The Real Berlin
I am sitting on the patio of Trattoria Lungomare - Steinofenpizza as I write this entry on a piece of paper that I have with me. I have been here for 10 minutes now, and finally someone has recognized that I am even here. I understand the chaos. It is all around me. I am mere blocks from the millions of jubilant fans who just saw their team win in a shootout. I hear the honking and screaming all around me. The joy of their team is swirling overhead like the smoke from a nearby cigarette. Added to that, I am at an Italian restaurant while Italy is playing, so I can understand that the staff may be a little distracted. But it is in the times when we are tested in our most distracted, our most stressed, and our most uncomfortable that we get an indication and show an indication to others of who we truly are. Someone tested me like that once, and while it was painful to see my weaknesses and faults laid open in that way, it was perhaps the most valid test of my character.
So now, in this time for this city, I put it to the same kind of test. I am asking it to show me who it is. Not the polished version that the normal tourist might see, but the frazzled, tired, distracted version. The real Berlin. The Berlin that very few people will see during only a visit. Perhaps no one else will experience this as the rest of the tourists have companions and are swept up by the excitement of the World Cup. But I will see it. I am thankful for the opportunity.
So who are you Berlin? What will you show in your time of testing?
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
Night to Relax...Kinda
Hello North America! (and any non-North Americans that I don't know about).
It's been a slow night over here in Berlin, which is fine by me. The past three nights there have been a couple of people over here from my company who are bidding on a different contract with RR...like always, I can't say what, but that wouldn't matter to most of you anyways. So anyways, pictures are at the bottom.
One of the guys who was with them, and who may end up coming over here to be on-site for that project, is a 40-50 year old contract worker that is fairly new to the group. He likes to have fun, unlike the other guys that came with him, so that meant that I had someone to hang out in Berlin with for a few days. We didn't do anything terribly exciting though.
Unfortunately, there weren't any good soccer games going on while they were here, so there wasn't as much craziness downtown this time. But we did go down there twice and looked around some of the areas that I had already seen, as well as a new market that I hadn't seen, called the Genarmen Markt. It was gorgeous. There are 2 cathedrals at either end, the Deutscher (German) Dom at the south, and the Franzosischer (French) Dom on the north. Then on the west side is the Konzerthaus (Concert House). These buildings were build around 1700, were destroyed during WW2, and have been rebuilt since.
We then went for dinner at the Lowenbrau Haus before heading to see the Reichstag again and then the fan mile. My co-worker wanted to pick up some shirts, so I got one as well. Before I forget to mention it, at the Lowenbrau haus I saw one of Berlin's famous 1 litre steins of beer, so I got a picture of one. They let me put my sunglasses beside it for context.
Anyways, running around being the tour-guide was quite tiring, because I really didn't know much more than the people I was leading around. But it was nice to have the company.
So tonight I have just been taking it easy. I bought some snackfood from a grocery store so that I don't have to be constantly ripped off when I'm hungry, then I went out to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. The food was amazing, and I took a book along so that I wouldn't just be sitting there staring at other people. It is strange to eat out alone though, but by the end of this trip I will be used to it. After all of that, I came back home and have just been listening to some music, watching CNN, and posting pictures and a blog.
And that's about it. I'm looking forward to a busy weekend with a German soccer match here in Berlin that is happening tomorrow at 5pm. Saturday there are more games, but I may try to see more of the city. Then on Saturday I am going to try a different church in my attempt to meet some friends. Who knows what will happen, but as always, I will take any interesting pictures that I see, and I'll post a blog when I get the chance.
Konzerthaus
Konzerthaus Lion Statue
Deutscher Dom
Top of the Deutscher Dom
Franzosischer Dom
An interesting looking marble building that is in the area.
A one litre stein of beer that someone let me take a picture of.
Another picture of the Reichstag.
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
My Address
I don't know that this will be of any interest to anyone, but here is my address in Berlin:
My Name
c/o
Hotel Berliner Ring
Eschenweg 18, D
15827, Dahlewitz, Germany
Peace and blessings,
JZ
Driving in Germany and the Autobahn
I just thought that I would write a little post on what driving is like here in Germany, and to mention that I had my first experience with the famous Autobahn. I had this experience as I was driving to church this afternoon.
The first thing that surprised me is that there are no signs saying that you are on the autobahn. I just seems like any other highway. So for me, not knowing that the highway that I was going on was the autobahn, I was a little surprised. You see signs on the side that look like normal speed limit signs and it isn't until you reach those speeds, 130 km/h in my case, and are getting passed by cars going much much faster that you think that you might be on the autobahn. It was fun...made me wish that I had a better car. I got the Opel up to about 160, maybe a little higher, but I didn't know where I was headed, I didn't know the road, and I don't know the car very well, so that was fast enough for this time. I am sure that I will have opportunity again in the future to go faster. What I really would have liked would to have been in one of the Mercedes, BMW's, or Audi's that were blowing by me doing at least 200. Probably higher than that. They looked so smooth. I was actually quite impressed that the Opel did what it did, and it still felt like it had legs for more, so we'll see how far I push it in the future.
