of the touristy things around Harare. I must admit, it made for quite a full weekend. It made me realize just how busy we are, or keep ourselves.

- Friday, we went to see a sort of dance presentation at the National Ballet, where Sonah's children were performing. After that, we chilled at our house, drinking beer and swimming half naked in the pool, until we went to Londoners, where friends of ours were celebrating a birthday (don't ask me who, I don't know). Didn't make it late though since we had to get up early the day after cause...

- Saturday, in the morning we put the three of us on our one motorbike and drove all accross Harare to go to a football cup organised by two of our partners, Chiedza and Mavambo, with loads of children running around everywhere. We also did some small interviews for our Zims/Zams newsletter, so you'll be able to read more about it... After that, we went to 40 Cork Rd, our usual hang out for lunch and wireless internet. The place the rich but more alternative Bohemians from Harare hang out. After that, a quick stop at the market to buy a handcraft chess set, then back home, but the day wasn't finished yet. Capoeira, with a full work out that would make Jean-Claude Vandamme sweat and us swear. Everybody back to the house, so Ed could use our phoneline to dial up and check his internet connection, since he will shortly be joining his girl friend in a trip around Brazil (we have to support his kind of cause, don't we?). And then off to Nicola's place, a German DW here who organizes her own private cinema in the park, showing Magnolia (1999).

- Sunday, after having gone to Heroes Acre, where all the Heroes of the independance are buried (and supposedly Mugabe has his spot reserved...), where we took some of these pictures... . Next, they insisted on trying to attend a football match of the Harare Dynamos, a 80.000 people match. And finally, in the evening, Thomas and Daniel dropped by a performance from a German hip hopper, Cassius, who seems to be touring Southern Africa for the moment, while Till whipped my ass at chess...

And finally, Monday morning, they rode off into the sunset...