GZU workshop

Week 1

Day 1

During the week we had a workshop prepared for Great Zimbabwe University in Masvingo. Leaving very early Sunday, to arrive in Masvingo after 3, doing shopping for the evening and arriving at the cottage/lodge. Luckily there are cooking facilities, so it’s a fairly cheap and cozy week. Nice cooking every day, and coziness, in a very big group. We already were a big VVOB group - 7 of the 15 were here, but there were also 2 other student doctors from London living in the lodge, and a group of 8 nurses - all men arrived soon after us. It was then a bit of a complication finding a spot for everyone to sleep, and our one man ended up claiming the living room. The low-cost approach has a price.

Day 2

The low-cost approach does not get abandoned with VVOB though, the first trip we had, to get to Masvingo, was in a combi, all squashed up. We decided to quickly step away from that low-cost with a short team meeting in Creamy Inn, with highly overpriced ice creams, but at times, you need to go for the high-cost approach. Unfortunately most of it was more a waste of time than anything else, the woman we had a preparatory meeting with at the university didn’t show up. From 1.30 (meeting at 2) till quarter to 4 we were at the university, and never did we hear back from the lecturer. That makes it all a bit of a waste of day, and a loss of our Sunday. But we will start with good mood, tomorrow is day one of the workshop, starting at 8 (or so is planned) and finishing at 5, with a whole load of activities to fill that whole day up. And we will all be facilitating, me included, quite an exciting moment really. For the rest I will also be responsible for some kind of report/article at the end, with Nennivah.

Day 3

First day of the workshop was a success, though it started with a look of chaotism. The morning was slightly hurried, with 15 people needing to shower, it is not the most useful, but we managed to get out of the house only 15 minutes later than planned - 7am.

At GZU we first had to declare all laptops, the woman needed the numbers at the bottom of the laptop, so we all, one by one had to unpack our goods. BUT we were still quite on time, or rather, everyone else was quite late. But first there was the hassle of having to change rooms, and we would have had to change twice, but since there was a murungu, it was okay for today. Positive discrimination is no better than negative discrimination and though it was helpful I didn’t really like it much. The lecturers showed up slowly, and the students were all (due to bus transfer problems) an hour late, but we started on without them. The participants were very motivated, actively participating. Very nice to see. The facilitation went well, lunch was good, all was successful. I had my very first ever facilitation just after lunch, and apparently I was quite good, but I had an easy part to do:), but I enjoyed it, so very definitely willing to do it again if the occasion arises.

Throughout the whole day, I was given too much attention by everyone, during the introductions when making ‘dates’ to get to know each other one guy mumbled, too bad it’s not real. Another lecturer joked all day about how, since my name is Mai I should become Mai ‘his surname’ since I wouldn’t be changing my name, from then on he referred to me as Mai ‘his surname’. Luckily it was all just one big joke, though that made me the laughing stock. Next time, I’ll say I’m married. He had asked, and I answered “no, but I’m not available”. Apparently that’s not quite enough.

We had a very good day though, and after a hard day’s work we went to reflect on the day’s proceedings at Pizza Inn bought by Chokie, very good reflection time. I’d work till 7 every day if that’s how it worked. As for the ride home, well, the fun and games never stop when there’s good music.

Day 4

When getting into the university I had to sit in the front, I was the free pass in, if they saw there was a white person in the car they wouldn’t ask what we wanted there. Once again some positive discrimination which I didn’t enjoy too much.

Second day of the workshop started slightly less active, less people managed to skip their lectures so we had less people to work with. But overall, the end of day ended up being very productive and a positive experience.

Day 5

The last day was purely for the students and lecturers to practice their own facilitating skills, we arrived at a surprising success. They were all very participative and motivated, and very good at facilitating. So next week’s set of workshops will not be a problem!

This was our last day of the week, so the next morning was a short sleep in and end of workshop, back to Harare!

We ended up leaving Harare quite a bit later than expected, and instead of arriving at 3pm like planned it was more like 6pm. For me this was a bit of a stress, I had my internship report to hand in and my evaluation that had to be done before end of month. As it turns out, though, I might still be in Harare next week, so those things can then be sorted out, luckily.

Weekend

The weekend started with a general low, but over the afternoon we went to the agricultural show, which turned out to be quite nice, after we endured some shoving, pushing and squeezing to get in. There were some music bands and just a lot of people and a lot of stuff to be bought. Tanya also did some horse riding. It was only afterwards that I learnt a couple of years ago people got squashed, resulting in 3 deaths. That will be the last time I wait till the last day to go to a show like this.

