Saturday, September 4, 2010

Zimbabwe...add it to the list

From Tuesday to Friday of this past week I was in Mutare, Zimbabwe. It was an accomplishment for me mainly because Zimbabwe has been on my list of places to go, but since it is was recently also on the list of places where I'd be more likely to be the recipient of something unpleasant I had not yet made it there. Now I have, and I loved it. In 2008, Zimbabwe hit a low point economically; hyper-inflation of the Zimbabwean dollar had left the country distraught. At one point $1 USD equated to literally quadramillions of Zimbabwean dollars. I really have no idea how zeros are in a quadramillion. Not to long ago the Zimbabwean dollar was not to far off from the US dollar, but the last 10 years or have dissolved any confidence in the currency. In 2008 many schools and other civil departments closed. The salaries of these govenerment employees had reached such inflated levels that a month's salaries converted to $1 USD per month (as opposed to about $150/month a few years earlier). Now that's a motivation killer. Lines for simple commiditier like sugar and gas stretched for 5hrs. Zimbabweans fled the country, not surprisingly. Then about a year ago the government sort of abandoned their own currency and took up all transactions in US dollars and simultaneously standardized the salaries of government employees in US dollars as well. This stability ha helped immensely. It would be a lie to say that Zimbabwe is anywhere close to where it once was, but at least it seems the uncontrolled tailspin has stopped. However, I must say it is weird to walk into a Zimbabwe open air produce market, be overwhelmed by the smell of dried fish and the banter of people speaking Shona and then exchange a bunch of bananas for one US dollar; not what I expected. I also did not expect to see by far the greatest Taxi slogan I have ever encountered (not that I can say I have encountered many at all). MIN TAXI - "Expose yourself, get a ride." I could not decided quick enough what exactly I felt like exposing and alas the taxi had taken another fare. Oh well, I have to expose myself for US dollars some other time.


Oh yeah.....why was I in Zimbabwe anyway. I attended a 2 day workshop on conservation agriculture techniques and principles that I will bing back to my community in Moz and train others in. It made more sense for me (and the other volunteer Mica) to go since we speak English and could translate the methods back in Mozambique. Basically I'll be emphasizing a minimum tillage agriculture with a thick mulch cover for water conservation and a planned crop rotation. Simple things, but new things and thus difficult. The oddest part was that after growing up in the midwest and driving past endless field of corn and soybeans for the past 30yrs, I have learned to grow corn (the starchy flour variety) and soybeans in Zimbabwe.

We got back to Moz yesterday to find out that a series of food riots have erupted in the country, and particulary in the city of Chimoio, the largest city to our border crossing. Things seem to have calmed, but we're going to stay put here in Chimoio for a few days, just to make sure. If you'd like to read more about them check the links below.  On Monday we'll see if the riots continue, they sort of take the weekend off, seriously.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11176238
http://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00011718.html

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