Hope for Zimbabwe

Our hosts in Vic Falls were Richard and Susie Lowe. Really amazingly great people! Can't capture it all here, but despite living in a beautiful home in an exotic country, they're not living the lives of privileged white people. Nothing is easy in Zim, and Richard has had to start from scratch at least 3 times, but has great spirit and energy. He's been a builder, revitalized the crocodile farming industry, and now runs a factory making excellent furniture from Zimbabwean teak, way better than the Indonesian teak we're familiar with, one of the hardest and densest woods in the world, and richly red coloured. The prices are great, and I'd bring a set of chairs home if I had a freighter! Susie helps with the business too, and they employ hundreds of people, although times are really tough right now, since much of their market is Zimbabwe itself, and the economy is a wreck, although slowly recovering. Lots of their employees are affected by AIDS, and many have died.
In hopes of building a better country, the Lowes have been very active in the opposition to Mugabe, personal friends of Morgan Changerai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, who won the last election but was denied power. The last three elections have been hopeful, then bitter as votes are rigged, and Mugabe refuses to step down even when voted out. Richard has had death threats, police raids on their home, and many people they know, especially ordinary black Zimbabweans, have been killed for opposing Mugabe. But in this year's election, Richard is optimistic that pressure from neighboring South Africa will help see a fair election and the end of Mugabe's reign. Let's hope so, because this could in fact be a rich and dynamic country in a short time given its natural and human resources.