Over the evening there was a wedding, the son of one of our colleagues. It was beautiful (we just went to the dinner/afterparty and didn’t stay too long), but we did see them walking in and doing one dance. Really nice dress, the bridesmaids dresses and decorations. Wow, looking fancy! Mai Chikwanda, the mother of the groom was also looking very splendid:) Unfortunately cake cutting time was only at around 9, which everyone thought was too late to wait for - transport is always a very big deal breaker - so without wedding cake we left the wedding after about two hours. But I’m happy we went anyway:)

On Sunday we went to the movies at Eastgate. Nope, they have not changed a single bit in the last 9 years. There was not enough time to go in Eastgate itself so that’ll have to be for another time. The movies available seemed to be of a while ago, Kung-fu panda 2, No strings attached, Pirates of the Carribean and Prom. To come was Hall Pass. Of Harry Potter not a single sign, so very disappointing!! We ended up watching Prom, a Disney movie, not unlike High School Musical. The type of Sunday afternoon movie, which didn’t turn out to be so bad. And 3$ for a movie, I’ve definitely had worse!

Please tell me Harry Potter will still be on by the time I’m back!;)

Back to work

The working week has started again and in the meantime I have passed the halfway mark through my internship, just over 6 weeks left! Time always seems to fly faster. This week’s agenda was (besides many team meetings) some communications tasks that are smoothly moving forward and going well and finalizing of the report from last week’s workshop. The report only needs some finishing touches, proofreading and then it’ll be ready to post on the website!

Tomorrow I have a functional interview, since I have reached the mid of my internship it is time for a short evaluation on the work done, the expectations fulfilled, the work still to be done and the expectations for the last half. Since everything has been going well it shouldn’t be too much to do and can only improve the second half of the time!

In three weeks I will be receiving my results and then I’ll be starting to think about the master and the internship involved with that! Busy busy times!

On other big news of the world: Solomon Mujuru passed away. He was a well-respected man in the Zimbabwean army throughout the past years, standing by Mugabe's side during liberation struggle, and for those with a basic knowledge of Zimbabwe’s current political heads the name will be familiar for another reason. He was also the husband of the current Vice Principal of Zimbabwe (Joyce Mujuru). His farm house burnt down during the night of 15-16 August and he had the unfortunate bad luck of sleeping in the house at that specific time. In other words, the country is currently in shock and mourning over a great man who had a big influence on the country’s history.

All the while Belgium remains without government.

While I’m on the topic of news, I heard something vague about the SADC (Southern African countries) discussing about possibly starting up a union. How I understood it, it seems they will be heading in the direction of Europe: opening up its borders. Whether there were further plans, and when this union would be intended are still unknown to me, though it would be interesting for future travel plans!

Mosi-oa-Tunya - The smoke that thunders

In Vic Falls I was dropped off at the Rest Camp where I’d meet up with Anna (a friend from Form 1) and stay for the rest of the days (Thursday-Sunday). It was right in the center, the best place to be when you’re on a budget and don’t have a car!

We started off with a walk around the little town, and passed by the Kingdom Hotel, a very dark hotel, very very expensive though, with pillars meant to resemble Great Zimbabwe outside and huge “urban hunters” inside, very “typically tourist” and not at all typically Zimbabwean. Just like the groups of acapella bands that come during dinner time, seeing king of the jungle as if it is a traditional song!

Vic Falls Hotel, another expensive one, was more attractive (except for the price, about 250 per night). Very colonial style, people picking up the luggage, open space, and the view of the restaurant looking over the back of the falls and the bridge, quite a beautiful sight. Worth paying for! But obviously our budgets didn’t quite allow for that, so we just walked through there and sat for some pictures. We walked down to the most beautiful viewpoints from which they also do the jumps, gorge swing, flying fox, death ride. The height is incredible, I’d really need a big push to do it, paying 120$ to do it counts more as a hold-back than a push, resulting in us just watching others in fear from the sidelines.

I would have loved going rafting, but apparently it was a bad timing for it, and losing 120$ to it was once again pushing the limits. The US dollar days have pushed up all the prices to extreme heights, but the tourists continue to pay for the beauty of Zimbabwe. Bungee jumping too was that expensive, and it seemed a lot scarier than the beauty part I had always pictured in my mind!

On Friday we had an early wakeup because we’d be joining people from a Trust. Anna will be doing her PhD on elephant cognition and she’ll be doing it with them in Vic Falls. So we got a tour around the new labs they built in the middle of the jungle, we saw the elephants coming back from their rides and saw the tamed cheetah Sylvester that was saved a few years ago but is too tame to go back to the wild. At that time the man giving us a tour received a call that they tracked the waterbuck they had been looking for for a couple days. It was caught in a snare and the snare was still around its neck, so they wanted to capture it and remove the snare. We tagged along as they went to the game park, loaded the taser guns and got the horses ready. Right at the time when they were ready to start the chase someone spotted two poachers running away. Unfortunately the poachers chased the waterbuck away, so the chase for the waterbuck had to stopped till the next morning since the animal needs to cool down when being drugged. Fortunately one of the two poachers was caught and arrested (even though the fine is minimal). So even though that wasn’t as cool as expected, it was nice to see that the Anti-Poaching Unit does have success stories and truly do care for the animals.

