Citizen Sinclair

As noted in an earlier posting I, by mistake, became citizen of Zimbabwe a while ago. This did not bother me. Until last Friday.

I had just gotten a new passport as the old one was running out of pages (they last around a year with all my zigzaggin around Africa). Then I took the time on Friday to go to Immigration and transfer my residence permit.

An extremely bored-looking woman asked for my ID and then stated that as I was a citizen I could not have a residence permit. My protests that I was not a citizen, it was just that Registrar General had made a mistake, had no impact whatsoever - "you have to sort that out first".

So we started this morning by going back to Registrar General. Lucky I had a copy of my old paper ID and even more lucky a friend of Hellen was on duty. We explained the situation and about 10 minutes later I was no longer a citizen but an "Alien" once more. Passed Immigration and the same, equally bored, woman stamped my new passport without even checking if the old one actually had a residence permit in it.

Now if that had happened in Sweden I can only imagine the headhunt for the person responsible for the original mistake, a certain amount of forms to be filled in etc. Sometimes the rather relaxed attitude towards rules in African countries can be an advantage.

Cold cold cold

Harare and Zimbabwe is experiencing a record cold winter. The Herald (of absolute truth) reports night temperatures down to -12 in parts of the country and that cattle has died!

That is NOT the best time for your geyser to die on you so of course that is what happened. On top of that it seems every good plumber has left Zimbabwe so what we keep finding are the guys who:

1. Learnt by looking at what someone else did and said "I am sure I can do that" - they are wrong...
2. Do not know the clock or understand the concept of time. "Morning" means anytime before lunch. If you are lucky because it might also mean "today or possibly tomorrow".
3. Have no transport and carry 2-3 tools, no ladder, no silk thread etc etc so you have to rush and buy whatever they need
   

I don't know why we always end up with the Marx Brothers for plumbers. When 2 finally showed up yesterday they fit the above description perfect. It took them around 2 hours to fit a new element and a thermostat.

Once they were gone and water warm enough boy did I soak in a bath. Only to wake up in the night by "strange sounds" from the geyser. Switched it off. This morning switched it back on. An hour or so later the water in it BOILS and the water starts pouring out via the pressure valve! Thank any god noone was outside in the area where the water comes out from the ceiling!!

Switch off geyser. Call oldest Marx Brother (the boss) who promise to come "first thing". He showed up at around 11 am... only to tell it was the wrong type of thermostat. Now why could not the younger Marx Brothers see that BEFORE they installed it??

Otherwise I have a flu and cough, Eric has a flu and cough and Mia is not too well either . And the kids have just "finished" chickenpox.

On the up side: another small step on the road back to normal life in Zimbabwe. We now have paid vehicle insurance in USD and that makes them meaningful! For years any insurance has been completely pointless as hyperinflation rendered any evalution meaningless. You had it just because the law required. We are now looking at once more insure the home, something that will feel really good once it is done.

And we have contracted a company for garden maintenance... we are SICK of employing "gardeners" who either are useless or have x number of family/personal problems. It cost a bit more but so far feels worth every dollar.

2 links to sites with thoughts and pictures re life in Africa, one of them in Swedish though:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ZimbabwePictures
http://www.utangranser-kajsasblogg.se/

Find for the handy car enthusiast

Found this on the streets of Harare some time ago:



Anyone interested I can find out if this classic Volvo P1800 sportscar is for sale? You DO have to be the handy, fixing mechanic (mad) type though...

Lichinga notes

Back in Lichinga, Niassa province, Mozambique. A place where very few things work as planned or expected. Internet one of them, terribly unreliable and poor quality. TDM "Bandalarga", more like Bandapico if you ask me, is running a series of TV adverts where people get "blown away" by the high speed internet. Sure. More like that old ad where someone falls asleep in front of the computer waiting for that mail with attachment.

Any way, Tuesday was inauguration of the long awaited fibre optic cable connection coming to Lichinga. Pomp and circumstance, disco music and orchestras, honorable (?) ministers and such the whole day. Internet suddenly working quite well... for 3 days.

Yesterday back to Bandapico, can hardly open gmail interface. Ministers etc back in Maputo I guess.

Zimbabwe status report

A personal such, of course. But despite the obvious problems the Government of National Unity (GNU) is facing and also despite the equally obvious internal "tug of war" inside said GNU (evident by orders and contraorders, sometimes on the same day, ongoing farm invasions,unilateral decisions etc) there is a cautious feeling of optimism in the air.

