Arrival to Zimbabwe - 6.sept

Just a note - the wedding day is present in the blog as well now :)

As I last wrote I was hoping that nothing too interesting would happen before I get to Harare - nothing much did :) Leaving Italy went smoothly other than the fight for getting on the airport bus. That was an experience on its own, lots of struggling and yelling and angry people. But luckily I got on it, quite many did not.

My flights were all in schedule and went by quickly. Route was long as usual (Venice-Frankfurt-Addis Abeba-Harare), but my layovers were nice and short. There was a minor setback entering Zimbabwe as the visa given to me in Stockholm did not have the required stamp on it. Guy at the customs was not happy about this and ran around the building trying to find out what to do. I was let in nonetheless though.

My friend had arrived already an hour ago and was waiting in the lobby. Seeing Tiina was a great relief for me as her making it out of Mozambique was under a big question mark due to uprisings taking place in Maputo. Claire - Tiina's friend came to greet us at the airport and took us around Harare a bit. Just so we would not have to sit in the airport for 6 hours waiting for our next flight to Bulawayo.

So Harare is my first impression of Africa :) As I don't know anything else of the local life I had zero reference points and don't really know what to think :) As Claire was taking us around she updated us on local life, politics, history and local happenings. It is always the best part to hear the information from a trusted source who is up to date and familiar with all the facts.

City of Harare is sandy, there is not much green around, but this is due to the dry season at the moment. Buildings are old, cars are mostly run down, streets are not very clean. Oldest buildings are from about 80 years ago or so. Streets are full of people, locals just chatting and going about their everyday lives. As I heard 90% of the population is unemployed.

I haven't updated myself on the history of Zimbabwe yet, so until then just some bits and pieces of what I saw. Photos - a big part of traveling - one is not allowed to take photos of government buildings here. Question I got is just that how I know which building is a government building :D Anyhoo, just gotta be careful when running around with a camera I guess.

One is not allowed to criticize the president Robert Gabriel Mugabe, which is understandable as well. Drove past his residence, it had soldiers with guns guarding the palace. During the night the road passing by the palace is closed to traffic alltogether. As far as I have understood there is some resistance towards former British rule from government and from the people as well. Once I get the bigger part of history cleared up for myself I'll update you too.

I did see lots of bits and pieces of British culture around like a golf course, cricket fields, horse race courses and such. As Claire has two little kids we learned about the public school system as well. Zimbabwe used to be one of the most developed countries in Africa some 15-20 years ago, but is now in the ruins in many areas, also in education system.

Claire was telling us stories of how the locals have strange names, some samples being: Broken Fridge, Pride, Gift and Breakfast (yea, no joke, Broken Fridge is a person's name here). What else? Umm, the electricity! There is more demand that they can produce so power cuts are quite common and many buildings have their own electricity generators. Quite a bit bigger problem is street lighting - it gets dark here around 6pm and none of the roads have lighting. Driving around at night time is mostly avoided as I understood.

Stopped by at Claire's house for afternoon tea. Claire lives a bit out of city center with her family in a nice private houses area. Their house has gate guards, a nice yard with a pool, 2 fluffy white chickens and a big balcony to enjoy the afternoon tea. Chatted a bit and then headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Bulawayo. As soon as we got out of the car there was an official greeting us who informed that the flight has been canceled and we can take the same flight the next morning at 9. Tried to see if there are alternative ways of getting to our destination, but train is not going on Monday either.

Claire invited us over for the night. Had wonderful dinner with her family, chatted about history and our countries, enjoyed a glass of wine - a wonderful evening alltogether. My first day in Africa has been full of surprises and I'm getting a feeling this should be expected throughout my visit here :)