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| Nearly five years since my last visit to Zimbabwe, I spent two weeks there this November. I was really curious to see how people live and function in a country that in theory shouldn’t work at all. Robert Mugabe has been the president there since 1980 and in the past decade has systematically destroyed the economy to a point where inflation is the highest in the world at 238,000,000%, unemployment is at 85% and the country produced this year only 5% of the maize it produced 10 years ago. People are starving to death, cholera is rampant, HIV rates continue to hover around 50%, and the ruling party continues its power despite having lost the last two elections. Crazy. |
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Yet somehow, people are still smiling and the sense of peace and friendliness that Zimbabwe is known for, is still strong. I observed a really interesting phenomenon while there. Instead of people being crazed with frustration (which there certainly are moments of!) people are uniting and helping each other get through their daily routines. There is a sense of community and networking unlike anything I’ve seen before. |
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Women in Tafara carrying water |
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Flowers painted by children |
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Flamboyant trees line the streets |
