I packed three pairs of shoes for my year in Zimbabwe:
1. Sensible sandals to wear at the school where I’d be teaching.
2. Trainers to walk the seven kilometer dirt track from school to the tarred road with buses to the capital city Harare.
3. Black platform shoes to go out dancing in once I got there.
I mostly wore the sensible sandals and the trainers that year, both pairs quickly becoming engrained with the red dust that surrounded Mupfure School.
What shocked me most about my year in Africa, the environment and the people, were my student’s living conditions. A few people lived in small houses built of breeze blocks but they were rare. The villages and houses were mostly made of mud, wood and leaves.
The children I taught were bitterly poor, living in round mud huts with thatched roofs. Inside a fire burned, the atmosphere thick with smoke and so dingy you could hardly see the people until the whites of their eyes and their smile through the gloom.
Read the whole post here at the Women in Focus site on my African Dreams blog where I am entering a competition to win 14 days volunteering and trekking in Tanzania.
Please Help Me Win the Competition!
One of my lovely readers told me about the Global Blogger Search competition because they know I’m dreaming of visiting Tanzania.
If I win this competition it includes flights and accommodation for two people so that just means I’d have to cough up for the three Candy kids because it would be wrong to leave them behind. Visiting Tanzania would be an incredible experience and one I’d like to share with the whole family.
The competition is based on writing, blog name – I called my blog African Dreams – and social engagement so please read my blog post, use the Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin buttons at the top to share it and leave a comment. Thank you. I’d really appreciate that.
I’ll be adding more African Dreams: In My Shoes blog posts sharing stories about some of the diverse people I lived with or met during my time in Zimbabwe.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I wish you the best to realize your dream. My daughter climbed Mt. Kilamajara there and saw a lot of children begging for pencils in the street.
Hi Judi,
I just read a book about someone climbing Mt Kilimanjaro – it sounds like quite a hike! I’d love to try it but I think this trekking is more relaxed, maybe around the base of the mountain:)
They should allow comments over there.
I bet you win this.
Hi Dave,
You can leave comments but maybe you have to join the site before you can do that – and Women in Focus might not be right for you;)
I hope your prediction is right!
Annabel,
I tried to comment on the link you gave and couldn’t. It kept saying “0″ comments. Wishing you all the best. I took two of my kids to Kenya and tanzania at ages 6 and 9. They shall never forget our Safari.
Hi Sonia,
I’m not sure if you have to join the site before you can leave comments:( Thanks so much for trying though! Oh that would have been a fabulous experience!
Tried to leave a comment on the site but couldn’t. Anyway, tweeted and Facebooked as it is really a very interesting and entertaining article. One of the saddest things about Zimbabwe is that, as you mention, it was formerly one of Africa’s most prosperous countries – was it before you were there and the desperate living conditions you describe? – and now it’s just another impoverished African country with a ruthless dictator and people poorer than ever, which is hard to imagine based on what you experienced.
Good luck getting to Tanzania.