Salibonani! Greetings from Zimbabwe! I’m happy to report that I arrived safely in Bulawayo about two weeks ago and have been having an amazing time since. It’s so beautiful here and the people have been more than welcoming. I really wanted to put pictures up rather than lots to read, but the internet is too slow for this. I'll try for the next blog to just have pictures.

I am living in Bulawayo which is Zim’s second largest city after Harare the capital. I’m staying at World Vision’s guest house. I’m the only one staying here for more than a month but people have been trickling in and out so it’s been nice to meet new people. I am very spoiled here. I don’t have to cook, clean, or do laundry. It’s nice but something I’m still getting use to. We do have cable so it’s quite nice to see my favorite cartoons and movies. The weather is very nice and much like Southern California. The best part is that I feel very safe and have had no problems adjusting. There is also a 24 hour security guard at our house so that helps too.
I absolutely love work and time is going so fast!!! I am learning so much everyday and my team here has been amazing. The first two weeks I have been supporting their nutrition sector in Gwanda district to prevent and decrease the prevalence of malnutrition amongst children under 5 and pregnant and lactating women. This opportunity has allowed me to visit our outpatient clinics in rural Zimbabwe as well as meet with the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare weekly. It is really rewarding to see these projects at work. The community members have also been trying to teach me Ndebele which is one of their dialects. I learned a few words and they still laugh every time I attempt to speak, but I can tell they really appreciate the effort. They also have the click sound in this particular dialect. There are actually three different sounds to the click depending on the word. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to say any words with the click but of course this was not the case. I was taken to one of the community leaders to receive some feedback about the program being implemented in his community and when he introduced himself, his name had a click. Out of all the people I had to meet, it had to be the community leader with a click in his name. So a little embarrassed I tried, and again got a laugh, but a smile too

Times have been very tough for Zimbabweans and I am continually amazed with their level of resiliency, optimism and faith in God. They work so hard to make a living and have so much dignity and pride in themselves to continually make ends meet. Last year, virtually nothing was available in stores, the rains weren’t enough for their harvest, no one was getting paid and the government was unstable. People even stopped going to the bank to receive money because the value of the Zim dollar was so low that it couldn’t buy them anything. Prices were changing daily at drastic levels so it was difficult for those even making a living to save up for purchases. However, they continued to go to work.

Now that the government has formed this new coalition, people are very optimistic about things getting better. However, there are still many challenges in the country especially in terms of food security, HIV/AIDS, and costs for basic living. The Zimbabwean dollar is no longer being used at the moment so everything is in South African Rands and US Dollars. The upside is things not costing billions and trillions of Zim dollars. The downside of this is that almost EVERYTHING is at minimum a dollar. One can of coke, a newspaper and a loaf of bread are all priced at one dollar each. Now for a country where most of its citizens live on less than $2 a day and have an average household size of 8, you can imagine the challenges they face, in addition to the rains not being enough for this harvest either. Everyone is praying for better times ahead.

I’ll be updating my blog as much as I can but I think it’ll be every 2-3 weeks as my access to internet is limited. As time passes, I hope to get better pictures of the people and landscape so that you can see more of Zimbabwe. I’m very excited to say that my boyfriend, Eddie, will be coming to visit me for two weeks in June so I’m really looking forward to having a visitor. We’ll be travelling to Victoria Falls and going on a Safari so I’ll be sure to post those pictures after our trip. I can hardly wait!

Until Next time.....