I married a man from Zimbabwe. When I met him I was introduced to him by friends who had already told me about him previously. They told me he was from Zimbabwe and I knew that it was a country in Africa, but not much else. I was impressed with him from the start, his mannors, his accent, and of course… his good looks. A few months later when he asked me out, I looked up Zimbabwe prior to going because I didn’t want to feel stupid that I knew absolutely nothing about his country. I found where it was on a map and a few statistics. None of them very good, but certainly not as shocking as they are today.
In the six years since I met my husband, I’ve heard terrible news after terrible news from his relatives over there but have never been myself. His family has come here but being that they must buy US dollars on the blackmarket and they have an inflation rate of over 100,000%, travel has gotten very difficult for them. I wanted to share this picture story that I found on MSN for those of you:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18298169/displaymode/1107/s/2/
My mother-in-law grows her own vegetables and fruits and bakes her own bread. She sent me an email the other day that she had written four days earlier but couldn’t send because he hadn’t had phone service in a week. Going without electricity is a normal thing for them. People about flipped out down here when Wilma came through and we were without power for a week. Can you imagine that being the norm? And not just the scaricity issue either, their safety is threated on a regular basis.
They have an unopposed election run-off election today because the current dictator… ahem, excuse me, I meant President has intimidated the opposition (who actually WON the original election, just didn’t have a majority) into quitting. Since the election in March he has been jailed, beaten and tortured and is now taking refuge in the Dutch Embassy.
Sorry to go on and on. I just feel so helpless and worried about my in-laws over there.
June 27, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Ok it was actually quite peaceful today. Hope it remains that way. All our workers got beaten up before the election day and got told they had to vote for Bob, even though he was the only candidate.
June 29, 2008 at 12:17 pm
WoW! I had no idea. The US rarely publishes enough information about other countries. My thoughts are with your family and the good people of Zimbabwe.
November 29, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Thanks. I was searching and got the point for my new assignment.