Coming to Zimbabwe: My Life Changing African Adventure

(This is an ongoing series of stories about my travels in Africa, and specifically Zimbabwe, since 2012. I was hired to judge a national drama contest and was the first American to have this position in the 100 years of the event. The flight took 37 hours and what greeted me was a whole new experience. Thanks for reading and enjoy! This is a re-edited article from 2016. )

Thursday, June 21, 2012
Travel Day
Day 1
I am flying high over the Atlantic on Ethiopian Airlines. Talk about luxury. Certainly no American airline offers this kind of service any more. Blankets and pillows for everyone. Free meal and free booze and basically free everything. The people are incredibly friendly. They ask what I am doing and when I tell them, they all give me advice on how to survive in Zimbabwe and Africa in general. People are friendly everywhere if you take the time with them, and are courteous yourself. But this was really very pleasant.

My stopover in Washington was completely uneventful. I landed at 1:45 AM and had booked a hotel room. I am just too old to try to sleep in a row of chairs in the airport. It was worth it because I was exhausted after a day of taking care of last-minute details and the stress that I have every time I fly. Plus, it was really nice to spend one last night in what I perceive as American-style luxury: TV, ESPN, AC, coffee in the room, and a very large hot shower.

I am watching the cutest little Ethiopian boy run up and down the aisles. Big smile on his face as he laughingly runs back and forth. How can you not smile at that? The pure joy of just being able to run around with no cares.

Even with the help of alcohol and a few pills, it is very hard for me to sleep on a plane. Although for one stretch, I did manage to until a beautiful air hostess woke me up because I was drooling. How romantic and sexy is that image?

Addis Abeba, Capitol of Ethiopia

I am about halfway to Addis Abeba, and I still have 9 more hours after I land there. I will arrive in Harare around 12 PM on Thursday. This jet lag is going to be awful. (For spelling junkies – Addis Ababa can be spelled two ways. I choose to use the spelling used by the official Ethiopian Mapping Authority: Addis Abeba.)

I will try to send this out when I get to Addis Abeba as there is no internet on my planes. I marvel at people who can do all their work from the skies, but unfortunately, I am not booked on one of those flights.

My two seatmates are two Ethiopian men who are returning home after long times away. One is a college professor in computer science in North Carolina, and the other is a man who has not been home for over 15 years, who lives in Seattle and has three kids. They have been very kind, answering all my stupid questions about Ethiopia and trying to teach me useful words.

Listening to Miles Davis at the moment – on the airline sound system – he is so cool that he makes me feel cool just listening to him.

“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe”……Anatole France.

Addis Abeba

Sunday, June 24, 2012
Day 2
(It is hard to get online here for a number of reasons. So please bear with me. I will write as often as I can.)

I have been flying for about 10 hours now, and it is dawn. I am watching the sunrise over the east coast of Africa, and it is amazing. It is the same sunrise as in any part of the world, but since I have never seen anything in Africa, this is especially amazing. I am flying over Somalia and Khartoum. The view screen on the back of our seats shows us flying over places that I have seen on maps all my life but never imagined that I would ever come near to.

Bole International Airport, Addis Abebe, Ethiopia

As we flew into Addis Abeba, it was gray and dreary. It is winter here, and grey seems the main color. The airport seems in a total state of chaos, but it makes sense to them. There must be 20 or more duty-free shops selling everything that you can imagine. Prayer rooms in all corners of the airport for men and women to pray separately. No clear idea of what gate a flight is landing or taking off from, yet everyone but me seems to know exactly where to go. Someone in LA taught me a phrase in Ethiopian that means “good health to you.” A common greeting, I was told. So I have tried it on about 10 people in the last day or so. I usually get a strange stare. t is due to my amazing and very special pronunciation, I am sure.

The plane that I am taking to Harare is the size of a sardine can. We have not even taken off, and the man behind me is already snoozing loudly. Every third person on this flight is Chinese. Talking with people on the other plane, they confirm that while we were fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Chinese have bought all the minerals in Africa. They own Africa just like the Europeans owned it in the last century. This is the new form of colonialism, so has anything really changed? It just seems a new master is all.

Finally, I am in Harare, dog-tired, yet I still have customs. The people are very nice, but the process is clumsy at best. I stood in three lines for over an hour while one man in one booth processed about 60 people. I arrived with a temporary work permit, my passport, my contract with the Festival, and proof of my ticket out of the country – all required to enter the country. They never asked for any of it. They only wanted my 45-dollar fee for my visa.  Oh well.

