Days 47 thru 49

(Dan’s comments are italicized)

And so, we said goodbye to Mutare and hit the road again. Instead of taking the direct route to Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, we chose to take the scenic route through the Eastern Highlands. It was absolutely amazing; just mile after mile of stunning beauty that reminded me of Wales in parts. And Texas Canyon, along Interstate 10 just east of Benson, and others.

Then, at the top of the mountain, we came to mile after mile of pine forests. As these forests are logged, saplings are planted so the industry is sustainable.

Something we noticed in the Highlands is that people didn’t seem to live in abject poverty and, in fact, many…even school children…rode bicycles. You had the feeling that, here, people lived a simpler life.

But the thing that struck me the most were the acacia trees. Here in Africa, acacia trees are common; but I’ve truly never seen ones looking as healthy as they did in the Eastern Highlands!

I think these were among the prettiest trees I’ve ever seen. My mother taught me to love trees; although Dan humored me, I don’t think he was particularly impressed by how often I wanted to stop to gape at another tree 😂 Not true. I was impressed with the thin, high canopies that these acacias had, and the amount of shade they provided. If only I could grow this particular species on the ranch, we could halve our energy bill.

Too soon we had left the Highlands with its beautiful acacia trees and arrived in Rusape, our chosen stop for the night. As Rusape is a fairly large town, we were hopeful to find a decent room and some food! To our delight, we found a lovely little guest house that had a great room and hot water, and the use of a kitchen… including a microwave! So we quickly dumped our bags and went in search of food.

Sadly, things took a bad turn. Some restaurants that are listed on Google maps don’t exist and we found nothing except for one place that served either chicken and chips or just plain chips. Noooooooo!

We must have tried 12 places before Dan opted to have chicken and sadza and I opted to eat the last of our noodle soup (embellished with fresh tomato and onion…mmm!) We made some bad choices with trusting Google. But even the locals could not point us to a non-traditional eatery. Eventually, our hunger-plagued minds made us settle for anything we could get. But things got worse as, when we got back to the guest house, we realized that we had the use of a microwave but there was no electricity!!! You have to laugh. Upon trying to shower the next morning, I found out that there is hot water…when there’s water. Sadly, on this morning, there was no water. At least there was a pretty garden…!

That morning, we developed a new goal; get to Harare and find a place that served spaghetti or curry…

I took some photos on our way to Harare but, to be honest, I didn’t really care about anything but my growling tummy 😂 We got through the six police checks without incident (now that we have our front reflectors 🎉) and paid the toll ($4 now instead of the customary $3) at two booths before getting into Harare.

We had chosen an actual (affordable) hotel to stay at (and I negotiated the price down to $69 per night). As there were no rooms ready for us, we left our bags at reception, left our car keys with the staff so they could park our car when a space became available, and we hot-footed it downtown to look for food. You’d have thought we were made of money because, as we were passing some taxis, we decided to hop in and have the driver take us to the nearest Indian restaurant. I was getting extremely short-fused and grumpy, and needed to just complete the task of getting to a food place by any means possible.

WE HAD CURRY…and it was amazing!! We couldn’t even wait to take photos! Now, with happy tummies, we felt ready to take on whatever disappointment the hotel threw at us. Upon opening our room door, this is what we were faced with…

It turns out we had a sitting room, a bedroom, and a bathroom!! There was no mold or flaking paint or broken (fill-in-the-blank)! And we had electricity all night and hot water!!! And don’t forget, a heater!

Needless to say, we’re in heaven and think we may stay here for the next two months!!!

Harare has grown since I was here last. But the people are just as friendly as ever…though the driving leaves much to be desired! I took a walk around town just before dark to get a few items. The people I passed did not do double takes, and I got a lot of return smiles.

So we walked to the National Art Gallery that was in Harare Gardens. As with the other countries we’ve visited in Africa, the park was rundown, though you could visualize the splendor of yesteryear.

I decided to focus on some macro photography… But with the phone, not with the new camera.

…and on a little boy who kept blowing us kisses 😘

The museum (again, as is common in Africa), didn’t have a lot in it…but some of what was there was fascinating!

But, for me, by and far the most fascinating pieces used recycled materials (of course…a girl never loses who she is at her core!)

Amazing!

But my favorite was huge…

…and was made entirely of zippers and buttons!!

It blows my mind what people can do; never in a million years would I look at a bunch of zippers and think, “I’m going to make some awesome art out of that!”

Not only do I like supporting the local galleries in a town, I like how I am given the opportunity to gain another perspective through the artists choice of mediums. Today, there was a block that was covered by small painted tiles depicting very powerful scenes of the devastating effect that AIDS had on communities.

There was also an a photograph exhibition capturing everyday life of Zimbabwean people in the 1980’s to the mid 90’s taken by local photographer Chicago Dzviti. I could feel the passion and belief that Chicago had for his fellow countrymen as they carried on with their lives as he captured the moments with his camera.

But what took the biscuit these last few days was a local play we saw called Molly Sreet. Sadly, five minutes before the play started, this was the theater…

Thankfully, we were an audience of six by the time it started.

And wow!!!

The play is a one-woman play with accompaniment (drum and vocal) by one other. Based on a true story, it addresses some of the sexual abuse/rape problems that are far too common in this part of the world. It was a gut-wrenching and emotional portrayal of a woman who escaped child marriage only to have to become a sex worker to survive. It’s something I’m going to be mulling over for quite a while…and I’m sure Dan will agree. I do! The performance was gritty and powerful. It was also unusually dynamic despite being incredibly minimalistic. Both performers really gave their all, despite the small audience. I am so glad we risked going out at night to see this performance!

The play is on its way to the Edinburgh festival, and if anyone who reads this knows anyone who’s going to be there, please ask them to support this brilliant play (by a local writer).

At the end, the performers asked for feedback so we had a lovely chat with them and the other audience members…before they called us a taxi to take us back to the hotel as they said we were NOT to walk back as we’d be targeted!

Africa humbles me in so many ways!