Zimbabwe Absurdity

After the second announcement that there was a technical problem they finally gave up and admitted that we’d have to use the aircraft that had recently landed from Beijing. We eventually took off from Harare 4 hours late. The flight was uneventful and I had ensured a window seat to be able to watch the scenery of the Congo and Sahara but storms over the DRC had the last word and I did get a good view of the Congo River but then visibility became poor.

Gatwick airport late at night is not a place to find sensible answers so it took me a while to locate the sim card machine and then to find out that no, I did not get any free time! I eventually got a sms off to Mike and his wife Natalie came and picked me up at a very unsociable hour.

Monday was a holiday and less than perfect weather so we sat around and swapped news and then they drove me up to London in the evening to Charleen whom I’d last met 20 years ago. We’d connected on Facebook a while ago but it took me a while to realize who it was at the door. We’d been at university together many years ago and part of the same group though she did law and I did agriculture. Her husband Richard has a small trading company and is also an ex-Zimbabwean so we sat and swapped stories for a good part of the evening.

I have been to London before and even worked here for all of 2 days in 1987. It has changed a lot since then and of course is completely different to Harare. I was struck by the huge variety of languages; tourists abound of course (they are rare in Zim) but even on the buses I was struck by the variety (lots of Russian). The place is clean and everything works – hey there’s an economy here!

Yesterday was damp and cold in central London – not what I thought summer should be like. Today is cool and clear in what is hopefully the start of a clear spell. I am meeting Sybille at St Pancras in 2 hours – we haven’t seen each other since the end of March so I must admit to being a bit nervous!