Zimbabwe Trip 4 - Part F

Friday, May 19 – Sunday May 21, 2006

One thing I love about working at WHO is the tradition of knocking off early on Fridays. The vans take off at 2:15pm, which makes the day seem that much faster, even though it’s only 2 hours early. I think it’s to give people a chance to do some errands since by the time you get home during the rest of the week, shops are getting ready to close. I didn’t get much done at all at work. I’m going to have to step it over the next week so that I have something to show for my time here.

After work, I went to the shopping mall next door to the Meikles, and discovered a little grocery where I was able to get fresh lemonade, biltong (kind of like beef jerky but much better tasting), and Sparletta which is a green crème soda that I love. I came back to my room and took a nice, long nap. I awoke in time to go downstairs for dinner where I proceeded to eat well, but spent entirely too much money. I then watched TV the rest of the night. I got hooked on two movies that kept me up entirely too late. The first was about this guy who invented the Gong Show, the Newlywed Game, and the Dating Game who also was a hit man for the CIA. Very weird show, but quite entertaining. I then watched Warm Springs, the movie about Roosevelt’s battle with polio which was filmed in Georgia. Having been to the real Warm Springs and the Little White House, it was fun to watch the film. Polio really almost defeated him, but it’s a good thing it didn’t, because I can’t imagine what would have happened during the depression and WWII without FDR to lead us through it.

Considering I went to bed around 3am, it shouldn’t be a shock that I slept until nearly 2pm. I called Eddie to make sure he’d pick me up at 8pm for the party. I then went to a little cybercafe that I had noticed on Friday just below the Meikles’ gardens. The price was really good (less than $1 US/hr) and I was able to do email, post my journal on MySpace, and make plans for a vacation in Miami.

I haven’t been to a beach for years, and neither has my mom, and so I had looked into a beach vacation over the week of July 4. The question was where to go. Mom doesn’t have a passport, that restricts us to the USA. One place I haven’t been on the East Coast is Miami. So I managed to book a trip to Miami, South Beach for July 1-7. Staying at a nice Marriott, which will help me knock out the nights I need to keep my silver status with them. The Marriott is on the beach itself in the heart of trendy South Beach. I wanted to use my SkyMiles to get my mom down to Miami, but the website wouldn’t let me. I had to get Daniel to impersonate me with Delta to finalize the deal, but I believe it was done. Mom had to call me to get my Delta pin number and she was talking to me and Daniel at the same time. It was kind of funny. At the end of the call, she thanked me for doing this because she hadn’t had anything to look forward to until now. I’m not sure what she meant by that, but it was a creepy depressive comment. I know she cycles up and down quite a bit…I just wish she could be consistently happy. Most of all, I hope she never kills herself like my dad did.

The party was pretty low key. I forgot how nice the suburbs are where all the diplomatic corps lives. The margaritas were great, and when those ran out, I switched to tequila sunrises. The finger food was great too. We had pixie sticks, sweet tarts, pop rocks, and other 80s candy. The music was classic 80s too. I got to hang out with the diplomatic community which is always nice. I talked politics with a Swede who had a creepy resemblance to Bill Clinton. Also met this guy who’s obviously from a wealthy family because even though he’s French and Swiss, he had a British nanny and talks like he was raised in the House of Windsor. Very hot looking guy, but also quite aware of that fact and seems a bit full of himself. I’m not sure what he’s doing with the International Committee of the Red Cross, but that’s his job. There was also a Norwegian couple who are here teaching on a cultural exchange. They probably had the best 80s outfit, and it was perfectly matched. The husband was hot, but alas, he was straight and married. Ran into folks I’ve met before from various embassies. Many of them are getting ready to leave over the next several months. It’s that time for people to go on to new assignments, as it’s been about 2 years since I first came to Zimbabwe. My Canadian friend is going to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Swedish Bill Clinton guy is moving to Berlin to take a university position and be with his fiancé. I am sure the new people will be just as lovely, but it’s sad that just about everyone I know will be gone should I return in November for the TFI report preparations.

Eddie came back at 11:30pm, which was fine by me. I came back to the hotel and went straight to bed, waking around 10am to read the paper for a bit before dozing off again. One strange thing happened when I was reading the paper. I heard chanting outside, which is never a good sign in Africa. I looked out my window toward Africa Unity square, and saw a small march taking place. I couldn’t tell what it was for, and it was pretty brief. It was odd though. Turns out it was part of an international “March for Hungry Kids” that was taking place across the world yesterday. The Harare turnout was pitiful though, especially considering how many hungry children there are in the country. I got up at 1pm, got some lunch, and went up to the pool. I was going to go by the internet café again, but it was closed because it was Sunday.

I went up to the roof where the pool is. I put on some sunscreen, got some water, and read my book by the pool. The pool water was a bit cold to swim in, and the breeze was enough to keep me from getting too hot. There was an interesting group of men waiting for someone to come by to pick them up and take them somewhere. Two were Albanian, and they were talking about the languages the knew, etc. One guy bragged that he’s involved with Cirque du Soleil somehow. The men were all beat with the ugly stick, and the way they went back and forth between 5 different languages was obnoxious. It was like they were showing off for my benefit.

I stayed there until 4:30pm when I came back down, took a bath, and relaxed a bit. I tried to do some work, but the plug by the desk is different from the plug adapter I have. I cannot seem to find my other adapters, and I went through everything. There’s no telling how I lost them. It kind of pisses me off, though. Now I’ll have to do double time at the office, because working from bed sucks, which is the only way I can use my computer and have it plugged in. The battery doesn’t last long enough to do serious work. I am now watching Ocean’s 12 which is interesting. I will go to bed after the movie is over. Another week begins.

I had to come back and write an addendum after a strange occurrence around midnight. I was trying to go to sleep in my too-warm room when I felt the building shake. It sounded like I was right next to the train tracks as a train was coming by. Neither is the case with the Meikles. My bed definitely shook for about 10 seconds before it abruptly stopped. A few minutes later, the power briefly went off. I wonder if we had an earthquake?