From Texas to Tete: Adventures in Zimbabwe Part 1: Masvingo and the Great Zimbabwe

Our travel plan.

With the second trimester over, the last two weeks we've had a break from school and that means TRAVEL of course! With only a few months left here, I want to see as much of Africa as possible, and with our travel ban to Zimbabwe recently lifted, my friends Lisa, Jay, Taylor, and I and I decided to head out there for a few days. Zim has quite a reputation, and we wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Day 1: Chimoio to Masvingo (via Mutare)

After a last-minute change in travel plans, we met in Chimoio and took the world's slowest chapa to the border town, Machipanda. There, we had our passports stamped by grumpy Mozambican officials, crossed No Man's Land, had the passports stamped again by less grumpy Zimbabwean officials, and crossed the threshold into Zimbabwe, that mystical land.

Our first impression of Zimbabwe was... not good. Immediately after crossing the border, we were assaulted by fifteen different taxi drivers, all wanting to take us the 10k from the border to the border town. "Hey. You. You guys. You need a taxi? Come! I have a taxi! Come with me! Come! I take you to Mutare. Come! Come now!"

When we finally got to Mutare, it got worse! Suddenly EVERYONE wanted to know where we were going. We were literally followed around by a mob of about thirty taxi drivers, minibus conductors, and random curious people all shouting "WHERE ARE YOU GOING? WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" We were so overwhelmed, that when we saw a restaurant on the side of the road advertising fried chicken, we ran for cover.

The restaurant, called Chicken Inn, we would later learn is the Zimbabwean version of McDonalds... greasy fast food, delicious if you're hungry in a pinch, and kind of disdained by everyone. In any case, it had the absolute best slogan I've ever seen at a chicken place: Luv Dat Chicken. It was on all the takeout boxes, stamped on the plastic silverware, and painted huge on the walls. We were in need of a laugh, and I would like to officially say that Luv Dat Chicken made us giggle. A lot.

After a much-needed lunch break, we hopped on a minibus out of Mutare (good riddance!) and headed to the southern town of Masvingo. We reached it six hours later, and exhaustedly, ended up eating dinner at the Pizza Inn, which is identical to the Chicken Inn in every way except it serves pizza and their slogan is not "Luv Dat Pizza." I was disappointed. Still, it was just about the only thing still open, and we were HUNGRY. Shortly thereafter, we made our way to the Masvingo Backpacker's rest, a run-down and odd little self-proclaimed hostel situated near the center of town. We fell asleep the minute our heads hit the pillows.

Day 2: Masvingo and Great Zimbabwe

Bright and early the next morning, we hopped on a minibus to take us to Great Zimbabwe, an old ruined city just outside of Masvingo. Great Zimbabwe is a relic of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, during the late Iron Age, and is quite an architectural feat. The monument is huge, with tall walls and imposing towers. The walls are made with stacked stones, not using any mortar, and have stood, unchanged, for hundreds of years.

The Great Zimbabwe

When white settlers came to Zimbabwe, they were astounded, and couldn't believe that this huge structure could have been built by the black "savages" that inhabited Africa -- indeed, Rhodesians went to great lengths to prove that the structure was built by Arabs or Indians, despite the fact that there are several smaller, similar structures across Mashona-land and Manica-land. Though archeologists pretty much agree that Great Zimbabwe was built by the Shona people, several self-proclaimed "Rhodesians" still tried to convince us that it's all a big conspiracy. (Sigh) In any case, it's a national monument of Zimbabwe to this day -- in fact, the bird sculptures of some type of eagle found within Great Zimbabwe are the origin of the Zimbabwean national bird featured on the flag and found all over the country -- billboards, buses, clothing, etc.

The walls are just stacked stone -- no mortar.

There are several parts of the Great Zimbabwe; One of them is the Hilltop, where we went first thing in the morning as per the advice of a wise friend. The climb is pretty steep, and Lisa and I are both out of shape -- we were panting soon after we started, and it took us a good half hour to climb to the top. Jay, who is actually in shape, must have been super annoyed with us as he sprung up two steps at a time. The view from the top, though, was worth it!

At the top, we found a whole group of university students on a field trip, crawling over every piece of the monument. As we emerged into the clearing, they honed in on us like lions circling prey.

"Excuse me," one of them said, "Can I please snap a pic with you?"

We looked at each other. "Umm.... sure?"

MISTAKE!

We ended up having to take pictures with about four dozen super eager university students, each one wanting several pictures on their phones, their ipads, and one guy who was carrying his laptop around, videoing with his webcam. "Where are you from?" they all wanted to know. "How do you like Mozambique? What is America like? Can we take a picture of us hugging?"

There were so many more than just these.

It was, like the rest of Zimbabwe, overwhelming, and we found ourselves asking a question, not for the first time, "Where are the white people?" I already knew that Zimbabwe's population is 98% black, but unlike Mozambique and South Africa, we had yet to come across a single white person. Sure, a lot of them left during Mugabe's reign of terror, but a lot of them didn't... Where were they all hiding? This was a question that would perplex us until our arrival in Harare.

We took the rest of the day to wander around Great Zimbabwe, looking at the intricate stone walls and even witnessing a traditional Shona dance. Once we had explored all there was to explore, we did Lisa and my favorite thing to do -- got coffee and sit around. Aaaah.

The day was a success! Great Zimbabwe is fascinating, if a bit under-maintained, and I would recommend a visit for anyone who goes to Zimbabwe.