Hello from Zimbabwe!!

Hello from Zimbabwe!




We’ve made it finally on Monday morning to Harare Airport & then the 3 hour drive to where we are staying near Mutare. It’s a beautiful – yet in need of much repair – Bed & Breakfast – which is really a converted home from colonial days. I SO wish I could post pictures of the country. It is truly breathtaking.



Unfortunately, internet is extremely limited. There is wireless at Africa University but connectivity is so low. I was unable to bring anything up. Another person was able to – after it loaded for an hour. I don’t think I ever even had dial up this slow. I’m now on the internet at the B&B but it’s just as bad. The manager loaned me his Econet Connect Card that is connected to an antenna that runs outside and up onto a stick of bamboo. And I was able to bring up my email after an hour. So I’ve asked my sis to post things that I email to her. (Thanks, Rach!) Hopefully I can do this again at some point.

We’ve seen so much in the short time we’ve been in the country. We visited a primary school, secondary school, & job training centre for OVC (Orphans & Vulnerable Children) – meaning one or both parents have died from AIDS related complex. Heartbreaking. To hear their stories. To see the conditions of the schools & their clothes. But oh, to hear them sing! Truly incredible. Their faces light up. To take their picture and then show it to them on the digital screen – I can describe the joy on their faces. “Again!” The simple joys.



And then to the ”New Hope Old People’s Home.” Even worse condition. People – men & women – human beings – cast off – discarded by society, their families (if they have any since so many have died as a result of HIV/AIDS), the world. Many are from other countries: Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi. Some physically impaired. Some blind – as a result of cataracts – imagine. But the joy in their faces when we gave them clothes brought and when we simply shook their hands, looked them in their eyes, and asked their stories.



I spoke with one gentleman who had said in the introductions thru a translator that he was so pleased to meet people from America as he had always read about it in books.

After all the intros I took the translator with me so I could say, “I am so pleased to meet you as I’ve always read about Africa in books.”



He responded in perfect British English & not in Shona as he had been speaking. We sat and talked for quite a while. I learned he was from Mozambique, was 81, and his name is Golden. He asked me to send him magazines from overseas so he could continue reading about other places. Here he had next to nothing and all he asked for was magazines. I could not believe it. I sat looking him in his amazing blue eyes – listening. We exchanged contact info.

Quite a while later when we were leaving, he waved to me as I got into the car, “Do not forget me, Sr. Gross” were his parting words .

How could I, Golden?