At long last an opportunity to stop and consider our last few days. All the excitement at Beulah with the extended whanau/family for a Xmas eve get together before off to Auckland for a few hours sleep at a local airport hotel. Fantastic meal at Molten restaurant in Auckland under extra care from host Rensha Bouwer, Renene's cousin who is head chef. Besst calamari and prawns I have ever tasted!! 03h00 rise and shine and the beginning of 30 hours travel with Xmas day experienced in Auckland New Zealand ,Sydney Australia , Johanessburg South Africa and Harare Zimbabwe. The longest xmas day the Jelley's have ever experienced.
Not much sleep but the anticipation some degree of remedy for that. Johanesburg airport clean and the folk really friendly. Bit of a hassle as we had to collect our baggage and then re book our luggage through to Harare and go through customs and immigration again . 20h00 arrival at Harare airport to see our good friend Graham Leach waving to us through the windows of the concourse. . Not changed a bit in the 14 years since we last were together. Crazy Graham was dressed in adult version of Courtneys old Mvurachena school uniform. What a surprise.
Quickly through the formalities as clearly we were the last flight in and all staff keen to get away and have some time to celebrate what was left of Xmas with their families . So many memories from the get go driving around the ring road at end of the Harare airport runway where we as boys growing up used to travel home to our house at New Sarum . Memories of days chasing birds with pelletgun amongst the trees at end of the runway and learning to drive an old Ford Prefect on the dirt road around the grass runway. Thoughts of friends we grew up with at Kutsaga tobacoo research station. The interesting ride through the back roads of Ruwa reminicient of our travel at night through Samoa with all the people walking the middle of the road and having to drive carefully around the pot holes and ditches in the road let alone people and dogs. Past a shebeen at full volume withh what appeared to be over a 100 people gyrating under the open sky enjoying their Xmas evening .
Then our arrival at the Leach household to the expected rambling homestead with a wonderful collection of dogs of all makes and models and personality. Sat around the great big kitchen table and it was just like the old days of laughter and hilarity. Graham personality not changed a bit and elaines dry sense of humour and chuckle which brings warmth to ones heart. It as if we have never been away. The need for sleep curtailed our evening and after a shower by torchlight when the power failed mid hair shampoo we hit the sack. The cacophony of frogs in the nearby pond a distraction . After a fitful night the start of a new day.
one forgets so easily the large rambling properties in Zimbabwe with green grass in the gardens , huge trees towering over the homestead , the noises of cockrels crowing, sheep bleating and dogs barking in the distance. Friendly domestic staff challenges our memories of the Shona language with greetings of "Mangwanani - maswere se ". Great to sit around the kitchen table and share eggs and bacon and stories of camping in Mozambique. We went off to the supermarket to get beers and wine for a shared lunch with further friends from Chipinge. Pick and Pay was a large clean fully stocked supermarket with everthing you could want. No different to New Zealand New World or Countdown.
As we drove along there were numerous hiace taxis full of people , vendors all along the roadside selling anything from a pile of tomatoes to bricks for building. A huge growing sprawl of new residences are developing all around Ruwa but without council services apart from roading. Elaine took us to divine for water at one residence and it appears many residents are now putting down boreholes and then have huge tanks above roof level and we presume septic tanks for sewerage. Some residents are taking water from superficial wells dug alongside the road.
We met up with old Chipinge residents Rich and Louise Taylor , Charles and Charmie Taffs ,Loiuse's sister Natalie and husband Simon plus a whole brood of unruly teenagers including Ashley Trobridge visiting from New Zealand. Bountiful lunch of leg of mutton aand pork all swilled down with copious amounts of Castle Lager. Certainly a challenge getting my head around having more than a couple of beers and then being in control of a vehicle back to the Leaches after an afternoon full of laughter , sharing of many anecdotes and incidents from Chipinge days and Chipinge Clinic. Amazing how comfortable one can feel despite so many years away. Clearly business and survival a challenge here from talking to the boys. Education and medical aid take a big chunk out of everybody's take home pay. Anything up to US$900 a month for a small family medical aid . US$ 4000 a term I believe for private senior schooling.
It has been amazing though how more affordable things are relative to new Zealand $ for $ but obviously not income for income.
Can of beer 0.80c . Three chickens for similar price of one large chicken in NZ. Movies and large popcorn for $ .
Wonderful opportunity to catch up with an old contemporary of my Dad Gordon Wright and his son Mike who I grew up with and was at Guinea Fowl School with me. Gordon flew Hunters like Oudad Geldenhuys and we had a beer in his "den" which was full of old Rhodesian airforce memorablia , all the old aircraft and a picture of the crews who did the Hunter ferry back to Salisbury from UK.
So off to Mutare and the Vumba mountains tomorrow and our circular journey around Zimbabwe begins.
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