Zimbabwe

Wow! I'm pretty sure most people in my life at home suggested that I not go to Zimbabwe. I'm not really sure why -- probably the political unrest and fear of danger, theft, etc, etc -- you know, all of those things everyone warned me about before I came here. I was a little nervous before I went to Zim honestly, and looking back I didn't have a justified reason. I think life teaches you that after the fact, most of our fears are actually quite unjustified. If we could realize how to let the unknown excite us rather than scare us, I think a lot more would be done in the world -- and a lot more fun would be had!

Fortunately, I can report that I felt safe the entire time that I was in Zimbabwe. I think I actually felt safer there than in South Africa. I had the privilege of traveling with a good friend of mine from undergrad -- Sarah. We left Cape Town after the World Cup final and flew to Johannesburg. Our flight wasn't supposed to leave until 3 or 4 am and some friends were driving past the airport, so we napped on airport benches from about 11:30 til 3:00 am. Our flight was delayed and we had to get moved to another airline because our bus was supposed to leave from Jo'burg at 8am. Fortunately, we got onto another flight (after a bit of firm negotiation and a bit of begging). From Jo'burg we got a bus (yes, Greyhound haha) to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The bus trip took more than 12 hours and we arrived in Bulawayo late on the evening of 12 July. The drive was beautiful, it was mostly rural and calming. The border cross was anything but calm, it was more like chaos. There were literally people everywhere and queues (lines) wrapping around the building. Apparently we used the busiest border cross point between the two countries.

As we were waiting at the border post, we met some men who had been sitting behind us on the bus. It unnerved Sarah and I how friendly they were... for no reason. She and I being seasoned travelers and a bit too steeped in literature about human trafficking and threats to travelers, did not take their kindness without question. I recommend caution to my friends who are traveling and often exercise it myself (well except for the hitchhiking part of this story, but we'll get there just now), but I think we had too much caution and hesitancy toward these men. They were friendly just because that's the way they are, and the way nearly everyone we met in Zimbabwe was. We were pleased to find out throughout our time in Zimbabwe that people are just friendly. I think it's sad that we've been taught to be so cautious that it took us several days to let our guards down enough to just be comfortable and connect with people. She and I realized that it probably says something about our culture and certainly media coverage about Zimbabwe that caused us to be so overly cautious.

When we got to Bulawayo, we hadn't made any plans for a hostel and had a taxi driver take us to a "guesthouse" and we found a place to stay. Our friends that I mentioned above had offered for us to stay with their family in their village about an hour from Bulawayo -- that was where the caution kicked in. Regardless of whether it would have been harmless or not, we decided it was better for two girls traveling alone not to go to a remote village with two men we had just met.

Outside of the guesthouse was a small stadium and a pub/restaurant where we had a snack and a drink before bed. We met several locals and one expat who loved Zimbabwe so much he moved there with his family. He and one of his friends gave us their numbers in case we had any trouble getting to Vic Falls the next day. The next morning, we walked around Bulawayo, explored a bit, then found a bus stop with busses headed toward Vic Falls.

At the bus stop, we met some more friends and had a lovely lunch that we shared "African style" with our new buddies. We saw a woman cooking and walked over to see if we could buy some food for ourselves. Some men came over with their food and insisted that we share with them. We rinsed our hands of with clean water and got to eating -- hands only, no utensils! We at something called pap (eaten all over southern africa, kind of like a thicker version of grits), some fish and some meat. It was yummy and our new friends insisted we not pay them for the food. Following our meal, we watched a dance group practice for a performance, boarded the bus, and set out of Victoria Falls. The next 8 or so hours, we spent in a bus. Two police stops and a long ride later, we arrived in the dark of night and set out to find a place to stay. No, we didn't sort out accommodation at all before we went anywhere. The bus drivers were nice enough to drive us to 3 different places around the town to find us the cheapest option.