Zimbabwe

Like the township we visited near Capetown, Zim seemed in my preconception to be an economic and human disaster, a place to be avoided, where whites with obvious wealth (we have a truck) would be the target of resentment and worse. But John Carver's godson was going to host us, so we nervously crossed the border and drove the 60 km in to Victoria Falls.
Once again, reality was so different than my imagination. Yes, it is a desperately poor country, and Mugabe has ruined the economy and destroyed the prosperous farms that could have fed much of southern Africa. But people still have lives, and manage to eke out some kind of living, and have an energy and exuberance despite their predicament. Vic Falls is a special case, with a booming tourist economy, but we drove far out into the countryside on a dirt road along the Zambezi River, and saw life continuing on. almost everyone returned our waves with a friendly smile. The houses are different than those of Botswana and Northern Namibia - round ends but elongated flat sides, with painted designs on the mud, and layered designs in the thatched roofs. Like Botswana there were also homes built of blocks, and they looked more prosperous than those in Namibia.
Vic Falls itself is awesome, gorgeous, huge, green, loud, wet and truly a wonder of the world, as advertised. We walked through lush rainforest on the Zim side, facing the wide main falls in Zambia. The Zambesi spreads out so that it falls into its gorge from both sides of over a km of canyon. Mist is blasted hundreds of meters into the air, visible from miles away. We watched bungee jumpers hurl themselves off bridge over the gorge, with crazy whirlpools and standing waves underneath them, the river at maximum flow at the end of the rainy season. We thought of our young friends Kyle and Tom who did this jump own their own African adventure a couple of years ago, and hope that lots more people we know will be inspired to come here. Tons of foot traffic across the bridge, mostly Zambians loaded with goods to sell to tourists in Zim. Strange security - we got a pass that let us go onto the bridge, and walked right into Zambia. So much for the police state I expected, although I know that terrible things are still happening to many Zimbabweans. See the next post for a note on that...