I finally got through and met Gavin Peter, the festival director. We have spoken for months by email and Facebook, but to finally meet him in person was great. A big, friendly, gregarious man who drove me through Harare to the home of my hosts for the next week, Keith and Jeannette ——. Keith is the chairman of the board of the NIAA, who sponsors the festival.

A quick shower and a brief nap. I was so knackered, but I got up to be on Zim time. It was about 4 PM, so they showed me around their property. Many of the homes in the suburbs consisted of large to moderate homes on large tracts of land (2 to 3 acres) surrounded by high walls and fences. Their garden is amazing with so many beautiful plants and flowers that blaze with color even in winter. Then a pleasant evening in their lovely home with a fire (it is winter here), dinner, and a bottle of wine. What a very lovely introduction to this interesting country, and what promises to be a very life-changing adventure.

Keith & Jeannette’s Home in Harare, Zimbabwe

Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Day 4
It was Saturday, and Keith took me to see my first cricket match. We drove around downtown Harare on the way to the cricket stadium. The Brits laid out this city in a beautiful way. Wide streets and a partial grid make it somewhat easy to get around.

Keith and Jeannette’s pool area

The constant jaywalking and almost non-existent traffic laws take a little getting used to. I forget that Americans have some of the most rigid traffic laws in the world. Here it is a complete mess with everyone going everywhere at once, but it seems to work somehow. Driving here for the newcomer would be extremely overwhelming. I have not had to make that choice yet, as everyone has been so kind to take me where I need to go, or I am within walking distance from shopping areas. http://wikitravel.org/en/Harare

We got to the stadium to watch Zimbabwe’s national team play South Africa in a Pan-African Cricket tournament. I knew something of the game but not enough to describe anything to anyone. WOW. I love cricket. We were watching a type called Twenty/20 cricket as opposed to Fifty/50 or One Day cricket, which takes all day, or the 5-day classic Test match cricket. Can you imagine watching a 5-day match of the same two teams playing the same game for 5 days and still maybe ending in a tie? My head would explode, but people here are totally into it.

I cannot explain the game here in just a few words because it is as complex as baseball in the record-keeping and strategic moves. Yet once you get the basics down, it is a really fun and exciting game to cheer for. Zim lost, but due to a tournament rule, they somehow got into the finals.

We were in private boxes enjoying the game. Like watching football in a luxury box – only way to watch a sport, really! I was taken to two other boxes as I continued to meet the sponsors of the drama festival here in Zim. I am a bit of a local celebrity or curiosity since I have come all this way to do the festival on my own dime. Some appreciate it, some are worried that I will bring an American influence to a festival that is 100 years old next year, and some are worried that I will underestimate Zim’s education system. It is strange to be an American on the ground in a small country. They respect us and dislike us in equal measure. They know more about our country and elections than we do because we are such a huge influence in the world that what we do affects them as much as ourselves. I cannot tell you how many conversations I have had about how they see the Obama/Romney contest.

It is like we are the Mafia Don at the end of the street protecting his neighborhood. We can provide protection and benefits to the local street, but it comes at a really big price. And even when we do nothing, it affects them. They have taken the Chinese money because of all the international sanctions that were leveled at President Mugabe because of his Land Reform measures where his government seized white-owned farms and gave them to native Zimbabweans.

The sanctions are against him and his government personally, but the effect trickles down to all the businesses and people here. Whether the sanctions were right or not, they are one reason that the Zim economy is a disaster. They did not affect the leaders; they affected the everyday person, destroying jobs, pensions, and savings. While we were fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Chinese quietly came into Africa, and Zimbabwe in particular, and have bought all the mineral rights. So Zimbabwe has taken all that the Chinese will give them, because they were getting very little now from the US and Europe.

The final score to the cricket match was 129 to 126. I can kind of explain the scoring if you are interested at some other time, but I can tell you it was a nail biter right down to the last over. Yes, I said Over. It is like an inning/turn/bat in baseball but shorter.

Then I went to over to Gavin’s house for a really quick dinner and off to the local theatre called Reps. Not professional, it is more like a community theatre. Reps Theatre is a private non-profit enterprise with two theatres, one large and one small and an excellent pub bar that is open all during the show. I saw part of the Norman Conquest trilogy. It was ok. Couple of really good actors, but felt like an actor’s showcase in LA.

Back to my new temporary home and to bed. Tomorrow, I am going on SAFARI.

Cheers

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