What's up with Thomas

Cultureclash #4

2011-02-17T19:00:00.000+02:00

Public transport does not stop where you tell them to.

:-))))))))))))))))))))))))))

2011-02-01T18:43:00.000+02:00

I got an iPod touch for my birthday :-)

Thank you sweetheart :-)

I love it.

WE in Courchevel with Olga and half of Serbia

2011-01-31T18:50:00.000+02:00

Cyprus - January 2011

2011-01-24T18:55:00.000+02:00

Oryx gallopping next to our car

2011-01-23T12:47:00.002+02:00

This was shot on the road between Sesriem and Sossusvlei, Namibia. We stopped to look at this grazing oryx just next to the road. When we started driving again, it started walking next to us. And when speeding up, it just speeded up as well and ran next to the car for a good while! Magnificent.

Russia - Dec/Jan 2011

2011-01-09T18:56:00.000+02:00

CultureClash #3

2010-12-22T11:51:00.001+02:00

No more internet on my phone... (unless I pay 50 eurocent per Mb). Gosh I miss Econet.

CultureClash #2

2010-12-22T11:49:00.001+02:00

Raising your eyebrows as a positive answer to a question, is not commonly understood as such in Belgium.

CultureClash #1

2010-12-22T11:43:00.002+02:00

Turning on the wipers instead of the indicators.

Monday 20/12

2010-12-22T11:29:00.002+02:00

This is it. Last hours in Zim. The end of a chapter. I wake up with a lump in my throat. I keep myself busy with some very final packing (there is always that thing you find last minute you have no idea what to do with or how to pack or how to get rid of). We realise some suitcases are overweight and we need to puzzle and shift the luggage from one piece to the other. We both end up with each 23+27kg and some overweight handluggage. Crossing fingers for the check in. 3 years of our life in 4 big and 3 small bags. Lump in the throat. Tindo drops by for a final goodbye. Farai, Orane, Rah and Dimitri as well. Shaun and Viv arrive to pick us up for the trip to the airport. Constance comes in to clean the house. 7 goodbyes later (counting the cat as well), Bruno and I let the tears lose in the car. Lump in the throat just writing this. Recomposing. Effortless check-in. Last drink at the new airport bar with Shaun and Vivi. They give us in name of the capoeira group a club t-shirt each, Bruno's has his capoeira name "Navalha" on it, mine says "Groupie Nr 1" :-). Very final goodbye to S&V. And an effortless flight back home, despite our fears of cancelled flights on account of snow and lack of defrosting products.

Hope to go back to Zim some time soon!

Sunday 19/12

2010-12-22T11:22:00.002+02:00

Last full day in Zim. Bruno and I pack the suitcases, and make final decisions on what is to give away and what is to bring back to Belgium. Everything that is to give away we set up nicely in the living room (t-shirts on one couch, trousers on another, the "things" on the table, ...). Dimitri who spent the night, wakes up and starts shopping :-) - our bestest client. Throughout the day people trickle in and out, the goodbyes are countless and with each one I'm getting closer to tears. It's a fun day though. Lots of reminiscing, lots of stories. After everybody's gone (and actually pretty much all our to-give-away-stuff as well) we finalise the packing and throw away anything that's left over. In bed by midnight after a short swim (I figured I really had to take advantage while it last).

Saturday 18/12

2010-12-22T11:21:00.000+02:00

2 nights to go in Zim - is the first thought of the morning. We hear about people coming to Zim from Europe that missed connections because Frankfurt airport was closed for some hours because of the snow... . Gosh, I don't want to land in Addis and hearing the plane can't go because Europe is being snowed under!

I get a cab for a quick errand, and get back home in time for Natalia picking us up for breakfast at 40 Cork Road (also known as my second office, a place where I spent many hours on-line, to work of course). Again, "last time" we're there. I'm slowly getting tired of those last times. Breakfast is wonderful. Natalia is a great person. We already make plans for holidays in Lebanon or wherever we end up living next!

Back home, where the capoeira crowd and attachments gathers to go to this place in the hills just north of Harare for a braai and Bruno's goodbye roda. Having a good time, with a great view, with a great bunch of people.

In the evening Bruno and I wait for the next tenants of the flat (a French girl, her Moçambican husband and their cutest-ever kid). They're spending Christmas in Moçambique and wanted to leave some stuff at our place. After they left, we can't really make up our minds about what to do. So I go to bed at 10. At about 4am, Bruno wakes up hungry and decides to make dinner (not just a middle of the night snack, no no, rice and meat and a salad). We eat with Dimitri (who came to crash at ours) while watching The Big Bang Theory - an hilarious sitcom. Then back to bed for a couple of hours.

Friday 17/12

2010-12-22T11:20:00.000+02:00

Happy birthday, sister!
Last day at work. Bruno and I take a cab to work, because walking around and taking combi's with a vacuum cleaner (for colleague), though funny, would not have been practical... . I finish up the last tidbits, say no to one partner organisation who wants me to do one last thing, finalise my backups (I now have copies of my 43 gigabytes of documents and pictures on 3 different hard drives, soon to be spread over 2 continents - how's that for security). Lunch time - one last lunch at the Bottom Drawer (their open chicken and mayo sandwiches are 'just' great), with Celina. Then back to the office for the very last hours. The "ok, I think I'm really done here" feeling trickles in. I make a plan to bring back the laptop I've been using to partnerorganisation CTDT, and say goodbye to Memory, our fantastic administrative assistant and Luk.

4.30 - very last training with Shaun and Vivien. Shaun measures me for the last time, and as it turns out, I've nicely progressed on various muscles :-). After stretching, they give me a little present - they're so nice.

The plans for the night are taking shape: Marcel drops by for a drink, he brings us to Red Bar and from there we end up in Amanzi where the MercyCorps crew has taken over the bar... . Chuck and I have a really nice chat about fatherhood. Too bad we're both leaving the country soon, I would have liked to spend more time with him and his wife.

Wednesthursday 15-16/12

2010-12-16T12:06:00.000+02:00

Gosh... one of those days that litteraly never end... . Woke up as usual, swam as usual, went to work as usual. Got a call from the car sales guy to meet up with him somewhere to go and show my car to his client. We waited for an hour and on our way out of the place we finally bump into her. After some discussions, we come to an agreement - she would wire the money over to my account in Europe in exchange for a couple of hundred dollars less. But since I want to keep the car another 4 days, till we leave, she wants to wait to do the transaction till Friday. I say ok, but regret it a bit later because it would mean to leave her with the car without having the money actually on my account. Anyway, I leave with the sales guy and he tells me about this other client who wants a car like now now. We meet her at 4pm in town, go for a spin and she falls in love with the car. And wants it on the spot. I decide to sell it to her as she's willing to pay the price I wanted for it. After an hour of paperwork, she drives off. And I'm back to being a pedestrian.

After 5, Shaun picks me up for training and kindly drops me back home again. Plenty of people are excitedly cooking on Orane's instructions - he and Dimitri and Rahim decided to host a little taco party for us at our place. The little party ended at about 6am. I decided against going to sleep, to avoid being incapable to wake up in time to go to work. Bruno does the opposite (and I wonder if he's already awake as I type :-) )

I clean up the mess, swim to stay awake and wait for Constance before I walk to the main street and grab a combi towards work. And I end up walking 30min for the last bit where the combi's don't pass.

Staying awake is definitively more difficult when you're almost 33 than 10 years ago!

Right now time to hit the squash court with Shaun - I wonder how that will go - then after that back to work, go home, and sleep... (never have I so longed for my bed).

Tuesday 14/12

2010-12-15T14:46:00.001+02:00

The swimming pool is irresistibly transparent. After a couple of lengths and breakfast, off to work for a very efficient morning. I plough through a substantial amount of work before our lunch with Natalia. The afternoon is a bit slower, but I still manage to get a lot done.

After work, I meet the guy who called me yesterday to see my car. He seems interested, but since he's only a middle man, he wants his client to see the car the next day. I hope it'll work out as he's willing to pay the price I ask!

Bruno and I work up the courage go through all our clothes and decide what to bring back to Belgium and what to give away in Zim. We end up with not even filling up the suit-cases we plan on bringing back... . Goodie.

While Bruno attends his capoeira practice, I clean out the kitchen and some cupboards. The whole cleaning up part is actually not so bad when spread out over some days. On the other hand, the house looks more and more empty - a reminder that the end is drawing closer. I still don't really realise it, even though we've already said good-bye to a bunch of close friends, people we probably won't see before long. In less than a week I'm back on the other side of the globe and probably not going back to Southern Africa any time soon. I wonder how I'll adapt... .

Monday 13/12

2010-12-15T14:44:00.001+02:00

The very very last working week in Zimbabwe kick off. Just as the week before, I'm flooded with last minute stuff: lay-outing a recipe book, an annual report and a newsletter, creating a website and finalising a catalogue of techniques.

Lunch is spent with Monica at Vanilla Moon. There we bump into an old friend - Jennifer, who we met through CouchSurfer Catherine last year. Jen lives in Addis Ababa (we spent a couple of days at hers last year before heading to Belgium for Christmas) but just accepted a job in Zimbabwe. Bad bad timing, since we're about to leave the country. We make plans for drinks in the evening. Back to work for a little bit. At 3pm time for our 3-weekly work out with Shaun and Vivien. We need to do this earlier than usual because the capoeira group they're part of (with Bruno) has a little performance planned during a fashion show organised by the Spanish Embassy later that night.

In the morning I placed an advert for my car on a local website. It pays of as somebody calls me for more info. We decide to meet at my place so he can see for himself tomorrow after work.

At the fashion show, the designers are local, the show is not too bad, the capoeiristas are impressive as usual (Bruno is getting very good). We're invited for the cocktail afterwards, but prefer to leave just before the end of the show to grab a pizza and some drinks with Jennifer.

Sunday 12/12

2010-12-15T14:43:00.000+02:00

For a while now, Darko (a Serbian friend) has offered us to host a little good-bye brunch for us and a couple of close friends. Darko is a fantastic cook and once again blows our taste buds. The rest of the afternoon is spent there with great folks by the pool.

On our way home we drop by "Londoners" - a famous bar where some friends usualy hang out - for a last drink, which lasted a bit longer than expected... .

Saturday 11/12

2010-12-15T14:42:00.000+02:00

The plan for the day is to sleep. But it's hot and by 11am I'm up and swimming in the pool. Dimitri (who ended up crashing at our place) gets up, Rahim and Orane drop by to "debrief" the party. As every Saturday, Bruno heads for his capoeira practice by 3.30pm. But 15 minutes later he's back with the whole crowd - nobody was really in good enough shape for capoeira. So after some more party debriefing, they hold their planned annual general meeting.

Plans are also made for the rest of the evening. There is a party at Marta (Swedish friend)... . But Bruno and I are committed to a Christmas drink at Eric and Christian's (Belgian-American couple) - which turned out really nice and chilled. Around 11pm we decide to give Martha's party a go, but fatigue is catching up and leave for home soon after we got there.

Friday 10/12

2010-12-15T14:33:00.003+02:00

Today is a big day. We've been planning a good-bye party with Marion, a French girl that is leaving the country as well (although she might come back because she applied for "my" job in the next Volens programme). We decided that the theme would be "Should we stay or should we go" and have people dress in red if they want us to leave or in white if they want us to stay.

The day starts at 7.30 with a tough work out with Shaun and Vivien. And after a morning at work where things are quite hectic - the partners we work with have realised I'm leaving for good and are flooding me with last minute stuff - and a good-bye lunch with colleague Caroline who's leaving on holiday and who we thus won't see again, time for some big time shopping. I heard about a place where the drinks are particularly cheap and come back with about 120 beers, 12 litres of juice, and 10 bottles of vodka/gin/rhum.

5pm - rendez-vous at Marion's place where the party is taking place. Uwe and Nicola (German friends who are very creative when it comes to spectacular decoration for parties) are already there setting up a 4m high fountain in the pool and coloured spots in the garden. The effect is fabulous! I leave again for some last minute shopping and to pick up the PA system with Shaun at Tafadzwa's, a colleague of Vivien's who rents out sound systems on the side is lending us a system for free because we've been supporting his little business over the past year.

9pm - everything is set. The beers are cold, the dj's playing cool music, we changed in our outfits, the fountain is splashing in the pool. about 30min later the first guests trickle in and around midnight the party goes full blast. I think in the end we had about 100 people partying with us.

5am - it's getting light and we decide to call it a night. I bring some carless people home, head back to Marion's to help the dj pack up the soundsystem and drop him off at Tafadzwa's. In bed by 6. What a fun night.

Namibia 2010

2010-11-22T14:26:00.009+02:00

Aaahh Namibia... . Beautifull country. Taking the opportunity of the visit of Bruno's cousin Hanne and her boyfriend Pieter, we spend two weeks in Namibia and drove around the whole place, ending up doing over 8000 km. My poor little car suffered! But it was worth it - the place is amazing. Didn't we exagerate on the milage? With hindsight, yes, maybe a little bit. We could have skipped the far far south (Fish River Canyon). But all the fantastic landscapes made it a pleasure to just sit in the car and look around.

The deal was: camping. And God know how I love that... . "Luckily" the small inflatable mattresses were beyond repair after the first night and Bruno bought us a fantastic double mattress, for comfy nights in the 2-seconds tent. It made my day!

On a red dune, Sossusvlei.

Keeping warm by the fire in the cold evenings in the dessert at Sossusvlei.

This is not PhotoShopped! We found the exact spot where Lonely Planet took their picture for the Namibia guide.

Just out of oh-my-god-we're-in-Germany-Luderitz, in a ghost town called Kohlmanskop.

In the middle of nowhere, actually in the middle of rocky mountains in the middle of a dessert, an hot water spring, complete with a lodge, swimming pools, camping facilities and a spa.

Hanne, Pieter, Bruno and Thomas - in front of the Fish River Canyon

Between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. For a second there we thought the wind blew tons of sand over my car... .

A ship wreck along the Skeleton Coast.

Cape Cross - the largest seal colony in the region. And the smelliest.

A (sorry, "the") road in the Skeleton Coast Park.

Ok, this is not just us sitting on a tree. This is us sitting on a petrified tree trunk from thousands of years ago!

No Bushmen rock paintings but rock engravings, for a change :-).

The first thing we saw upon entering the famous Etosha National Park...

... and the traffic jam to see that poor old lion.

A sable antilope, or oryx.