The shops are almost back to normal (meaning how they were before all headaches started around 2000) and last time we fueled the cars we actually paid with cash! For most of you that is nothing - for us something that has not been possible for more years than I can recall.

And prices are for the third month in a row reported as falling! Yes, many many items are still more costly than they used to be and out of reach for most people but it is moving in the right direction at least.

Also small but nice improvements can be seen, at least in Harare. Traffic lights are being fixed, cleaning and emptying of rubbish here and there, flower sales back in Unity Square and such. As I said - SMALL signs but at least there is a feeling that SOMETHING is happening.

What is absurd at the moment are fees for various services such as phone, city council, electricity, water etc. This is because all govt. agencies are trying to play "catch up" and recover some capital after years of being more or less free. However, that is also slowly being corrected. What is left are things like school fees... I shudder to think what we will be asked to pay next term.

Noone thinks this is going to be an easy ride and there is a very real possibility of failure, no matter what politicians might say in public. One good thing though (strange for outsiders perhaps) is that the rot is now public and out in the open. The absolutely appalling state of the econonomy, the terrible conditions for most govt. departments and other agencies, the enormous needs of support, money and credit lines are now for all to see and not swept under the carpet of silence and weird "our friends in East, Iran and China will help us"-statements/policies.

So I give a careful "thumbs-up" so far. For the one interested in Zimbabwe's economy I found this interesting blog:
http://odettejohnrobertson.blogspot.com/

On a personal note: after years of having a rather flimsy A4-paper as Zimbabwean identification I have now managed to get a "proper" id!!

Albania

Back from a short visit to Albania, some reflections on that country. For starters it was my first visit and I have not been in the Balkan region for over 20 years. Well before they decided (or whatever happened) to disintegrate Yugoslavia into x number of midget states during a terrible war in other words.

For those who know their history Albania was a communist state post second world war, ruled most of that time by Enver Hoxha. It broke away from the Soviet Union infuense though. The "post-Hoxha" time was chaotic and I remember seeing the movie Lamerica mid 90s sometimes, a not very positive movie presenting a country in chaos.

So I was most pleasantly surprised to find this small country (roughly 3 million inhabitants) being fairly "modern" and inhabited by very friendly, helpful and hospitable people. Everyone tries to help, tries to speak English and as a matter of fact I was barely left alone to eat.

Food is a story in itself, mixture of Italian, meditteranian and more robust "farm cooking". I am NOT used to eating 3-4 courses for lunch and felt rather stuffed a lot of the time.

An especially memorable meal was a late lunch by Lake Pogradec on our way back from Korca to Tirana. We stopped at a very empty restaurant (low season) and was treated the best grilled lamb I have ever eaten. Full stop.

That was one day when I simply skipped dinner. Another time I had to leave the better part of a pot of lovely pork suckling baked with potato. Too much food in short - but great food.

It was a bit chilly, I have not been in Europe during that season for many years. And strange - some offices and houses are actually colder inside than it is outside! The office in Korca in particular, brrr.

We (I was with a colleague, P G Skog) found that no meeting was held without coffee "espresso style" and rarely without being served Raki. Maybe to keep the warmth? And most of the time "farm" Raki from someone's relatives rather than from the shop. That includes the acting Director General of NES that the mission was focused on.

Here some Albania photos

Do I look gullible?

Written 8 March:
Am spending the day at Rome Airport, no fun at all. OK I have a day-room at Hilton Hotel so at least I have somewhere to rest. However: the room is nice and designed and so on but NOTHING comes with it, not even a bottle of water. Or internet access. Tea and coffe, end of story. And the prices for food in their restos are so mad I simply walked over to the airport to get a bite.

Coming fresh from the very friendly Tirana where my room included hi-speed internet it feels a bit weird that the supposedly "first-world" Italy and fancy Hilton can not offer that. Never mind.

Sadly I can never really sleep during daytime unless I am exhausted so I just rest, read and try to relax. My flight for Addis Abeba leaves at 1.15 in the night so I have time on my hands.

I guess I should have gone into Rome as I have never been there but all stories I have heard (and what I have seen so far) have led me to suspect I likely would not have been back on time or without any money left.

Most of the time when I get stopped by police on the road in my various criss-crossing travels of southern or eastern Africa I have no problems and get "let off the hook" quite easily. I have attributed it to a certain easygoing attitude combined with patience but maybe I just look "too daft or gullible" and they sort of feel sorry for me?

This thinking is because 2 times in a couple of hours I was hit on by conmen here at the airport. Guy nr 2 I can not prove (I can not PROVE nr 1 either but if I am wrong I will be more than surprised) however as I walked away from him.

