The Bus Ride to Zim

I never quite got around to reading Spud, well until 3am when we were waiting for the bus to Mahatshula. The trip was pretty cool though. For most of it, we were listening to gospel music (and tall people could see it on the TV screen). I love that about us as Africans, we're very religious people. I was wondering how well received it would be on a Greyhound to put in an hour long Gospel DVD... *thinking about Durban trips where half the bus is filled with Indians*

The two ladies next to me were awesome. The one was fascinated by my Blackberry, she wanted to know how this phone with a computer works, and then she gave me a bit of a lecture about making sure I keep it safe. Between that and sharing her biscuits and blanket with me, I felt like I had my mother with me.

The in-house movie on the bus was AwEsOmE! I think it was called Sgedlemba. About this guy who's got like 7 girlfriends, then he dumps them all when he meets a chick called Lebo, coz he thinks she's the one. When he takes her home, he finds out she's his twin sister! The best part of all is that the entire movie was in Zulu!

Then we got to the border, that's when things got interesting. First was when we arrived and were walking to get our passports stamped, in true tourist fashion I wanted to take a picture of the hustle & bustle of it all. As I was trying to get a shot of an overcrowded bakkie, this guy popped out of nowhere & told me it's illegal to take pictures at the border. I didn't want trouble so I decided to stop. Imagine my shock when he said that we need to go to the office, (remember how I said that my biggest fear as far as this trip is concerned is getting arrested? I could see myself in a prison cell begging for that one phone call...not a pretty site!). But before we got to 'The Office' I explained that I'm just a tourist from SA and I didn't know. He was still not feeling me, I then explained that the camera has a delete function and I'll delete all the pictures I took in front of him, he didn't look impressed but he said 'Ok'. As I was walking away, I said a short prayer... Thank you, God!

Then once we got to the Zim side, we spent a good hour offloading everything on the bus so it could be checked. I mean, every single thing! People had to open bags, offload fridges, bring out TV's & DVD's... hectic! Then you have to declare how much you've got. I get the logic behind it all, but the work and time it takes was waaaay too long.

Then off we went, I fell asleep after this and only woke up when we arrived in Bulawayo. Now we were scheduled to be there at 1am, due to the delay at the border we got there around 2:30 am, and had to get into different smaller buses that would take us home. This is the craziest part, when we get off our bus there's a list of all the places that the different buses are going, and Mahatshula (where I'm going) is not on the list! It's 2:30 am, there's at least 4 hours before sunrise and I'm freaking out. But then I spoke to this one old guy, he explained that the bus would take me there & there was another passenger going to Mahatshula so I'd be okay.

We got onto a bus & they started delivering people, I'd called Zodwa & they'd been expecting me so I wasn't too phased, especially since Mahatshula is in the burbs. The cool thing though is that when someone gets dropped off, the bus doesn't leave until they're sure that someone's opened for you, and with all the luggage that people are carrying, they help you offload. I like Revival Motorways, their service is on point.

We did have a bit of drama though with this guy who was taking his kids home and he hasn't been home in a few years and couldn't remember the directions. One of the ladies (bare in mind that it was now almost 4am) behind me at some point suggested that instead of driving around, why doesn't the bus driver take the rest of us home, cos WE know where we're going. I sat in my seat with my mouth shut... I could just see us going through the same thing when it was time to find MY address. The other passenger who was going to Mahatshula with me, kept telling the guy who was getting lost with his kids: 'Just Visualise, don't you remember any landmarks?' I know that it came from a nice place of tryna help, but at 4am, after a 16 hour bus ride, peanut gallery comments like that didn't seem very welcome to the poor guy who was trying to remember the way home...

This was the first time I actually got a glimpse of Zim (had an isle seat on the bus...). I don't know much about the politics of the place, but it looks quite progressive. There's a lot of new homes being built, affluent people and I think that it's a country trying to make it on it's own. Most businesses aren't familiar(so it's not like Joburg where we're swamped with European & American companies), here it's mainly local names and although that may have it's disadvantages, I admire the 'Yes We Can' attitude this country has. I've always said that there's something to be said for an African country that can refuse the hand of the US & England, from where I stand (in the first floor office of a black owned company in Bulawayo), things aren't at all as tragic as the media makes them out to be.

I'd like to thank Luckson Chimbidzikai for letting me intrude on his work-space and spend the last hour on his laptop, it's been a pleasure catching up.

I'm spending the rest of my afternoon shopping, then tomorrow it's off to Vic Falls!!!