A cute hyena.

A bunch of elephants by a waterhole. Notice the cute little ones.

A big bull munching on some branches by the road in Etosha.

Zipline in Vic Falls

2010-08-16T09:36:00.003+02:00

Preparations

Getting ready

The view and the zip-line cable

The first second

Sunday

2010-07-06T15:54:00.003+02:00

The house feels a bit empty after having 5 people in the place for the past week or so. But some peace and quite is very nice, especially on a Sunday. The morning is spent in bed. Breakfast time being past, I cook some brunch: pasta and veggies.

One of the capoeira side projects (also called outreach projects) is to give capoeira classes to the Emerald Hill Orphenage. The place is having a Fun Day on their premises, so Bruno and I meet up with some of the capoeiristas and spend a bit of time there.

During Friday's lunch, Monica and us decided to have our very first "dunch" (the latest fashionable trend which is to combine dinner and lunch, somewhere late afternoon) today. So I prepare a little frittata (basically a tortilla) and some home made bread, and we're off to Monica's where we have a fantastic dunch with her and Alexia and Helder.

After a quiet day, we're having a quiet night. Usually, we go to Marcel's for a Sunday Night - Movie Night, where he shows a selection of more arty farty movies - the ones you don't see in the theatres. But he cancelled for this week.

My stress levels are rising slowly but surely: the fair only 10 days away!

Saturday

2010-07-06T15:49:00.002+02:00

All the couchsurfers prepare to leave. The Austrian girls (also known now as the giggling girls 'cause they chuckle after everything they or anybody say, or for no reason...) head to the airport to go back to Jo'burg and Lesotho. The 2 americans go with them to go and rent a car at the airport. While they're gone, I prepare oaty pancakes for (late) breakfast, after which the 3 (american guys and Lithuanian girlfriend) of them leave the place for Masvingo and a tour of the country in a week.

We are so nice that we even lend them 2 tents, sleeping bags, cooler box and some other stuff to camp with.

Bruno and I enjoy a quite afternoon watching some episodes of Fringe. Bruno goes to capoeira training while I watch "2012". Bruno comes back with Cecile (a french volunteer who works for one of Volens' local partners). We head of to Allied Arts Festival (Bruno should be posting something about this soon, so if you're interested go check out his blog); a drama and speech festival for school kids. Some of Bruno's partner organisations also sent their (street)children. From there we go to Natalia to watch Spain against Paraguay (go Spain!). After dropping off Cecile, back home to bed!

Friday

2010-07-06T14:40:00.003+02:00

Waking up to a full house again. I learn that the 1 of the american couchsurfers is expecting his Lithuanian girlfriend today. Off to work , still preparing the fair and attending to a few other things. Big frustration when I learn that a publication I've been working on in A4 format was supposed to be in A5 (and nobody that realises that that means starting all over again from scratch...).

Lunch with Monica and Caroline, who we went horse-riding last WE at Vanilla Moon (where they have divine Mediterranean Veggie Wraps). A quick stop at the water-seller to fill up our 2 big 20l bottles (Harare water is usually drinkable, but always has a earth-like taste). Back to the office for a couple of hours.

3.30 - time for workout with Shaun. He really kills me. I return home with sore legs, abs and shoulders.

The couchsurfers prepare a meal, we eat, play some games for a while till averybody prepares to go watch tonight's game (Ghana against ???).

Orion, Allan, Bruno, me and the Teresia and Britta, the giggling girls
all dressed up for the world cup

I go to bed with a movie (Breach, 2007).

Thursday

2010-07-02T14:28:00.002+02:00

Still cloudy, even colder than yesterday, bed is still the nicest place to hang out... .

Breakfast with the couchsurfers, giving them some tips. Off to work, picking up Orane, a quick shopping stop at the Mabelreign shops to get a new blanket for our guests who seem to have been freezing all night. I spend part of the morning on working on the blog entries of the past two days, my e-mails, uploading some big files to a printer and go for squash at 12.30.

The first set I lose by a terrible 3-21, the second set is much better and entertaining. A quick shower and back to the office. In the meantime I try to take the burst pipe matters in my own hands and call a plumber to make an appointment for a quote later in the afternoon.

At work I try to finalise the compilation of the e-mail addresses of invitees for the fair and send out the invite - but no luck due to some tech stuff that doesn't work for odd reasons... .

4.30 - back at home to meet the plumber, but our neighbour Ken (evicted white farmer, who owns one of the flats in our complex) already took the matter in his hands and had somebody dig around the pipe and put a temporary patch on it. The plumber comes sees the problem and basically says he can't quote before he sees the pipe... . That's useful information. Anyway, Ken is convinced that we need to get all six flat-owners together and get them to pay a deposit for the repair works before going ahead. Ach, I'm fed up with this, and I let him do things the way he wants. At least the water can be put back on full time now.

My dinner decision is made: mediterrenean one crust pie (veggies in a loose crust). I start working on it while the house is getting fuller and fuller. The 4 CS-ers trickle in, Orane, Mucha and Rahim drop by, Bruno comes home. Lots of laughter, the beers fly out of the fridge, until Bruno announces it's time to go to the theatre to see "The importance of being Ernest". I can't go yet because my pie needs 30 min of oven, so I stay behind, take care of my pie and go to the theatre on the bike.

The play was pretty good - I think (I have to admit that with no food in my stomach since breakfast I fell asleep 45 min into the play). I leave before the end to go have a bite. Bruno and the CS-ers pick me up at home after the play and we're of to The Mannenberg, where locally famous artist and friend of ours John Mpumojena is having his birthday concert/party.

A couple of drinks later, back home and to bed!

Wednesday

2010-07-01T10:29:00.006+02:00

Again, one of those mornings you would so love to stay in (your nice and warm) bed for hours... . But no time to hang around, I need to be in town at a day-long meeting by 8.30-9-ish and I have to find a place where I can colour print 28 pictures for one of our partner NGOs.

So breakfast, meeting the CS girls properly and chat a bit, and we're off for the day. The transport logistics are a bit more complicated these days since Bruno crashed his motor bike. So for him to get to the office, he needs the car, and thus has to drop me off at the meeting I have. We pass by 5 different places advertising colour printing, but none of them managed to print my picts "oh sorry sir, the colour cartridge is empty" - "there is a page stuck in the printer, but we're removing it now (I waited 15 minutes then left...)" - "colour printing sir? no not here (remember, I only stopped where they advertised it...)". One of those days... .

The meeting goes well. It gathered all the local NGO's we work with to prepare the fair (first part) and to discuss the year in progress and the next 3-year programme (second part).

Some of the PO reps and Caroline, the programme facilitator

By 3.30 we wrap things up and Caroline drops me of at home. I find the austrian girls giggling and chain smoking in the garden, trying to figure out a way to go to Lesotho fast. Busses to Jo'burg appear to be full (world cup effect) and so they need to get in touch with their parents so they can buy them a plane ticket. Later that evening, at a dinner party, I would learn from a travel agent that all the flights are fully booked, even in business class for the next 4 days (again, world cup effect).

In the meantime, I'm getting news from other CouchSurfers, Allan and Orion (yeah , like the constellation) from the USA. They just crossed the border from Botswana into Zimbabwe, they're getting transport to Harare and should be there by 9pm. I already fear another late night arrival... .

Oh, and still no progress on the burst waterpipe. Did I mention that the main valve is in our garden, and that we cut off the water all day but from 7 to 8am and from 6 to 7pm? So the parking lot/common court is not flooded all the time... .

5.15, time to go for my workout. Rush home, quick bath, and off to Tony's. Tony is a friend we met through Aymeline. He lives in a fantastic house with a fantastic view, a bit out of town. Before, during and after dinner, Bruno spends a lot of time with his 13 y/o son Gino doing card tricks. Have to admit he had some pretty neat ones! We have a really nice time Tony and his other invites Michelle, the travel agent and Quinton, my hairdresser - Harare is a small village.

This is me blowing the original vuvuzela (also called kuduzela). At Tony's.

Around 9.30ish, the couchsurfers call to say they should be at our place soon - our cue to go home. The poor guys were at our gate trying to get in for 15 minutes, but the giggling girls, who were home, forgot we were expecting other people and were too scared to open the gate... . anyway, we chat a bit with Allan and Orion, show them around, get them a mattress to sleep on in the living room. And off to bed!

Tuesday

2010-07-01T09:52:00.003+02:00

Tuesday morning - cold, cloudy, no motivation to get out of bed - usual day. Wake up, coffee, breakfast. Orane (germano-jamaican friend who lives around the corner) drops by to hitch a ride with us to the office where he will be working for Bruno's programme for a couple of days.

Nothing special to mention at work. Just some preparations for the processed products fair in July and a double meeting tomorrow Wednesday.

12.30 - time to go for squash! I meet up with Shaun not only for workouts but also for squash (on the non-workout days). Although we're definitely no pro's, I feel we are getting better at the game by the day! After a quick shower and a bit of shopping I go back to the office.

In the meantime, I get a text message from 2 austrian girls from CouchSurfing that had been planning on getting into Harare today. The bus they were supposed to take at 9am from Lusaka (Zambia) never left the city and the next bus only leaves at 2.30pm - meaning they would get in Harare at 11pm earliest. Oh well, nothing to do about that.

The evening is taking shape. Valerie sends out an e-mail to go to The Maiden, a bar in town, to watch the Spain-Portugal game. A mixture of spanish expats and portguese (or Portugal supporters) should be there, so it might be fun (even though -I just have to say it- I'm NOT a big soccer fan, on the contrary).

5-ish, time to go home. Still no news regarding the repairs of the broken waterpipe. Ggggrrrr. Out of frustration I start cooking an apple crumble (which turned out pretty ok). While Bruno goes to his capoeira class, I watch the end of "wall-E", a cartoon-movie about a little robot, quite funny and cute, and head for The Maiden to watch the game.

The Maiden, at the cricket grounds

After the oh's, ah's and after having learnt new spanish and portuguese swearwords, time to go home. Still no news from the austrian couchsurfing girls.

00.21, got woken up by ringing celphone - the CS girls just arrived in town and are getting a cab to our place
00.35, thinking they should be there any minute now, I get out of bed
00.45, still nobody, I fall asleep in the living room in front of the heater
00.55, the cab driver is lost and calls for directions
01.15, they're there. I show them around and go back to bed.

Monday

2010-06-29T14:24:00.003+02:00

OK, what's the story with the weather in Zimbabwe? Going in our third year in this part of the world, I can see and especially feel changes in otherwise pretty standard patterns. The classic story is: dry, cold, hardly any clouds and lots of sun from March to October, wet and hot from November to February. What we are having this year is very late rains, plenty of clouds, a generally pretty weird weather.

Enough on that. Monday, first day of the week, back to the office after a nice and relaxed WE were we went to the North of the country to a place called Kopje Tops. There is basically nothing but a couple of cottages (bed and bathroom) and a lounge/eating room with open fire and a wonderful view. We headed over there with 4 friends for a horse-riding weekend.

So back to the office with sore legs and a sore ass ;-) The stress levels are slowly rising as the date for our "Processed Products Fair" is approaching. It's funny to see that I still have some of those "fair organising" reflexes from my time at Artexis... . The good news of the day was that a first article appeared in the local press! Basically a copy/paste of our press release, but still, the press is picking up the story. So that Processed Products Fair will be on 14 July. Basically, the local NGOs that we work with and their farmers will be exhibiting the products they have learnt to make over the past 2 years. Here is the invite (all welcome ;-).

After spending the morning at the Volens office working on banners for the fair, answering e-mails, getting frustrated about my super slow computer, gossiping with the colleagues, and after a quick lunch, I headed over to a local communications/advertising company that gave me the best price to print 6m x 1m PVC banners to give them the artwork and pay them. From there I went to a short meeting with the Harare show ground people and back to the office for an hour.

Forgot to mention that we woke up with a river in the inner courtyard/parking lot we share with 5 other tenants of the flats we live in. From under the tar, right in front of our kitchen window, a burst pipe was gusting water all over. *sigh*. This means that the water needs to be cut of, the tar needs to be broken up, the pipe replaced, and the hole closed before the water can be turned on again. I wonder how long this will take. At least 2-3 days (if all goes well). Anyway, we discussed the matter with one of the neighbours who is kind of in charge of those things (he said he would get someone to get somebody to come and take a look at it). But once back home after work, nothing had happened.

Monday is also work-out day. Shaun, a friend and personal trainer by profession, trains me an Vivien 3 times a week in my or her garden. Although Vivien is gone back to Germany for a month, I still go to her place as the few things we use during the workout are there. Bruno drops me off on his way to the shops. I sweat for an hour, take a shower at her place (ah ja, no water at ours), Shaun drops me off at home and I start cooking - my new hobby since I bought a vegetarian recipe book 2 weeks ago. Ed, one of the instructors of Bruno's capoeira group, joins us for dinner (a vegetable curry, hmmm). Bruno and I watch an episode of our latest favourite serie Fringe and go to bed.

Renting my apartment in Brussels!

2010-02-15T15:25:00.002+02:00

NL hieronder -- EN below
-----------------------------------------

Chers tous,

Je cherche un(e) locataire(-trice) pour mon appartement situé Av. Louis Bertrand, à Bruxelles. C'est un chouette appart, idéal pour célibataire voire meme un adulte avec enfant. Libre à partir du 20 mars 2010, 650 euro par mois (incl. eau et charges communes, excl. gaz/électricité). Plus de détails sur cette page Facebook, ou dans le pdf attaché.

Merci de forwarder!

-----------------------------------------

Beste allemaal,

Ik ben op zoek naar een huurder voor mijn appartement in de Louis Bertrandlaan in Brussel. Het is een leuk appartement, ideaal voor een alleenstaande of zelfs een ouder met kind. Beschikbaar vanaf 20 maart 2010, 650 euro per maand (inclusief water en gemeenschappelijke kosten, exclusief water en electriciteit). Meer info op deze Facebook pagina, of in bijgevoegde pdf.

Graag forwarden!

-----------------------------------------
Dear all,

I'm letting my appartment in the Avenue Louis Bertrand in Brussels. It's a very nice apartment, ideal for a single person, or even for a single parent and a small child. The place is available as from 20 March 2010, 650 euro per month (including water and common charges, excluding gas and electricity). More information on this Facebook page or in attached pdf file.

Don't hesitate to forward to friends!