Guy number 1 I meet in the long tunnel from airport to hotel. Conversation goes a something like this:
"Excuse me sir do you speak English" - this in a very to me UK-sounding accent
"yes I do why"?
"Well I have just missed my flight and need to call my brother in UK to ask for help. Would you have 3 Euro to help me make a call"?
"No but you can use my phone"
"Well he has to call me back with a booking number so I want to use one of the payphones that has a number on it"
OK I give the guy a coin I happen to have and even as I walk away from it I suspect it was a con.

That was underlined by the fact that I see the same guy 2 more times in the next hour in the same tunnel... and he is still there when I go for check-in another 5-6 hours later.

Next one gets on me when I am buying something to eat, with one of those almost incomprehensible English dialects. A long story unwinds of how he has driven down from UK and lost everything, now has to wait the whole day at the airport. Had to give taxi driver wedding ring, watch, overcoat. I leave him before I hear the end of the story.

So in other words - do I look like a con target, soft and naive? A question for me to ponder, you don't have to comment or answer.

The Italian Experience

There is a movie by that name. There is now also one of those "I will never forget" experiences of my life I will label the same.

It does not happen very often that I get completely mad angry and "blow the top" in public outside the closed circuit of family and friends. Normally I label myself as probably a bit too "timid" and patient. Today's encounter with italians in general and Alitilia specifically however made me completely lose it.

From now on I have no problems understanding why they have not managed to organise a working government since forever, why Napoli is drowning in uncollected garbage and why the Roman Empire collapsed. As well as why Alitalia was bankrupt and noone even wants the leftovers. The answer to all this is "that is not my problem". It is not strange that the Mafia is in control as at least the businesses they control do work - the only thing that really surprises is that there ever was a Roman Empire and that Italy has a strong national soccer team.

These statements are the results of today's experience. I arrive at Rome airport around 5.30 am local time. I have been travelling since around 2-3 pm Saturday using Ethopian Airways and am all but kicking even if everything has worked out and the trip has actually been fine - this far.

The first thing that greets me is what I call "the Maputo experience", meaning there is not a living soul in sight until AFTER you walk through security etc and get all the alarms ringing. Then a sleepy guy shows up and we re-do the exercise.I ask this person for the transfer desk and am told to find "C1".

That no shop or cafe is open on a Sunday morning at this hour I can understand. A completely empty transferdesk I do have a problem with though. OK, I have plenty of time as the connecting flight leaves at 10.15. Or so I think at least.Time passes and around 7 am most shops and cafés have opened. Not the transfer desk though, it is as abandoned as can be. An information desk or such does not exist, all I have is a screen that tells me my gate will be C36. I find another transfer desk that is just as abonded as C1.

OK, I might surf on internet to keep me busy. Right, for starters the "buy internet time"-site works only with Internet Explorer and does not help Macintosh users or users of Firefox, Opera or other alternatives. OK, I have set up a way to use IE just for this kind of situations. Then I am told to put a "future date" for my visa-card. It DOES expire this month but DOES work this month. Not according to the crappy programmer who coded this site. So forget internet.

Somewhere around 7.45 the "wrong" transfer desk is manned. I meet a quiet man who is on the same flight, he works for the Saudi embassy. He has been told to wait 10 minutes. I walk up to the desk with my papers and am told "he does not handle Alitalia, go to C1". My new friend and I walk to C1 that is just as unmanned as before.

So I figure I might do some shopping while waiting - "where is your boardingcard, you can not shop without boardingcard". Catch 22 if I ever saw one.

Around 8.30 we have walked to the gate as we can think of nothing else to try. Unmanned of course. When we get back to C1 it is actually manned - by Qatar Airways. We and other form a long queue, I am no 3 in line. Everyone in the queue is hoping these guys also do Alitalia. When it is my turn I am told "do I look like Alitalia". Let me not tell you what I wanted to say to guy my opionion of what he looked like. Tissue is used in that area - to give you a hint. This is when I lose it and scream to the queue that as we are all Alitalia we are lost and I have been trying for 3.5 hours to find ANYONE Alitalia, the supposed national airline carrier, to give me a boardingcard. Mr Qatar goes mad and bangs the phone in the desk and tries to outstare me and for a while a fist is clearly "just around the corner". I manage to control myself and start walking to the gate as I see no other option. It is now little more than an hour before take-off.

