16th Dec am Bulawayo first impressions
We approach the second largest city in Zimbabwe on Saturday night. It is the main stronghold of every major opposition party that has come and gone during Robert Mugabe's 'reign' from Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU party to Morgan Tvandirai's MDC. More importantly, it is where my brother and I recieved our entire primary school education.
In day light it is easy to make out that Bulawayo has a more desert-savanna landscape and is hotter and drier than Harare. However, despite the lack of public funds, which even when they exsisted rarely made it to Matabeleland, as this region is known, Bulawayo has held its head up high and looks a lot less like a ghetto than the capital. The first positive sign upon approach at night, is the warm welcome of a well-lit horizon to herald you in and the presence of the first newly tarred road I've seen on my visit thus far, complete with cats-eyes! Its wide roads are generally in good nick and for the most part devoid of pot-holes. Bulawayo is well known for its proximity to two of the world's great tourist resorts, Hwange Wildlife Safari park and Victoria Falls.
Due to sound town planning, Bulawayo boasts a perfect grid system, making it virtually impossible to get lost. Despite this, we are so tired and spend an hour in the dark driving round in circles, looking for our destination. Ingrid the patron of the lodge where we will stay, is happy to give us directions over the phone but her strong German accent is difficult to discipher. Being pay day, we get no joy out of asking directions from not-so-slightly inebriated workers on their way home from the beer halls (pubs), either. I'm surprised their wives left them them enough money to get so plastered because, having become a little more assertive recently due to the Aids epidemic and economic melt-down, women no longer wait at home for the bread winner to arrive home at the weekend (or not as the case may be) but turn up at his work place to swiftly secure his wages before it mysteriously disappears. It is well worth taking the risk of bumping into the husband's regular prostitute , who has also turned up to collect overdue payment for services rendered!
Sunday morning:
We're now at Ingrid's Tourist Lodge, which is spacious, clean beautifully decorated And has an outdoor pool which we will swim in this afternoon. It's sunnier here but people have lots of cool well designed houses with verandas, gazebos and trees for shade. Bulawayo unfortunately is experiencing drought so severe water rationing is in place for people who don't own a borehole. Luckily our lodge does, so we have the most fantastic showers ever! A continental breakfast is on offer at 8.00 by the German host Ingrid who is used to having a steady stream of European guests. It is plentiful and only lacks a tropical fruit salad which is a shame because there's so much exotic fruit growing locally.
We approach the second largest city in Zimbabwe on Saturday night. It is the main stronghold of every major opposition party that has come and gone during Robert Mugabe's 'reign' from Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU party to Morgan Tvandirai's MDC. More importantly, it is where my brother and I recieved our entire primary school education.
In day light it is easy to make out that Bulawayo has a more desert-savanna landscape and is hotter and drier than Harare. However, despite the lack of public funds, which even when they exsisted rarely made it to Matabeleland, as this region is known, Bulawayo has held its head up high and looks a lot less like a ghetto than the capital. The first positive sign upon approach at night, is the warm welcome of a well-lit horizon to herald you in and the presence of the first newly tarred road I've seen on my visit thus far, complete with cats-eyes! Its wide roads are generally in good nick and for the most part devoid of pot-holes. Bulawayo is well known for its proximity to two of the world's great tourist resorts, Hwange Wildlife Safari park and Victoria Falls.
Due to sound town planning, Bulawayo boasts a perfect grid system, making it virtually impossible to get lost. Despite this, we are so tired and spend an hour in the dark driving round in circles, looking for our destination. Ingrid the patron of the lodge where we will stay, is happy to give us directions over the phone but her strong German accent is difficult to discipher. Being pay day, we get no joy out of asking directions from not-so-slightly inebriated workers on their way home from the beer halls (pubs), either. I'm surprised their wives left them them enough money to get so plastered because, having become a little more assertive recently due to the Aids epidemic and economic melt-down, women no longer wait at home for the bread winner to arrive home at the weekend (or not as the case may be) but turn up at his work place to swiftly secure his wages before it mysteriously disappears. It is well worth taking the risk of bumping into the husband's regular prostitute , who has also turned up to collect overdue payment for services rendered!
Sunday morning:
We're now at Ingrid's Tourist Lodge, which is spacious, clean beautifully decorated And has an outdoor pool which we will swim in this afternoon. It's sunnier here but people have lots of cool well designed houses with verandas, gazebos and trees for shade. Bulawayo unfortunately is experiencing drought so severe water rationing is in place for people who don't own a borehole. Luckily our lodge does, so we have the most fantastic showers ever! A continental breakfast is on offer at 8.00 by the German host Ingrid who is used to having a steady stream of European guests. It is plentiful and only lacks a tropical fruit salad which is a shame because there's so much exotic fruit growing locally.
The highlights of Bulawayo will include a visit to a retired
railway engineer friend of G's who is married to a woman who worked for a secret
government agency, dealing with sanction busters in agriculture during Ian Smiths
time. They both had extremely interesting things to say about the plight of
mixed race people in Zimbabwe and what has happened to the railway system which
was the best in Africa and has all but disappeared. They will also give their
perspective on what has happened to commercial agriculture. We will also visit
our old catholic mission primary school, which was set up along similar lines
to mixed race Aboriginal orphanages in Australia i.e to ‘rescue’ mixed race children
like ourselves from the complications of apartheid.
We will bring back D, my sister-in-law’s 10-year old half-brother,
back with us for a couple of days, from his grandmother’s home in Esigodindi.
This is a rural village of mud huts which the Bulawayo Indebele tribe call Ekaya while the Shona in Mashonaland call
it Kumusha. A full description of this will follow.
With this busy a schedule, taking Africa time into account we need to postpone our return journey to J’oburg to a day later, setting off at 4.00am. LG is not looking forward to the Beitbridge boarder crossing, but there could be an interesting story in this experience as well!
With this busy a schedule, taking Africa time into account we need to postpone our return journey to J’oburg to a day later, setting off at 4.00am. LG is not looking forward to the Beitbridge boarder crossing, but there could be an interesting story in this experience as well!
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