Hot Cross Buns Meets Sadza

Imagine London in southeast Africa and you have yourself Harare. It is a city of constant surprise: houses patterned after those in the Cotswalds hidden behind beautifully tamed shrubbery (near the country cottage of the Knights who say Ni?), hot cross buns in the grocery, an afternoon shopping at Little Harrods. Orderly, manicured, stoplights with plazas and parks. This - across the country, but at the cost of freedom, identity, and integration.

And so you have a war of independence resulting in dictator who led the country into tremendous economic chaos, where a few years ago people traded in goods and relied on border runs for household staples because a Zim dollar was worth a Zim dollar in the morning, '50 cents' in the afternoon, and '10 cents' by night.

Still today doctors can't afford to work a full day in the clinic or teachers in the classroom because they aren't paid enough to afford the time away from their second or third job. All the farms turned over to nationalists and now returned to bush - no longer providing Zim with the economic fuel that made it a leading exporter, capable of clean water and constant electricity.

Sad and hopeful all at once. Like much of Africa, I supposed.

I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself. ~Nelson Mandela