22 June
Wednesday Harare Horror
We leave early for the Zimbabwe border and are there before noon.
Sammie goes into his stow-away hiding place by Andrej’s feet. He now understands
when we tell him to go down. Although all his documentation is in order, we
prefer to be discreet with his presence as the hassle that we might have will
probably not be worth it.
Checking out of Malawi is easy and we have no problems on the
Zimbabwean side either. Harare here we come! The countryside is beautiful:
golden savannah fields, akasia and Baobab trees interspersed with farmland. We
reach the outskirts of Harare at 4 pm and we are not sure where we are going to
stay. We do not have many choices either, but decide to drive to the few we
have. The first one in Twenty-Four Deane Avenue does not exist and we are super
unsuccessful as we drive from one to the other: no camping. The last one on the
list takes us 14 km out of town: Wild Geese Lodge: a beautiful lodge, but with
no license for campers. Back to Harare and it is pitch dark by this
time.
The GPS takes us back on the same road which is the road that
runs past the President’s (Mugabe) residence. We’ve read in the Lonely Planet
that the road is barred after a certain time of night until early in the
morning, but we have no idea that the road we just turned into is that road.
When we reach a barrier with a No Entry sign, we realized where we were and
Willie starts to make a u-turn. The next moment all hell breaks loose. Someone
starts to shout and yell and there from the dark a heavily armed soldier emerges
screaming and shouting as he swings his AK around. We immediately realize that
something is very wrong with the situation, but also with the soldier. His
behavior is erratic and he appears to be on a high.
He and another soldier run to the car as he continues to yell at
us. Hugo gets out of the car and the guy walks him to a guard house where he
tells him that we are under arrest; they are going to take us to the Police HQ,
search our vehicle, confiscate our stuff and on and on. This is what will happen
to us unless Hugo can talk to Willie and they can make a ‘plan’ –the discreet
way to suggest a bribe. He walks Hugo back to the car and Hugo tells Willie what
he said. He starts to rant and rave again, tells Willie what he can do with us
while swinging the gun around in our faces. Willie is so uncertain in what to do
– we do not believe in bribing, but the situation looks dire and we have no one
to turn to. It is pitch dark, no other vehicles or people in sight – totally
delivered over to the soldiers’ goodwill. Zimbabwe, after the financial
collapse, uses US $ and Willie finally checks his wallet. He has a $100 bill and
$5. Willie takes the $5 out, but keeps it in his hand, not certain what to
do.The other soldier must have seen this and he comes to Willie and demands to
see what he has in his hand. Willie shows him and then he starts to rant and
rave about the fact that they are honorable and they do not take bribes!?
The “high”, almost out of control soldier continues to threaten
to arrest us and tells Willie what he can do with us. Willie was silent up to
this point, but suddenly tells him, “Good, so do it – take us to where you want
us to go; let’s just get going. Arrest us, take us to the HQ, unpack our car and
…and…” As soon as Willie said this, he suddenly backs off, swings his gun around
and tells us to leave, immediately!
Hugo gets into the car, Willie turns the car around and there we
go back into the pitch dark street with a soldier pointing his gun at us. We are
quiet and in shock. All we want to do is get to a hotel. We turn another corner
and lo and behold, there is another barrier in the road – a block further.
Willie immediately makes a u-turn and from another corner … another soldier! We
have a repeat of the same ordeal – this time because of the u-turn. He wants to
see Willie’s driver’s license – a copy is not good enough. We know of what we’ve
read that they take licenses off and then do not give it back. Another soldier
arrives and now it is the same story with Hugo and Willie. They want to take
them behind a tree where it is dark, so that they are out of the video camera’s
range, because what they really want is a bribe. Willie and Hugo realize this
and refuse to stand behind the tree. The threats and harassment probably last
for 20 minutes if not longer when Hugo finally tells the soldier that we are US
citizens and we want to speak to our ambassador. Willie takes out pen and paper
and wants to know what his name is. The moment he realizes that he cannot
intimidate them anymore, he suddenly hands back the license and tells us to
leave!
An awful, terrible experience and I still find it difficult to
think about it. We find a hotel; the boys sleep in the rooftop tent and Willie
and I have a room. All 4 of us are traumatized and extremely tired. We will have
to process this ordeal tomorrow in day light when things are less horrible.
