Mbare Msika 1

Mbare is Harare's first 'township' (now officially called 'locations' or 'high-density suburbs'), built originally to house the black labour force working in nearby white-owned factories. It is in a sense the heartbeat of Zimbabwe; the country's largest bus terminal is here, beside the country's largest market (msika). It is a place of sensory overload, thronging with people, colours, sounds, and smells. The roads around the market and bus terminal are choked with trucks bringing in produce and wholesale goods, carts pulling smaller quantities of these around, buses and kombis, people en route to or from their kumusha (rural area), or shopping, or just passing the time, and vendors lining both sides of the streets with their small piles of goods: fruits and veggies, catapults (slingshots - used with amazing accuracy in the rural areas to hunt birds and small animals, and drive away baboons from fields), brooms, spices, cooking oil, toilet tissue, soap, airtime, pirated cd's and dvd's, hardware items, rope, cloth, clothing, herbal remedies.... There is an open wholesale market, and then a retail market next door with acres of stalls, selling all the same things the vendors along the streets are selling; also a craft market and a variety of shops. It is absolutely impossible to do justice to it with my ipod, and anyway a white person bringing out a camera instantly becomes a spectacle, so most of these photos were shot rather surreptitiously.

Mbare bus terminal

Broom vendors

Cart-haulers, waiting for business.

Informal street eateries abound, mostly selling sadza (the staple food; a stiff cornmeal porridge) with meat and some veg.

Driving into and out of the market can take a lonnnnnng time.

 

Chimanimani

I recently travelled with Fidelis and Steven on a Kufunda outreach trip to speak with communities about the upcoming Youth Program, and to also brief them about Kufunda's Pre-School and Solar Gogo programs. We headed east to Manicaland, starting in Rusape. The next night we slept in Mutare, and then headed further up into the mountains toward the Chimanimani district. Chimanimani means 'narrow place'; people have to squeeze into tight valleys. This is the view from Skyline Junction, down towards Chimanimani village.

Chimanimani village commuter bus rank.

Our ultimate destination was Chikukwa, an area of six villages under Chief Chikukwa that is tucked in a valley beyond Chimanimani, right by the Mozambique border. (Actually Chief Chikukwa's area extends over the border; people will come to him from the Mozambiquan side to settle disputes. There is no border post.) The drive took about an hour; I lost my heart to the area after about 10 minutes.

As we came out of Chimanimani's saddle valley the views opened up. This is looking east into Mozambique; the border is just into the mountains. The farm on the valley floor was owned by Roy Bennett, elected as an MDC (opposition party) MP in 2000. His farm was subsequently seized as part of the land redistribution program.

Driving through the Martin Forest. This is owned by Allied Timbers, itself owned by the Zim gov't. Martin Forest 1 was bought by the parks service in 1986 and added on to Chimanimani national park. Allied has been trying to evict squatters who have been occupying their lands and cutting the pines to create fields for maize. The gov't is now trying to close the Pandora's box of land redistribution; they also recently kicked 30-some squatters out of a wilderness conservation area, leaving them homeless by the side of the road.

In Chikukwa we stayed at Celuct, a permaculture centre that has also started doing conflict resolution work in the community. They teach local youth techniques to deal with political, domestic, and community conflict; the youths in turn have been out in the community sharing these techniques. The results have been good. The Chimanimani District is a political hotspot, with 13 MDC councillors and 11 Zanu councillors, but of the 24 areas in the district only Chikukwa experienced no political violence during the last year.

It's a breathtakingly lovely place, and I'm now dreaming of doing a Nhemamusasa South here, maybe in 2013.

 

Chikukwa is also right on the edge of Chimanimani National Park, so one afternon we hiked up a side valley into the park.

  Looking back at the Chikukwa valley and Martin Forest, with Mozambique in the background.

 Spent some time swimming in the pool at the base of these falls, where an Njuzu (mermaid) spirit is said to live.

Walking to the shops to catch a lift out on our final morning. There is a Danish (I think) woman living in Chikukwa who came 30 years ago and never left; I'm already planning my return...



Masimba/Machikichori sightings

For my friends in Masimba and Machikichori   : )

Signs

Mudhudhudhu

So I referenced my 'ghost motorcycle' before, and it's a fairly typical example of how things often go in Zim.... I arranged with my friend Allan, shortly after I arrived in Dec., to rent his Yamaha 250 mudhudhudhu (motorcycle; you say mudhudhudhu as if imitating the sound of a motorcycle - try it, it's fun.) It was in at his mechanic friend's (not the butternut mechanic, another one who repairs motorcycles and other small engines) place, had just been rebuilt and just needed $20 to finish fixing a leak and bring it home. I paid $100 in advance rental, quite pleased to have the freedom of my own transport, as there are no commuter lifts out to Kufunda. After a week I picked it up and brought it home, filling the tank with fuel on the way in anticipation of many adventures, but discovered the next morning that it was still leaking - and worse. We took it back in, I went away over the holidays, and with one thing and another it was early January before it was ready again. I went and picked it up, but the mechanics had siphoned off the fuel (they claimed they'd used it for 'road testing'), so I stopped for more fuel, then drove it home. The next day, leaking again. Drove it back to the shop, where it sat.... and sat. This time, an arguement over money - plus, because the mechanic was doing it for a reduced price, he was giving other paying jobs priority. Towards the end of January Allan brought it back.... but it was still leaking, and he took it back the next day. That's the last I saw of it... maybe it will turn up for my final days. Anyway, this is the only - and quite appropriate - shot I have of 'my bike'.

Vendors

Vendors are ubiquitous in Zimbabwe. Along streets, roads and footpaths, at bus stops and bus stations,standing in the middle of the road at intersections, they sell toys, airtime, newspapers, veggies, eggs, rope, ice cream, snacks, bags, fruit, clothing, belts, batteries, phones.... virtually anything you need. It's generally a low margin occupation, with long days spent breathing polluted city air and being harrassed by police and extorted by political factions, but with unemployment in Zimbabwe at somewhere north of 80% it's the only option for a great many people. An airtime vendor (selling $1 strips that will add airtime to a cell phone) pays 92 cents wholesale for each strip, and makes on average around $9 per day in Harare, although they can make more on a good day.

Municipal vendor stalls in Chinhoyi.

                               Selling mangos in Nyamhunga, Kariba.

Many people moonlight as vendors as well; during Zimbabwe's worst economic period around 2008, when teachers weren't paid for months at a time, one teacher told me she only managed to survive by travelling to South Africa and bringing back goods to sell. Below is a typical Zimbabwean story: my friend was getting his truck fixed by a mechanic friend; he couldn't pay him, but agreed to go and sell 2 tons of butternut squash, in 10 kg bags, that the mechanic received in payment from a farmer for repairs on a truck. My friend went around and set up by roadsides and in parking lots at the shops in various suburbs for days until the squash were gone; he and the mechanic split the profit.

                        Selling maize cobs (chibage) roasted on a home made braii.

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                                            At 4th St. kombi rank, Harare.

 These guys had staked out a spot at a police roadblock on the the main road from Harare to Mutare. Plenty of captive customers in the kombis and buses lined up along the side of the road, waiting while the drivers had their papers and vehicles inspected.

       

Tomato vendors along the Harare-Mutare Rd. - vendors selling similar items seem to group together; you'll pass 6 or 8 in a row selling mushrooms, or honey, or mangos.

                                            The 'shoe section' in Rusape.
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Monument vendors relaxing by their wares... if you need it, chances are you can find it on a street near you.