Merci, bedankt, thanks,

Thomas

Corruptie

2009-11-03T19:13:00.000+02:00

Wat doe je eraan? Er aan meedoen of toch maar proberen om de regels te volgen? Er aan meedoen is een manier om het in de hand te werken. De regels volgen en daardoor een voorbeeld stellen daarentegen is meestal duurder en vraagt meer administratie.

Deze ochtend werd ik voor de zoveelste keer gestopt door de politie omdat ik een oranje verkeerslicht negeerde. Zoals in Belgie, stonden de zwaantjes mooi achter een bocht verstopt. Soit, ze doen natuurlijk hun werk. Je moet weten dat ik dat verkeerslicht in anderhalf jaar vrijwel nooit heb zien werken. Ik was dus stomverbaasd dat ze me een boete van 20 dollars probeerden op te leggen.

- Sorry sir, but I don't think this robot is working... (Robot is het woord dat men in zuidelijk Afrika gebruikt voor trafficlights), so how can you stop me for neglecting an amber light?

- Oh, but it is working, sir!

- Really? Do you mind if I turn around to check it out? (Dit is het moment waar ik een "allé, 't is goe, rij maar door" verwacht)

- Sure, I'll join you and we can check it out together.

De agent stapt in en ik maak rechtsomkeer (over een dubbele witte lijn, maar daar had hij geen erg in), steek het kruispunt weer over om opnieuw rechtsomkeer te maken zodat de agent en ik kunnen vaststellen of de lichten in de richting waar ik vandaan kwam effectief werken (opnieuw over een dubbele witte lijn).

- You see, sir, all three colours are working. We wouldn't be standing there if we weren't sure that they would be working. So the ticket is 20 dollars. But that's expensive, hey. How much do you want to pay?

Tja, wat zeg je dan?

- 10 dollars?

- That's fine sir. (Ik haal een briefje van 10 boven). Please make sure my collegues don't see this. Thank you sir, you can go now. Have a nice day.

Later op het werk vertel ik het voorval aan Zimbabweaanse collegas. "Ha, je wordt een echte Zimbabweaan. Maar 10 USD, dat is nog veel te veel! Praat wat in Shona en zeg dat het leven niet gemakkelijk is, dat je geen geld hebt, dat het je heel erg spijt, en geef ze dan 2 dollar. Daar zijn ze meestal content mee."

Internet

2009-11-03T18:40:00.002+02:00

Like, totaly, wow!

Half a year ago or something, one of the cell phone operators upgraded its systems and provided GPRS and EDGE, allowing for access to internet in exchange of a flat 25 USD fee per month. Although the theoretical speeds of internet access through GPRS are attractive (in Zimbabwean terms that is), it practically never got higher than a frustrating average of 1,5 kbps... .

It probably is a sign of (slight) economic recovery: nowadays that same operator is introducing UMTS, meaning that for that same amount of money, we are now able to surf the web at more confortable speeds (averaging 5kbps but with peaks up to 150 kbps)! For instance, I'm happily listening to my favourite belgian radio station with not even a hint of delays or annoying buffer-pauses! Isn't that great? Long live 3G!

Zimbabwe, een bijzondere passie

2009-11-03T18:25:00.004+02:00

Patrice, a friend of ours, asked us one year ago to share our experiences in Zimbabwe and write a chapter for her book "Zimbabwe, een bijzondere passie" (Zimbabwe, a special passion). We wrote our contribution as diary extracts, telling our impressions as freshly arrived youngsters.

A year later, the book is a reality. It tells Patrice's story, interwoven with contributions of 23 other persons (black and white Zimbabweans, belgians and dutchmen). The final product is a easily readable book giving a mozaik of views on Zimbabwe.

The book is mainly in dutch, but includes english chapters, and is available here!

Wist je dat...

2009-08-07T12:49:00.001+02:00

... His Worship de burgemeester van Harare net groen licht heeft gekregen voor het kopen van een nieuwe Mercedes ML320 CDI (waarde: 152 437 US$), ter vervanging van een "veroude en onbetrouwbare" S320 uit 2004... Er was 80 000 US$ voorzien, maar dat budget werd zonder probleem verdubbeld door het college van schepenen.

... en dat terwijl het stadsbestuur er maar niet in slaagt om geld te vinden om vuilniscamions te kopen, defecte verkeerslichten te vervangen, water- en rioolinfrastructuur en putten in de straten te herstellen.

... er best wat culturele activiteiten zijn in Harare. Filmvertoningen in de Spaanse embassade (gisteren Tierra y Libertad gezien, over de oorlog in Spanje tussen Franco's faschisten, stallinsten en boeren milicies), een amerikaanse goochelaar (30 US$ - watte? no way josé, pokkeduur), bijna dagelijkse optredens in Mannenberg/Bookcafe, ... . Ok, "best wat" is misschien een beetje overdreven, maar het is hier allesinds niet doods.

... het leuk is om straatshona (shona is een van de 2 belangrijkste talen in Zimbabwe, in Harare vaak gemengd met engels) te leren: Sei malevels? Malowlow! (hoe staan de niveaus? laag laag! - een variatie op de klassieke begroetingen).

... DV8, mijn favoriete steak-house, waar de dikke blanke Rhodie-eigenaares met afgeschoren haar overdreven slijmt (goodevening sir, how are you enjoying your meal this evening, sir? is everything as expected, sir?) en waar je om extra krokkante frietjes moet vragen om ze als belg enigzins ok te vinden, is minstens tot december gesloten! (oh, nee!)

Blog on De Standaard

2009-08-07T12:45:00.002+02:00

I got the opportunity to blog on one of the blogs of belgian newspaper "De Standaard", which is kind of a stimulating thing! To write for a larger and unknown audience... .

The downpart is that it's in dutch only :-( Which will hopefully motive me to keep posting in different languages here as well.

http://standaard.typepad.com/en_nu_even_elders/zimbabwe/

Highlights from HIFA

2009-05-05T11:45:00.005+02:00

The Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) came and is gone already. Six days of music, dance, theatre, acrobatics, etc... . Thanks to the capoeira group (they were sheduled to present capoeira at HIFA) I got hold of an artist pass, which allowed me to attend the shows for free (when they were not sold out). Needless to say I took the opportunity to get high on international culture. International, because most of the shows are sponosered by embassies.

My personal highlights included:

crazy music from La Brass Banda (Bayern, Germany)
one man show "The Beauty and the B.E.E." (South Africa). B.E.E. is short for Black Economic Empowerment. The guy, a white South African (Ben Voss), impersonnated a black business woman from South Africa and unleached some politicaly incorrect quote like "Want to do business in South Africa? ... Buy a politician"; "I drove down Nelson Mandela avenue, a very nice road, then left into Robert Mugabe. That was a mistake. Everybody knows Robert Mugabe is a dead end"; "Lots of indians in South Africa, hey. But I'm not a racialist. I love curry!". The whole show was amazing, you could feel a kind of general relief in the audience, as it was kind of OK to laugh with these things in public, finally...
One Dream: award winning South Korean B-Boys performing their best breakdance moves
Hermes House Band (The Netherlands): I never would have imagined to hear "De meeste dromen zijn bedrog" live in a park in Zimbabwe, but I did! Ten or so very very dutch looking musicians/singers brought the best of the 80s hits (and Guus Meewis)
La Rumbe: spanish band, pop/rock music and a very hot and furious flamenco tapdancing girl. Superb!

HIFA was also a busy time at home. About 15 CouchSurfers stayed in our little spare room, and in tents in the garden. For a week there, it felt like a backpacker hostel (which we baptised B&T's B&B). Apart from the occasional queue in front of the (only one) toilet, we had a very nice time having these guys and girls over! See the pictures on Bruno's blog.

The festival is now over, and Harare is probably gonna be quite dry on cultural level for the next 365 days. Now it's back to work, but there are already a couple of things to look forward to: a weekend in Chimanimani (east of the country, in the mountains) for another festival at the end of May, a week in Kariba (north west, by the lake) for a Volens Regional meeting also at the end of May, a Volens Communications meeting in Bamako, Mali, end of June, and a trip to Belgium, early July.

Did you know that...

2009-04-28T11:36:00.000+02:00

... Bruno's first godchild was born last week (same day as my mother, isn't that convenient!). His name is Loic and his mother and he are doing great!
... HIFA (Harare International Festival of the Arts) - THE cultural event in Harare - starts today! Already three shows on our planning for tonight, can't wait to get out of the office!
... we're having a CouchSurfing whirlwind this week. Liam (AU), Gavin (AU) and Lesley (USA) arrived last week and stay another couple of days, Guido (D) and 3 friends (D, NL and UK) arrive tonight, Marie and boyfriend (DK) are on the train from Bulawayo to Harare and arrive tomorrow, and finaly a French girl and 4 friends will stay over the weekend.
... we have a new little cat at home. Dexter, the first one that Bruno got for his birthday last year, disappeared over our X-mas holidays. This one still has no name, suggestions are welcome.
... only 2 more days to visit the exhibition in Halle (see www.volens.be/expo)
... my hair is getting "long" and I don't know what to do with it.
... we decided on filling up the pool again. It's nice to have a pool, but it's nicer when it's clean and when you can actually swim in it. This time, no excuse, we'll keep it full of chlorine and whatever is needed to keep the algae out.

In need...

2009-04-16T08:38:00.005+02:00

... of entertainment!

The one and only culturally acceptable time in Harare is starting soon (HIFA Festival of Arts), and we are already preparing the long winter nights that are coming up... . We are through our 500 Gb of movies and series, and thus in need for new stuff!

We are looking for the following:

any movies that are worthwhile, though we already have a lot, but mostly dating from before April 2008, specific requests are below;
The Wire (a series, haven't watched anything, but heard it was absolutely fabulous, so any episode as from season 1);
Battlestar Galactica: we still need season 1, 2 and 4 and 5, and the final episodes, suppose 21, 22, 23, 24 of season 3;
The 4400: season 1 only, as we have season 2;
Heroes: from season 3, episode 11 onwards;
Lost: don't have anything, I know, such a shame;
Weeds: season 3 and 4, if it exists...
Smallville: haven't got many, so any season is appreciated...
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: from season 2 onwards;
House M.D., from season 2 up;
Babylon 5, everything;
Stargate Atlantis, season 3, 4, ...
West Wing: everything
Grey's Anatomy: everything
The Sopranos: everything
Tarzan: the series (2003): everything
Dexter: season 3
Six Feet Under: everything
Specific movies: 'Bruno' and 'Borat', the 3 Matrix, all 6 Star Wars, Star Trek (excepting n°6 - Nemesis) but especially the new one that is coming out soon, (you can tell who is a sci-fi fan :-), Batman the Dark Knight, the 4 X-Men movies (especially Wolverine), Terminator 1 and 2, the Alien movies, 'Leeches!', 1984 (the black and white movie), SAW V

Of course we will only appreciate legal copies ;-).

How to get this to us? If you have any of the above, just notify us and we'll "make a plan"!

Fototentoonstelling in Halle - 20-30 april

2009-04-08T09:26:00.003+02:00

Meer info op www.volens.be/expo!

Nothing is universal? Yeah right (apparently)...

2009-03-20T17:37:00.001+02:00

Uit De Standaard:

Wetenschap bewijst: muziek is universeel
vrijdag 20 maart 2009Bron: BELGAAuteur: BELGA

LEIPZIG - (Belga) Muziek is universeel, zo voelen we het wel allemaal aan. Maar nu is het ook wetenschappelijk bewezen, getuige een publicatie in het jongste nummer van het wetenschappelijke vakblad Current Biology.

Melodisch uitgedrukte gevoelens worden overal ter wereld op dezelfde manier verstaan en overschrijden probleemloos grenzen tussen de culturen, zo stelde een team van het Max-Planck-Instituut voor Cognitieve en Neurowetenschappen in Leipzig vast. Zelfs leden van de Mafastam in Kameroen, die nooit westerse muziek hadden gehoord, herkenden moeiteloos basisemoties als vreugde, verdriet en angst. (BEH)

Showing off... ;-)

2009-02-07T12:15:00.002+02:00

I was contacted last year by a Dutch journalist for an interview about hyperinflation in Zim. This is the result: NRC Handelsblad.
For your information, since that article, 1 USD has gone up as far as 60.000.000.000.000 (60 trillion) Zim dollars, and two days ago, the cental bank has cut of 12 zeros. This means that 100 trillion, now is "just" one 100 Zim dollars.

But nobody cares anymore because almost all trade is happening in foreign currencies. Mainly US dollars, but some shops even accept euros!

Then, a friend of ours, who's compiling a book about Zimbabwe, asked us to write a chapter. The thing was to write about our experience in the country. This is the result.
The book will probably be published somewhere late this year. It's in Dutch only.

ZimBabbel - ZimBavardages: 27/12/2008

2008-12-12T14:12:00.003+02:00

Allen daarheen!
Venez tous!

Invitation - Uitnodiging

Belgium in Zimbabwean news!

2008-12-10T11:59:00.000+02:00

Source: www.herald.co.zw (headline 10 Dec 2008)

[Cde Ndlovu] branded as unacceptable and despicable calls by Europe and some African leaders for President Mugabe to step down and castigated Odinga, Botswana President Ian Khama, Belgium, Britain and US for pushing for illegal regime change in Zimbabwe.

Cde Ndlovu said Belgium was not qualified to lecture Zimbabwe accusing it of sponsoring DRC rebels.

"Belgium and Javier Solana (the EU foreign policy chief) must shut up. We do not want the Belgians to come and give us lectures when their hands are full of blood from Congo," he said.

Money a problem in Zimbabwe? hum...

2008-11-19T14:31:00.003+02:00

I don't know what the names on this map are for, but it illustrates the areas where what currency is used... . You'll notice that the Zimbabwean Dollar is getting out of (rich) people's minds.

Rand: South African money
Pula: Botswana money
Kwatcha: Zambian money
Meticais: Moçambiquan money
US$: good old American green

And also, some people end up knocking at my door to ask to change the Euros they have in US$... . No idea where they get them.

Aaahhh... la Belgique...

2008-11-14T15:49:00.000+02:00

Belgische militairen kampen met overgewicht

De meerderheid van de Belgische militairen heeft een Body Mass Index (BMI) tussen 25 en 27. Dat blijkt uit gegevens die minister van Defensie Pieter De Crem verstrekt op een schriftelijke vraag van Hilde Vautmans (Open Vld). Een BMI tussen 18,5 en 24,9 wordt beschouwd als normaal. Tussen 25 en 29,9 is er sprake is van overgewicht zonder dat er onmiddellijk risico is op gezondheidsproblemen.

