A few days ago I received an email from my friend, Victor Sibanda, who lives in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. There is so much bad news coming out of Zimbabwe these days that it surprised me to learn Victor has started his own tour hosting business. I was encouraged by his news; it indicates there is still some small sense of normalcy in this devastated country.

I met Victor last year when I backpacked around the world for six months. I spent about a month and a half in Africa and realized my childhood dream of going on safari. The other destination I had always dreamed of seeing was Victoria Falls, so when I planned my safari, I also booked a side trip to Zimbabwe. All the arrangements had to be made prior to leaving the U.S. because the tour operators and hotels will no longer accept the local currency, as it is virtually worthless. Consider the following:

• The regime is surviving by printing money. The German firm Giesecke & Devrient holds the contract for printing Zimbabwe’s currency and they have been delivering bank notes at a rate of Z$170 trillion each week. Last month Giesecke & Devrient decided they would no longer print bank notes for Zimbabwe, bowing to pressure from the German government.
• John Robertson, a respected Zimbabwean economist, estimated inflation in July 2008 to be forty to fifty million percent.
• An egg costs $50 billion Zimbabwean dollars and withdrawals from ATM’s are limited to a maximum of Z$100, about the cost of a loaf of bread.
• On August 1, 2008, the government devalued the Zimbabwean dollar, making Z$10 billion worth ZW$1
• Shops can only cash checks if the customer writes double the amount, because the cost will go up by the time the check has cleared.
• Most credit card companies will instantly cancel any card used in Zimbabwe

At the time I booked and paid for my trip, the situation in Zim was not yet dangerous, but by the time I was scheduled to to visit, the situation had deteriorated. I contacted the company that had handled my reservations and asked their advice, explaining that I would rather lose my money than put my life at risk. The tour operator assured me Read the rest of this entry »

During the past few years, I have frequently contemplated the issue of charitable giving. Every time there is a disaster of major proportion, we are called upon to donate. I listened to these pleas following 9/11 and the tsunami. Of late, the earthquake in China, the Myanmar cyclone, and the flooding along the Mississippi have prompted organizations like the American Red Cross to redouble their efforts to raise money. Regularly, I am subject to appeals from non-profit organizations that solicit money for a plethora of causes: Jerry Lewis browbeats me on behalf of children suffering from Muscular Dystrophy, the Fraternal Order of Police demands that I purchase their light bulbs, and National Public Radio subjects me to a full day of on-air begging twice per year.

Because I rarely donate to any of these organizations, I sometimes worry that I do not do enough to help others. I wonder if I am selfish or less generous than I should be. My problem, however, is that I have a healthy suspicion of charitable organizations. Although I believe Read the rest of this entry »

It seems a simple thing, crossing a street. But my idea of how to get across a busy street in the U.S., whether on foot or in a vehicle, is significantly different from methods employed to cross streets in other places in the world. For example, take a look at this video showing a busy street in India:

As I traveled around the world I was intrigued by the various means employed to cross a street. On my very first morning in Saigon, Vietnam I spotted a bakery across the street from my hotel. I stood at the curb for 15 minutes, waiting for a break in the monstrous traffic but the vehicles just kept coming. Just as I was about to give up, a local man stepped off the curb, walked out into the midst of the traffic, and slowly crossed the street as the vehicles weaved and darted around him. Eventually, I got up the nerve to try it and stepped out into the stream of traffic. Read the rest of this entry »

As I leave Africa and wing my way toward Switzerland, I have been thinking about the three words I will assign to each of the African countries I have visited. I have decided not to do this for Zambia, for I only spent a couple hours in this country and then only in the Victoria Falls East Cataract National Park, so I don’t feel that I had adequate exposure to the country to really get a sense of it. However, the following are the words I have chosen for the rest of the African countries I visited: Read the rest of this entry »

I’d been told that there was an incredible diversity and volume of wildlife in the country of Botswana, so on my last full day in Zimbabwe I elected to do a day safari in Chobe National Park, which is located in Botswana, just an hour’s drive from Victoria Falls. In this part of Africa, four countries come together along the banks of the Zambezi River: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia, and it is quite easy to go back and forth between them.

