Hey Africa, tell me how you do it

Photo 1: Musoko's fresh meat. And Marguerite standing in the door

Photo 2: Don't always bargain on petrol

Photo 3: Cellphones definately had an effect

When in Africa, don’t make too many plans. Things have a habit of changing. We left Masvingo at 7.30. As planned. We drove towards Harare. As planned. There is a good by-pass road, going around the city, but nobody uses it. Because the army has a road block on it, stops every single vehicle and searches everything in it. So everybody drives through the overfull city. It’s quicker.

It is so sad to see what has happened to Zimbabwe. The country is in a stranglehold. For instance, when a vehicle breaks down or has an accident next to the open road, it is just left there. In no time, it will get stripped to a bare carcass that will just lie there and rot away.

Yet, there seem to be a sense of optimism amongst the people. As if a new beginning is about to take place. Yesterday we stopped in Musoko and while checking out the scene, Coetzee Zietsman, our movie man lost his sunglasses. It dropped off his head while walking around. A local Zimbabwean immediately ran to the glasses, picked it up and took it back to its rightful owner. He smiled at Coetzee, waved and walked away without waiting or begging for a reward. Coetzee had to run after him to give him R10. Yes, when travelling in Zim, forget about local currency or even American Dollars. They want South African Rand.

But wait, back to our plans. We were aiming for Tete in Mozambique and should have made it there at around six last night. Until we got to Nyamapanda Borderpost where we were going to leave Zim. All the paperwork was done in no time. Stamps being whacked into passports at a pace. The one official after the other filled in these dog-eared (I don’t like that expression, really) books with columns and columns of information about every passport holder. I started wondering what they were doing with all that stuff. I wonder what they do with all the full books.

Then somebody from somewhere decided we cannot go through. We needed police clearance papers for our vehicles. We didn’t need them the day before when we left Zim, but that didn’t seem to matter. Suddenly about ten very unofficially looking officials were deciding about our fate.

While all this was taking place, I went for a stroll. You see, as the top dog, I don’t need a passport. I’m a VIP, giving me diplomatic immunity. I walked backwards and forwards between Zim and Mozambique and broadened my Portuguese. I met a donkey and a goat along the way, but they weren’t much in the sense of conversation.

Eventually we had all the papers. Until yet another official decided he is not accepting it. So we waited a bit more. Patience is the biggest virtue in Africa. We outwaited them, meaning we outwitted them. We were supposed to be in Tete at six. We left Zim at ten past six.

Yip, don’t make too many plans in Africa.

This is Buddy barking off.

Download GPS Tracks for today: Google Earth Format & GPX Format