The last time I blogged, I was job searching and visiting my brother and (not yet) sister-in-law in Guatemala. That was 3 years ago almost exactly. Since then, I moved to Athens, Ohio, where I have lived and worked since February of 2022. I have also traveled here and there. By my reckoning I have a backlog of 5 posts to do after this! But as this is my most recent travel, I thought it was a good place to start in getting caught up.

For some background: I work as a Whole Farm Program Manager in The Sustainable Agriculture program of an asset based community development organization, Rural Action. While my day to day consists mostly of beginning farmer support and resource management, I have been lucky enough to also engage in some international development work as well. This is mainly through a leadership development exchange program funded by the US State Department known as the Community Solutions Program (CSP). Through this program, we hosted two fellows for four months in 2022, one fellow from Tanzania, and one fellow from Zimbabwe. The fellow from Zimbabwe, Darlington Mafa, was hosted with us at the sustainable agriculture program. We became fast friends! From the day we met, Darlington and I were more like siblings than strangers so, when I found out that CSP allows for reciprocal exchange grants, we decided to pursue a project.

Fast-forward to Summer 2024, and I am informed that we have received the Community Collaboration for Impact (CCI) Grant, and I will be spending the first two weeks of October in Zimbabwe, working on a program of workshops and school visits that we modeled after my work at Rural Action, and reflective of the needs that Darlington’s nonprofit, RimaAfrika, has identified in Zimbabwe.

October 1: After around 24 hours of travel, a brief delay and overnight stay in Johannesburg, South Africa, I landed in Harare where Darlington was waiting for me at the airport. We spent the afternoon exploring the city (I finally got to meet Tracy, Darlington’s wife, and their kiddos!) and running errands to prepare for the next day and our first workshop on beekeeping in a rural village north of the city called Gweshe.

Gweshe: Beekeeping Training

October 2: Darlington and I held a beginning beekeeping workshop in the rural village of Gweshe, North of the capital city of Harare. The grant paid for transport to this village, alongside payment to a local beekeeper (Mr. Solo) who facilitated the training with his expertise as a beekeeper. Solo was able to communicate our materials in the local dialect, and the grant allowed basic beekeeping guides, a Kenyan Top Bar hive, and bee suits, smokers, and hive tools to be provided to the village to start their own beekeeping demo site, to be kept at the demo farm owned by a RimaAfrika partner. After the workshop and Q&A session, attendees ( 15 men, and 14 women, 2 facilitators ) participated in a grant funded meal.

Langham Girls School

Directly from Gweshe, we traveled on to Concession, and an all girls boarding school where we toured their grounds (almost all of their food is grown/raised on-site) and stayed with Darlington’s in laws, who both teach at the school.

October 3: In the morning we spoke to the Environmental Club at Langham Girls High School, discussing careers in agriculture, with an emphasis on exchange opportunities such as CSP, and beekeeping, as we were donating a hive to the school. The school has their own farm (produce, chickens, cattle, piggery, and fish farm) on-site, so we believed that an addition of an apiary would be complementary to their existing work. There were 48 students in attendance, alongside their club teacher, our educator Solo, and Darlington and myself.

Beginning Farmer Training

October 4: In the morning we met with mentor farmers Brenda and Precious in Norton Town, outside of Harare, and hosted beginning farmers on their two farming sites. Four aspiring farmers were in attendance, and an agronomist (Salome) was with us from the seed company Syngenta, sharing her experiences with small scale farmers in Zimbabwe. We introduced and handed out our beginning farmer toolkit with the aspiring farmers, and made plans to produce a revised version (with input from Salome) that is less general, and more targeted to farmers in Zimbabwe.

Agritourism Training

In the afternoon we visited the region of Mhondoro to see an example of potential Agritourism training. In addition to raising tomatoes in Norton Town, mentor Brenda has a herd of cattle in this area and the same group of trainees from the morning session visited her farm in a more rural setting of the country. It is Brenda’s hope that such visits to her greenhouses in Norton Town and her cattle ranch in Mhondoro could be potential tourist attractions, and we discussed those opportunities with the group and handed out our agritourism toolkit.

A break for some tourism…

October 5: We spent Saturday afternoon and evening at the Jacaranda Music Festival, a yearly celebration of local musical talent. The standout performance for me was Feli Nandi, who really moved me and made a lasting impression. I encourage you to listen to her music! Jacaranda is named after the iconic purple flowered trees (native to South America) that cover Harare, and I just happened to be in the city during their peak blooming time.

