Joanna's Zimbabwe Letter

Joanna is a journalist friend (the one who took my blog picture). She now lives in Zimbabwe with her friend who is in MSF.

From time to time she sends a letter describing her experiences there. They tend to be fantastic. So I asked her if I could publish her latest one. Here it is:

"Dear family and friends,

I have already been here (in Harare, Zimbabwe) for two weeks and am still find it hard to adjust.

EVERYTHING is difficult in this country, and believe me when I say that I’m not exaggerating. First of all – it is COLD. We are in winter time here, which wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t for the fact that NO houses, offices, building in general have heating. At my boyfriend’s offices people type on their computers with gloves on, while I never take off my coat, unless I’m getting into bed under five covers.

Then there is the whole economical situation. When I first visited here three months ago, for 1 U.S. Dollar you could get 20,000 Zim dollars. Now you can get 125,000 Zim dollars for 1 U.S. Dollar. All the currency now in circulation though has an expiration date – imagine looking at your euro or dollar note and seeing on it: Expires on July 31, 2007 (!!!!!) (see photo). But that is exactly what Zim dollars have on them, so you can imagine the spending frenzy everyone is going to get into in these next ten days or so.

Having said that, let us look at what there is to buy with those expiring million dollar packets we are carrying around – and the answer is: NOT MUCH. A couple of weeks ago the government decided to make shops and supermarkets cut down their prices to a June level. Many did not comply; they are all now in jail. Managers of supermarkets, directors of shop, floor managers... all in jail. At the stores that did cut their prices – madness! Miles long lines of people waiting to get inside to buy all those things that now according to real value rates cost pennies. For example the government made MACRO supermarket sell its television set for 1 million Zim dollars. Sounds like a lot, but according to the black market exchange rate that is only 8 $, about 6.5 euros. You can imagine the pandemonium that broke out as people rushed to get the sets, fighting with each other, pulling, tearing, breaking things... It was even reported today that there was a pregnant woman waiting in a cue to buy fixed price items and she had her baby there at the shop!

But generally, there isn’t anything in the stores to buy because simply it is more expensive for producers to sell their products than it is to make them. So for the past two weeks there is no meat to be had anywhere in the country. Eggs are scarce, as is bread and milk. We’re all eating a lot of canned stuff, Heinz soups are especially everywhere. I’m getting to have a very close relationship with the Zim can-opener, which sometimes works, or sometimes manages to plow into my hand!!

More worrying, they also say that soon there won’t be any fuel which will of course bring the country to a stand-still. But there is now a rumor that Libya will be giving Zim fuel, one revolutionary supporting another...

Telecommunications are a complete disaster. It is almost impossible to call someone, so everyone texts people, which sometimes get there, sometimes don’t. The internet sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t.

We have power black-outs. They cut off the electricity in blocks around the city in order to economize. You don’t know when it will be your turn, and how long they will keep it off for. Then they also cut the water. We have to keep big bins filled with water just in case. Yesterday we were at the check-out counter in this huge supermarket and all the lights went out – we were all in complete darkness!! It was VERY SCARRY!!! The guards ran and shut all the doors and then everyone had to demonstrate their receipt and what they had in their bags in order to leave.

On a personal level, it is extremely risky for me to even attempt to write something as a journalist. But even looking for a job is tricky. I can’t include in my CV anything that hints that I was a journalists (which obviously leaves for a very poor resume) and I can’t really say I’m looking for a job because I’m only here on a tourist visa which they can revoke whenever they want.

Then every office I go to is behind a guarded enclosure and sometimes it is difficult even getting beyond the guards: “What do you want?” reply: “To see the human resource department” “Do you have an appointment” or “who do you want to see?” to which of course I don’t have an answer. Some look at me strange, some scornfully, some are very nice. To many places I’m just offering myself as a volunteer to see what they will offer, and hope that something job-wise will come up afterwards. But sometimes I’ve had people look at me even stranger when I say I want to be a volunteer.

I’m sending a picture of me in front of the new Medecins Sans Frontiers offices. (I am wearing my favorite sweater and necklace some VERY special kids gave me as a present!) The new offices are this incredible mansion (even with a pool in the back, which MSF rules doesn’t allow to be used) which goes for a pittance. The garden in front had even more trees, some huge mango trees included, but because some of the Zim workers had to put through a cable and the trees were in the way... they just cut them down! VERY SAD!

In the meantime, I am trying to fly Jacques, my dog, over here, which has required a lot of money and paperwork and the INCREDIBLY kind efforts of some friends of mine who are helping out. I am still waiting to see what will happen with that and will keep you all updated.

Huge hug to everyone,

Joanna"