Over the afternoon we went for a sunset boat trip with Hanne and family. It was great, we saw hippo’s, elephants and a crocodile, and also a baby giraffe that had died with a snare on its leg, so poaching really is a big issue. We passed through the back of the falls, far enough to see the smoke that thunders up on top of the falls, but not far enough to thunder down the falls! At 6 we watched as the beautiful African sun set making the sky an orangy red and then we got back to the hostel. For dinner we went to a restaurant which was absolutely delicious! I had grilled bream with cream sauce, reminded me of the Mozambique days..

The last full day we had, we made sure we did all there was left to do: see the falls by day time, go shopping in the market and the local shopping center and see the falls by night. But also unexpectedly having great and cheap sadza, and the best chocolate cake I’ve had in years!

The falls were beautiful, you come in and it’s like WOW, didn’t remember them that great! It was perfect time of year, not too much spray but still enough water for the beauty of it. We enjoyed it, walking slowly like real Zimbabweans (after all, we paid Zim price), taking pictures on every stop and just staring out in the distance to appreciate the beauty. It truly is one of the 7 wonders of the natural world! Not as wide as the Iguazu Falls, not as much volume as the Niagara Falls, not as tall as the Angels Falls, but it IS the only falls on the wonders list and IS overall the greatest/biggest waterfall!

In the market Anna traded some things and the competition between the women selling was amazingly great! In the shopping center they were much calmer and we talked to some of the sellers, there was a shop with sculptures of Colleen Madamombe and Dominic Benhura, which cost a fortune, but then again, there are people who own a fortune! It was very interesting talking to the man of the shop, beautiful sculptures there! Unfortunately none of Mike Munyaradzi, which I would have wanted to see.

For lunch we bought sadza and drink, 3$ for us both! Amazing, and it was GOOD. I also immediately became the talk of the town (and the town is small), with my Shona, lucky that comes in handy sometimes! Since we spent so little on lunch we treated ourselves with an overly delicious chocolate cake, in one of the tourist places this time.

Because it was full moon they had a lunar rainbow tour at the falls. We decided to join because it was quite cheap (10$ for locals). Unfortunately getting in was a little harder than expected, they suddenly did not want to accept my letter claiming I was a student on attachment. He needed a Ministry letter, which is totally understandable, but I wasn’t prepared to pay tourist price (40$). After 5 minutes discussing the man at the counter established there was no way I’d be getting in and the other guy who let me in during the day would have to pay the difference of my previous entry fee. Which sucked for us, but we felt even worse for the other man, then suddenly the man changed his mind, after I spoke two words of Shona during my pleas. It didn’t take him half a second to agree I was Zimbabwean due to the Shona. Thanks Selbourne Routledge!!

Luckily we got in, because it was beautiful!! I started with a, well, it’s not that great attitude, but with the light in the right place, seeing a rainbow forming and the black rock contrasting the white ‘smoke’ from the falls was magical, completely different to day time. Definitely worth it! My camera once again let me down with poor quality, so you’ll have to visit it during a full moon week to enjoy the same. Beautiful!

Sunday was time to go home, so with a 13 hour bus and two Chicken Inn stops the holiday ended and the working week started again. But it was a GREAT holiday!! One to not forget!!

More pics of verything on facebook!

Hwange National Park

8 and 9 august is Heroes Day holiday in Zimbabwe, and that means holiday from work. Which means, holiday out of Harare! My destination was Hwange and Vic Falls, a 9-day holiday to fill up every single holiday day available!

We started off with Hwange, very early Saturday morning, with a packed car and Jos on my lap we set off direction Bulawayo-Hwange. Time seemed to fly and before 4 we had already arrived at the lodge. The car was quickly unloaded and we set off for the first game drive. The days consisted of early wake-ups, morning drives, late breakfasts, afternoon drives, evening braais (one of which was my very own) and early nights. And many animals in between! Since I forgot what we saw when I’ll just make a list. Basically: everything! Leopards were the big missing one though. We saw elephants (herds and herds of them), giraffes, we saw them drinking, which was a comical sight and brought up good pics, zebra’s, hippo’s, buffalo, hyena’s (and we heard them a whole lot over the evening - this however does not mean I recognized it’s cry when asked, a cheetah (from a very beautiful angle), a lion (from not a great angle, not very close and not for very long, but I saw it and I’m happy! We also saw lots of antelopes: impala’s on every corner, kudu’s in abundance, a sable, which apparently is slightly rarer, so I’m happy we saw it, a dik-dik (a tiny antelope), waterbucks and a couple other kinds. A serval, which is a little cat/carnivore we also saw. And baboons, in abundance! I’m sure I forgot plenty, if you want a full list, go visit Hwange Main Camp and see for yourself. It was absolutely great, I love camping, especially when it is so well prepared with all the necessary equipment, and the weather is so great! The nights were freezing though, but like I said, prepared people come prepared.