In desperation I grab an airport security guy and ask where the f.ck I can find an Alitalia person. Well, miracles do happen as the lady with him actually works for them. Hallelua. She tells me they have a new transfer desk at "C20".

Great that noone seems to know and nowhere is that information displayed so you can find your way there. C20 is in a new terminal to which you must go by tram. My timid friend, who I think was more than a little bit scared by my outburst, shows up and have been given same info by same lady. Right, we arrive there and for surel 2 ladies are actually dealing with Alitalia transfers. Behind us a queue forms of old C1 friends, some of them now quite desperate not to miss their flights.

Do I even have to say the queue barely moves? One of the ladies is dealing with an old black lady from Nigeria that get so tired she just sits down on the floor. She apparently only speaks Urubu - noone else does. She is on her way to New York and carry a handwritten note stating her daugher will meet her. No address, no name, no phone numbers. Sorting her out took the consorted efforts of all black people around and anyone even remotely suspected connected to Africa. The guy at the other counter need around 20 boardingcards, God only knows where he was heading. A third counter is opened but the man will only deal with one customer at a time and stops serving people when a queue forms. Now that is what I call service...

Finally I get a boardingcard and can proceed to the gate. I now have around 5 minutes instead of hours to shop - is that not excellent business attitude?

It was a relief to arrive in Tirana (a first for me) where people are so friendly and wanting to assist despite poor English that you feel charmed just by their efforts. Only problem up to now you are not left alone to eat as everyone wants to practice their English and make sure you are fine.

Bon giorno - really?

Governments

New year, new governments! Like "everyone else" I watched Obama swearing in and am following the new administration with keen interest.

And finally Zimbabwe seems set to get a government that is "almost elected", supposedly being sworn in today. Though news speak of RG already presented a list way too big for the number of ministries they were allocated. I am not sure that "interesting" is the correct word to use, we can not take another dodgy maneuver now.

I think all of us who live in Zim feel a mixture of relief, hope and suspicion at the same time. Will it really work? Only time can tell, cross all fingers you have!

Falling apart

The heading is not about me but Zimbabwe the country. Since I last wrote on the so-called "historic" powersharing agreement basically no progress in implementing it has been made. What on Earth made them sign the paper without first having allocated ministries and powers goes beyond me, I know I never would have.

So while the discussions drag on Zim is at an accelerating rate becoming a non-functioning country. Since a couple of months almost all shops are "licensed forex retailers" meaning they sell almost all goods in USD instead of zimdollar. The zimdollar has become so worthless we have stopped trying to keep count on the number of zeroes one is supposed to use while issuing a cheque. Once more cash is so hard to get by that prices for things sold in zimdollar have 2 prices: one for cash and one for any form of bank/account payment.

But this is still nothing compared to the more worrying developments. Most public schools have been closed for quite some time as the teachers find it pointless to go to work for salaries that are worthless. The health sector is now hit by the same phenomena, nurses and doctors no longer come to work. Public hospitals have no medicines or staff. Private hospitals only treat you or admit you if you pay cash upfront in hard currency. Unless you happen to have a medical insurance NOT issued in Zimbabwe, the local medical schemes are now worthless.

Thanks to this people with treatable diseases die. That is the long and the short of it.

Pharmacies charge prices easily twice what medicines cost in neighbouring countries. I can go on.

Access to clean water has collapsed in most cities after the national water authority Zinwa was formed some years ago. Harare has slowly got to a situation where some suburbs has not had city water for months. It should come as no surprise that we have a cholera outbreak with hundreds of dead and thousands sick. In the midst of this the whole capital went dry for a couple of days as Zinwa ran out of treatment chemicals.

The latest was when soldiers in Harare and Mutare lost patience with trying to get money from the bank (yes, we still have a daily withdrawal limit that is still worthless) and basically robbed and looted. Whether this is a sign of the troops finally losing faith in the rulers or a plot to declare a state of emergency is an ongoing discussion.

Welcome to the festive season 2008, Zim style

Zimbabwe, Mana Pools game count

It has been quite some time since I wrote anything here. During that time Zimbabwe has seen the introduction of a new currency and the signing of a powersharing agreement supposedly leading to a Government of National Unity (GNU).

Well, they only forgot to sort out who was going to be allocated what ministries. So while they are trying to sort that one out it is "business as usual" - meaning basically no business - and the new currency is in free-fall towards any major currency. And we are limited to withdraw 1000 Z$ a day from our accounts. That does not even cover busfare for those who use minibuses. Or buy you a newspaper. Welcome to "Gonomics" (from our Reserve bank governer Dr. Gono).

