Mad March at Pax Park
This weekend saw the 'Mad March' hash weekend at Pax Park right next to lake Chivero, some 30 kilometers out of Harare. The two runs were terrible, both coming in at a bit under 1000 meters, I'm sure no one in his right mind would be able to call them 'runs'. The fun was spread out over the rest of the weekend. Lots of drinking (what else?), a dress up on Saturday night with the 'Alice in Wonderland' theme, sports, wild life viewing and lots of Queen.
Stonehenge is nuts over Queen (the band) and, bringing his laptop, four speakers and a hazardously big amplifier, we had much more than a healthy share of Queen over the weekend. What was more, his uncle went to school with Roger Taylor. And, to make things even better, someone else's boss went to school, in Zanzibar, with Freddy Mercury. This means that Freddy Mercury is four AND three degrees away. I immediately felt much, much better.
The wildlife we saw, besides the hashers on the weekend, consisted of: Giraffe, ostrich, impala, zebra, kudu, hartebeest, warthog, monkey and loads of beetles and spiders. Betsy even found a nice big beetle in her bed one morning.
Most of the hashers are native Zimbabweans or at least have lived here a very long time. It was rather disturbing to hear how the land reforms have hurt so many people directly. At least one person on the hash has lost her own farm due to the land reforms. Several people, working at import/export businesses have seen their turnover dwindle after so many of 'their' farms stopped producing after being taken over due to the reforms.
It is no surprise therefore that the locals mostly are quite bitter about the current situation in general and todays Zimbabwean power brokers specifically.