zimmmm! (days 1 and 2)

zimbabwe.

the first word that came out of my mouth as we crossed the border:

beautiful.

zimbabwe is a beautiful country. it almost reminds me of switzerland. well, what i imagine switzerland to be like. villages and towns are surrounded by vast mountain ranges overlooking valleys of green.

zimbabwe is also completely different from mozambique. most people know how to speak english and know how to speak it well. in the past, zimbabwe boasted of its high standards in education compared to those in other african countries. villages, houses, and roads are also very structured; rows of identical living compartments are ordered as "court 1," "court 2," etc. in the past, people in mozambique who had severe illnesses or injuries would cross the border into zimbabwe to receive medical help.

all that has changed. zimbabwe now faces economic and political disaster. inflation has done so much damage to the currency that zimbabwean dollars are worthless. the most recent bill printed out was marked "one trillion zimbabwean dollars." you can't even buy a mango with that. only south african rands and us dollars are accepted as valid form of currency. "forex" -- they call it. schools are closing down everywhere, and children are seen loitering in the streets or are stuck in an even sadder case -- they're in their uniforms walking from town to town in search of a school that would accept them. teachers are getting paid, but in zimbabwean dollars, so teachers are quitting. those who stay demand that parents pay hundreds of dollars for a term's tuition; might as well make it a million. hospitals are also closing down everywhere even though cholera is spreading. the government has also stopped giving out arv's for new cases of patients with hiv. people are crossing the border into mozambique because there is no food in zimbabwe. people are starving. people are dying.

it is so hard to imagine that such a beautiful place can have so many problems underneath.

i had a chance to briefly visit a few places in zim with a group of visitors from hands hub in south africa who came to see the projects in mozambique and those starting up in zim.

day 1 [2.15.09] : good bye, mozambique!

sal.

herman and marc, the troublemakers of our party.

kept on pulling pranks!

day 2 [2.16.09]: home-based care in mutare

carlos.

julia greeted by school girls.

this vovo (granny). she is blind but takes care of 8-10 children in her home (some shown two photos down); most of them are children of neighbors who passed away. everyday, the kids go out to beg for food or money. while begging, one of them got bitten by a dog and has an infection that is being left untreated.

waiting.

daughter and mother.

emily, one of the hands staff, showed us around her childhood home in zimbabwe.

home-based care volunteers in mutare.

billion zimbabwean dollar bills found in the trash.

money, money, money.

"we had to carry bags of billion dollar bills to buy one piece of bread!"

we all came back trillionaires!

overlooking our "catchment" area.

this guy. i thought he was a security guard, but as emily talked to him, we discovered he just came up to the hills to get some fresh air, to get away from all the troubles down there. as emily simply put it --"to get away from staring at the four corners of his wall."