De officieren scoren gemiddeld 25,5. Enkel bij de Genie (24,8) is er sprake van een gemiddelde BMI onder de 25. Slechts een afdeling, met name Joint (26,2), overschrijdt de grens van 26.

Bij de onderofficieren is de situatie slechter. De gemiddelde score is hier 26,1. Hier haalt enkel de Naval Component (24,3) een score onder de 25. Ook hier scoort Joint (26,7) het slechtst. De vrijwilligers halen gemiddeld 25,9. Bij de Pantser (25,3) wordt de beste score gehaald, bij Logistiek (26,9) de slechtste.

uit De Standaard, 14 november 2008

Headline in financial newspaper

2008-11-11T09:43:00.005+02:00

"Inflation hits 2,73 quintillion percent"

This is: 2 730 000 000 000 000 000 %...

Impact for us? Not much really, we still change money on the cash market, were 1 USD equals 280 000 Zim dollars. This rate is steadily going up every day or so, but this is nothing new. Every few weeks new bills come out, the highest at the moment being 1 million Zim (about 3 USD).

The difference between the cash and the "virtual" money (on bank accounts, for instance), though, is getting extreme. 1 USD is worth 50 trillion (50 000 000 000 000) of virtual/electronic Zim dollars. This is how Bruno had to write out a cheque of 500 quadrillion the other day.

Otherwise, I bought a car! This Honda CR-V is soon to be mine!

I'm having it imported from Durban, South Africa (where it has been transported to from Japan, at ridiculously low prices). I hope things will go easily because this is how it's supposed to go:

- Choose a car on carjunction.com

- Pay the invoice on Japanese account

- Wait for the money to be in their account

- Organise transport from Durban (in South Africa) to the Zimbabwean border (it's forbidden to drive the car up from Durban, it has to be put on a truck)

- Go to the border to clear the car (customs, ...)

- Drive up to Harare

- Have the car registered

- Wait for licence plates (there are currently none available)

- Start driving around

Part of this process could be done by somebody else ("a guy" who knows people and who can do things quicker), but there is always a risk of making it last longer... . Anyway, I hope to drive it around by the end of next week!

Vendredi 31 Octobre

2008-11-02T10:46:00.001+02:00

Aujourd'hui, c'est un peu le week-end: je peux dormir "tard", car pas besoin de prendre un combi pour aller au boulot! Les vendredi, je travaille pour Volens, dans les bureaux de Volens. Néanmoins, étant dans un rythme de "lève-tôt", je suis debout à 7h30. Sachant que Bruno aime prendre son temps le matin (et que je dépend de lui pour aller au bureau Volens), j'en profite pour prendre la moto et partir à la recherche de chlore et acide pour la piscine, ainsi qu'un traitement choc censé supprimer toute la verdure que l'eau a accumulé pendant qu'on était en Tanzanie.

Expédition partiellement réussie: j'ai trouvé un peu d'acide et un traitement choc, pas de chlore malheureusement. Une fois le tout dans la piscine, en route pour le bureau.

Caroline y est déjà, ainsi que Veerle (collègue qui vit au Zimbabwe depuis 18 ans). On échange les dernières nouvelles et je commence à travailler (encore les brochures).

Vers midi, on clôture tout pour aller manger à 40 Cork Road - mon restaurant favori, où il y a de l'internet WiFi. C'est un endroit fort agréable, grand jardin, terrasse, très relax et très bonnes salades à midi. On mange là avec Bruno et Caro. Ensuite, c'est reparti pour quelques courses: on profite de la voiture de Caro pour aller remplir nos bidons d'eau à un endroit qui pompe de l'eau potable d'un puits. Et puis, un bref arrêt à mon agence de voyage histoire de prendre possession de mon ticket d'avion pour lundi. Le prochain arrêt est pour Caro, l'autre côté de la ville, qui cherche un truc pour faire descendre le pH de sa piscine (oui, les temps sont durs pour les piscines à Harare). Elle ne trouve pas ce qu'il faut, mais j'y trouve du chlore. Retour à la maison vers 16h.

Vers 20h, on décide d'aller manger un steak frites (car ça fait des lustres qu'on en n'a pas eues) dans un endroit qu'on connaît pas. Entre temps, Bruno tente de joindre des gens pour trouver une fête Halloween quelque part - sans succès, les réseaux téléphoniques sont occupés ou ont des problèmes (ça c'est un truc très ch**nt: 4 fois sur 5 un appel gsm ne passe pas et faut recommencer. L'autre jour, j'ai essayé d'appeler quelqu'un pendant 30 minutes avant d'avoir un connexion!).

On se résout à rentrer et à regarder les derniers épisodes d'une série qu'on avait téléchargé en Belgique (Nip/Tuck), jusqu'à 1h du matin. Et puis dodo!

Jeudi 30 octobre 2008

2008-11-02T10:44:00.001+02:00

Jeudi, journée habituelle. Debout à 06:30, en route à 07:00, combi, staff bus. Bonne nouvelle, il y a du courant, et autre bonne nouvelle, je reçois un mail du provider internet me demandant à quel numéro ils peuvent me joindre pour analyser et solutionner le problème de "proxy". A peine envoyé le mail, ils me téléphonent. On passe à travers différents processus, il ne me reste qu'à changer un truc dans mon ordi et tout devrait être en ordre. Malheureusement, c'est pas encore le cas, et plus moyen de joindre ces gens!

Le reste de la mâtiné, je fais des corrections à une brochure pour Volens Zambie et à une brochure pour CTDT, mon ONG. La femme du vice-directeur à fait des petit pains que son mari vends à 30.000 zim (15 cent, je crois), j'en prend quatre, ils sont délicieux.

On sent que l'été est bien là: à peine 09:30 qu'il y a déjà quasi 30 degrés dehors.

Après le lunch, je repars avec le chauffeur vers le centre pour aller payer mon ticket d'avion Air Zimbabwe pour Jo'bourg. Avant ça, il faut que je passe au boulot mon proprio pour qu'il me donne un chèque en dollars zim (que je lui rembourse en dollars américains).

Intermezzo "financier":

Le ticket d'avion coûte 2 320 000 000 000 dollars zim (oui oui, 2 billion 320 milliard). Le taux de change pour de l'argent virtuel (càd l'argent sur un compte en banque) est de 250 000 000 000 zim pour 1 USD, ce qui fait que je paye mon ticket un peu moins de 10 dollars américains. Si j'avais du payer ce ticket cash, en changeant l'argent en rue, ca m'aurait coûté 2 500 000 de dollars américains (le taux est actuellement de 100 000 zim pour 1 USD).

La vie n'est donc pas chère pour ceux qui ont un compte en banque, me diriez-vous. Certes, mais il faut savoir que de moins en moins d'endroits acceptent des chèques et que les terminaux pour payer par "bancontact" ne marchent souvent pas! De toutes façon, beaucoup de magasins commencent à accepter les dollars américains. Mais tout comptes fait, c'est toujours un casse tête de faire les conversions, de trouver du cash zim (pour le bus le matin, une banane et les pop corn en rue, les légumes frais, ...), etc.

Faut savoir aussi que pour pouvoir acheter un ticket d'avion Air Zimbabwe (pas de panique, ils ont, paraît-il, bonne réputation) en dollars zimbabwéens il faut être résident, et qu'en plus du prix du ticket, il faut payer 165 USD pour les taxes (pas question de les payer en zim). Tout le monde ne peux donc pas voyager pas cher! Pour la petite histoire, on connaît un gars qui à fait un aller-retour vers Shangai pour 125 USD + taxes. Malheureusement pour lui, il a été déporté tout de suite car il n'avait pas prévu le visa touriste pour la Chine.

Cette escapade vers le centre prend toute l'après-midi, et à peine arrivé au bureau il est déjà temps de plier bagage.

Une soirée calme m'attend. Je termine mon livre et je fait la popote pendant que Bruno est à son cours de capoeira. Il rentre avec Faray, qui mange avec nous. Bruno le ramène chez lui et à 22:00, au lit!

Mercredi 29 Octobre 2008

2008-10-30T10:38:00.003+02:00

Mercredi 29 octobre 2008

Comme d'habitude, levé à 6h30, café avec Bruno et en route pour prendre le combi jusqu'au centre, attendre le staff bus, prendre le staff bus jusqu'au bureau et travailler.

J'ai à peine le temps de faire quelques modifications à la nouvelle brochure de CTDT (l'ONG locale où je travaille) et faire quelques mails: à 11h, panne de courant, plus d'ordi, plus d'internet, plus de téléphone et le plus emmerdant: le générateur est en panne!

Que faire?! Eh ben, une petite révision des cours de Shona. Mais avec la chaleur qu'il y a ces derniers jours (30°C), pas facile de rester concentré sans somnoler.

Vers 13h30, lunch (pas de sadza aujourd'hui, mais du riz avec un bout de viande et une sauce). Puis je vais au centre avec le chauffeur pour qu'il me dépose dans une agence de voyage. Je vais acheter un ticket d'avion pour faire un aller retour sur Jo'bourg. Le service d'immigration à refusé de coller le permis de travail dans mon passeport quand Bruno s'est présenté, le plan Jo'bourg est donc à nouveau sur la table. Ce sera pour lundi: 5h30 à l'aéroport, départ à 7h et retour le même jour à Harare à 22h45. Et au programme à Jo'bourg: acheter un ordi pour Caro, un pantalon ou deux pour moi, essayer de me renseigner pour une voiture et éventuellement d'autres petites choses qu'on ne trouve pas à Harare.

Après l'excursion vers l'agence de voyage, retour au bureau où j'espère naïvement que le courant soit revenu. Ce n'est pas le cas et il est déjà temps de reprendre le staff bus vers le centre.

Programme de la soirée: cours de Shona! Un collègue me propose gentiment de m'y déposer avec sa voiture. Sympa!

17h30, donc, cours de Shona avec Bruno, Marcel (un hollandais) et Jochen (un allemand). Notre prof Beatrice, qui est une activiste du parti de l'opposition, nous parle d'une manifestation à laquelle elle a participé lundi et qui a été arrêtée par la police. Une 40-aine de personne ont été arrêtées et un gars a même été battu à mort. Horrible! Et cela montre bien que c'en n'est pas fini avec la répression par le parti au pouvoir. Pendant ce temps, les pour-parlers sont toujours bloqués malgré les négociations qui durent depuis juillet. Pathétique!

Le shona, ça n'a tellement rien à voir avec aucune langue que je connais, qu'est c'est pas facile du tout à apprendre. La base, ça va, c'est faisable, mais une particularité du Shona est ce qu'on appelle des "noun classes" (classes de noms). Cela veut dire que en fonction de la classe à laquelle appartient un mot, le préfixe du verbe, les pronoms absolus et possessifs changent. Par exemple:

"Mon bébé mange." et "Mon chien mange."

Là où en français le pronom et la 3e personne du verbe sont identique dans les deux phrases, en Shona, ils changent en fonction du mot:

"Mwana angu anodya" (Bébé mon mange) et "Imbwa yangu dzanodya" (Chien mon mange).

Chien et bébé font partie de classes différentes. Et il y a 21 classes, chacune avec leurs spécificités.

Et aussi: en shona ce n'est pas la fin du verbe qui change, mais on ajoute un préfix et un infixe au verbe en fonction de la personne (1e, 2e, 3e, singulier, pluriel) et du temps utilisé:
Je mange: ndi-no-dya (je-(présent)-mange)
Tu manges: u-no-dya (tu-(présent)-mange)
Nous mangerons: ti-cha-dya (nous-(futur)-mange)

Avec Marcel et Jochen, on décide de s'organiser une session de révision ce samedi autour d'une pizza et une bière... .

19h30 - Le cours est fini, retour à la maison. Bruno prépare un bon repas et à 21h30, je suis léssivé et je me couche.

Mardi 28 octobre 2008

2008-10-29T09:00:00.002+02:00

Ce matin, j'ai pu dormir un peu plus longtemps que d'habitude. Au programme: Caroline (ma bosse de Volens, belge, 31 ans, au Zimbabwe depuis 6 ans, marié à un Zimbabwéen, chef du programme "créer de la valeur ajoutée aux produits issus de l'agriculture durable") vient me chercher vers 8h pour aller d'abord au bureau Volens (histoire de checker mes mails) puis pour aller à 25 km au sud d'Harare pour aller jetter un oeil à une formation que Volens organise.

Donc, après une bonne heure de mails, en route pour Kufunda Village où a lieu cette formation. Kufunda est un des partenaires du réseau Volens qui, en plus d'autres activités, gère un centre de formations que Volens loue pour certains workshops. L'endroit est perdu au milieu de nulle part, mais est vraiment chouette. Ils se définissent comme "une expérience en live" et se basent sur des principes de durabilité. Ils sont autonomes en ce qui concerne la nouriture (splendide potager) et ont régulièrement des visiteurs de partour de qui ils profitent pour apprendre des choses. C'est en quelque sortes un "village d'apprentissages".

La formation qu'on vient visiter a comme sujet "tomato processing". Les participants sont des fermiers (femmes principalements) de communautés rurales des provinces autour d'Harare, qui sont envoyés par les organisations partenaires de Volens. Ils viennent apprendre comment utiliser des tomates autrement que simplement les couper et les manger. Ils apprennent à faire des jus, des confitures, de la purée et des sauces.

A midi, les gens de Kufunda nous invitent à manger avec eux. Au menu, nouriture indienne, préparée par un indien en visite, qui apprend aux gens à faire des plats nutritifs avec les moyens du bord, et très "santé" (pas d'huile, minimum de graisses, aliments locaux et de saison, ...).

Le but de notre visite est simplement de montrer notre tête, de voir un peu si tout se passe bien et de prendre quelques photos.

On croise Vital, un autre coopérant Volens, qui fait un audit des processus financiers de l'organisation. Vital est belge d'origine rwandaise.

On quite vers 14h, retour vers Harare. Caro s'arrête pour faire quelques courses et j'en profite pour chercher de l'acide pour la piscine qui est de nouveau complètement verte. Trois magazins plus tard, toujours pas d'acide.

