Visit Every City

Sunday, May 1st, 2022

Morning came. The generator had gone out sometime in the middle of the night just like Tapiwe said it would. When my eyes popped open I remembered I could still use WhatsApp without the wifi which wouldn’t come back online until well after sunrise. I said goodnight to Lena as she was headed to bed. I heard Matt unlock his door which meant it was actually time to Street the day. I answered a few messages from the evening before and eventually got out of bed to find no water. The water pump is obviously powered by electricity.

No power meant no water and no breakfast. No breakfast meant no coffee. We had some tough choices to make. Do we split the one packet of instant coffee between the two of us and mix it with cold bottled water, eat some while coffee beans, or walk into town on a Sunday morning and take our chances finding some place that might be open and actually make coffee? Coffee is grown and sold in Zimbabwe but not widely brewed and drank by the public. Still we opted for taking a chance in town.

Where else could we go but to the two grocery stores to see what they might have. We returned to the house with granola, yogurt, and one instant coffee packet. We tried to buy two but the store didn’t have change. Cold coffee it would be for us. While we waited and hoped for the power to come back on we ate, we rested, we took a walk, we write, we read.

Tapiwe had agreed to take us to the airport and also to cook us breakfast. His staff managed to get some gas for their gas stove so we had a warm meal for lunch. As the day went on the solar powered wifi worked well. We also had enough power to make sure our phones were charged. We ended up having to leave for the airport earlier than expected but at least there was no traffic. We chatted with Tapiwe and then said our goodbyes. Hopefully we’ll be able to stay at his place again on future trips.

The Harare airport is still as quaint as the last time we were there. Major improvements are happening but it is still a small airport. We couldn’t check in right away and thought about getting something to eat. Unfortunately at the cafe we chose the staff were so busy that we never had a chance to order. We headed through the check-in line, through the first security check, the second check, no one was at the third check, immigration checkpoint, and then the final security check. We were then free to shop, eat, relax until our flight would board. We bought a few gifts and sat down at a smaller version of the cafe we sat at outside the gates. The menu was extremely limited so we ended up just having cappuccinos.

We boarded the huge Boeing airliner which was pretty full. If I had to guess I’d say about half of the passengers got off in Lusaka. Matt and I sat on the plane for about an hour and then we were off to Dubai. At some point during the red-eye flight they brought out dinner. We both opted for the beef. To our surprise we were served a very familiar dish: greens, beefs, and sadza/nsima. I guess that was our last taste of African cuisine as we left the continent.

– Lewis VanAusdle