zimbabwe Blog and Journals

its 5:18, and I'm probably going to leave the office in not too long from now.

Its been a crazy week, with my dad visiting, 2 birthdays and lots and lots of friends or enemies.

Friends or enemies!!! everyone go, checkout our page. Look at our bloggers! We are working hard to create this community for you, and I hope you all stop by to enjoy it.  Click around and leave your comments. I know for a fact that the bands love seeing what you have to say.

You'll also notice that Ultragrrrl is posting pictures from her brand new camera phone.  I'm a devoted Ultragrrrl acolyte, and I am so excited to see how she contributes to the site.

So really, what I've been all about these past few days is FOE.  I think that for the next few months, thats pretty much what is going to dominate my life.  But I'm excited!!!

Um, I have some TV watching to catch up on. I plan on having a really mellow, low key weekend, watching TV and finishing the Tails of the City book.

I am really excited to just be mellow and relax. :-)

My aunt sent me Sprinkles cupcakes to celebrate the new year.  SOOO yummy.
Me and my dad had a blast eating them.

I miss him now that he's back in NY. :-)

oooof, I am so ready to crawl into bed in my pjs and sleep for 10 hours.

PS.  Back when I was in high school, I- like basically everyone else I knew- was really into a band called Dispatch.
Almost 2 years ago, they broke up, much to the dismay of basically everyone else I knew. ;-)  I guess they really broke up cause they just got interested in different things, because it would appear that they've maintained a pretty good relationship.  According to their website, they're doing a show in July, at Madison Square Garden to raise money to help fight famine and disease in Zimbabwe.  Go check it out.  I'll always have a special place in my heart for them because they sort of opened the door for me to get into the music scene.  Its a good cause and the music will be rockin' so if you somehow have the opportunity to go, I'd suggest you take it!

Wow it's only been a week in Zimbabwe and I've seen and heard so much. I went out for the first time in Harare to Book cafe for a concert, had a barbecue with the aid facilitators from german development service and started working. Everyone at the office has been so nice, despite all lack in supply here I had a perfect office set up in two days including work laptop, laser printer, mobile.. this was truly magic. Everyone thought I'd be used to these standards from Europe, but I actually  never had any job with this kind of service before -wow. It only upset my japanese supervisor since she felt she didnt get the same attention. Also for some reason she didnt know I was coming and is v frustrated about Africa in general, lets see how I can befriend her.

On friday I went for the UN games, there is sport matches organized between the different agencies every week. Everyone was doing so bad so it was the funniest exercise I ever had.

For the weekend, my collegues Creed and Tinashe were so kind to take me to Lake Kariba in the north of Zimbambwe. It's a beautiful place, extremely hot and dry (45degrees) and with a lot of big animals as you can see from the photos. The whole trunk was full of fuel canisters, cause all the stations are dead and they get it via UN. We went for a sunset cruise, and early in the morning for a game drive in the bush to see the animals. This was soo amazing. We also crossed the border to Zamiba, because my collegues needed to get their passports stamped to have the right to receive their wages in US dollars (which in view of zim dollar inflation is v advantagous) Everyone who can afford it likes heavy food, so despite the heat, whe had loads of grilled chicken, burgers, ribs, sausages, baked beans for breakfast, mash, french fries and saze, the traditional maismeal mash.

The political and economic difficulties Zimbabwe faces are evident. 70% of the population suffer from hunger, a lot of farming land is not used after the "land reform", there is no transport, a lot of water and electricity cuts, on of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world... So you might find my photos very "touristy", but somehow I feel it's not appropriate to wander around the townships and take pictures. You can imagine it from what you have seen on television anyway: huts build from straw or rubbish, thin kids playing, people wandering along the streets carrying heavy weights on their heads, people crammed on the back of lorries for lack of public transport and fuel... But that is only one side. there is also the middle and the upper class, the infrastructure from before the economic crisis, all the beauty of the country and the optimism of the people.

Loads of love - keep writing me.

yours Kathi

 

After leaving my mom's place near Hamburg Saturday morning and going through a lot of huzzle with British Airways (yes, I packed more than 20 kilos, and no, I didn't want to pay 400 euros for the overweight, and although this makes you freak out lady: I dont have a visa yet....) I finally arrived in Harare on this sunny Sunday morning. I was first greeted by several big portraits of Mugabe in the airport, even before queuing at immigration where I bought my visa for US$ 30. For the first time in my life, I was then picked up at an airport with a cardboard reading my name! My collegue Tinashe and one of the UNESCO drivers were already waiting and so we boarded the white UN pickup! yuppie! They were so nice and friendly and funny and smiled all the time and explained my everything just like everyone else I met today - I'm really overwhelmed by this amount of kindness I encountered in just one day in Zimbabwe. (it already started very early in the plane when my neighbour who was returning to live in Zimbabwe after 6 years in England offered me to stay with her whenever I needed a place in Harare)

But anyway they brought my to the guesthouse of the German Development Service where I can stay at least for the first month. It's very cute, with a nice big room & bathroom just for myself, a beautiful garden and even a small pool - and it's very protected like everything where people can afford it.

With a couple of other collegues, we then had world cuisine lunch at a small restaurant: Chicken Kepab, Spaghetti Bolognese, Flamingo steak, Beef Stroganoff and Madras Curry..

After a shopping trip to the local Spar Market (with many German products) they brought me back to my residence. I enjoyed the sun (33°), the amazing spring blooming and met some DED employees and local staff from Pro Africa who invited my to join them for their dinner (local speciality sausages with rice) Big questioning on Germany and why I dont have kids.

Afterwards we watched the news on the only national channel ZBH where they explained that the ruling party Zanu-PF had won the rural council elections this weekend (surprisingly..) Apparently they had won with 6000 votes over 4000 for the opposing ADC, but out of 45.000 registered voters, as my co-watchers commented. I need to take some classes in Shona, the local language, to understand more of the conversations...

Afterwards we watched "Africa Academy", a kind of local Pop Idol or "Zimbabwe sucht den Superstar", before I went to bed for my first night in Africa. (oh and there's "Africa's survivor" too, guess what kind of show that is)

Today is my first day of "work". It"s very chilled, I just had a couple of briefings: security, administrative, on the UNESCO structure. I met all 31 staff at the office who are mostly  Zimbabweans or from neighbouring countries, and again everyone was incredibly kind. A lot of the people who work here are actually doing their Masters in development studies at the same time, or plan on doing this.

My big projects for this afternoon include: changing US$ to Zim Dollars on the black market, getting a mobile phone, and making myself comfortable in my new office i.e updating my blog ;)

 

To sum up, this whole internship is starting off very well, with a lot of positive vibes. I will keep you posted (especially when i get from enthousiasm to the next stage of cultural shock ;) Speak to you soon.

With love, Kathi