Zimbabwe

Last weekend I got a chance to go to Zimbabwe with three friends. What an experience! The Zimbabwe border is only an hour and a half west of us, but it is a totally different world. It is currently a country in crisis. Their economy is plummeting downwards, and the people are suffering. One US dollar is now worth ten million Zimbabwean dollars- this is since they cut ten zeros off the end of their currency a few months ago. Driving through town, we saw crowds of people standing beside banks- trying to take out money- money that is worth more in the morning than in the evening. People there are literally getting poorer by the minute.

Zimbabwe is a beautiful country- once the “breadbasket of Africa”, but now on the verge of collapse. Carlos is now helping to start home based care in Zimbabwe- striving to reach the thousands of children orphaned by this thing we call AIDS. It is hard to imagine that such a beautiful country is having such troubles.

We met a lovely couple who worked at the hotel that we stayed in. They had retired a few years ago but recently had to start working again. Because of the crazy inflation, and cutting ten zeros off the currency, their life savings is now worth about seventy cents. Less than a dollar. The schools are in danger of closing- teachers are no longer showing up to work because they aren’t being paid. The hospitals have no medication in them. We were told about a child who died because the hospital didn’t have Tylenol to give to get a fever down. Just staying alive is a huge challenge- thousands of people have to cross into Mozambique just to get food.

The country itself is beautiful- lovely rolling, green mountains, beautiful birds, exotic flowers and trees… we stayed up in the Vumba mountains in a lovely little lodge that had an amazing view and a fireplace (it was cool enough there to actually use it too). We drove to a very fancy hotel called “Leopard Rock” that used to entertain celebrities, and had a game park and a pro golf course on it. It was empty. There were staff, but no guests. The restaurants were the same. Beautiful with excellent food, but we were the only ones there. We had the opportunity to ride horses in a game park. We actually rode right up to giraffes and zebras. It was very surreal. Please pray for Zimbabwe.

Here is a picture of Me, Brooke, Sarah and Dara half way up the mountain.

This is Dara in front of the giraffe (she's on a horse).

Here is a picture of Dara and me at the restaurant- our bill was over 50 million Zim dollars