Retour au bureau. Je passe un peu de temps à chercher un ticket A/R pour Johannesbourg pour finaliser mon Permis de Travail. Je m'explique: j'ai une lettre du service d'immigration comme quoi ils ont accepté ma demande de permis de travail. Il ne reste en théorie plus qu'à aller au service d'immigration pour aller me faire coller le permis dans mon passeport. Je dis bien en théorie car, étant donné que je ne pouvais pas être dans le pays pendant qu'ils traitaient mon application, il faudrait que je sorte du pays (avec le passeport avec lequel je suis rentré dernièrement qui montre clairement que j'étais là ces derniers mois) pour ensuite rerentrer au Zimbabwe avec un nouveau passeport vièrge. Pas question de faire ca par la route, car aux frontières, les services d'immigration s'attendent à voir un cachet sortie du pays d'à côté. Il faut donc que j'arrive dans un aéroport où je peux dire que je viens tout droit de Belgique où je n'ai pas reçu de cachet de sortie.

C'est compliqué parfois d'être coopérant ;-)

Tout ca en fait pour dire que je n'irais, en fin de compte, pas à Jo'bourg: Bruno (qui a eu la bonne idée en rentrant au Zim après la Tanzanie de faire cacheter son nouveau passeport vièrge) va essayer d'aller faire mettre l'autocollant dans mon passeport en argumentant qu'il l'a reçu par DHL ou Fedex et qu'il le renverra avec le permis de travail. On verra.

La bonne nouvelle de l'après midi au bureau, c'est que on a enfin un réseau sans fil pour l'internet! Jusqu'à présent, on avait que 2 cables internet, donc dès qu'il y a plus de deux personnes, pas moyen de travailler. Maintenant, si!

Ensuite, retour à la maison vers 17:00, sur la moto de Bruno. Bruno part à son cours de capoeira, juste après que Sonah arrive. Sonah travaille pour une des organisations partenaires du réseau que gère Bruno. Donc collègue à la base, mais devenue une amie entre temps. Sonah a la 40-aine, d'origine indienne (Goa), mariée et mère de 2 enfants, très catholique, très dynamique, parle beaucoup, ... Je l'aime bien, même si elle est parfois un peu fatiguante. Elle passe en général tout les mardi soir papotter un peu. Mais cette fois elle m'a demandé de l'aider à refaire la mise en page d'un document pour son boulot. Et elle nous a gentiment amené un tupperware de pâtes et de chapatis.

Vers 20:30 rentre chez elle et je commence à cuisiner: pommes de terre, saucisses que Bruno complète avec du concombre lorsqu'il rentre un peu plus tard.

Et à 22:00, après un peu de lecture (on n'a pas de télévision), au lit!

Monday 27 October 2008

2008-10-28T16:33:00.002+02:00

Environ un an après la première fois, voici la deuxième édition de "une semaine de la vie de Thomas"! Etant donné qu'Internet n'est pas une valeur sure ces derniers temps, je ne suis pas certain que je pourrais poster tout les jours. Mais cela n'empêche pas que je tappe un truc tout les jours.

06:00 - Bruno se lève pour aller au toillettes, la porte de la chambre reste ouverte, et Dexter (le chat) en profite pour entrer et se faufiller sous le moustiquaire. Réveil par ronronnements et reniflements du petit monstre de la maison.

06:30 - Le réveille sonne, signal qu'il faut se mettre en route. Pas de courant, heureusement que le rasoir a une batterie. Un coup d'oeil à la piscine qui devient de plus en plus verte. Pas le temps de boire un café.

06:50 - 7 minutes de marche vers la grosse route du coin, où je prend un "combi". Un combi (daladala en Tanzanie, chapa au Mozambique, taxi en Afrique du Sud) c'est une camionnette qui offre 15 places, mais qui est bourré avec 20 personnes en général. C'est le transport en commun par exellence à Harare. En général, j'attend pas plus de 10 minutes pour en choper un. Et si c'est pas un combi, il y a bien toujours une voiture privée qui me prend en stop. Dans tout les cas, le tarif du jour donne une indication du taux de change du jour. Se matin, le trajet était à 30.000 dollars zim, ce qui veut dire que le taux de change est de 60.000 zim pour 1 dollar américain.

07:20 - Je descend du combi à l'arrêt "Barclays" (nom d'une banque, mais bizarrement il n'y a pas de banque à cet arrêt. D'ailleurs, c'est pas comme s'il y avait des arrêts réglementés, il suffit de demander au chauffeur de s'arrêter où on veut). De là, je marche 5 minutes jusqu'à l'endroit de rendez-vous pour le staff bus, qui est censé partir à 07:30.

07:50 - Avec 20 minutes de retard, mes collègues et moi sommes en route pour CTDT. Les bureaux sont à environ 10 km au sud du centre ville.

08:15 - Arrivé au bureau. Je m'installe, pas d'internet. Je vais faire un reset du serveur, toujours pas d'internet. C'est pas très prometteur: probablement de nouveau une journée sans un poil d'internet.

09:00 - La réunion hebdomadaire où toute l'équipe se réunit (15 personnes) pour parler de la semaine passée et de la semaine à venir) semble être annulée. Je travaille à des publications dont je fais la mise en page. Un manuel de production de semances de légumes indigènes et un manuel de pesticides naturels (qui explique par exemple que les feuilles de plantes de tabac permettent de faire un pesticide puissant, à ne surtout pas mettre sur les roses car ca les rend noires). Entre temps, Tatenda le stagiaire fait le tour des employés pour récolter de l'argent pour le lunch. Aujourd'hui c'est 50.000 zim (environ 50 eurocent) pour un petit morceau de viande, une louche de légumes (espèce d'épinard), un peu de sauce et une grosse portion de sadza. La sadza c'est de la farine de mais en bouillie. Pas beaucoup de goût, mais faut s'habituer. Perso, je deviens fan! La matiné se passe sans rien de très important. Je suis seul dans le bureau que je partage avec Sifelani, car il est parti au Mali avec d'autres pour une semaine de boulot là-bas.

13:15 - La sadza est prête, c'est l'heure du déjeuner.

13:45 - J'essaye de trouver une imprimante qui marche pour imprimer la dernière version des deux manuels. Pas facile, 2 n'ont pas d'encre (et ya pas de réserve), et la 3e est connectée à l'ordi de la réceptioniste (qui n'est pas là, mais son ordi est occupé par d'autres qui veulent imprimer aussi). Bref, vers 15:00 je donne les deux manuels à Marcy, la Programme Manager qui est en responsable. J'ai éteint et rallumé le serveur 5 fois, toujours pas d'internet.

16:00 - Même si normalement on quite le boulot à 16:30, une collègue avec qui je m'entend bien (Farai) m'annonce qu'elle part plus tôt. Je lui demande aussi tôt un lift vers le centre.

16:37 - Après un détour dans le quartier industriel (où Farai devait passer prendre un pot de peinture pour sa voiture qui s'est fait emboutir la semaine dernière...), je suis dans le centre, à un endroit qui s'appelle Copacabana, rien de très exotique, c'est le nom d'un point central pour combis.

17:20 - J'arrive à l'endroit où j'ai pris le combi le matin. Un rapide saut dans le magazin du coin (est-ce qu'il y a de l'eau minérale? non...), et j'arrive à la maison.

18:00 - Bruno arrive avec Faray, un ami. On a prévu de faire une soirée jeux de société ce soir. On sera probablement que 4, Faray (un gars du cours de capoeira de Bruno) et Marcel, un hollandais qui travail pour OCHA (une agence des Nations Unies). Je prépare à manger (un wok tomates, aubergines, épinards locaux, oignon, épices, cheveux d'anges, sauce soja) et on joue un jeu qui combine pictionary, taboo et mime.

23:00 - Dodo

A demain!

Back in Zim

2008-10-24T16:47:00.002+02:00

Back from Tanzania and Zanzibar, but already the bleu water, the white beaches, the great company, the dolce far niente, the refreshing sea breeze, the moon rises, the sunsets, the "Jambo! -Jambo!" all around and the sea food seem far away... .

Nothing much has changed in Zimbabwe, except the usual inflation, which brought the Zim dollar from 2000 to 1 up to 40000 to 1 in just 10 days. The 10 zeros that have been slashed from the currency in August are almost back... . People have no food, politics are blocked (the latest episode in this soap serie: the prime minister to be (opposition) was refused a new passport to travel to Swaziland and attend a meeting with Mugabe and others to continue the never ending talks), prices are going up every day, teachers are striking, hospitals can't work due to lack of resources, ... . The country continues its slide down the hill - but people somehow keep on living their lives.

Seen the first drops off rain - a very light 15 minute shower announcing the rainy season that should start soon. I wonder what Harare will be like under the rains.

The great news of the week is that I got my Temporary Employement Permit! It has taken a lot of time (5 months), saying no to bribes (though I did pay 100 US$ at some point, but refused to give an extra 500 US$) and lots of efforts to renew the tourist visas (4 times), but eventually, I got hold of a letter stating that my application has been approved. The next step is to get out of the country and return on an empty passport, and go get the permit sticker in my new passport (long story short: I shouldn't have been in Zim while the application was processed, and my current passport is full of tourist visas).

Electricity has been on and off. It still is quite a pain to come home after work, just when it gets dark, to see the power going and thus having to spend the evening in the dark reading a book by candle light. But I guess we can't complain too much since the water supply has been on for days in a row now.

Next week, Bruno and I will try to do "a week in our life" and blog everyday life!

Some Zanzi pix...

2008-10-24T16:33:00.003+02:00

Prison Island, off Zanzibar. One of the lots of land tortoises. This one is still quite young, but might live over 100 years!

Jambiani, Zanzibar. The best part of baking a cake, is the tasting... .

In Dar-el-Salaam, with Ahoo and Farshid, a Iranian couple we met through CouchSurfing.

On Zanzibar, in Stone Town, with Julia (l) and Shirley (r), two New York girls and new friends!

Jambiani, little village on Zanzibar. Wedding rehearsal. Me playing the priest and Mick and Shirley, the newly wedded couple.

Prison Island, just off Zanzibar. That little white sand beach doesn't exist when it's high tide.

A slightly bit too much sun... But I managed to have it evened up all over my back. And no, it's not red anymore.

A Coke anyone?

2008-09-11T09:28:00.002+02:00

"Coke" in Zimbabwe doesn't only refer to the world famous black, sugary drink, it's also one of the numerous ways to refer to a bribe and the corrupt ways of handling things, especially the official administration.

This months salary for a civil servant is approx. 2000 Zim dollars (at todays rate, this equals 4 US$, tomorrow, litteraly, it will be even less). Survival on such a ridiculous wage is really hard. And this is one of the main causes of corruption. An official can sit on papers that have to be processed as long as he wants, just to get some precious green banknotes. Sometimes, these practices appear to be so common that nobody even raise an eyebrow to it.

My friend Pieter in the Filipines wrote a nice entry on his blog about it: click here (I'm sure he doesn't mind me refering to his blog, hé Pieter? ;-)

The last weeks, I've been trying to sort out my permits:
- Well, what about my coke?
- What about it?
- For a nice coke of 500, I can get you what you want...
- 500 what?
- 500 of the proper currency
- Hum, isn't that a bit exagerated?
- Oh, you know, life is very difficult in this country... Really, this is a small price to pay. My children need to eat...

The problem is, once you start, who knows where it's gonna end. So instead of paying and thus supporting the corrupt system, we decided not to go along and try other ways. Not sure where it'll get us, though.

Zim’s inflation not that bad

2008-08-22T12:18:00.009+02:00

A brilliant example of how the Zimbabwean government simplifies the situation and tries to sooth the suffering people. It could be summarizes like this: "The Zimbabwean economic situation is not ideal, but in other countries in the world it has been worse! Those countries managed to get out of it and are now world-class economies. What a perspective! This is good news, hé?"

Zim’s inflation not that bad

DESPITE accelerating food and service prices, Zimbabwe’s annual rate of inflation is yet to claim number one spot in modern world history.

Annual inflation came in at 11,2 million percent at the end of July, according to latest statistics from the Central Statistical Office. It has risen from a low of 124 percent in January 2004. Monthly inflation is running at slightly below 900 percent.

While the figures are unsustainably high, research shows that Zimbabwe may be able to shake off the hyper-inflationary tag within a few years.

A tough monetary policy, a balanced blend of economics and politics, as well as increased production will be key to achieving macro-economic stability.

History proves that several European and South American countries have been in far worse off situations before, but managed to recover to become some of the leading economies in the world today.

For Zimbabwe, there is nothing wrong with cutting off zeros from the local unit, as many times as possible until the intended results are achieved.

Some of the South American and Scandinavian countries were forced to cut zeros several times during the 20th century before their economies stabilised. Most needed repeated currency reforms to achieve stability.

What is inflation?

Generally, inflation can be described as the rate of increase in the price level. When prices rise, there is inflation. If inflation is not compensated by nominal increases of income, people become poorer.

High and variable inflation makes economic price predictions and decision-making difficult. Extremely high inflation warrant too much attention from policy makers and the general public, which distracts them from more crucial tasks.

But the Zimbabwe situation is not just ordinary inflation; it is hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is the most extreme inflation circumstance with yearly price increases of triple digit percentage points and an explosive acceleration, according to online definitions.

World’s highest inflations

Hungary (1922, 1946) — Hungary went through two hyperinflation periods. From 1922 to 1924, the annual inflation in Hungary peaked at 98 percent but things took a nasty turn after the Second World War when the rate of inflation reached 4,19 quintillion percent mid-1946. This is one of the worst inflation rates in modern day history.

At this rate, prices doubled every 15 hours. The Hungarian National Bank had the incredulous honour of circulating the largest denomination banknote that being 100 quintillion pengo.

Yugoslavia (1993-1994) — Monthly inflation in Yugoslavia touched a high of 5 quintillion percent in 1993, also after the end of the Cold War in 1990. There were conflicts of governance in the country at the time as well. Between October 1993 and January 1994, prices in Yugoslavia doubled every sixteen hours on average.

Greece (1944-1953) —During the German occupation of Greece (1941-44), the monthly rate of inflation in Greece reached 8,6 billion percent. Prices doubled every 28 hours. In 1943, the highest denomination was 25 000 drachmai. By 1944, the highest denomination was 100 trillion drachamai.

Greece slashed zeros more than two times and failed to deal with effects of high inflation.

German (1923) — German had borrowed to finance the First World War hoping that losers will repay the loans. However, the country was forced to pay heavily in reparations after losing the war. In that year, monthly rate of inflation reached 3,25 billion percent, equivalent to prices doubling every 49 hours.

