Dinner in Rhodesia

Saturday evening Leslie and Sasha picked me up for dinner. Sasha got his PhD at VA Tech. While there he met Cliff, who was his host family. Cliff was also a host family for Innocent, my Humphrey Fellow this past year. Cliff came to Innocent's graduation and that's when he told me about his friends in Zim.

They brought me to a beautiful restaurant. I felt like I could have been in Buckhead. It was located in an old home. I saw one black patron, otherwise everyone was white. I imagined this is what it must have been like before independence in 1980. The food was delicious, the S. African wine was superb and Leslie could even take the unfinished bottle home. (I didn't think this was permitted in the States.)

Sasha is an urban developer, very suave. His father was born in Zim, originally the family is from Gujarat, India. Leslie's ancestors arrived in the 1700s to S. Africa, she said Huguenots.
As Abraham explained to me this morning, things got really bad here in 2000. I wanted to probe Leslie and Sasha, but just listened. I thought that if he had projects, he must be in good relations with the govt. However they also attended the 4th of July celebration at the US Embassy. So I'm not sure where they stand. They did say they wanted to return to Zim after their time in VA. because they thought they had more to contribute here. Leslie was a school teacher.

Leslie gave me a lot of advice about traveling. When I mentioned that I want to go to the Eastern Highlands, she mentioned that they have a cottage there. No electricity, but I'm sure it is nice. Maybe it will work out for me to travel with them. She also has relatives and friends in Cape Town, so now I have someone to climb Table Mt with!

This morning Abraham brought me to the poorest part of town,  the High Density suburbs (aka:slums.) Police wiped out many vendors on some streets recently. On Sunday the police don't work, so vendors were out again. Passed small concrete hovels, water running in the street, people everywhere. Wares for sale: sugar cane, hatchets, car parts, recycled oil, used clothes, plastic woven baskets, lumber, firewood, single pieces of candy and the list goes on. Single contractors can come here to get all their material. Seems like the market was bustling, but didn't see a lot of buyers.

Continued to the Medium-density suburbs where Abraham lives. He has 4 kids. He has a young man living in his courtyard, in a hut-like structure. Abraham's house has 4 bedrooms, screening room, dining room, living rm, family rm, exercise room, large kitchen, garden with patio and a bar on the top floor with a balcony. Rather ostentatious.

On to the Low-Density suburbs (aka where the rich live.) Passed the block long President's compound, where he doesn't live. There were lots of neighborhoods with huge homes- for generals, cousins of M and just plain rich Zimbabweans. Granted such disparity exists in many other countries, but here it is particularly sad - or I guess that is the case everywhere. I asked Abraham who is buying firewood out here- he said that's for the Bar-B-Q!

Passed lots of tracks of land which Grace, the president's wife, just took when she felt like it. Abraham explained that the British withdrew a lot of support in 2000. They had been sending teachers and supporting a lot of charities. When people got fed up with the govt and the opposition was formed- M felt threatened. In 2000 he started confiscating white farmers' lands. In addition to the war veterans getting land, the land was redistributed to many blacks because the whites owned a large portion of the land. After independence, the British sent advisers to train people in farming. But the huge land grab in 2000 turned them off and the British withdrew.

The bus was delayed because the driver showed up late on another bus. Our bus was very noisy, luckily I had a good book. They drive very fast and at night there are no lights. After 2 six-hour rides I had had enough and make a plane reservation for my next Harare trip (45 min. in the air.)

I'm scheduled to meet with the Ambassador next Tuesday while I'm at the book fair. His aid wanted to know what I was doing at NUST and what I wanted to talk about. I responded by saying I want to know what the US is doing to improve governance in the country.