Today we needed a bankcheque of 30 000 - to see the doctor. The fee for issuing one is 20 000... hurra hurra. Completely absurd. But noone accepts normal cheques any longer as these take around 4-5 days to clear, at which time inflation has rendered the money worthless.

To something more uplifting: the annual gamecount at Mana Pools National Park took place 12 - 15 September. Here a link with photos from said gamecount. Sadly I came home with a killer flu that downed me for the rest of the week but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

What happens now?

Finally we see some positive developments on the political arena in Zim. If you have missed it: yesterday the leaders of all 3 involved political parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding that is seen as the start for negotiations in earnest to solve the political crisis.

The rather short and to the point text can be found here .

People here are veeery cautiously optimistic. It would not be the first time that the "ruling party" shows one face to the world and a very different domestically. So we all wait (sort of used to that) and try to find every scrap of news on the progress we all hope for.

I just hope they really are honest about this and that something solid comes out of this. We are sick of counting gazillions in empty shops...

Life

If you don't understand that life in Zimbabwe is incredibly tough at the moment then I don't know what planet you live on. I am not even referring to the ongoing violence that reportedly takes place mainly in rural areas but just the everyday life.

Contrary to what one might think it is not amusing to be a trillionaire.It is rather depressing actually. We are now in a situation where neither the banks, the shops or any accounting software can manage the number of zero's involved in ordinary shopping. I also hear that neither MS Excel or Openoffice Calc can deal with quadrillions (or whatever you call if after trillions) since they have a max of 15 digits.

Let me give you an example: I paid for my internet subscription last week. That came to 2.25 trillion dollars. Now we have a problem: the card payment system kan only deal with up to 1 billion. Yohoo.... OK so I wanted to pay by cheque. It is just that there is a limit on 900 billions for a cheque. That would have meant 3 cheques to pay for 1 thing only. I ended up doing a bank transfer but those can take days now since there are so many forced to use them for all sorts of payments.

Going to do a bit of grocery shopping easily comes to a few trillions and we can basically only use a few shops where we are known and can use cheques.

The daily withdrawal limit (of cash) is 100 billion dollars. Last Friday that amounted to less than 1 USD in "street rate". For that I or Mia go to the bank every day...

On Saturday we went to Donnybrook Racecourse to watch some motocross and stock car racing. Paid entrance fee using a cheque and assumed that the bar/resto would also accept cheques. Nope. So we have cash for 2 drinks and then what happens when the kids want ice-cream or drink or something? You guess it, crying kids and an irritated father. We noticed too late that just about everyone else had brought their own coolerboxes.

As for inflation it is now so fast that quite a few businesses no longer can cope - by the time they need to re-stock the prices are higher than what they charged for the goods.

This will not stop until the politic impassé in the country is resolved. No matter who you claim won the second round of elections Zimbabwe's economy will not become "normal" until you get support from international organisations such as the World Bank, IMF etc. And that will not happen until these organisations, donors and others are satisfied that a credible and reliable government exists, one that they are willing to enter into agreements with.

So for whatever it is worth I hope the ongoing negotiations quickly come to some sort of result that we and the world can accept. Some interesting links:
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=19143
http://www.swedenabroad.com/Page____73845.aspx (download the july newsletter)
http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=3421

Techno blog

Just have to be a bit "over the top" about how well the latest version of Kubuntu is working. Now I have also added Virtualbox and can run Windows XP and Vista within my Linux environment without reboots etc., good for support to those who are using those (yes, I know they are the majority by far....)

And that means I can use one of the few apps I have really been missing, Float's Mobile Agent, to sort out phonebook and such on my SonyEricsson phone. In XP (works better than Vista) within Kubuntu. Great! And test whatever antivirus etc anyone might need, any problems arise I can take a "snapshot" first and then roll back to that later.

Yep, I am excited still after some 25 years in this business over stuff like that...

Photos from the Kenya - Zimbabwe drive

Just a few photos taken while in Kenya and on the drive back to Harare, Zimbabwe
photos

5 days driving through East-Central Africa

Back in Harare after a drive with both ups and downs from Nairobi, Kenya to Harare via Tanzania and Zambia. Round 3700 - 4000 km in 5 days..

I think I can safely say that we experienced both the best and the worst sides of this type of long travels and the way people can act towards you.

The traffic situation in Nairobi is the worst I have ever experienced and I will be happy if I never have to experience anything worse. A kind of permanent traffic jam and it can easy take 45 minutes or more just to move from one place to another. Even though we started driving before 5 am to avoid morning traffic it was still tough to get out of town and onto the road towards the border.

