12 things I love – Zimbabwe

Friday September 6^, 2019 marked the death of Robert Mugabe, father both of the nation of Zimbabwe and its dramatic decline. In the past two days I have read articles extolling him, celebrating his death and even one that was somewhat balanced. This isn’t a post about Mugabe though. It is a post about Zimbabwe, specifically twelve of the things I love best about it.

During my three months in Harare at the end of 2018 I fell in love, with the nation and her people.

This isn’t on my list, but I felt like I fit in very early in my stay. While coming around the corner at work, on the wrong side of the hall because I’m used to driving on the opposite side, I nearly collided with a co-worker. Well, not nearly collided. We were at least a foot and a half apart. But before I could utter the standard Canadian response in such a situation, he said Sorry! First! Yes, Zimbabwe is the Canada of Africa, where they also apologize for no real reason.

Zimbabwe is in dire straits right now. 18 hours plus of power load shedding, hyper inflation, currency, fuel and food shortages and a drought that has made things even worse. Not to mention the political climate and increasing government infringements on people’s constitutional rights and freedoms. Yet, it is still beautiful and the resilient people are still plugging along, even continuing to poke fun at the situation. I follow an account or two on Instagram that regularly make me laugh with the Zim memes, such as this one about the availability of power

So, here are twelve things I love about Zimbabwe, in no particular order and definitely not an exhaustive list:

1. Red eyed dove call: I woke up to this call every day, and also heard it from my desk. It may not be the most musical but I continue to be amazed that it is so structured and consistent. Yes, I hear it in Kampala as well but not every day and not everywhere.

I was so fascinated by the sound that I had to figure out the bird. Googling bird calls is not a quick and easy search. I ended up listening to a 15 minute YouTube video of bird calls of Zimbabwe. The call came more than half way through and it was quite the Eureka moment for me. They usually repeat the series three or four times and then break. This link isn’t to the 15 minute version, it has only the dove’s call : Red eyed dove call

2. Braai – In Zimbabwe barbeque is called by the South African name, Braai (br-eye) and it is mmmmm good. It is made even better because they cut their pork chops at about half the thickness as we do in Canada, or maybe even 1/3. These chops are never, ever dry. So they have the yummy grilled outside and still retain all the delicious pork taste. Oh, and boerewors sausage, another South African import is an additional braii delight.

3. Sadza – aka ugali, posho, zsima. Per the internet – “Sadza is a generic term used to describe thickened porridge made out of any number of pulverized grains. The most common form of sadza is made with white maize meal.” It I perfect with the above braii items. No utensils required. Just rip off the portion of meat, grab a generous finger full of sadza, some cucumber and tomato for salad and, heaven. *disclaimer: cream of wheat has been a favourite of mine since early childhood and I also love oatmeal, so I am definitely pro-porridge.

4. My walk – despite the 25 celsius and above lunchtime temperatures I went for a walk almost every work day. The neighbourhood behind my work is beautiful and quiet and the streets wind into themselves allowing me to vary my walk time and views depending on my daily moods. Unlike Kampala I could walk without worrying about traffic or having to tell a boda boda driver “no I’m walking” every 60 to 90 seconds. I truly miss the beauty and peacefulness of that walk.

5. Victoria falls – yeah, I don’t know what I need to say here. I was there in the low season and it still made Niagara Falls look like a creek. Just wow! I look forward to someday witnessing Victoria Falls in is fullest spectacular glory.

6. Gorge swing – the video of this is on my Welcome page. I did a package to lead up to the gorge swing. Started with the flying fox, where you are strapped in to a harness and run off a platform to fly across the gorge superman style. Next was the zipline, where I dipped lower into the gorge but always under tension. The final adventure was the gorge swing, basically a bungie jump but bum first instead of head first. So for quite a ways down it is a free fall, no tension until you get to the end of the line. I was over my fear and dread before I hit tension and began to swing. It was THE greatest experience. If they had offered for me to drop a second time I would have hopped off that platform with glee. (see my December 4 post Vic Falls – Adrenaline Day for more)

7. The Big Tree – I love trees. LOVE trees. And the baobab tree is tree royalty as far as I am concerned. So I was looking forward to getting to see some of them during my trip to Victoria Falls. My driver from the airport did my dreams one better though. He took me to see The Big Tree. You can actually Google The Big Tree Victoria Falls and you will see it. It may be as old as 2000 years but it is most certainly several hundred. I posted about the tree in my first Victoria Falls post last November.

8. Avocados – just loved them. Big and tasty. I learned that there is a bit of a Zimbabwe debate between having your avocado with salt or sugar. I have tried sugar and it’s good. I’m more on the salt side though. (sorry Cliff)

9. Boiled peanuts – ew right? I bought some to try and at first was on the fence. They aren’t crunchy like roasted but they aren’t quite chewy either. It turned out to be an acquired taste and I came to love boiled peanuts. I even made sure to buy some on my last trip back. A happy indulgence.

10. Chinhoyi caves – I posted about my weekend trip to the caves last December. The pool, the caves and the surrounding scenery is simply glorious. Even on a day of gentle rain. I hope to return to scuba some day, much to the horror of my Zimbabwe friends. The caves are surrounded by mystique and lore which keeps most locals out of the water. But crazy tourists can book excursions that included scuba and now free diving as well.

11. Jacarandas in bloom – the jacaranda tree is not indigenous to Zimbabwe but they have been there long enough to be huge and impressive. I arrived at the height of their bloom so I was treated to a lavender coloured canopy on my trip in from the airport. And the blossoms were around for the first weeks of my stay.

12. The people – I know I am not the only visitor to be enamoured with the people of Zimbabwe. They always have a friendly smile and polite greeting. They have an ability to laugh at themselves and their situation. And they are resilient. They have been through a great deal and still they smile and just get on with getting on. I made some great friendships that are still going strong and I am confident they will remain so.

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I felt at home in Zimbabwe the first morning I woke up in the hotel. Before I met my friends Fran and Debbie, before I got to know my coworkers and friends at Ark, before I experienced the tastes and textures of braii. And I confess that if I ever have the opportunity to go back for work I will jump at the opportunity despite the hard times the country is in right now.

I hope it is on the road to recover soon because I didn’t even get to Great Zimbabwe, Mana Pools or the Eastern Highlands. I haven’t experienced half of what the country has to offer.