October 7: We spent the day prior driving South to Masvingo, and the site of the famous Great Zimbabwe. This was one of the two places I really wanted to go to for cultural exchange during my trip (the second being Victoria Falls). On the morning of October 7th we left Masvingo and drove to the site of the ruins. Great Zimbabwe is made up of dry (mortar-less) stone, and consists of the Hill Enclosure, said to be home of the reigning monarch, which overlooks the Valley Enclosure.

We started the hike up to the Hill Enclosure with our guide, who informed us that the site was constructed from the 11th century to the 15th century, and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe from the 13th century on. From the top of the hill, we had a stunning view into the valley below, home to the impressive Valley Enclosure. It was in the Great Zimbabwe museum in the valley that I learned that, when Zimbabwe was known as Rhodesia, the white government discouraged archaeologists from attributing this site to black Africans. After liberation, the new government named the country after this UNESCO world heritage site. The name “Zimbabwe” means “stone houses” in Shona, and the Zimbabwean flag also references the bird totems found at the ruins, as well as the conical stone tower in the Valley Enclosure.

This archaeological site was truly stunning, it was shocking to me to learn that this is not a well visited landmark by international visitors, as I consider it well worth the trek out to Masvingo from Harare.

October 7: After our visit to Great Zimbabwe, we made the decision not to return to Harare as planned, and instead continued on Northwest to Darlington’s hometown of Gweru. This meant we ended up traveling for a week with a small bag each, and I got to wear the two outfits I packed a fair few times.

October 8: In addition to spending time with Darlington’s family and neighbors, washing clothes, and generally getting ourselves organized, Darlington scheduled an impromptu meeting at his old primary school to discuss opportunities for collaboration with the agriculture teachers there. It is our hope that this connection could lead to another teaching learning apiary for the students. Following a full day, Darlington and I took an overnight bus to Victoria Falls, at the very Westernmost point of the country.

October 9: We arrived early morning to Victoria Falls, and after gathering ourselves, took a sunset cruise on the Zambezi. This is the fourth longest river in Africa, and borders Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique. On the river we saw elephants watering, hippos popping their heads up, and a truly stunning sunset.

Lesedi School Visit

October 10: We visited Darlington’s Food Sovereignty partner Romeo while in Victoria Falls to observe the work he was doing with students there. We discussed human wildlife conflict collaboration there, and visited a community nutrition garden. This garden gives families of students a place to grow for their families and for market. The campus itself includes a home economics education building, modern biology lab, computer lab, and school farm, chicken coop, and piggery that feeds a biogas installation. The gap that we discussed filling in future includes educational programming and funding for sustainable agriculture topics at the school.

Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park

October 11: On our last full day in Victoria Falls, I finally laid eyes on the falls themselves. Victoria Falls borders Zambia and Zimbabwe, and is 1,708 m (5,604 ft) wide, making it one of the world’s longest waterfalls. While water flow was low during my visit as it was dry season, it was still spectacular.

October 12: The benefit of traveling to Victoria Falls during dry season is that the animal viewing opportunities are wonderful, as wildlife gathers at water sources to get though the dry season. I knew we had to take advantage of this, and early on the morning of our last day in the West, we took a bus to Hwange National Park. There we had a guide for a day long safari in Zimbabwe’s largest nature preserve.

This was easily a top 10 nature based life experience for me. I took detailed notes with timestamps and hundreds of photos, so if you are looking into a safari and have any questions, please reach out. I highly encourage you to support the park-staffed safaris where possible, and avoid commercial outfits to get an authentic experience.

October 13: My last full day in Zimbabwe was spent souvenir shopping and observing more animals at Mukuvisi Woodlands. This is a far more accessible location for folks in Harare to see safari animals up (very) close and personal. It is here I first had the opportunity to observe the Eland, a very large antelope, and (according to Darlington’s family and others I met during my travels) my totem.

I will never forget the time I spent in Zimbabwe, and I am forever grateful to Darlington and his family, and to Tracy and her family, for welcoming me with open arms and introducing me to their beautiful country and culture. Zimbabwe is a country of many firsts for me, and I hope that someday I can return, and perhaps bring my own family to discover this truly special place.