Dear Family and Friends,
Spring has arrived in Zimbabwe and the sounds and colours of the new season are good for the soul, bringing welcome relief from the harsh, cruel realities of everyday life in a country ruled by the same person for thirty five years. Getting up before five in the morning and watching the moon turn from yellow to orange as its slips into the pre-dawn horizon, you can’t help but be humbled by the sheer majesty on your doorstep.
When the sun burns off the mist, your eyes are drawn to the instantly recognizable umbrella-shaped Acacia trees covered in curly light brown pods, the Lourie singing its dawn chorus or the Lucky Bean trees, stark and leafless but covered in scarlet flowers.
As you start out on your day, knowing for sure you’ll come face to face with corruption, incompetence and greed, you take one last look at the beauty: the grass is tall and golden, the sky is clear and blue and everywhere the songs of orioles, hoopoes and starlings fill the dusty spring air.
Then there’s the ugly side to our spring paradise, something that can only be described as a moral bankruptcy in a country so beautiful. Imagine a country where 90% of the population are unemployed; where hundreds of thousands of people sit on the pavement all day selling tomatoes or bananas, clothes or cell phone chargers.