Decent Weekend

Friday, July 16, 2004 -- Sunday, July 18, 2004

I thought that I’d write weekend updates as a block rather than do a daily write up. I end up writing all them on a Sunday anyway, so why pretend otherwise? J Friday was a regular short day at work. Richard called me just after I got up which meant he was up at 1am Atlanta time. He was cleaning the house like mad so it would be clean when my mom got there.

I had some requests for money to be sent various places, and I also had to send a note to Khadija who runs the routine program for the AFRO region. She had been running this scheme to borrow money from one donor’s pot of money and use it to pay for routine immunization programs in Congo and Cameroon. When measles money became available, those expenditures would be “moved” the measles allotment. This sort of money management is common at WHO. Well, the money became available just as it was going out of the Cancida (Canada’s international aid agency) pot of money. Khadija decided she wanted to make the $400,000 US go further than it would if it repaid the $70K that was sent to the two countries. So even though it’s not in the budget, she wants to leave the charges in Cancida and use the extra $70k to partially fund Togo’s program. Robert is not keen on partially funding programs, so I’m playing interference. Yinka thought I should talk to her directly, but I don’t really know this woman well, and I knew it was going to make her mad, in which case, her non-native English was likely to deteriorate. Besides, there’s not much I can do other than report what Robert said to me. He also wanted me to tell her kindly that she can’t keep changing her mind about how the money is to be spent. So I wrote her an email. Who knows how that will go over, but this is between her and Robert anyway. Robert doesn’t like her, and the feeling seems to be mutual. Even Yinka finds this lady difficult to deal with. If it comes to it, I’ll just sic Robert on her, even though he’s warned me that he’ll be nasty to her. Gotta love office drama, especially when it has tribal and national undertones to it. So much in African offices is driven by tribe, not race. There’s some nationalism involved too, but that is secondary to who belongs to which tribe. I suppose the US’s race-based problems seem simplistic and silly to them as their tribalism does to me.

I spent the evening Friday with Pet and some of her friends. This was Jamie’s family, who is a friend of Kirk’s. Apparently, they were really close in elementary and middle school, but now they go to different high schools, and Kirk’s been kind of distancing himself. His parents think this is wrong, especially since Jamie really works to keep in touch, so they’ve been hanging out more in the last couple of weeks. Jamie’s a neat kid, albeit quiet. He’s white, like most of Kirk’s friends, and he’s just a couple of months shy of being 14. He apparently lost a lot of weight in the last couple of years from what he told me. There’s something about him that I can’t put my finger on, but it could be that he’s gay. If it’s true, it’s not something he’s going to be overtly aware of anytime soon. This is first time my gaydar has gone off with a young person, and being in Zimbabwe, I feel badly for him. Being gay here is not a good thing, and if he does turn out to be gay, he will be miserable unless he goes back to his mother’s native Britain.

Anyway, Jamie’s two sisters and his mom joined myself, Kirk, Pet, Morris, and their friend Moffat. He’s another colored guy who shaves his head and could pass for white in some areas. Interesting character, but very nice. We all had dinner, which was really good. I introduced them to fuzzy navels, which they’d never thought to mix. It was a huge hit. Jamie’s mother is interesting. She divorced his father a few years ago, and he has since remarried. I don’t think she’s remarried though. She’s British by background, but has lived in Zimbabwe for the last 16 years. With all the troubles here, she still likes it and doesn’t want to leave.

They gave me an interesting perspective on the political scene here. It is apparently illegal to mention Robert Mugabe by name in public since you are likely to be criticizing him. So people call him “Uncle Bob” or “Old Bob” when discussing him. His communist ideology lies with Mao from China. It explains a lot about how he runs the country. Even though many of Mao’s reforms, like the “Cultural Revolution” were horrible failures, Mugabe refuses to learn from the lessons of history. All those bodies that were found a couple of weeks ago in a mine shaft are likely the result of Mugabe’s massacre of the opposition in the early 1980s. He apparently killed thousands around the Bulawayo region because of tribal rivalry. In that part of Zimbabwe, the Ndbele are the primary tribe, with the rest of the country largely Shona. Mugabe is Shona, so he massacred the Ndbele in order to solidify power.

They also shared with me how Mugabe uses the voting system to intimidate and cheat elections. In the rural areas, they tell people that are hidden cameras in the voting booth that record how each person votes. This is not true, but anyone who tells the truth that the voting is by secret ballot gets beaten or killed. They also put in serious delays to drive people from the voting place. Morris told me it took him 16 hours to cast his vote in the last elections. They also “lose” registration, which is a common problem in the USA too. It just horrifying to me that people are forced to live like this, especially with all the economic problems and the coming starvation crisis.

I got to talk to Mom and Richard around midnight Friday when I returned from the cabin. We had a great connection, so we could hear each other well. She arrived safely and really liked the porch enclosure. She and Richard were going to have dinner and look for an egg crate cushion to put on the bed upstairs to soften up the mattress. The boards make it too hard, but she needs them for support. She also found out that her tires are almost bald, so she needed to get new ones. I told her where to buy them the next day.

I got to sleep in Saturday which was nice. I hung out with Pet and her family all day, and even went on a trip downtown with Pet, Kirk and Jamie. We went to the ghetto part of town to a Muslim butcher to get the Zimbabwe version of beef jerky. It wasn’t bad; very salty though. Just like beef jerky, except it’s not smoked, but dried. It especially tastes good when heated in the microwave. I refused to eat the chunks of fat on the end, though, even though Pet said it was the best part. I don’t think so. I don’t eat gristle at home, and I’m not about to start here.