People were using bank notes to fire up their stoves and one needed a wheelbarrow full of cash to purchase a loaf of bread.

Also, Zimbabwe’s inflation is a distant far from Serbia’s monthly 309 million percent reported in 1992, when the country was at war. Currency reforms also failed to work in Serbia.

In China annual inflation reached 11,2 million percent between 1947 and 1949 and was forced to perform a variety of currency reforms to ease the impact of hyperinflation.

Countries that have also gone through a phase of hyperinflation include Angola, Argentina, Israel, the US, England and Brazil.

Taming inflation

It needed concerted efforts of economic and behavioural reforms for these economies to achieve stability.

Research has shown that the provision of domestic and foreign credits for governments budged finance has no statistically significant effects on the success of currency reforms.

Instead "independence of the central bank and the adoption of a credibly fixed exchange rate are crucial for the success of a currency reform," according to a recent paper by the University of Basel. The paper is titled: "The Success of Currency Reforms to End Great Inflations: An Empirical Analysis of 34 High Inflations".

Here, central bank governor, Dr Gideon Gono has proposed the freezing of prices and incomes for a period of up to six months, as the first step towards cooling inflation.

The central bank chief said this must be done in the spirit of the social contract, and immediately followed by comprehensive policies targeted at achieving macro-economic stability.

With the correct policies in place, history shows that there is still hope for Zimbabwe’s economic recovery.

Another video from Die Sterreweg

2008-08-18T16:11:00.001+02:00

Yet another video of Die Sterreweg, the day care center where I worked last year in South Africa. I miss them sometimes.

Back in Zimbabwe!

2008-08-18T15:31:00.003+02:00

After a nice 20 days in Belgium including a quick trip to Varna in Bulgaria to visit my sister, her boyfriend, their son and his family with my mother, I'm back in same old same old Zimbabwe. Thanks to the 45kg luggage allowance of Ethiopian Airlines, we still have plenty of chocolates and sweets to enjoy and share with chocolat-ignorant Zimbabwean friends and colleagues!

It's nice to be back "home" again. Yep, Harare starts to feel like home, though I'm not sure it will ever feel as "home" as Belgium does. This reminds me of back when I was very eager to get out of Belgium for a while. I was at university and had the opportunity to go to Chile for an internship. Only when I got back to Belgium after 6 months in Santiago, I understood that the quality of life in our crazy country is really amazing. Social security, family, friends, opportunities, ... (not necessarily in that order, of course). I have never been in a country where you have all this together. Anyway, Harare starts to feel like home nevertheless. And soon it will be home with a full and clean swimming pool ;-).

Since we're back in Harare, another slice of daily Zim reality came up: the fact that people leave the country all the time. A Zim/German couple leaves for Germany, a German girl leaves for China and her Zim boyfriend is very likely to follow, another one goes to Dallas for studies, and so on... . Freshly made friends almost gone. :-(

And, however very trivial, it's nice to come back to a country where everybody asks you how you are when saying greeting "Hello, how are you? Fine, thanks, and yourself? I'm fine, thanks!"

The inflation is as hyper as ever, even though they cut 10 zero's. A trillion ZWD (1.000.000.000.000) is now 100 ZWD, which this week was approximatively worth 1 USD.

Cartoons

2008-07-19T10:15:00.001+02:00

A toast? Not possible...

2008-07-19T10:05:00.001+02:00

"Aish, no ZESA (i.e. the electricity providery, acronym used to say electrical power) yesterday at my place"
"Aish, no water for three days in a row now"
"We had ZESA for only 3 hours in the last week"
"In my neighbourhood, people stole the oil from the transformer, so it burnt down. Don't know when ZESA will replace it"
"I heard the main water purification station in Harare was shut down because there are no chemicals anymore, and soon the reserves will be dry"

These statements, along with comments on the inflation and the high prices, are things you would hear every single day in Harare. Next, people would discuss bore-holes in the garden to compensate for the lack of water and generators running on expensive.

Since we moved in our house, we've been very much spared of these common problems as, apparently, we're on the same electrical grid as a nearby hospital, which, apparently, always gets "ZESA". Same thing for the water supply. Oh, we've had the occasional 2h power-cut, but we barely noticed it.

But last Thursday, ZESA went and hasn't come back. For me, this means no hot water, no way of charging my cellphone at home, no watching movies on my computer, no way of reading a book after 6pm (because that's when it gets dark), no way of heating the house during this cold winter period, ... . And the lack of power strikes with every little thing. A toast? Not possible. A quick cup of coffee with the boiler? Not possible. Doing the dishes? Not possible. Buying some meat and deep freeze it for later? Not possible. Luckily we have a gas stove to cook on, but cooking in the dark is not a pleasure.

Anyway. Somehow, it feels that it is only now, having no power, that I really start to relate to those stories. This is how Zimbabwean reality strikes, bit by bit, slowly but surely.

First hand comment on daily life in Zimbabwe, from a partner organisation...

2008-07-03T12:00:00.003+02:00

"Things are pretty tough, hey. I was in Mozambique getting some basic groceries last week and the people there are not very happy about Zimbabweans flooding their country to shop because now their prices are going up. And they didn't hesitate to let us know. I hope there won't be xenophobic attacks there too!

Have a great day.

Regards,

Anne"

Elections

2008-06-28T08:06:00.001+02:00

Follow the situation in Zimbabwe on these websites:

Compiled news about Zimbabwe: http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/
BBC special news section: http://www.bbc.com/zimbabwe
Zimbabwe state television (doesn't always work): http://www.zbc.co.zw/watch.html
A friend, journalist for NOS:

De Standaard, Le Soir, La Libre Belgique also bring news about the elections, look for it on their websites.

Happy Birthday Bruno!

2008-06-13T13:36:00.003+02:00

Bruno turns 30 today!

Make sure you send him a mail (brunodeceuk@gmail.com) or a text message on his belgian number (+32 498 67 09 10)!!

Celebration plans include a nice diner and a birthday braai by the pool (which, by the way, is finally getting clean).

Almost 5 months old

2008-06-04T12:57:00.005+02:00

I just told his mother that he could go into modeling... . I'm sure you'd agree!

He's so cute, I can't resist to go to Bulgaria (he's on his way to Varna with his parents now, in their yellow mobile home) in July (29th - 2nd August). In fact, it'll be our little family reunion - can't wait!

2.5 week in Belgium: 24 July - 8 August

2008-06-01T14:52:00.004+02:00

Du 24 juillet au 12 août, je fais un saut en Belgique! Au départ, je voulais rentrer pour le marriage du frère de Bruno (le 18 juillet), mais le prix des tickets d'avion ne me le permettent pas... . Alors je rentre pour le marriage de la maman de Bruno (le 8 août)!

Looking forward to see everybody again!

Die Sterreweg, another video

2008-06-01T14:49:00.001+02:00

First touristic outing in Harare

2008-05-26T13:30:00.002+02:00

It's been a month now since we've arrived in Zimbabwe. And yesterday was the first time we go out of the city to do something touristy. A fellow couchsurfer, a white Zimbabwean girl, took us out to an animal orphanage some 40km out of town.

The place itself was quite sad, actually, though the main goal is noble. They take care of animals that are supposed to be wild (lions, leopards, mangoose, monkeys, ...) but who were tamed by humans who didn't want them anymore after some time.

For example, there is this huge, enormous lion who was adopted by a family when it was still a cup. It has a heart disease, and was castrated to avoid spreading the bad genes. Due to this it became really big, and now lives in a cage.

And these little cotton-eared blablablah monkeys. The care-takers allowed us to get into the cage for a bit, which was really cool! The little monkeys immediately started jumping on me, my shirt, my head, my shoulder, ... really cute!

The Zims - Newsletter

2008-05-21T11:37:00.002+02:00

The Volens development workers in Zimbabwe created their own newsletter!

Check it out here in Dutch, French or English.

Daily life...

2008-05-13T09:01:00.001+02:00

Extrait d'un mail...

La situation n’est pas des plus réjouissantes: après que le comité électoral ait enfin divulgué les résultats des présidentielles (plus d’un mois après les élections!!), on parle d’un deuxième tour entre les deux candidats (je ne donne pas de noms, car on ne sais jamais qui pourrait intercepter les mails... Pas que je suis parano, mais quand même... ;-). Mais on dit maintenant que ce deuxième tour pourrait n’avoir lieu que dans un an, soit disant le temps que les choses ce calment. A Harare, les choses sont calmes, mais dans les campagnes il y des gens qui se font tabasser, au nom de la politique... .

En plus, il paraît que le président du pays n’a plus les ficelles en main et qu’il n’est qu’un poupée des militaires qui auraient fait un coup d’état silencieux quelques mois avant les élections du 29 mars.

Bref, c’est complexe. Mais les gens continuent leur train-train quotidien, se plaignent tout le temps de la situation, mais ne font rien pour la changer. C’est très frustrant par moment d’écouter les palabres de tout le monde sans voir des actions concrètes. Même l’opposition actuelle ne fait pas grand chose à part se plaindre. Quand je suggère que les gens devraient se bouger le cul, la réponse est toujours la même: les représailles pourraient être grave, car la répression dans ce pays est très très bien organisée. Bref, les gens n’ont pas peur de parler, mais ils ont peur d’agir. Ce qui ne fait évidement pas avancer les choses.

Sinon, c’est un pays intéressant. Au niveau monnaie notamment. Je suis milliardaire depuis que j’ai mis le pied dans le pays. En arrivant, 1 dollar américain s’échangait sur le marché noir pour 90 million de dollars zimbabwéens. Aujourd’hui, 3 semaines plus tard, 1 dollar US vaut environ 250 million de dollars zim. Ce qui veut dire qu’il faut jouer avec les courses: les prix dans les magasins (qui ne sont d’ailleurs pas aussi vide que la presse européenne dit) ne changent pas aussi rapidement que le taux de change, donc faut choisir son jour de courses et passer à la caisse avant que les prix ne montent! C’est comique aussi de se promener avec un sac à dos rempli de billet. Car pour rendre les choses pratiques, le plus gros billet jusqu’à hier, c’était 50 million, mais on reçois souvent des liasses de billets de 10 million. Mais aujourd’hui ils sortent des billets de 500 million et 250 million.

Found a place to stay!

2008-05-06T10:20:00.001+02:00

Forget Plettenberg Bay, forget Lier, forget Brussels, the place where you can come and visit me is now:

3 Silverhaze Flats
Crn Clare & Chester
West Avondale
Harare
Zimbabwe

2 storeys, 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathroom, toilet, staircase, garden and swimming pool. Is that cool or what! Might not yet be definitive, but we’re staying there for at least a couple of months.

Don’t send snail mail, there is no postal delivery service in Zimbabwe. I’ll try to have a PO Box number sometime soon.

First days

2008-04-28T20:43:00.001+02:00

The very first days at every new job are always a bit awkward. Same
thing here. Being led around and presented to a whole organisation in
30 minutes is definitely not something I enjoy. Especially when you
don't even remember the name of the person who took the time to kindly
pick you up and and go to the whole process with you. I ask him to
repeat 3 times. And 3 days later I still hesitate a bit when I need to
call him. Monashi/Munisha/Mushane/Munashi AARRGGLL :-). Even worse:
I'm not even sure of the name of the guy I share an office with (yep,
I tried writing it down and even memo tricks - I know it's something
like Silulami, one of the kids in South Africa, but it's not that).

Anyway. Not everybody has a complicated name, and everybody seems very
nice. The daily routine looks like it is gonna be as follows: getting
out of bed at around 6:30, get a ride at 7:15 to the place where the
Staff Bus picks us up at 8:00, arriving at work at 8:15. Then decide
whether or not to lunch with other staff members (contribution: 50
million Zim dollars = 0,50 US$ on 23 April), and tell this to Henry.
Work, work, work till 13:00. Lunch till 13:30. Work, work, work till
16:30. Back on the staff bus to town. Ride back home. Except on
Friday, the day ends at 13:00 - is that cool or what ;-).

Home, for the moment, is a guest room in the North West of Harare. A
place called Emerald Hill. Very cosy, very nice. Very European
standards. I have to be out of there by May 6th, because CTDT doesn't
provide housing, only this temporary accommodation for 2 weeks.

Inflation here is really amazing. I exchanged US$ on Wednesday and got
95 million Zim for 1 US dollar (that's 95,000,000!!!). Today, Friday,
I heard that 1 US$ is worth 105,000,000 Zim dollars. That's an
increase of 10% in only 2 days. Amazing. I think I'll keep stats on
this. A nice Excel document. With a graph or two ;-).

Next week Monday and Tuesday I'm going to a workshop with people from
all over the place and even from all over the region (Zim, Zambia,
Kenya, ...) on trade and development and more specifically on
agro-biodiversity and food sovereignty... . Since it happens some 80
km out of Harare, we all leave town on Sunday evening with the staff
bus and stay there overnight. Cool!

Pensée du jour - Que ne vivent pas les agrofuels!

Continuing a long trend, global production of maize increased by 51
million tonnes, 2004-2007, showing that maize production is keeping
pace with food demand. What is different for 2008 is that during this
same period, consumption of agrofuels increased, which rose by 50
million tonnes in the US alone, consuming all the maize production
increase. A reporter for the New Statesman (Lynas 2008) pointed out
that American cars now burn enough maize to meet all the import needs
of the 82 countries classified as 'low-income food-deficit,' by the UN
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); he concludes, 'there could
scarcely be a better way to starve the poor.' - Carol Thompson, Ph.
D. Political and Ecological Economy, University of Arizona, CTDT,
April 2008

Autre pensée du jour - Que ne vivent pas les agrofuels!

To bring the numbers into our lives, Lester Brown (2007) offered the
comparison that the amount of grain required to fill a 25-gallon
SUV petrol tank once with ethanol could feed one person for a year.
The grain it takes to fill the tank every two weeks over a year would
feed 26 people.

Arrived in Zimbabwe!

2008-04-24T16:29:00.000+02:00

After a good-bye tear at the airport, a stop in Frankfurt, a stop in Addis Ababa, and not a single problem getting through customs and immigration, Bruno and I finally set foot on Zimbabwean soil last Tuesday 22 April (happy birthday mom ;-)).

A future colleague from the NGO I'll be working for fetched us at the airport and drove us to a part of Harare called Emerald Hill, where Charity (another future colleague) hosts us in her lodge-B&B-guestroom.

