Zimbabwe Trip 4 - Part A

Sunday, May 14, 2006I had a strange day before I left on Friday for my 5th trip to Africa and my 4th to Zimbabwe. First, my travel preparer had taken the day off. That’s not so unusual because our travel preparers tend to take “long weekends”, although disappearing on a Thursday for the weekend was unusual. What I didn’t quite appreciate was not having my tickets or final travel orders. Apparently, my amended cable to the US Embassy in Harare had not been answered yet, so they said I couldn’t go. Calling the folks at the Office of Global Health, I found out this wasn’t exactly true. I had permission to be in Zimbabwe from May 2-25 which were my original trip dates before the whole “oops, we didn’t apply for you to get a visa” fiasco. I still have permission to be in Zimbabwe until May 25 even though my travel dates changed. Extending my stay after I arrive is not a problem. So I had to rush over to get my tickets from OMEGA, and then I had to track down my official passport, which just arrived that afternoon. I had to speed to another CDC campus (thankfully, not Clifton!) and get my passport. By 4:30pm, I finally had everything I needed to fly out the next morning.

I had a nice steak dinner at Outback Steakhouse, and then went home a bit tired. I had gathered everything to pack, but had not physically put it in the suitcase yet. I decided I would do something unusual and just go to bed, and set my alarm for 2am. My taxi was scheduled to pick me up at 6:30am, so 4.5 hours should be plenty of time. That plan went well, and by just after 3am, I was all packed and ready to go. I watched my recordings of TV from the night before, and was ready to go by 6am. Good thing too, because my taxi arrived then…a full half hour early.

I got to the airport just after 7am, and luckily, the line for South Africa Airlines was small. I was 3.5 hours early, after all. There was no trouble getting through security, and I got a little breakfast in the international terminal. I simply read until it was time for the plane to load. I was afraid there wouldn’t be much room since the flight was full, but I did have space for my laptop and my backpack. I sat on the aisle next to this South African couple who were returning from holiday in the US and the Caribbean. There was this odd African lady who was wearing a faux leopard print jacket behind me. Next to her was a beautiful man (well, except for the raging zit on his chin line by his ear) with his perky, blonde fiancé. I think they were South African as well. Dark blue eyes, dark hair, strong jaw line, thick black eyelashes…simply stunning to look at. I never heard him speak though, so I have no idea if the voice would have ruined it or not. He also bought his fiancé a very nice rock, which she kept looking at, making me think this betrothal was relatively new.

We had a strong tail wind so even though we left at 11am (half hour late), we got to Cape Verde about an hour early. The second half of the trip to Johannesburg was longer but also got us there early. I did manage to nod off, but the cabin was so damn hot that I couldn’t get comfortable. Usually, they keep the cabin cold, but this time, they turned off the air conditioning and I was roasting. They turned it back on, but it took forever to get anywhere near comfortable.

The layover in Joburg wasn’t too bad. I got some food, and then headed down to wait for the bus to the small plane to Harare. The funniest thing I saw was this Muslim guy in the traditional garb and white hat with a big beard. But the beard had highlights, and so did the hair coming out from under the cap. I have no idea why this guy highlighted his beard and hair, but I found it incredibly funny. I didn’t sleep much on that flight, and I got through the customs of Harare pretty quickly. My luggage arrived, and I met the WHO driver. He had driven me last time I was here in November, so he seemed happy to see me. I got to the Meikles Hotel, checked in, and got led to my room.

I’m in a different tower than I was last time. I think this is the newer tower, but I can’t be sure. I’m on a non-smoking floor, which is nice, and I have air conditioning. I had been booked at Pet’s, but I cancelled that once I found out the charge was $100 US a night. That’s not bad, but I have to pay Pet in cash, and the CDC only gave me $2400 for my stay. The per diem is nearly $200/night for lodging in Harare, and the WHO rate at Meikles is $156/night. So staying at Pet’s for 20 days would be $2000 already spoken for. Eddie the taxi driver is charging $1 US per km, and I’m not sure that the rest of the $400 could cover that and food too. Eddie’s another you have to pay in cash. I didn’t want to worry about my cash flow, and with things deteriorating rapidly in Zimbabwe, I figured the Meikles was the safer option. I could use the government credit card, alleviating my cash worries, and Meikles is likely to be the last place to lose things like electricity and water. So, despite the fact that Pet’s is more “homey” than the Meikles, I decided to stay at Meikles for the convenience. Also, WHO will pick me up and drop me off which is another expense I don’t have to worry about at the Meikles.

I called Casey to let her know I was here safely, and then I went to bed. I slept until about midnight and awoke. It took me 3 hours to get back to sleep. I had breakfast around 9am, read the paper (always amusing), and went back to bed. I slept most of the afternoon, and then went downstairs for dinner. I had a sandwich with fries, tea, and a lemon cheesecake for dessert. That cost $3 Million Zim. Inflation here is out of control. Should be interesting when I change out money to see how many millions I get. I took a nice bath and wrote this journal entry. Tomorrow I start my mission at WHO to sift through all the financial data of the Measles Partnership for the last 5 yrs, which should be … fascinating.