A list of vocabulary words:
Sa-dza (sa ja) Shona word for a white cornmeal cooked with water into a thick porridge, normally eaten with your hands
Ca-ril (ka-reel): portuguese word meaning what you eat with your sadza or rice
This Christmas I spent with my boyfriend, Joseph Mwagura (pictured above), at his parent's house in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is in the news a lot these days because of its deteriorating economy.
Some things I heard/observed there:
- Inflation is something like 7,500%, one US dollar is now equal to 1,375,000 zim dollars
- a bag of ice is 4,000,000 zim dollars.
- a teacher's salary is 12,000,000 zim dollars
- there are a lot of water and power cuts in cities (where the Mwagura's live they have no electricity or running water), but recently the power has been more steady. Apparently the Dem Republic of Congo is providing electricity in return for Zimbabwean soliders.
- There are government food distributions in the rural areas. Joseph's parents, being elderly, received 100 kg of bulgar wheat. There are also elections next June.
- It is very hard for people in the cities to register to vote. It is very easy for people in the rural areas to register to vote.
- a bag of ice is 4,000,000 zim dollars.
- a teacher's salary is 12,000,000 zim dollars
- there are a lot of water and power cuts in cities (where the Mwagura's live they have no electricity or running water), but recently the power has been more steady. Apparently the Dem Republic of Congo is providing electricity in return for Zimbabwean soliders.
- There are government food distributions in the rural areas. Joseph's parents, being elderly, received 100 kg of bulgar wheat. There are also elections next June.
- It is very hard for people in the cities to register to vote. It is very easy for people in the rural areas to register to vote.
-We hunted for and ate mushrooms in the woods behind the Mwagura farm. Fun, but also hard to find other caril.
- a common site at the Zim border crossing are old, falling-apart cars piled high with sacks of rice, oil, washing soap, and many other products from Mozambique.
Some of my favorite parts of the trip: 
- looking through a Butterick pattern book (my guess is that its from 1986, note the Cabbage Patch fashions in the picture above.) with Joseph's mother and niece.
-hearing the cowbell 
- meandering through the woods
- playing cribbage with Joseph
All-in-all it was a full and merry Christmas. Hope yours was a bright.
1 comment:
Oh wow... The Congolese trading basic goods for Zimbabwean soldiers??? That's awful. I knew they were doing that elsewhere in Africa, but not there.
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