Vultures in a tree, awaiting a meal

For the entire hour drive to the Zimbabwe-Botswana border the transport jeep traveled through the Zambezi National Park. I kept my eyes peeled for wildlife, if only to hone my spotting skills for the day’s safari, and I was not disappointed. I spied the occasional elephant or two hiding in the brush just off the road and then began to see trees full of vultures. Suddenly, a very fat, sleek spotted hyena darted across the road in front of us. The driver said this was an auspicious sign – spotted hyena are rarely seen in the daylight as they are night hunters. With the vast number of vultures and other birds of prey that were gathering in the surrounding trees he speculated that there was a fresh kill nearby and sure enough, a bit further along the road we came upon a skull in the middle of the road. The driver stopped and kicked it around but it was so mangled that he couldn’t tell what kind of an animal it had been. Whatever the species, it was big, and the raw meat hanging off it confirmed the recent kill.

Crossing the border between Zimbabwe and Botswana

At the Botswana border I passed through Immigration, getting my passport stamped before walking over the border at a small dip in the road that was full of what appeared to be rainwater. I was instructed to step on a saturated foam pad that sat on the curbside, wetting the soles of my shoes. I walked along the curb while the jeep drove through the pit of water. This is a treatment to guard against bringing Hoof and Mouth Disease into Botswana, which I found truly ridiculous – they sanitized the soles of my shoes but my pants have been dragging around in the Zimbabwean soil for a couple of days. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, that’s the name of a movie. But I was dreaming of Africa long before the movie ever came out. In fact, for as long as I can remember, I have had a passion to see this mysterious continent. So when the opportunity arose to do this round-the-world trip I excitedly included Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania in my itinerary. All three places were easy choices. Tanzania has the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakeys first found fossil evidence of early hominids. Where Zimbabwe and Zambia meet, the Zambezi River plummets hundreds of feet over a horseshoe chasm, forming the world famous Victoria Falls.

I suffered a good deal of trepidation over the African part of my journey. There is so much that is unknown about Africa. We do not hear much about it in the news. We’re unfamiliar with its cultures and people. Would I be accepted? Would I be safe? This was not just a rhetorical question where Zimbabwe was concerned – their president, Robert Mugabi, has been plundering the country for years, jailing or “disappearing” anyone who gets in his way. The result is a country that is suffering with severe poverty, high unemployment, runaway inflation and an extreme lack of even the most basic goods like cooking oil and sugar. When I initially booked the Zimbabwe portion, the situation was not so dire. But in the intervening months the situation had deteriorated. I grew fearful. I waffled.

Everyone told me not to risk going to Zimbabwe. I made a decision not to go – to walk away from the prepaid flight and hotel on the premise that my life is worth a lot more than a few measly dollars and the falls weren’t going to dry up overnight. But then I decided to email my travel agent, explaining that I was willing to lose my money and asking her to be truthful with me about the condition in the country. Her rapid reply reassured me that the press had blown the situation out of proportion, as usual. Yes, there were gasoline shortages. And yes, Mugabe was up to his usual tricks in the capitol of Harare, but that was a world away from Victoria Falls. Besides, she wrote, the country is so hungry for foreign currency that they take extra pains to ensure the safety of tourists in places like Victoria Falls. I’d had more than an inkling of this when I had to wire U.S. funds to her company in order to book the trip; I eventually discovered that the Zimbabwean currency is worthless and even the local people won’t take it. They want U.S. Dollars, Euro, Pounds Sterling, South African Rand, and even Botswanian Pula, but they will not, under any circumstances take Zim dollars. In the end, I took a deep breath and decided to go, although I didn’t sleep well for the last few nights before boarding the plane to Zimbabwe. Read the rest of this entry »