Alright, you've convinced me... A trip to Africa *might* be a good excuse to use LJ
(and I'm planning to post pictures to a website, but I haven't gotten that together yet, so I'll let you know)
Here's an extra-long update about my experiences so far in Zimbabwe. If you don't make it through the whole thing, I don't blame you!
During the week, we spent most of our time meeting people in the ZiCHIRe office and lab. Everyone is so friendly - one woman who introduced herself to us said "I'm used to hugs, so let's just skip the handshake". And when I met the housekeeper today, she hugged me too.
I met a PhD/MD who’s actually from Seattle, but is doing research in the ZiCHIRe lab, and I may have an opportunity to work with him a little there, and also to visit his clinic. That would be exciting.
On Saturday, we had a leisurely brunch (we ended up sitting at the table and talking until 2 PM!) Then we went to the supermarket to stock up on groceries because the food keeps getting more expensive with the fuel shortage. It felt very strange to buy 3.3 million dollars worth of groceries for 5 people. Inflation is terrible - it’s about $10,000 Zimbabwe to $1 US, and I believe Danka said that a typical salary for a housekeeper or cook is about $800,000 per month, and about $1.2 million if they are live-in help. As we left the store with more than a cart full of groceries, many people were watching us. Most of them were just buying a few items, although I’m sure they would have liked to be able to buy more. In addition to the shoppers who watched us, there were several police men scattered throughout the parking lot. Ina pointed out that the local men who stood in the lot selling bags of fruit are now gone.
That evening, we went for pizza and a movie with the wife and children of one of Danka’s childhood friends. For those who don’t know, Danka is the principle investigator of the ZiCHIRe Project, and she spent her childhood in Zimbabwe. Again, the price differences were amazing. The pizzas were roughly the same price as they are in the US, but the movie was only about $2 US. The theater was huge and had incredibly comfortable seats. I highly recommend you all go see “The Interpreter” if it’s still playing in the US. It was really good and has some interesting parallels to the situation here.
Sunday was definitely the most exciting day so far. In the morning we went to a crafts fair and were able to purchase beautiful artwork for small amounts of money. Then we went on a Safari! We drove to a game park and saw more animals than Ina has ever seen in 2 hours. We saw three kinds of antelope (impala, kudu, and tsetsebi), a giraffe, rhinos, baboons, ostrich, zebra, and Ginny foul (however you spell that)! I'm going to upload the pictures and try to post some of them on the website, but I might not get around to that tonight. Then we came home to a really fancy dinner with lots of different dishes, two of which were traditional Zimbabwean dishes - spinach with peanut butter (don’t knock it till you try it), and pumpkin soup (I have no idea how to describe this… it was sort of the consistency of gravy and the flavor of butter).
It's funny - even though I'm in Zimbabwe, in some ways it doesn't feel real. There is such a dichotomy between the good and the bad here. The house we are living in is
beautiful and huge, it's sunny (even though it's winter, it's definately as nice as summer in Seattle), and we have a cook who makes all our meals. In the midst of all of this fun and beauty, when we were driving home, we saw all the destroyed houses from the "Clean-Up". There were so many people on the road trying to hitch-hike to town. Some were just walking even though it's really far. It was getting dark out, and it was really sad. The few buses that we saw were full of people... I mean jam-packed. And we saw the bed of a pick-up packed with people too. Intense.
It didn’t really hit me until I went to bed last night. I felt guilty for feeling a little homesick when I am surrounded by people who don’t even have homes anymore.
Even though I'm here, I'm living a different life from many Zimbabweans. I'm
sure that as I get more exposure and start making a real contribution to the ZiCHIRe Project, I will feel like I am doing something to alleviate all the pain and suffering that I see. But for now I feel so helpless.
I hope you all are enjoying the summer (I’d love to hear from you) and I will write again soon to let you know what I’m up to.
Here's an extra-long update about my experiences so far in Zimbabwe. If you don't make it through the whole thing, I don't blame you!
During the week, we spent most of our time meeting people in the ZiCHIRe office and lab. Everyone is so friendly - one woman who introduced herself to us said "I'm used to hugs, so let's just skip the handshake". And when I met the housekeeper today, she hugged me too.
I met a PhD/MD who’s actually from Seattle, but is doing research in the ZiCHIRe lab, and I may have an opportunity to work with him a little there, and also to visit his clinic. That would be exciting.
On Saturday, we had a leisurely brunch (we ended up sitting at the table and talking until 2 PM!) Then we went to the supermarket to stock up on groceries because the food keeps getting more expensive with the fuel shortage. It felt very strange to buy 3.3 million dollars worth of groceries for 5 people. Inflation is terrible - it’s about $10,000 Zimbabwe to $1 US, and I believe Danka said that a typical salary for a housekeeper or cook is about $800,000 per month, and about $1.2 million if they are live-in help. As we left the store with more than a cart full of groceries, many people were watching us. Most of them were just buying a few items, although I’m sure they would have liked to be able to buy more. In addition to the shoppers who watched us, there were several police men scattered throughout the parking lot. Ina pointed out that the local men who stood in the lot selling bags of fruit are now gone.
That evening, we went for pizza and a movie with the wife and children of one of Danka’s childhood friends. For those who don’t know, Danka is the principle investigator of the ZiCHIRe Project, and she spent her childhood in Zimbabwe. Again, the price differences were amazing. The pizzas were roughly the same price as they are in the US, but the movie was only about $2 US. The theater was huge and had incredibly comfortable seats. I highly recommend you all go see “The Interpreter” if it’s still playing in the US. It was really good and has some interesting parallels to the situation here.
Sunday was definitely the most exciting day so far. In the morning we went to a crafts fair and were able to purchase beautiful artwork for small amounts of money. Then we went on a Safari! We drove to a game park and saw more animals than Ina has ever seen in 2 hours. We saw three kinds of antelope (impala, kudu, and tsetsebi), a giraffe, rhinos, baboons, ostrich, zebra, and Ginny foul (however you spell that)! I'm going to upload the pictures and try to post some of them on the website, but I might not get around to that tonight. Then we came home to a really fancy dinner with lots of different dishes, two of which were traditional Zimbabwean dishes - spinach with peanut butter (don’t knock it till you try it), and pumpkin soup (I have no idea how to describe this… it was sort of the consistency of gravy and the flavor of butter).
It's funny - even though I'm in Zimbabwe, in some ways it doesn't feel real. There is such a dichotomy between the good and the bad here. The house we are living in is
beautiful and huge, it's sunny (even though it's winter, it's definately as nice as summer in Seattle), and we have a cook who makes all our meals. In the midst of all of this fun and beauty, when we were driving home, we saw all the destroyed houses from the "Clean-Up". There were so many people on the road trying to hitch-hike to town. Some were just walking even though it's really far. It was getting dark out, and it was really sad. The few buses that we saw were full of people... I mean jam-packed. And we saw the bed of a pick-up packed with people too. Intense.
It didn’t really hit me until I went to bed last night. I felt guilty for feeling a little homesick when I am surrounded by people who don’t even have homes anymore.
Even though I'm here, I'm living a different life from many Zimbabweans. I'm
sure that as I get more exposure and start making a real contribution to the ZiCHIRe Project, I will feel like I am doing something to alleviate all the pain and suffering that I see. But for now I feel so helpless.
I hope you all are enjoying the summer (I’d love to hear from you) and I will write again soon to let you know what I’m up to.