Living in Harare, Zimbabwe

Two days ago I arrived in Harare. But first I had to go through Munich - where I nearly got rejected from the plane because they needed my credit card for verification, and by the time they realized this, everyone had boarded. The next stop was Jo’burg - it has changed since the last time, with World Cup promotion - through the entrance hall there are colourful billboards promoting soccer, the transit hall has become bigger and more professional and airport-like looking, and a shopping part has been added behind the usual shops from before - this however does NOT mean it became any more interesting. Luckily I only had one hour and a half to waste there after the whole check in, so I didn’t get bored.
Getting into Harare airport I tried to have a look around, see if the airport is really as beautiful as it should be. When exiting out of the plane you enter a large open space, where nothing seems to be happening - here you quickly pass through, to move on to immigration, where people are standing behind glass on the other side, though I believe they were working, and not people picking up their visitors. At immigration I had to queue twice, after which they nearly gave me the wrong passport - of a man born in the 40’s! But luckily he realized and I had been warned to check my passport.

At the airport, after receiving my luggage quickly and in excellent shape, Tawanda, Becky and Niniva were awaiting me with a VVOB sign. We quickly introduced ourselves and went on to the car (and a quick meeting with the ‘police’ for faulty parking).
I got introduced to the whole VVOB team and together we had lunch - sadza (maize meal) with nice stew, and Mazoe for drink. I know what I’ll be spending my free 3kgs of luggage for - a cream soda Mazoe! Sadza and the stew doesn’t taste the same as in Belgium, so I think I’ll be enjoying it for the next three months! In the meantime I have gotten to know some colleagues better, I have frozen like an ice cube in the offices and I have received more information about VVOB. Once I’ve seen how it works in practice my role here will become clear. But I have realized I will have to be flexible and bring a lot of own input with regards to what I can do/ contribute. I also got my own and personal vvob address;)!
On Friday we’ll be going out to party somewhere, so that should definitely be fun!

During my stay I will be living with a colleague (Robert) and his family. They have two kids - a boy (2) and a girl (7) (who btw, is doing grade one and reads the same books I used to read in school - sunshine books with Chipo, Tatenda, Jenny and David). A very nice family, a lot of movement around with Taku, the youngest always jumping around. I was immediately welcomed. I haven’t seen much of the neighborhood yet - besides passing by car - since it gets dark early and we only get off work at 5pm. I also immediately got introduced to the great Zimbabwe life, with no electricity and no water (but apparently it is exceptional these days, so I have picked a good week to arrive). So first night was an early night - and since I was tired it came out quite well, and first morning was a bucket shower, which started off with a two-minute debate with myself on how best to do it in an efficient and quick way. Luckily it ended successfully! I might as well get used to it from the very beginning!

Not a lot has changed, in my opinion (incl. electricity and water problems), a lot of buildings I recognized; only a lot more cars and traffic jams. Julie (my childhood best friend) too hasn’t changed, neither has Aunty Mary-Anne and Gogo, who were all happy (and Gogo mainly surprised) to see me, which was very nice!! Unfortunately we didn’t see each other for very long, but we were all very happy to reunite and it seemed like I’d never left and nothing had changed. Even Vheneka ‘recognized’ her Aunty Maï and was smiling at me the whole time! The cutest little girl!!

My Shona is slowly improving, I’m understanding more, and slowly starting to speak a little bit more - once people start talking to me in Shona I reply more and more in Shona - it’s only day two, so there’s still a LOT of room for improvement. And since Aunty Mary-Anne said “no, it’s Samy who was the Shona one, Maï was always too shy”: the competition is ON! :)
What I’ve noticed is people seem to speak more Shona than I remember (or it’s just me not remembering) and people sometimes don’t understand me, so with sadness I’ll have to get rid of my Aussie accent and get into the Zim accent! I even got a compliment: I was locked out and was shouting for Tinashe to open the door for me and they thought it was someone else because of my good accent! Imagine what it will be after 3 months!

This is a super long blog entry, I’m assuming they won’t always be this long, but a lot has happened in the last three days and a lot needs to be told. And I’ve probably forgotten to mention a lot.

Tozoonana! Till we meet again!

My family from another family