Wednesday Harare Horror
We leave early for the Zimbabwe border and are there before noon.
Sammie goes into his stow-away hiding place by Andrej’s feet. He now understands
when we tell him to go down. Although all his documentation is in order, we
prefer to be discreet with his presence as the hassle that we might have will
probably not be worth it.
Checking out of Malawi is easy and we have no problems on the
Zimbabwean side either. Harare here we come! The countryside is beautiful:
golden savannah fields, akasia and Baobab trees interspersed with farmland. We
reach the outskirts of Harare at 4 pm and we are not sure where we are going to
stay. We do not have many choices either, but decide to drive to the few we
have. The first one in Twenty-Four Deane Avenue does not exist and we are super
unsuccessful as we drive from one to the other: no camping. The last one on the
list takes us 14 km out of town: Wild Geese Lodge: a beautiful lodge, but with
no license for campers. Back to Harare and it is pitch dark by this
time.
The GPS takes us back on the same road which is the road that
runs past the President’s (Mugabe) residence. We’ve read in the Lonely Planet
that the road is barred after a certain time of night until early in the
morning, but we have no idea that the road we just turned into is that road.
When we reach a barrier with a No Entry sign, we realized where we were and
Willie starts to make a u-turn. The next moment all hell breaks loose. Someone
starts to shout and yell and there from the dark a heavily armed soldier emerges
screaming and shouting as he swings his AK around. We immediately realize that
something is very wrong with the situation, but also with the soldier. His
behavior is erratic and he appears to be on a high.
He and another soldier run to the car as he continues to yell at
us. Hugo gets out of the car and the guy walks him to a guard house where he
tells him that we are under arrest; they are going to take us to the Police HQ,
search our vehicle, confiscate our stuff and on and on. This is what will happen
to us unless Hugo can talk to Willie and they can make a ‘plan’ –the discreet
way to suggest a bribe. He walks Hugo back to the car and Hugo tells Willie what
he said. He starts to rant and rave again, tells Willie what he can do with us
while swinging the gun around in our faces. Willie is so uncertain in what to do
– we do not believe in bribing, but the situation looks dire and we have no one
to turn to. It is pitch dark, no other vehicles or people in sight – totally
delivered over to the soldiers’ goodwill. Zimbabwe, after the financial
collapse, uses US $ and Willie finally checks his wallet. He has a $100 bill and
$5. Willie takes the $5 out, but keeps it in his hand, not certain what to
do.The other soldier must have seen this and he comes to Willie and demands to
see what he has in his hand. Willie shows him and then he starts to rant and
rave about the fact that they are honorable and they do not take bribes!?
The “high”, almost out of control soldier continues to threaten
to arrest us and tells Willie what he can do with us. Willie was silent up to
this point, but suddenly tells him, “Good, so do it – take us to where you want
us to go; let’s just get going. Arrest us, take us to the HQ, unpack our car and
…and…” As soon as Willie said this, he suddenly backs off, swings his gun around
and tells us to leave, immediately!
Hugo gets into the car, Willie turns the car around and there we
go back into the pitch dark street with a soldier pointing his gun at us. We are
quiet and in shock. All we want to do is get to a hotel. We turn another corner
and lo and behold, there is another barrier in the road – a block further.
Willie immediately makes a u-turn and from another corner … another soldier! We
have a repeat of the same ordeal – this time because of the u-turn. He wants to
see Willie’s driver’s license – a copy is not good enough. We know of what we’ve
read that they take licenses off and then do not give it back. Another soldier
arrives and now it is the same story with Hugo and Willie. They want to take
them behind a tree where it is dark, so that they are out of the video camera’s
range, because what they really want is a bribe. Willie and Hugo realize this
and refuse to stand behind the tree. The threats and harassment probably last
for 20 minutes if not longer when Hugo finally tells the soldier that we are US
citizens and we want to speak to our ambassador. Willie takes out pen and paper
and wants to know what his name is. The moment he realizes that he cannot
intimidate them anymore, he suddenly hands back the license and tells us to
leave!
An awful, terrible experience and I still find it difficult to
think about it. We find a hotel; the boys sleep in the rooftop tent and Willie
and I have a room. All 4 of us are traumatized and extremely tired. We will have
to process this ordeal tomorrow in day light when things are less horrible.
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