Meanwhile, I've been going to CTDT (that's the name of the NGO I'm working with) for a couple of days now. The people are very nice and the place is quite well equipped seen the country's situation - I mean, there are computers and telephones and internet.

Today I got a local sim-card (bought for the scandalous price of 100 USD - I think I got ripped off by the guy I share an office with who helped me finding this sim-card - the thing is that it's very difficult to get a card on the official market, and easier on the black market but for a higher price... ), which means communications are gonna be a bit easier, when the network is not congested (and it tends to be congested a lot). The next challenge will be to find housing. CTDT arranged the room we have now for 2 weeks only. So after May 5th, we should find another place.

You can always try to send me a text message on +263 912 592 715! Otherwise, use my Mobistar number which works here as well (+32 493 49 93 09).

Arrived in Zimbabwe!

2008-04-23T09:22:00.000+02:00

After a tear at the airport, a few nice words to get our extra 5kg on the plane without paying extra and a smooth though long flight, we set foot on Zimbabwean ground. We spent the last hour on the plane planning/plotting how to argue our way into Zimbabwe (what could a plausible story be around the bread machine I’m carrying, what if they ask why we want to stay 3 months on a tourist visa, ... ), but in the end it proved to be totally unnecessary: we got in without any effort.

And there stood Fred, with a placard! Fred is a project manager at CTDT – the local partner NGO I’ll be working with. He showed me and Bruno quickly around at CTDT and dropped us on the other side of town in Emerald Hill where Charity (also a project manager at CTDT) and her husband have an extra guest room that we can use temporarily.

Today, Fred will pick me up for formal introductions at CTDT. Then I guess the house hunting will begin, and the search for a local SIM card, and Shona-language classes.

A ticket has been booked!

2008-04-19T10:25:00.003+02:00

Finally, things are getting more concrete. After almost 3 weeks of waiting (and of course after a great couple of days in Norway – pics and txt on www.brunodeceuk.blogspot.com), both Volens and the local partners in Zimbabwe agreed on letting us take a flight to Harare: Monday 21 April, 9:25 pm!

Although it often looked like it was about to explode, the situation there is quiet, and actually has been relatively quiet since election day last 29 March.

For interested people, the BBC provides news on Zimbabwe on regular basis: www.bbc.co.uk (look under Africa). There is also www.zimbabwesituation.com with all kinds of reports on every aspect of the country’s situation.

Standby for Zim, and on the road to Norway!

2008-04-11T16:42:00.004+02:00

Because waiting isn't really a cool thing to do (and because the departure for Zimbabwe has again been postponed to a undefined date), we decided to go up North and citytrip in Oslo!

From Saturday till Wednesday, train from Antwerp to Amsterdam, then a plane to Oslo and back.

We might see this:

and maybe get a glimpse of one of these:

And next Thursday, time for a bit of culture at artbrussels

Zimbabwe

2008-03-31T10:37:00.002+02:00

Well well, it has been quite some time since my last post.

The news of the day: we're not leaving for Zimbabwe tonight as planned. But let me start from the beginning.
After coming back from Southern Africa on the 2nd of January, we started planning our Zimbabwe adventure. The Belgian Government cleared the budgets for Volens, we had a one week residential training, we packed our luggage and were supposed to leave tonight for Harare, Zimbabwe.

But in the meantime, elections were organized. They took place last Saturday and it looks like the opposition is winning - at least that's what they claim. Friends in Zimbabwe tell us that the situation is tense and that the military is patrolling the city. And that's the main reason we're not leaving tonight as planned. And we've no idea when we could leave. I've got a meeting planned on 30 April at 9am in Harare, hope I'll make it ;-).

PlayDoh - a commercial for Sony

2008-02-26T18:09:00.002+02:00

Loss

2008-02-19T20:32:00.002+02:00

A small earthquake shook our family last night. My father left us after loosing his battle against cancer. He didn't suffer, his family was with him during his last moments.

Byebye, papa. Que te vaya bien.

Worldclocks

2008-02-13T15:53:00.001+02:00

About the price of a bottle of beer in Zimbabwe: http://www.worldometers.info/fr/vue/zim/
A worldclock: http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf
Another worldclock: http://www.worldometers.info/fr/

Zimbabwe bank issues $10million bill - but it won't even buy you a hamburger in Harare

2008-01-23T13:49:00.000+02:00

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Forget the glitzy restaurants of New York and London: only in Zimbabwe would a hamburger actually cost millions of dollars.

The central bank of the southern African country has a issued a 10million Zimbabwe dollar note. The move increases the denomination of the nation's highest bank note more than tenfold.

Even so, a hamburger in an ordinary cafe in Zimbabwe costs 15 million Zimbabwe dollars.

A new high: The ten million dollar note introduced by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

The hope is that such a move will help end chronic cash shortages and disperse long, chaotic lines at banks and automated teller machines.

Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono said in a statement the 10 million Zimbabwe dollars notes will be issued along with 1 million and 5 million Zimbabwe dollars bills.

Previously, the highest existing note, introduced last month, was for 750,000 Zimbabwe dollars.

The new 10 million note is the equivalent of about £2 at the dominant black market exchange rate. A hamburger at an ordinary cafe costs about 15 million Zimbabwe dollars (£3).

That hamburger has trebled in price this month amid shortages of bread, meat and most basic goods.

Zimbabwe faces the world's highest official inflation of an estimated 25,000 per cent. Independent financial institutions say real inflation is closer to 150,000 per cent.

Acknowledging the inflation crisis, Gono said individuals would be allowed to withdraw an increased limit of 500 million Zimbabwe dollars (£100) in a single daily withdrawal, up from 50 million (£10).

He said special arrangements were being made to pay soldiers, police and other uniformed services "because it is not desirable to see them queuing for cash".

Gono said with higher denomination bills businesses might be tempted to again raise prices of scarce goods.

"If this happens the whole objective of solving the cash shortages and to bring convenience to the people will be defeated," he said.

This is how many Zimbabwe dollars
were needed to buy a loaf of bread

In August 2006, the central bank slashed three zeros from the nation's old currency.

Yanniko Zhechev - le faire part

2008-01-22T18:33:00.000+02:00

Merci à Hassiba pour le suivi de la production de la version papier!

6 Degrees of Separation

2008-01-22T11:35:00.000+02:00

You might have heard/read about the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person he or she knows and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth.

Well, it just struck me that the authors of a book I'm reading (a nice one by the way: Afrika Trek I) have been hosted by a guy named Euan Wildeman in Plettenberg Bay. This Euan is a member of Born in Africa's Board Committee, and the people of Born in Africa and Dreamcatcher are historically very fond of each other. So: me>Isabelle (Born in Africa)>Euan Wildeman>authors of my book!

Several studies, such as Milgram's small world experiment, have been conducted to empirically measure this connectedness. While the exact number of links between people differs depending on the population measured, it is generally found to be relatively small. Hence, six degrees of separation is somewhat synonymous with the idea of the "small world" phenomenon.

This is what Wikipedia says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation
And on Facebook, there's a nice application called Six Degrees (type this in the search bar), which allows you to calculate "distances" to people.
Check also Bruno's entry on Six Degrees.

Meet Mr. Янико Недков Жечев - Yanniko Nedkov Zhechev

2008-01-09T23:48:00.001+02:00

Born January 9th, 2008.
50,5 cm
3,540 kg
Godmother: Yohanna Zhechev
Godfather: myself!
Mother and son are healthy!

Isn't he the cutest? ;-)

What do you remember of this day? Let me know, I'll make sure to store the information for him!

Back in Belgium!

2008-01-02T12:49:00.000+02:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I'm not sure what I should wish you for 2008, so feel free to tell me, and I'll wish it for you!

For my part, you can wish me
- to keep on being a happy (hip hoi) non smoker
- to learn Shona, a Zim language
- the best for my future job
- tons of new experiences
- lots of travels

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-26T22:00:00.001+02:00

After a couple of sunny and interesting days on Ilha do Mozambique, we
headed towards Malawi, which we actually already are about to leave...
Spent Christmas in Monkey Bay, a small town on the border of Lake
Malawi, partying on the beach. Didn't feel like Christmas at all, in
fact.

Final days of our travels for this year are there. Final hassles to
find a final bus to Harare where we'll spend a couple of days before
taking the plane back to Brussels on the 1st of January, arriving on
the 2nd.

What happens in 2008?

2007-12-19T15:45:00.000+02:00

The birth of my very first nephew and godchild, and the preparations for Zimbabwe.

You might have read it on Bruno’s blog, we have both applied and been short listed for jobs with Volens in Zimbabwe. Bruno would be working as Coordinator for the orphans and vulnerable children Programme. I applied for a job around Documentation and Publication in the field of sustainable agriculture. This would be as from April, for 3 years.

In the meantime, I might take courses (project coordination, monitoring and evaluation, …), language classes (Shona, advanced English, …), work a bit, spend time with family and friends, … . Although I’m looking forward to all this, a part of me is a bit scared to come back to rainy and cold Belgium. I remember coming back from Chile years ago, and dropping almost instantly back in the Belgian life. I hope it’ll happen as smoothly as then!

T.I.A. – This is Africa / Tina in Africa

2007-12-19T15:30:00.000+02:00

My ex-collegue and friend Tina came traveling with Bruno and me for 12 days or so. A couple of hours after we dropped Estelle of at Maputo Airport on the 8th of December, Tina arrived in Mozambique. Tina wanted a taste of Africa; I believe we succeeded in giving her some!

Starting with 2 days of chilling in Maputo, wandering around and a long walk on the other side of the bay, we headed on thumbing to nowhere. And nowhere is we where we got – in the middle of it actually. And remember, wherever you go, there you are. So there we where, in the middle of nowhere.

On this map: green = the trip to nowhere with Tina and Bruno, blue = the trip to South Africa with Tina and orange = the future plans.

The trip to nowhere

2007-12-19T15:29:00.000+02:00

A couple of rides got us to Praia do Bilene where we ended up staying in the caravan of a South African family on holiday. The next day our thumbs took us north towards Chokwe and beyond.

The very simple question by Bruno (“ Euh, excuse me, do you know if there is a hotel in the next town, if not, do you know anybody in the area who lives in a traditional village where we could stay over for the night?”) to a guy in the last car that took us, brought us in a place that’s not even on the map. “Veinte” is a large village where Collen lives. He agreed on letting us sleep at his place, a tiny house made of mud, even waking up and moving his wife and son for us to sleep in their bed.

The trip to South Africa

2007-12-19T15:28:00.000+02:00

Because Africa is not only about small villages, patience, poverty, beaches, Mozambique and Maputo, Tina and I decided to go to South Africa to see some animals in the Kruger National Park and get a glimpse of Jo’burg and Pretoria. Conveniently, it would give Tina more time in Africa since I could leave her at Jo’burg Airport where her plane from Maputo would have stopped over anyway. So we took a bus to Nelspruit, rented a car and drove to the Blyde River Canyon last Saturday where we enjoyed an amazing sunset.

The next day, a rainy and stormy day, Tina slipped on a wet stair step and hurt her wrist quite badly. We drove through Kruger anyway, deciding to take care of the wrist later. Kruger was good, but not as impressive as I remembered it from when I was here with my parents and sister a couple of years ago. After a very slow start, we managed to see 4 of the big 5, including lions, which is always a cool animal to watch.

The wrist got more painful and swollen, and forced us to a clinic resulting in X-rays and a plaster.

Tina’s last day in Africa was dedicated to Constitution Hill in Jo’burg and a drive through Pretoria. Tuesday, after saying goodbye to Tina at Jo’burg International Airport (and after unsuccessfully trying to bribe my way out of a parking ticket) I hurried back to Nelspruit to hand the car back in and to hitch hike to Maputo and Bruno.

The future traveling plans

2007-12-19T15:20:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow, we fly to the north of Mozambique, to Ilha do Moçambique, the former capital (from back when the place was Portuguese). Then probably to Malawi where we would spend Christmas, then to Harare, Zimbabwe. And on the 1st January we should get a final stamp in our passports, leaving Southern Africa for the time being, back to Belgium!

Maputo

2007-12-07T18:39:00.000+02:00

Arrivés à Maputo. Nouveau numéro de téléphone pour les quelques semaines a venir: +258 826 749 319.

Quelques photos de ces dernieres semaines:

The mountain on the back, the one we're pointing at, is called Precious Little Mountain and is the highest point south of the Kilimanjaro.

From Wild Coast to Maputo

2007-12-06T18:26:00.000+02:00

Lesotho!

Up the Sani Pass (impressive dirt road) towards the sky country. Lowest level on approx. 1450m, constitutional monarchy (yep, just like Belgium), only 2 million inhabitants, for the same superficy as Belgium. Estelle, Bruno and I together with Matthew the guide, Maria and Peter the Swedish couple and Nana the Danish tourist/volunteer drove up the Sani Pass, down to a village where we got up horses and drove to a little village lost in the mountains. Spend the evening there dancing and singing with the locals - which I found a bit "not done" but that's another story - and slept in a roundavelle, the traditional housing of most tribes in Southern Africa. People believe their ancestors can only live in those kind of houses, so even though it is less time consuming to build a square house, they all have a roundavelle next to the square buildings. The next morning, horseback riding to the car, a sangoma (healer) consultation (I'll have a happy and healthy live, I will meet a nice wife and will have healthy children, I will make a lot of money in my future job, hummm...), a little detour to catch a glimpse of the highest mountain south of the Kilimanjaro (3485m, called Precious Little Mountain in the seSotho), a drink in the highest bar of Africa and back down to the lodge.

To Pietermaritzburg!

That same evening, the charming Swedish couple took us with them to Maritzburg. Stayed at a nice hostel, in a Victorian setting. The next day, and after a quick tour in town, back to hitch hiking mode and off toward St. Lucia, on the South African coast. I'd been there before with my parents and sister a couple of years back.

To Hluhluwe!

In the end, we got further than that and spend a night in a very nice backpackers (a park ranger that Bruno addressed at KFC took us there - it's amazing how far you can get just asking a simple question to a by passer!). The next morning we treated ourselves to a 3 hours game drive in Hluhluwe National Park (got charged by an angry bull elephant, saw rhinos and tons of giraffes, antelopes and warthogs). I learned that thanks to the efforts of the management of this park, the White Rhino is no more on the list of endangered species! There are more than 8500 individuals all over the world, of which 1500 in this park.

