Well, my apologies to you all for the lack of quotes last week. Last week was a nightmare getting the blog posted. As we were leaving for Lisbon on Thursday afternoon, I had prepared my blog on Wednesday. The sequence of creating this blog goes like this. I write a draft in Google Docs, Janine helps edit the draft, we then post it into Wix and prepare for publication with me adding videos, last-minute additions and pictures. Then post onto the net and other social media platforms. A long-drawn-out process. Last Wednesday night we posted my blog into Wix Drafts, edited and ended up with gobbly gook each time we came to re-visit it. For instance, the heading was correct, but the pictures and script were captured from previous blogs. How that happened, especially in the way it did, was beyond me. Further, we could not make amendments in Wix, we had to go back to Google Docs each time. Aaarghhh!!!! I think it took about 5 or 6 postings before it settled down, by then I was boarding the plane in Lisbon. So between leaving home on Thursday, including our Covid-19 tests in Coimbra that morning, we managed to get it fixed after many attempts ready for posting en route to Harare. What was absent due to time restraints and travel were any quotes. I try to ensure I stick as close as possible to the weekly publishing time. I know if I miss a week or start to delay posting, I am the type of person who will let the whole thing slip.
“One slip in willpower implementing a task will surely lead to a substantial fall in motivation requiring a lot of applied willpower and effort to get back on track. The story of my life.” - Peter McSporran
I am hoping the glitches in Wix will have been resolved before publication this week. I must admit that going through papers, belongings, both household and personal, along with packing, and meeting old friends is making it difficult to complete this blog whilst here in Harare.
I have found in retirement that I am under no pressure to complete a task, I have to treat each one as if it were a work deadline. Otherwise the “should do’s” will become the “why bothers?”
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” - Bruce Lee
On arriving in Lisbon, we checked into the Tryp Hotel. I recommend this, as a transit hotel within a stone's throw from the airport. We had a very pleasant evening with a good meal all for just over a hundred Euros. The hotel was strict in regard to Covid-19 rules; however, Covid-19 rules in regard to separation throughout the trip were pretty lax. The check-in at Lisbon was very easy with no extra time required for the medical documentation. A quick glance was enough to transit in Germany. Our biggest, while slight, problem on exiting Europe was the German immigration officers querying our Portuguese residency documentation. Why did we not have a biometric card? Why did we only have a digital document? Covid-19 had delayed us being issued our biometric cards, as it requires a face to face visit to some bureaucratic department. You know, any excuse not to work, if you are a government employee in a non-essential role. Everywhere Covid-19 is impacting our lives. Enough is enough!
At Addis, going through security, it was a complete mess. Yes, like cattle at the dip. All milling with no direction. No separation, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip. Very unsatisfactory. All flights were not full, which thankfully mitigated the chaos. Airports, as always are either under renovation or new additions being built, so lots of walking along almost empty corridors or whole sections still under construction. Rozanne had trouble sleeping on the aeroplane with a mask on; they are rather claustrophobic. I did not need to call for assistance in any of the airports. Small goals have become large victories.
Our arrival in Harare was totally uneventful with all of our documentation found to be correct. Wayne and Joey Marais had volunteered to meet us, so we swiftly set off for our house in Avondale.
So many people have been asking us to tell them how we find our old home country. Wanting reports back. On the negative side, the traffic lights still don't work. Partly due to no electricity, mostly due to lack of maintenance. When they do work, drivers generally just ignore them, the more aggressive taking the right of way. Nobody can drive straight due to potholes, so there is a rush in either direction to get onto the least damaged parts of the road. Who knows the limit of each lane as the white lines have long disappeared. A relentless game of chicken. Nothing changed there. If anything, the driving has deteriorated. The whole country is in lockdown with all the shops shutting by 1530 in the afternoon along with takeaway food outlets. Restaurants and bars are all shut, so no eating or drinking out. There is a curfew from 1830 to 0600 hours.
“Most people in Harare have become traders in one way or another. Slightly more polite than using wheeler/dealer. This is for young people not for old conservative minded dinosaurs like me. It substantiates our decision to move, although sad.” Peter McSporran
A small shopping trip made us realise it must be very expensive to live here. The few friends who we have seen, have all repeated it is tough. I say what about this lovely weather and the wonderful outdoors, wildlife and fishing? A number have said it has become too stressful to even enjoy that aspect, while others seem to relish the hardship. The one common denominator everyone claims is friends, but they are depleting through immigration and old age. We do not live forever, unfortunately. I am writing this on Wednesday morning having just learned one of our old friends was badly beaten in Banket the other night for a few dollars. The few he had. His problems are made worse as he has not kept up with his medical insurance. How many times have I heard this not just in Zimbabwe, throughout Africa? Medical Insurance affordability was one of the main motivations for why Rozanne and I left Africa. We asked ourselves how could we afford medical insurance with no substantive income? Our pensions had long been eroded by the currency debacles, not one, but many.
If you cannot keep up your medical insurance in Africa, you are unconsciously taking the decision to rely on your friends to bail you out in a time of need. This is a selfish decision, I am sorry to say. Unfortunately many of our elderly, due to their age, have had no choice in their present circumstances. Those of working age or with the ability to translocate have no excuse.
