Becky, Nora and I had an amazing long weekend in Victoria Falls. We flew into Livingstone, Zambia and took 3 cabs to get across the border to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Between the defunct currency and the general ridiculousness of the Mugabe regime, Zimbabwe is a fascinating country. The people were incredible friendly and intelligent, we felt a million times safer than we do in South Africa, and we made tons of new friends. It is really one of my favorite countries in the world so far. The actual falls are incredibly beautiful and impressive. It is the largest waterfall in the world and is enclosed in a national park. There are lots of activities like bungee jumping, zip lining, white water rafting (except in April b/c it's too dangerous), sunset cruises, game drives, gambling, and a great craft fair with beautiful stone work and wood carvings. Becky and Nora bungee jumped but I was content to watch them.
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| Ponchos are for suckers |
After Nora and Rebeca left Sunday morning, I wandered over to the Victoria Falls Hotel which was the first hotel in all of Zimbabwe. It was built by the British shortly after the discovery of the falls. It has a beautiful view and is a nice place to have tea, lay by the pool or walk around. Later I watched the sunset at the Victorial Falls Safari Lodge where I made some friends. We headed over to the casino together to play some blackjack. Finally, we went on a late night game drive and called it a night.
I obviously asked alot of questions about the government. I think these are the highlights.
1. Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangiria are both Shona but the people I talked to think Tsvangiria is more for equality for all Zimbabwaens including Ndebele and Tonga. Most people in the Victoria Falls area are Ndebele so they suffered greatly a couple years ago after the elections when Mugabe cut off the food supply to areas that did not support.him. My friend Bornwell is a river guide and he would cross the river in the middle of the night to Zambia to try to find food for people.
2. No one seemed to know if the press is free so I read the paper for myself and it's not. It calls the opposition party comical and ridiculous and had multiples stories about how bad they are. There was also a story about prisoners dying of malnutrion because they haven't had meat in four years so I guess it does not try to sugar coat everything.
3. White Zimbabweans were driven out of Zimbabwe in the 90s - they were only about 3% then but are less than 1% now. Their land was taken away and given to Mugabe supporters regardless of whether or not they had any farming experience. So now the farm land lays barren and Zimbabwe has to import the stables like pap that they once exported. A couple years ago, Mugabe told white farmers they could come back now but they think it's too late, the land is ruined. I met one white Zimbabwean who moved to the UK but is trying to find a job now so he can move back. He said he agreed that land reform was necessary after independence in 1980 because 1% of the population owned 70% of the land but it was done in a way that was detrimental to white and black.4. Zimbabweans my age got a really strong public education and until about 10 years ago, Zimbabwe was considered the center of higher education in southern Africa. They are smart, worldly, and I found many to be very ambitious and goal oriented. But, they all told me that the kids in schools now are getting an inferior education if they go to school at all and they are worried about the future of their country.
5. There are not alot of clothes there. Everyone asked me if I had any extra t-shirts I could give them and I wished I had brought more stuff with me.
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| View from the bar at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge |
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| Victoria Falls Hotel |
