Return to Zimbabwe

I must admit it came as a pleasant surprise. The last time I came here, the price on the morning newspaper was six hundred and forty million dollars. Honestly. They’d just started printing a new set of bank notes, and the smallest was ten trillion dollars – which would just about have bought you a cup of tea – as long as the kettle took less than ten minutes to boil, prices were going up so quickly.
But this time it’s all changed. The official currencies are now the US dollar or the South African rand – and once again there is food in the shops and fuel in the garages (but only one pump working, obviously).
That doesn’t mean there isn’t still huge poverty – with massive unemployment, especially in the rural areas.
So our little welfare project around Bulawayo is still very much needed. The team travels around, sometimes huge distances, visiting villages or even stopping the carts on the roads, and giving basic veterinary care to the thousands of donkeys still working hard in the African sun.