Currently, 1 USD is about 6 million Zimbabwean Dollars (before I could finish this blog entry it went up to 7 million).
My co-worker, Stewart (of Noodle Shop fame), has an older brother, Jim, that works at the British Embassy in Zimbabwe (previously, he was based in Islamabad - I wonder who he p!$$ed off). Occasionally, Stewart will forward me one of Jim's emails about life in 'Zim'. They tend to make my trials and tribulations in Thailand seem like a walk in the park.
Here's his latest email describing a recent shopping trip to Mozambique.
Went shopping in Mozambique this weekend. As you do. Turned out to be an adventure.
We were told by Zimbabwean friends that there is a branch of the South African supermarket, Shoprite, in a town in Mozambique called Chimoio, which is only an hour or so over the border from Zimbabwe at Mutare. Mutare is only 3 hours drive from Harare which puts this shop much closer than those in South Africa, Zambia, or Botswana, which are the alternatives to drive to. Idea was to stock up on things like, milk, toilet roll, cooking oil, beer, insect spray, dog food etc. which you can't bring back on a plane. Only thing we didn't know was what was actually in the shop.
Planned to meet our friends at Chimoio on Friday night, eat prawns and drink beer, then shop Saturday morning before heading back to stay a further night at Leopards Rock which is back in Zimbabwe. So, myself, Dan and Will from the Embassy set off at lunchtime Friday, and were at Shoprite in Chimoio 4 hours and 10 minutes later, having taken only 20 minutes to cross the border into Mozambique.
Our friends had been there earlier for a business meeting and were just finishing their shopping as we arrived. This gave us just enough time to look at what was in the shop, and confirm that they had most things on my shopping list from Tracey - even Red Bull.
Then we went to the hotel, which our friends had just changed to - it is new and out of town, unlike the one they usually stay at. We had a fantastic night at a restaurant in Chimoio with prawns and calamari coming out of our ears for not a lot of money. Lots of hugging the locals and looking for anyone who had even heard of Rangers (Scottish Football Team) type stuff.
Next morning I opened my hotel room to go for breakfast and the maid said "you are not going into town are you?" Turns out the radio was reporting riots in Chimoio!
Something to do with the locals being fed up that the police were not dealing properly with bandits. We couldn't figure out whether the riots were planned, but thought it unlikely that people would get up early on a Saturday morning for a riot. But then what did we know about Mozambique?
After breakfast we checked out and went to Shoprite in the hope that it's position out of the city would spare it any impact. No such luck. Chimoio was closed and we were advised to get out of town. Outside Shoprite there were bands of armed police, sometimes with groups of youths who they had arrested sitting in little circles, and the streets were strewn with bricks and glass. We were told that the police had shot dead a young boy.
So that was the shopping! We couldn't believe it, especially as we had looked at all the things we were going to by the day before. Anyway, there was nothing for it but to head back to Zim. In our favour this meant that we got golf in on the Saturday afternoon, and again on the Sunday morning at Leopards Rock, so not a wasted weekend. We also thought that we were lucky we had changed hotels or we would have been locked in to the hotel in town.
Impressions of Mozambique; really good feeling about it (on the Friday), and lots of people walking about with things on their heads. Good beer (Manica), and cheap prawns. We all want to go back, and maybe head further on to the coast next time.
Things in Zimbabwe; starting to be a feeling that there is a possibility that Mugabe will not win the elections on 29th March, IF they are at all fair. Inflation now estimated at 100,000%, and whereas we last changed money at 12.7 million dollars to £1 last week, the parallel (ie street) exchange rate is now $30 million to £1. This means that Frosties (apparently, that's a cereal - They're Great!) in the shops would cost us about £7 for example, hence looking to shop elsewhere.
Standard stuff really.
Later, Jim
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