To Swaziland!

Thumbing up north, a taxi dropped us off at the Swazi border. After the paperwork we got a ride from Alan, in his white Mercedes E270... . And once again, a simple hitch hike turned into a 2 nights stay over! Alan lives with his wife (2 times business woman of the year in Swaziland ;-), 2 kids, 5 dogs, 1 lovely little kitten, iguana and parrot in an huge house in an amazing surrounding: river down the property where baboons from the neighboring game reserve tend to spend some time and view on Execution Hill (where back in the days the king had opponents thrown off the rocks).

After a wonderful nights rest, the second and last thing we planned for this trip came up: the white water rafting. And so we spent the day chilling in the water, water fighting with the others, being thrown off the boat in the rapids, ... .

To Mozambique!

And now, in Mbabane, Swaziland's capital, in the fog and rain, we're waiting for Mozambiquean visas. Killing time on the net, and thinking about you all.

From Plett to the feet of Drakensberg via...

2007-11-30T12:12:00.000+02:00

... via bus: because of the rain in Plett last Monday we couldn't hitch a hike easily, got soaked to the bone and had to stay another day in dear Plett (actually not so bad, it gave us the time to dry the wet stuff, go say hi to Isabelle and her newborn baby, Bruno had a chance to got to the dentist and we eventually had our last drink in Flashback's...) and take a night bus to East London.

... via Coffee Bay: In East London we received a hike quite fast from a couple of persons towards Coffee Bay, on the Wild Coast. Coffe Bay is a very laid back, kind of hippy backpackers' paradise, where we stayed a day, enjoying foie gras and french saucisson with crackers on the beach, while getting sunburned. In the afternoon, a local with the unpronouncable name of Lilhe whom we met on a local taxi, took us to see a sangoma (aka witchdoctor). She kindly answered our questions and after consulting the ancestors even allowed us into the rondavelle (hut) where she prepares her medicine. Later on, Lihle took us to a place where 2 boys were undergoing the initiation to become men (involving circumcision, 1 month of secluded living, wearing traditional clothes, ...). There too, we got the opportunity to ask our questions.

... via Kokstad: The next day, a kind man in his van took us to Kokstad, where we got a small lift with Rowan, the pastor of the local First Baptist Church. He offered us to stay over with him and his 6 children family, only if we wouldn't mind attending the church's school awards ceremony. Which we didn't of course. So we spend a lovely evening with that family, talking about church, belief, education in South Africa, HIV/AIDS issues in the area, ... . Very interesting to hear the point of view of a Baptist pastor on those different matters.

... via Underberg and Himeville: the friendly pastor and his wife insisted on dropping us on the perfect hitchhiking spot for today. And not even 10 minutes later we were on our way to Underberg and Himeville, the last small towns before heading up the Drakensberg mountains and more specifically the Sani Pass. Tomorrow's programme: a 2-day horseback trek into Lesotho.

Pictures and another way of reading these adventures on Bruno's Blog!

Last day in Plett - leaving tomorrow morning!

2007-11-25T09:12:00.001+02:00

Sunday, finally WITH sun, and heat. Plett is overpopulated since
Friday, 10,000 last grade students who just finished their final exam,
are changing the Plettonian athmosphere deeply: not possible anymore
to go for a drink in our usual places as they started asking for
entrance fees, drunken youngsters everywhere, booming cars, queuing in
the shops... . Time to go ;-) !

This morning all the Sterreweg people are gathering at Spur's, a local
steak restaurant. The original plan was to go for an outing yesterday
at Buffalo Hills, have a game drive with all the kids and then braai.
But with the heavy rains of the last few days (heaviest rains in 20
years in this area), we had to cancel everything and arrange for a
lunch at Spur's.

In 10 minutes my computer will start it's trip back, with Goedele to
Cape Town, then with her parents to Grimbergen! May she have a safe
trip... .

What's up?

2007-11-20T17:58:00.000+02:00

Last week in Plett.
Tons of things to do before I let
This place for what it is.
I'm already starting to miss
The people I'm saying goodbye to
And even the ones I still have to say bye to.

It seems not important to tell
You about the Otter Trail, a hell
For most of my muscles. However
I feel like sharing how together
With Lindelwa, I start to learn to care
More about people and to share
Things I know with others,
Instead of focusing on what bothers
(Am I bothered?)
The wallet of a private company.

I can't not be touched - can any? -
By the face of a woman who tells you
From the bottom of her heart, thank you
For things I had no idea I did, no idea I said.
"Really, Thomas, I learned so much
From you." she says. I'm touched,
But fail to grasp exactly what
I leave behind, especially now that
The "Oh my God, still so much to do"-
Feeling gets me hard - bouhou.

"Don't panic thinking about what
You still could do, but do the math,"
I've been told, "and think about
The things you've done, out loud."
I don't see much, though, and get stuck
between humbly accepting that mental hug
and refusing to see that I did left
something, here, in little Plett.

Eurabia

2007-11-13T07:52:00.000+02:00

Bruxelles Eurabia
Uploaded by Tazda

Reçu de Houssane un copain mozambiquo-belgo-marocain. What do you think?

Dreamcatcher video

2007-11-03T18:48:00.001+02:00

Michiel the movie man was in Plett in July to make a video about Born in Africa. He kindly agreed to shoot some images of Die Sterreweg and make a video for Dreamcatcher! This is the result!

ZimZam - the story

2007-11-03T14:56:00.000+02:00

I have to admit, for the sake of publishing at least something, the last two posts where copies of Bruno's blog, and I deliberately changed the dates. Those posts where supposed to be posted long time ago anyway.

So, we got to Zimbabwe on Sunday the 21st. Unfortunately, the bus broke down 40km outside of Harare. The lucky side of the medal was that we got a lift from a Zimbabwean couple in a Mercedes which dropped us of in front of Luc and Veerle's house.

How come Zimbabweans can afford an expensive new Mercedes Benz, while the country is supposed to be completely "fucked"? Well, we heard of one possible explanation. Though inflation hits the 3000% (or more) frequently, the government keeps the official exchange rate against the US dollar at 30.000 Zimbabwe dollars (ZWD). On the black market, 1 USD can be exchanged at 1.000.000 ZWD which is 30x more. The trick is thus to be well connected and go buy dollars in a bank at 30.000 ZWD (which is the hard part 'cause banks will tell you they don't have US dollars), and sell them at 1.000.000 ZWD on the black market. Little funny thing: when you go to a currency conversion website like www.xe.com/currencyconverter and ask for a USD - ZWD conversion, they discretely hint to this... . For more information on Zimbabwe, go visit Bruno's blog - it's worth the detour, but it shows only the worst of the country.

Due to the bus breakdown, we were too late to join Veerle and Kristien on their trip to Zambia. Poor us had to spend 2 days at the swimming pool and walking around in Harare. When you hear about Harare (and Zimbabwe in general), it's only awful stories about no food, no petrol, horrible no-go place, ... . There are huge problems, that's for sure, but it is not that bad. People are always busy "making plans" to find food and petrol. When the electricity falls out, people just deal with it. Somehow, life goes on, things happen, people eat and go for drinks. It's not an easy place to live, but it's not hell. You can still sense Harare's old glory, large avenues, beautiful trees, nice houses. Which, for me, makes it a great and interesting place. Who wouldn't want to live in a country where it's cheaper to wipe your ass with local 500 dollar bills than to actually buy toilet paper? ;-)

On Tuesday morning, after dropping of his kids Rutger, Lena and Jan, Luk leaves us at the station where we took a bus to Zambia. Our luck with buses was still low: 3 hours delay. Our second appointment with Veerle and Kristien to join them in Zambia got compromised. But we managed to find them in Monze after hitchhiking.

In the bus, crossing the Zambezi river between Zimbabwe and Zambia.

First encounter with Zambian wildlife, in our sleeping room. Keeps out the mosquitoes, they said.

The next day, off to visit new and old partner organisations of Volens. The new programme in Zambia focuses on orphans and vulnerable children. We got to know people in Chikankata which are working around HIV/AIDS, the team of PAF (People Action Front) in Mazabuka and Nega-Nega, went for drinks with 2 persons of SAPEP, drove up to Lusaka (Kara Counseling and the Archdiocese), then Kabwe (Sables Drop In center for street children, KOCS school, Home based care service providers, a rehabilitation center for ex-convicts), before heading back to Zimbabwe on Saturday, via the Kariba dam.

That same day I went to visit a cousin of my mother. I'd never seen her, and it was kind of strange to meet a family member that lives a completely different life than the rest. Amazingly, I still could feel some family treats in the way she and her husband behaved and explained things. 35 years of living in Harare doesn't affects a person that much apparently.

On Monday, Luk organized us a visit to a couple of partners of the "Sustainable agriculture" programme. We got to meet Poly (short for Apolonia, what where her parents thinking ;-). Poly is the spirit behind "Women can do it!", a project in which rural women are learning to add value to their produce. Sun dry herbs, make peanut butter, experiment to make bread out of sweet potatoes, ... .

I really got a great feeling visiting the area with Poly. Her enthusiasm, her willingness, her way of handling people, ... . I didn't know exactly what to think of the projects we saw in Zambia, they were all very interesting, but I wasn't amazed. Meeting Poly was a revelation. Even though her projects are very small scaled, maybe a bit naive, it's really for helping that kind of people that I'd like to keep on working in development.

We also visited a learning center for OVC's in a township near Harare and an interesting community project called Kufunda Village (www.kufunda.org).

Tuesday was our final day in Harare. Kristien left at noon by plane, we left in the evening by bus. Alleluya. The bus left actually on time. It was a nice big shiny modern bus. And it broke down after 4 hours. We got stranded for 9 hours in the middle of nowhere. The lucky side of the medal: because we missed our connecting bus in Jo'burg towards Plett, the bus company accommodated us in a hotel situated next to the Apartheid Museum, which we visited after a nice night rest and before taking the next bus to ths south. 24 hours later than originally planned, we got back home, in Plett, looking like this.

Arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe

2007-10-22T19:53:00.000+02:00

36h bus ride, knees folded against the ears, crying children, the person in
the seat in front putting his seat in sleeping position, ... in short,
an average bus ride for 190 cm people. In addition to a engine
breakdown (accompanied with a big bang), this was quite a bus trip.
But we managed to arrive in Harare, Zimbabwe, though too late to hop
on the planned ride to Zambia to go visit Volens projects there.

Staying for the moment at Volens cooperants' place, enjoying Harare
and it's funny things (more in a next entry). Probably going to Zambia
tonight or tomorrow morning. In the meantime, wandering in town,
feeling like a millionaire (1 euro = 1.000.000 ZWD), counting large
bills on the table to pay a coffee (800.000 ZWD), looking at
shop windows offering everything except the basics, ...

"Remember, wherever you go, there you are." - Confusius

ZimZam for BruTho

2007-10-19T20:00:00.000+02:00

Bruno and I will be gone for ten days, heading towards the North, inside Zimbabwe and Zambia. Though I am announcing it a bit late, this is not a spur of the moment kind of decision. Kristien, responsible for dREAMCATCHER here where I work, is going to visit the Volens projects there and the partner organisations. Since Bruno and I are interested in some of the jobs that Volens is looking for development workers in that region, we kindly requested and were invited to come along. This will allow us to see the country through privileged eyes, the ones of people trying to improve situations there, and to meet some of potential partner organisations where we might apply to. It'd be for three years, so it never hurts for us to have a better idea of the country and the organisations, and it won't hurt them either to have a better idea of what Bruno and I are like. It sounds fascinating, though the fact that the Volens couple that will be accompanying us asked to bring 10 kilo's of baking powder, so that they'd be able to make bread is a bit scary... If it's that hard to get things that basic... We read articles of endless queues just to buy eggs, and estimates of one out of every three people in Harare (capital of Zimbabwe) being mentally sick. Guess we'll see.

But so, all this also to warn you that there might very well be some radio silence for the next ten days, till we get back in Plettenberg Bay and civilization on the 1st of November.

Cheers!

Plett Pieter - Back to Belgium

2007-10-08T00:22:00.000+02:00

Plettonian Times
(tune: Hard Times, by The Scabs)

We shared us a Plett time
It has been so fine
There's no I'm leaving
cause you will still shine.

The things you've been doing
The things that you've said
The road to Plett
where we all met.
-----------------------------
They promised us sunshine
They promised us a thousand whales
Instead of the hard times
Pieter came and took our hearts away.

We shared some good times, Pieter
We lied and we killed
We shared some great times, Pieter
We ran, squashed and hiked...
-----------------------------
Our reasons for coming
Don't know what to say
Maybe it's Belgium
Having its way.

You know that we love you.
but that's easy to say
It'd make us proud of you
If you would've stayed.
-----------------------------
We were silly believing
Your stay would last
Cause sooner or later
You'd be in the past.

We'll often wonder
How the things would be
if you would have found
that famous pantshee.
-----------------------------
We look at Kranshoek
Watch the school kids grow
Life was so easy
in Belgians House.

There was only Flashbacks,
Nothando and Kwano
Now just goodbyes,
and time to go...

Listen to us singing while watching a ppt presentation by Bruno - click here!

Plett is soooo small...

2007-10-07T23:57:00.000+02:00

Plettenberg Bay is a small town. Too small, sometimes. Examples.

Saturday - 3pm: Housemate Eugene bumps into me with his trolley in the local supermarket.
Sunday - 4am, in our favorite club, Afro-Centric in Kwano township: A drunken guy explains to Eugene that he saw him bumping into a white guy in the supermarket earlier that day.

One day, the 1st week Bruno and I where in Plett: Eugene waits for a taxi at the taxi rank and chats randomly with a woman he doesn't know. They see Bruno walking down the street a little farther. The woman comments: "Oh, I saw him and his friends in church the other day. They seem very nice! I think I should invite them for a braai sometimes. Hey, weren't they looking at each other in a funny way? Are they a couple?"

Last week, in Knysna (the next town on the road), I drop by the APD offices (partners of Die Sterreweg). Tessa, the social worker there tells me she thought I'd drop by - since she saw me drive in town earlier.

Everybody in Plett seems connected one way or another. White people in town know everybody. In the townships, everybody seems to be related to someone who knows us, beit through church or through family of them. In the nightlife scene, there's always someone who saw you in the previous place you were at that night. It's not only that people seem to know where you were, but also with who, why, how long and how you behaved. It's scary sometimes.