How I Met Mother Mary...
Nineteen years ago I had the wonderful pleasure of visiting Zimbabwe with a great group of friends from Edinburgh University. We raised funds on the streets of Edinburgh and then flew out to Zimbabwe via Jo'burg. Our goal: to support the building of an agroforestry training center in Guruve, Zimbabwe. Well, last year Jillian, Liati, Lucia and I accompanied our friend Nigel to Guruve in search of some well-known marimba maker. I took advantage to seek out the training center we had built all those years ago, and to my complete and utter surprise I found it; and found it without needing to ask! It was still standing, albeit with a broken window or two; but it was empty, locked up and seemingly non-functional. Unfortunately that's a sign of the times all over rural Zimbabwe, as the economy is starting to take a nosedive since the last general election did not usher in a new and golden era for Zimbabwe (as many had high hopes for before). The hopeful days/years since the 2008/09 ...