“Yes, enjoy life to the fullest by the day, you have only one. With one reservation, think of your old age, both in location or financial circumstances. If not you will be spending someone else’s hard-won savings or will have to rely on charity for your very survival.” - Peter McSporran
On the positive side, the weather is fantastic. Cool evenings and mornings with clear blue skies and warm sunny days. How I miss this, even in Portugal. Harare’s weather is unique, the perfect climate to live comfortably. Yesterday Rozanne’s nephew and his wife, Stewart and Stacey Cary, visited, kindly bringing a packet of biltong from Lion’s Den Butchery. Yes, still going, still the best. You have to have confirmed bookings to move between towns or the National Parks. He was returning from a wonderful long weekend at Spurwing Island, Kariba.
Simon Sinango, who has worked for Rozanne for some twenty-five years, looks after the property in Harare. He has kept both the house and garden immaculate. No fancy flowers, just neat and tidy with a beautifully trimmed lawn. I woke on our first morning to a cacophony of birdsong. I love it. Rozanne does not, she buries her head under the pillow, dawn is early here. Perhaps the one negative of this early morning symphony is the raucous ”kok-kok-kok-kok” call of the Purple Crested Turaco (Loerie). The birdlife here, even in the city, is still amazing. So much more than Portugal.
For now, we rarely leave the house as we are sorting and getting rid of most of our remaining belongings here. We did visit my mother-in-law, Shirley, at Nazareth House where she recently took up residence. We received special permission to visit her as Nazareth House is in full lockdown with six recent Covid-19 deaths. Our priority will be to get her vaccinated. She and one other gentleman are the only two unvaccinated residents due to choice. My mother-in-law to date has queried the danger of the long term effects of the vaccine, she being in her late seventies. The recent deaths around her have made her more receptive to having the jab now.
Arrival in Salisbury 1972
I set off from Glasgow to London on the 19th of January to catch my flight to Salisbury via Johannesburg. I had never flown before, so perhaps my excitement compelled me to ignore being uncomfortable on a Jumbo Jet for the first time on a long haul flight. Or perhaps, it was just not so crammed in those days. We also stopped on the way at Ascension Islands for fuel. On arrival at Johannesburg, it was so nice to feel the warmth of an African morning once again against the cold miserable weather I had left behind in Scotland. I had to clear immigration there for some reason and collect my luggage to transfer to Salisbury. On departure from the UK, they would not book it through to Rhodesia. Why?
On arrival in Salisbury my future brother-in-law, Lindsay Ross and my sister Morag were there to meet me to take me through to Umtali where the wedding was to take place. As I informed immigration I had planned to stay, all I had to do was produce my agricultural diploma to gain entry. While I was in the merchant navy despite visiting many countries, my passport was never stamped once. Those were the days to travel.
Salisbury was a clean city with tree-lined roads that looked more like avenues than city streets. So different to somewhere like Glasgow. In those days, a smog enveloped the grey metropolis. Of course, Salisbury was not a very big city. It did not have the burgeoning townships of the Harare we know today. We first had to consider looking for somewhere to have a meal. Lindsay may correct me, but I am pretty certain it was the Gremlin on the Enterprise Road where we stopped for a takeaway. Lindsay recommended that I have steak and chips with Monkey Gland Sauce. What the hell was Monkey Gland Sauce? I was then shocked it was only 50c. Equivalent of 50p. One Rhodesian dollar was the equivalent of one pound. Rhodesia immediately seemed so cheap. In my student days, a steak a week was a luxury. To eat steak in a restaurant was a once a term event. Here you could eat a steak every day if you wished. I was in the right place! We then set off for Umtali, our first stop again being for food, or should I say afternoon tea. This time at Eagles Nest, where we had scones with clotted cream and jam. Very English. From there, a beer at the Balfour Hotel in Rusape, a very sedate trip until that time. Things changed on arrival in Umtali. Riots. I arrived there the same day as the “Pearce Commission.” The township of Sakubva was in flames, vehicles were being set on fire. For us, we could not proceed to our destination, Fern Valley where Lindsay’s parents lived. John Ross, manager of the Umtali Post and Betty Ross, art teacher at Marymount. We tried some back roads, each time finding the roads blocked by rioters or what we thought were rioters. What did we do? Obviously, head to the nearest pub, Brown’s Hotel, there, we drank the riots away, whilst being regaled by war stories from the police reservists on riot duty quenching their thirst from time to time to time. Riot control seemed to be very thirsty work, water would not suffice. Maybe it was the bravery in the bottle that helped. It certainly gave us the courage to sneak out of the town under darkness late that night to reach Fern Valley. I was in Rhodesia for better or worse, what an exciting and eventful first day.
“With hindsight the rejection of the Pearce Commission Terms by the people was a clear indication that the writing was on the wall for the fate of Rhodesia. Luckily I did not interpret as such at the time.” Peter McSporran
Investing in Africa
For this, I am including the second part of Rob Shaw’s interview with me.
His Linkedin address is: linkedin.com/in/robert-shaw-54b9057
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
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