It was surreal being in the middle of ghetto downtown Harare. We were locked in the truck, and people would come by and look in our windows to see if there was anything they wanted to steal. One lady hung out by the back tires of the truck, sorting her bags, and I caught her looking underneath the rear bumper. Kirk said she was looking for a spare tire. It was bizarre. No one tried to do anything. Still, it didn’t feel very safe. Pet apparently likes to go to these parts of town every now and then.

We went also to a near Spar, which is the upscale grocery here in Harare. It was very cool, and reminded me of a Ukrop’s back in Richmond. They had a very nice display of fresh food, butcher, baker, etc. Pet bought all these cream filled donuts. It’s no wonder she’s a large lady, even though she complains about it. We ate the donuts later at tea time. The best part was that I finally found some artificial sweetner. They had a brand that was selling for over $100,000 Zim, and that was ridiculous. Ended up with a brand costing $20K Zim. I also found SOUP!!!! For the first time, I found soup! They had creamy tomato soup too, so I bought several cans. As I’ve noted before, it can be the little things that excite you, like suddenly having water pressure for a shower.

I went over to Yinka’s around 7:30pm for the party that Anne Marie was holding at her house. They were waiting the Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, which is a good movie. I had some wine, and we made smores. Yinka had her fireplace going, which was funny to me since it’s the middle of July, winter or not. Fires in July are funny to me. I was also wearing a long sleeved T-shirt and shorts. They thought I was crazy, but it wasn’t that cold.

Yinka’s new boyfriend was there, along with a younger cousin of his. The Canadian girl who’s working with an AIDS research company funded by Canada but run by Zimbabweans was there. We went to pick up another girl, and I had to lay down in the back of Yinka’s station wagon. It wasn’t bad, and I could see the stars. There are so many stars here. I try to find familiar sights from the Northern sky, but it’s hard, b/c there are so many stars. It struck me that I’m viewing a whole different part of the sky, being on the other side of the Earth. Apparently, more stars are visible here, and it’s not just because there are fewer city lights. On really clear nights, you can see the Milky Way in all its glory.

Anne Marie’s place is NICE. It’s relatively new and was built by an American. You can definitely tell. She lives there alone, but the place is huge. Being the personal assistant to the ambassador has its perks, I guess. She has this super bathroom one end of the house that has a sunken shower and a sit down bathtub big enough for two. There are candle holders all around it and it faces a fireplace. Talk about a romantic setting!

The marines eventually showed up, so there was eye candy. I ended up talking a lot with this guy name Trent who’s been here about 4 months. We talked about religion, of all things. He wants to see Passion of the Christ, but no one will go with him. I told him I would go with him later in the week. We’re supposed to go on Thursday. We also talked about the Left Behind series, which is he currently reading. We really hit it off, although he thinks I’m as straight as he is. At one point, we ended up discussing some past sexual experiences, and he apparently likes to fuck girls in the ass. I’ll never understand how a girl could possible enjoy that seeing as they don’t have prostates like men. But I was able to share some tips with him, conveniently leaving gender off. It so funny, b/c here I was being totally open, yet also conveniently leaving off any discussion of gender. Trent just assumed I was talking about girls. We also talked politics a bit, and he wasn’t scared off by my political involvement at home. Apparently, the Marines are forbidden from viewing Fahrenheit 911, which is interesting. Not surprising, but interesting nonetheless. I even told Trent about being called a commie, pinko, liberal tool by Pat Buchanan’s nephew in college. He thought was the ridiculous, and I told him I found it funny. I also let it slip that I believed in gay rights, which was probably the only hint he received that blatantly could lead to the conclusion that I’m gay. He wasn’t phased by that either. He told me later that he was glad to have met someone who was smart and shared his sense of humor.

Trent had the marine driver take me home, which was fine. The other two marines at the party were with some young girls from Zimbabwe, white girls. Both guys have girlfriends, but these ladies were not them. The women went up the Marines’ rooms at the end of the night for some hot sex, I’m sure. Trent was not pleased b y that, b/c he felt it was improper to have a girlfriend and screw around her, even if you wouldn’t get caught. He saw that it gives Marines a bad reputation, which it does. He was a very nice guy, and I hope we can hang out more while I’m here. I think we could be friends. Since he’s straight as a board too, it’s not like I’d be tempted or anything either. Even Richard would like this guy, especially since he’s Roman Catholic as well. I’m just not going to lay the gay thing on him until the appropriate time. I’d rather we become friends first. We’ll see; I may never hear from him again.

I slept the night through again, probably due to the wine and the screwdrivers I had at the party. I’ve been laying around all day in the cabin. Luckily, no one’s been by to bother me. They usually ask to come in and clean up, etc. I’m glad that it’s been OK to just hang out. Unfortunately, the water is acting up again, so I can’t take a shower, although I desperately need to. I will be SO glad to have access to water all the time, including hot water. We may be spoiled in the US with all we have, but I certainly appreciate it more than I ever did before. Not to mention having toilets that work properly! I hate being scared to poop in my own “home” but I am. It never goes down, and I don’t know why. It doesn’t matter how many times I flush, it never goes down. Very frustrating, not to mention gross. That and no shower water….grrrr!

I had my tomato soup today, and it was great. Hit the spot perfectly. Now it’s just time to watch TV, read, and basically relax. Mom is on the way to Myrtle Beach for a vacation (which I could use) and she should call me tonight when she gets there. Other than that, it’s time to get ready for another week.