Once we reached the border we got stuck for around 2.5 hours.. mainly cause the car we drove had to be "exported" out from Kenya due to it having been "temporarily imported" for such a long time. Waiting in the heat forever was irritating but one of those things you just have to endure.

After that we were making good progress towards Arusha over the Masaii-plains when after an hour or so we hear and feel that one tyre is rapidly losing air. Great, the first flat already. Get all tools out and start removing the flat etc. surrounded by a small crowd of incredibly dirty sheepherding kids.

And now is when the problems begin.. the car in question, an Isuzu KB280 D/Cab, has the sparewheel sitting under the car at the back. Using a hoisting mechanism one is supposed to lower it and then retrieve it. It is "only" that the whole thing refuse to budge more than a quarter round or so.The wheel is definitely not moving. Finally I heave with all might and - the tip of the lever breaks...

Now what to do? I manage to get the broken part out but now the lever does not fit proper and we are getting nowhere. I flag down a truck that is on its way up towards the border and explain our situation, hoping perhaps they have the same type of lever. As it happens they don't but they have plenty more tools than we do. One of manage to hammer the tip of the lever back to shape and then all 3 of us try. And we all agree that it is stuck and the only thing that will happen with more force is that we break the tip once more. Now what to do, we can't drive some 20 km to Arusha on the rim.

One of the guys come up with the idea that it might be possible to remove the whole mechanism with wheel and all from under the car. He crawls under and slowly but surely manage to undo all the bolts and Hurrah! Roughly 1 hour after we stopped the sparewheel is finally free for use. I profusly thank the 2 guys for all help and the amount of time and sweat they sacrifised for us. I hand them some money (tanzania shilling that we dont have too much of yet).

This can serve as one of many examples of the best sides of traveling through Africa and interact with Africans. People are often friendly, unhurried and willing to assist and help whenever they can.

Once we got the tyre fixed in Arusha (new tube, the old had more or less disintegrated) we continued to Moshi. The city lies at the foot of Kilimanjaro, unfortunately very cloudy weather with some rain meant we did not really see more than the lower slopes this time. We found a nice small hotel where we basically collapsed, worn down after a tough first day on the road. After a shower and a dinner (of course we got the waiter that could have been in Fawlty Towers) we crashed in bed to get well deserved sleep.

Next day was completely different. We just drive on along good roads down towards Chalinze where you then either turn down towards Dar es Salaam or up towards the mountains and the borders to Malawi or Zambia. I manage to get hold of old friend Darrin who runs a camping/lodge between Mikumi and Iringa and we made it our goal for the day even though he would not be there. A nice drive through Mikumi National Park where we saw giraffe, elephants and assorted smaller game along the way ended the day.

It is just about dusk when we turn off the road and in to Baoabab Valley. I had not been there since 2001 and I am well aware that it has had problems since but also that they started refurbishing last year. Was hoping for the best so that Mia would not be too disappointed.

Only problem is that the place seems totally empty! After some hooting 2 nice and friendly masaii guys show up, Steven and Jimmi. The situation is that the manager Eric apparently has left for Dar to seek medical treatment, the cook too but to get some leave and the "vice-manager" Oria is in the nearest village to get malaria-treatment.. OK. I explain to Steven that we know Darrin and he has promised us "the River Banda" for a friendly price (Baobab Valley Camp is right next to Ruaha River). Steven carries our suitcase down to the rather grand River Banda, it has got a huge bed and is semi-open to the river. Sadly no power as the generator stopped working and Steven doesn't know how to fix. We refresh with an icecold shower and chill a bit when suddenly the generator roars to life! Only nothing changes in our banda... I go up to the restaurant/bar area and find that Steven had got help from 3 gentlemen who stopped to camp for the night.

Too bad then that our banda is not connected - and that Mia finds a small scorpion in the handbasin. Hm. We kill it and you bet that the sheets were thoroughly shaken before going to bed.

