On Almost Any Sunday Afternoon

Sunday, March 22, 2009
King's Den (Worringham, Zimbabwe)
Night

"Andrew finds my incessant need for a quote ridiculous," said Andrew.

Andrew arrives today. It is surprisingly refreshing to see him. Not
because Andrew surprises me, but I'm surprised because I didn't
realize that I wanted to see him so much. There is something about
being in this place with your friends that is special. It has been
really special to be here with Dad also. It is cool to introduce him
to people that I already have relationships with, and to people who I
have told him about already during previous conversations. He fits in
seamlessly and the King's really like him.

Typical Africa, we are late in picking him up – we got stopped by the
police for an unwarranted search, etc. – and untypical Zimbabwe his
flight arrived on time without delay. He says he was waiting for maybe
20 minutes. (Stephanie: he is rocking this beard thing…oh man…dude
looks delicious)

Warren insisted that he take Dad and I to pick Andrew up so we end up
back at Warren's house for the afternoon. The kids are all excited,
and almost immediately the King's pack the truck and we head out on a
local safari tour. Not fifteen minutes into the drive the guns come
out. Everyone is obsessed with guns? Warren takes out this 306 blah
blah blah rifle and I'm the first one to go. It's got a pretty big
kick, but somehow I manage to hit the target a couple hundred yards
away on just one try. "Alright, that's it, I'm going out on a high
note." I hand the gun over to Andrew and Dad, and everyone takes a
turn, or a few turns. The Zimbabweans just love this.
We drive through Ralph's 1,500 hectare farm – the King's next door
neighbor – and it is amazing. It is just about sundown and we drive up
to what is deemed "Heaven's Gate" that feels as if it looks out at all
of Zimbabwe. It is really a sight. We plan to come back up there at a
later point in the trip to watch a sunset proper.

When we get back to the King's house we have fun conversation about
anything and everything. Then Warren shows us his gun safe. Andrew and
Dad are into it. It's impossible for me to be less interested. Ha.

As Dad and I stand on the back of Warren's Land Cruiser, wind and bugs
hitting our faces, we shout to one another that we are having similar
misgivings. Andrew hasn't had the chance to experience this but he may
soon. It is nothing against the King's at all, because the King's are
so wonderful, but it is a weird feeling for us to go from extreme
impoverishment – Mtshabezi, The Rock Church and the community – to
then something very comfortable. It's relative of course, but in
reality it is pretty comfortable here. Yes, people live differently,
but still, if we want food we can usually eat it, if we want to sleep
we can usually find a bed, heck, if we even wanted to watch TV (not
sure why we would here?) as long as the government didn't turn off the
power we can do that I imagine. It's probably a quandary to be
pondered more tomorrow. Today was just a nice day.

Tomorrow we head back out to visit some schools and orphanages for two
days in the Mtopos area of Zimbabwe, a very rural part of Zimbabwe –
no power, no internet, no cell phone, etc. Promises to be fun and
enlightening.