The last night of Hwange we spent in another lodge (Sinamatella), this one was fancier, with a gorgeous view!! Once again it was game drives (with a packed car) and braais! Hanne also tried out some ash cakes, little ‘muffins’ that you wrap in silver paper and put straight on the ashes, they tasted GOOD!! My whole perception of what to do on fire has completely changed after this week! It was great, I absolutely loved it, enjoyed playing with the boys - when they weren’t tired and prickly from the smallest things and their ‘help’ when doing the dishes, cute kids!, learning invaluable life skills from Jeremy (his own words) and the friendliness and generosity from the whole family!

From Hwange we drove through the park and on the road to Vic Falls to continue the holiday.

Silveira House national workshop

Just before start of the holidays we had a national workshop about M&E. This means (two) lecturers from all the colleges (14 of them) came together to reflect, plan and act upon their Monitoring an Evaluation, ways to strengthen learning. This was done in a workshop of three days, with activities set up to lead the participants through the process. The whole VVOB team served as facilitators (leading activities) or joined in as participants. Hanne was writing the report and Nennivah and I were pointed as helpers, because we’d have to finalize the whole thing afterwards as Hanne would be on holiday. To start off we were both more ‘secretaries’, copying out what was on flipcharts, while Hanne typed up the discussions going on and added in highlight all the extra things we’d have to add. Sometimes I’d just start feeling useless so I’d randomly start doing double work, might as well look busy!

On day two Hanne was absent for half the day, so this gave us the responsibility of capturing all that happened. During the discussions I just typed like a crazy person and afterwards put it into a nice text. Hanne seemed content with it when I passed her my part, so now I have a little half page which is all my own in the report! SCORE!

The workshop ended with quite a success, VVOB learnt about where it can improve and the colleges learnt how to continue on with their own questions on how to improve their learning within their colleges.

Because Hanne is on a three week holiday, and the report has not been fully finalized the communications team has been put responsible for it. Among the tasks involve finalizing some things that were missed out on, making creative compositions of little pieces of text (for example, people had to describe Day One as a book title), and adding pictures where needed. Only the last part needs to be done and then it is final! I feel like it’s an accomplishment though I after all did not do much to it.

The workshop took place at Silveira House, which is some kind of conference center with accommodation possibilities, quite a nice place and as far as meals go, we always had choice between rice and sadza, always nice! It was quite a bit out of town, and being with someone who had a car and a possibility of picking others up it meant always leaving extremely early! One time even so early we left half our people behind because they weren’t on time! Motivation that is!
They also have an arts and craft village next to the center where I went to have a look, it is quite impressive how much they had! I only saw the outside - where the big sculptures were, but apparently they also had cloths, earrings and other small art pieces.

In the meantime time has flown by like I could never have imagined, I am halfway the internship, which means my mid-term evaluation desperately needs to be filled in tomorrow, but also that I have two weeks left before getting my final results from here and handing in the internship paper. And then I’ll be a bachelor student!! Let’s all hope the coming month doesn’t go past quite as fast, I’m not ready yet to make the decisions for the master..

End of July...

Supporting our country

The last weekend of July was planned to be a calm one, I tried scouting around for things to do, but apparently it’s a busy one for other people.

Eventually, I went to Prince Edward’s to watch the rugby under 20’s: Zimbabwe vs. Namibia, qualification rounds, the winner would represent Africa in the Junior World Cup in South Africa. (South Africa being counted as immediate qualifiers). I went there not knowing it was so important, so ended up quite happy I attended! While eating some biltong we watched Zimbabwe beat Namibia quite easily with 29-17, and the Zim flag held high in support!

After a short phone call, apparently my accent has already made some changes into a more Zimbabwean accent, damn, losing the Aussie accent again!

Sunday I met up with Jan and Julliet, family friends from back in the day. Apparently I haven’t changed much, and imagining me as 23 years old is unimaginable! It was great seeing them after almost ten years, and meeting their lovely young kids! We had a nice braai, with Hanne and family too, unfortunately without much sun, but that doesn’t make it any less worthwhile.

Great and busy weekend after all, ready for what promises to be a busy week - with a workshop for the whole team, and another busy week that will follow afterwards - Hwange and Vic Falls!!!!