While Mia with some assistance from Steven makes something with eggs to eat (once we fixed that the gas was finished in the kitchen) I go and check on the other visitors. It is hard to believe but on the parking stand 3 Morris Minor ranging in model from -49 to -65 (I think it was).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Minor
In these cars a company of 6 are travelling and planning to drive these oldtimers from Cape Town to London! Beat that! I gave them some information on Dar where they aimed to arrive next day and generally on driving in Tanzania (good roads, plenty of police, roadblocks and villages to slow your progress). Fantastic! Eventually I managed to find some info on the net about their MAD Odyssey.
http://www.morrisminoroc.co.uk/index.php?page=406

Next morning Oria is back and we chat about old memories from Dar, how to continue to improve the Valley and such while Mia makes some breakfast. Then it is off towards our next goal, the border between Tanzania and Zambia. After much thought we decided to drive that route since we count on it taking one day less and we are a bit tired of travelling (spent nearly a week in Nairobi before starting the drive home). We get to the border as the sun starts to set and this is not only one of but THE most chaotic border I have ever experienced.

Luckily I know what to do, what documents to sort and what needs to be paid so in the end it did not take all that long actually. We drive on and are now faced with the next problem: where to stop for the night. Nightdriving in Africa is generally best avoided and on these truck- and busroutes definitely not recommended. I called a friend in Lusaka and asked for advice, he recommended the small town Mpika som 300 km from the border.

And now we sadly run into problems again. We had just passed the turnoff to some small place and were starting to worry over how far we had left, if nothing else because it was quite some time since we filled up diesel. We saw a number of buses that had stopped on the side of the road (it is by now pitch dark) and decide to stop and ask someone. Mia turns off towards the "oncoming" side of the road as the drive side is full of parked buses. She then sees a man in reflecting clothes waving frantically from the "drive side" of the road. Thinking it is police or something waving to her (you have no idea of the amount of roadblocks we had been through) she crosses the highway. From behind comes a bus that did not manage to break in time but hits us in the back. It is of course the bus the man is waving for...

Now follows the less nice side of people in Africa. Out of nowhere a sort of mob quickly gathers that are trying to get in the car, get me and Mia out and for some reason seem set to either steal or beat us up or both. It feels rather nasty and Mia is also very upset and trying to argue about who's fault is the accident. I manage to get round the car to her side and a police in civilian clothes has also appeared and is trying to calm things down. A bunch of pissed off buspassengers contribute to the commotion as does the fact that quite a few people are obviously drunk.

The police finally manage to quiet things down and we drive the car some 30 meters to a roadblock (why did we not spot that and stop there...).. After this follows hours of discussions, interrogations of the drivers and witnesses, various police get involved (the most senior notably drunk), negotiations etc before we take our car together with the bus driver and police to the nearest station, 45 km in the wrong direction. After paying fines comes the next problem: there is nowhere to make a copy of license and documents in the middle of the night. Argh.

After some discussion we agree with the busdriver to "codrive" to Mpika and meet the buscompany agent there. He can then copy the documents early next morning, give us the originals and then we continue. Fine, we get there, meet the guy, are shown to a motel where we crash into bed, completely wasted, at 2.30 am.

Following a quick breakfast some hours later we meet up with Peter at the fuel station. Now we find out there is no power in Mpika and it is said to stay that way - for 2 days until Monday... aaargh once more. Eventually we agree that Peter comes with us some 400 km to a larger city where he can copy documents and then meet his boss. We manage to copy along the way and then part with Peter. Once we hit Lusaka at the end of this day it is all about shopping a bit, eat some food and just watch TV and catch up on lost sleep. The last leg home the next day goes via the small Kariba Dam border, a very conscious choice by me as I know buses and trucks are not allowed via that border. Thankfully the drive is very non-dramatic and we arrive home in good order.

Having arrived home I noticed that 5 days in a car was an excellent way to mature a Gouda cheese we bought in Nairobi, yum. The children are still in Nairobi and will be home in a couple of days.

Zimbabwe is in a sad state and the circus surrounding the election outcome continues. While we were gone the rate for 1 USD fell from round 65 million zimdollar to around 115 million.. and a bag of peanuts cost 73 millions last I checked. A lunch sandwich with cheese and sandwich meat costs 70 million. Welcome to Ha-ha-harare, fun capital of Southern Africa.

Will scan and post some photos from the trip later!

Election fever, waiting and zimflation

If you have not noticed that Zimbabwe held elections for Parliament, Senate, Local council and President last Saturday you must either be off this planet or on a "no media for months"-diet.

So we now stand in a historical scenario where the ruling Zanu has lost the majority in Parliament, yet there is no celebration going on, no jubilations on the streets etc. Why? Because everyone knows that the real power in Zimbabwe lies not in Parliament (or Senate) but with the executive Presidency. And on the outcome of that election no official figures have been given.

