Money, fuel, electricity
Three things on many people's minds in Zim: Money, fuel and electricity (or the lack thereof!) These three things are basics many of us need to function effectively, and they are three things that are sometimes hard to come by here. But so far so good...right now I have enough of all three so am feeling very blessed!!
I can hardly believe a week has gone by and my first week of school is finished. (you know the expression "TGIF"??!! Yea....ahh.....!) For those of you who don't know, I'm going Careers Counselling at a private school in Harare, and the third term of the year started this week. Since I'm living on campus I also had hostel duty (although thankfully don't have it this weekend)
There has been so much to learn and so much to adjust to. Since I was last here (May this year) the Zim currency has been "re-evaluated". WHat does this mean? Well, when I was last here you could buy a litre of petrol for $250,000. Yes, $250,000!!!! So to buy 20 litres you would be forking over wads of millions of dollars! As of the middle of August, the Reserve Bank slashed three zeros from the currency to "restore dignity" to the Zim dollar. Well, petrol is now "only" $700/litre - the equivalent of $700,000/litre with the old currency. So not sure how much "dignity" has been restored - or rather, how much the average person cares about the dignity when they can't afford the commodities because inflation is still raging ahead at over 1,000%!
But like I said, I am feeling particularly blessed. The dear friends I bought a car from handed it over with a full tank of petrol - so so far I haven't had to use a precious petrol coupon. (yes, we use coupons instead of cash!)
And then there are the electricity cuts...but that's another story for another day.
Needless to say, I'm loving it here! Every moment is an adventure and you can never predict how your day will turn out as there are so many variables!! But my friends and colleagues have been amazingly patient with me this first week and have really helped me settle in...and so far I haven't frozen...but there's time. (oh yes, didn't anyone tell you that the effect of global warming on Africa drops the temperatures dramatically??!! Kidding...I know no such scientific information...all I know is that September's supposed to be warm here and at night it is FREEZING!!!) Welcome to Africa!!!
I can hardly believe a week has gone by and my first week of school is finished. (you know the expression "TGIF"??!! Yea....ahh.....!) For those of you who don't know, I'm going Careers Counselling at a private school in Harare, and the third term of the year started this week. Since I'm living on campus I also had hostel duty (although thankfully don't have it this weekend)
There has been so much to learn and so much to adjust to. Since I was last here (May this year) the Zim currency has been "re-evaluated". WHat does this mean? Well, when I was last here you could buy a litre of petrol for $250,000. Yes, $250,000!!!! So to buy 20 litres you would be forking over wads of millions of dollars! As of the middle of August, the Reserve Bank slashed three zeros from the currency to "restore dignity" to the Zim dollar. Well, petrol is now "only" $700/litre - the equivalent of $700,000/litre with the old currency. So not sure how much "dignity" has been restored - or rather, how much the average person cares about the dignity when they can't afford the commodities because inflation is still raging ahead at over 1,000%!
But like I said, I am feeling particularly blessed. The dear friends I bought a car from handed it over with a full tank of petrol - so so far I haven't had to use a precious petrol coupon. (yes, we use coupons instead of cash!)
And then there are the electricity cuts...but that's another story for another day.
Needless to say, I'm loving it here! Every moment is an adventure and you can never predict how your day will turn out as there are so many variables!! But my friends and colleagues have been amazingly patient with me this first week and have really helped me settle in...and so far I haven't frozen...but there's time. (oh yes, didn't anyone tell you that the effect of global warming on Africa drops the temperatures dramatically??!! Kidding...I know no such scientific information...all I know is that September's supposed to be warm here and at night it is FREEZING!!!) Welcome to Africa!!!
posted by VN at 5:36 AM
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