So we wait and we wait. In the lack of information the air is thick with rumours from various coup scenarios to rigging to outright win for one candidate or the other. Did I mention negotiations between the 2 major parties? Just check www.zimonline.co.za or www.zwnews.com to find a few of them. The Herald on www.herald.co.zw claims it will need a second run-off election and given their state as "official media" here that is what most people think.

If that will happen or is true remains to be seen... we wait and we wait.

In the meantime we are all billionaires. I kid thee not when I tell you that onions cost 20 million. Each. Imported but even so. A cheap lunch on the town is around 200 millions. We have had more cash-crisis than I care to remember - meaning it is difficult to actually find notes/cash enough for your daily transactions. A reasonably large shopping of groceries will easily hit 3 billions. I like the guy who waved a placard around in a photo "I am a starving billionaire".

The house is full of money that has become unusable, from 10 dollar notes up to 10 000. The kids play with them, what else can they be used for?

What does over 100 000 % inflation mean? One way to illustrate: end of December we were allowed to withdraw 50 million a day from the bank, roughly enough for a few groceries. Now we are allowed 500 million a day and that will take you just as far. Or 2 lunches or 25 tomatoes. Now THAT is inflation to you - in 3 months.

Some times the going is tough

Have been quiet for quite some time but have not felt any inspiration for one reason or the other. Survived a nice Xmas and New Year's though so am back now!

It has been a bit tough lately, is like a lot of things seem to be happening that are negative. Maybe I need to do something about my karma, if anyone remembers that old way of thinking.

My grandmother died early February, 93 years old. She was a lovely old lady that I was very fond of and I will miss her. Bless you Farmor!

Then I have been struggling with this system installation in Zambia and I can not remember a scenario where it has been so complicated or where so much has gone wrong in one and the same project.

I am now for the third time since early February in Lusaka and still struggling to get this even installed. That is unique for me...at least as far as I can remember.

Reminds me of Murphy's Law alright cause the chain of things that have gone wrong here feels like "someone is out to get you" sort of.

Have a look at this "thing", it is actually the sink/basin where I am staying.

Lost during transport

I am referring to me, not luggage though I was more than a bit nervous that would happen.

Let me tell you one thing about driving in Johannesburg: do not take a wrong turn, do not get lost (that was two). At least not without a cellphone, money on your phone account and someone to call who can help you out.

I was on my way from Centurion, small place between Pretoria (Tshwane) and the airport in Johannesburg. I had more than 2 hours before departure of my flight. BUT I took a wrong turn and by the time I realised it was I not only deep in Joburg city but stranded in a massive 4-lane traffic jam!

Lucky for me I got hold of Ishmael who lives down there and got some assistance. It took me 2 visits to a filling station and 2 more traffic jams and more than 1 hour before I found myself at the airport though. Now suddenly late!

So I am stressed, sweaty and thirsty when I get to a check-in that is one big confusion. Manage to get fast-tracked, fine. BUT that does not work on security scan and Passport control that both move at snail pace.

By the time I actually get to the departure lounge the plane is boarding (and it was, believe you me). I just about made it and was more than relieved when my suitcase full of all sorts of items (cheese among them) showed up in Harare.

Lesson to be learnt: check the route and make sure you have PLENTY of extra time if you are flying from Johannesburg.

The year of the virus

For me the year 2007 will be the year the virus became a real problem. I am not talking of any human or animal virus (HIV or bird-flu) but computer virus.

Despite putting more efforts and money in anti-virus software, firewalls, spam tools etc to protect the users I support and work with I have never seen such a flood of malicious and difficult to eradicate virus as this year. Quite a few times I have had to use a bootable Linux CD (google on Knoppix if you are geeky enough to be interested) to save a Windows PC infected by something that is so "deep" in the PC that one can barely do anything without it taking over.

And one very strange thing: the more remote the location, the worse virus. It is like they come from the wilderness somehow! A remote district in Niassa province in Mozambique and the PC is crammed full of trojans, virus and you name it all. Where do they come from when the PC is like the only computer for miles??

Half of the times (it feels like) when my USB memory has been used somewhere and I put it in my Linux PC I see files that should not be there and that are virus. It feels sooo good to just delete them and note they can not even try to get to my system. Though I fear the day will come with the growing popularity of Linux as desktop OS.

Otherwise I have a new laptop thanks to friends in Sweden who helped out with the logistics. I now use a Dell Vostro 1400 and am most happy with it. Have blown the preinstalled Vista all the way to where I think it should be - off my harddisk!

Here is a review by a user, not exactly same config though. No webcam for me (pointless here) and just Intel graphics card.