There are a couple of other things that I like about the driving over here too. First is that driving seems almost like an artform that people take pride in. I have read that it is an extremely difficult process to even get licensed, so people take pride in safety. But I don't mean slow, annoying, unpredictable safety. I mean comfortably paced, smart thinking safety. It is a breath of fresh air after coming from Wichita...You would have fun, Keith.
Secondly, the traffic lights work just like in North America except for the following really great improvement. When you are waiting at a red light, the yellow light will turn on for and instant immediately before the light turns green. This is so great, because it means that there isn't that annoying 5 second wait like in Wichita where the slowpoke infront of you remembers what the colour green looks like and then decides to go.
The final thing that I like about the driving here is the roads. They are beautiful. The trees line the sides of them, the small city streets wind entertainly, and most of the houses have hedges in front of them. It is great. Not nearly as dull looking as in North America. You can see why companies like Porsche, Ferrari, BMW and Mercedes originated over here. Driving just has that added flair and like I mentioned earlier, it's kind of an artform. It's not just utilitarian, a commodity that is used and not valued, as it seems to be in N.A. But that is just my feeling. Don't get me wrong, I love so many things about N.A. and I'm not sure that I could ever become comfortable in Europe, but driving is definitely better over here.
Peace and blessings,
JZ
The Fan Mile
I just wanted to let everyone know about the chaos that is the Fan Mile and what that has allowed me to do to keep busy for the past 2 days. I'll try to keep it fairly short, but I can't promise anything. Also, as promised to some people, I have pictures too.
Yesterday after I finally got finished with work at 7pm, I started my journey down to the fan mile which is in the downtown area, between the Brandenburg gate, and some other monument that I haven't determined the identity of just yet. But, as the name would imply, it is at least a mile long, and as you'll see from some of the pictures a little later, it is simply packed with people when Germany is playing. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
To get down there, I first have to drive about 10 minutes to the nearest train station on the S-bahn, one of the Berlin subway lines. It is the last stop on the line, but luckily I only need to take the one train to go all the way down to where the action is.
After about 40 minutes on the train, I got out of my station, turn around, and this is just about the first thing that I see:
This of course, is a giant soccerball in front of the ever famous Brandenburg Gate. One thought that I couldn't help but thinking as I was looking at this gate (and that I continually think when I look around the countryside and see forests of trees which are all the same height and look to be about 50-60 years old) is that I am standing where Hitler marched his army back during the war. It is a bit of a creepy feeling.
Now, while I knew what this was, I did not know that it was the fan mile on the other side of it, so I continued walking around for a while, not really knowing where I was going. That gave me a chance to stumble across a few other interesting things though. The first was the Reichstag. At first I had no idea what it was. I saw this huge building with a large German flag on it, but nowhere does it call it the Reichstag. I thought that was interesting. Anyways, here are some pictures of it:
Right beside the Reichstag, Adidas has set up a fan area, but I didn't go into it because it cost 18 euros. I don't think that is the real stadium there, because it looks very small. I suspect that it is something temporary that Adidas set up, and I know that they use it to display the matches on some large screens. Again, I'm not too sure because I didn't pay to get in. I also know that the only McDonalds that I've seen in the downtown area is inside of that gated off area. So basically, if you are really craving a Big Mac, you have to pay an 18 euro cover...so no McDonalds for me!
After I did that little bit of sightseeing, and another 20 or 30 minutes of walking around blindly as if I was searching for Hansel and Gretel, I finally figured out that the lineup of people and security that were by the brandenburg gate were waiting to get into the fan mile. So I went in. What greeted me was the following:
This is set up really interestingly and I didn't know what to expect. When you walk in you see the street packed with people and lined with concession stands that are selling German food like Bratwurst and the like, German beer (and coke, both for the same price, 3.50 euros...this country is strange because their beer is the same price as their coke, and cheaper than buying water most of the time), and horns and jerseys and stuff like that. You can see for about 1000 feet before your view is blocked by another video screen. So I thought that this thing was only as large as I could see when I first walked in. Little did I know was that as I started walking down the road, I got to the first screen and realized it went one further, and then one further, and then one further...at least 6 but maybe 8 in total. I lost count. It took a long long time to get down there through the crowd though. I forgot to time it, but it was at least 30 minutes.
Anyways, I watched a bit of the soccer match (it was France vs. Togo), but mainly I walked around, trying to find people from North America. In my travel, I found some sand volleyball, quite to my surprise. It was pretty good. The sand, for one, was better than any sand I've ever played on. It was white sand, and so fine. It was like playing on a cloud. I think I may have been spoiled to ever go back to anything that I am used to playing on. Here is a picture of the court:
I only played one game, and then I kept looking for North Americans. I had no success for most of the night. I think that all of the Americans went home after their team lost on Thursday night. The Canadians don't even have a team, of course, and I think that Americans are shy to display their colours now that their team is out.
After the soccer match was over, I was just about to leave, but I stood off to the side by the entrace and was looking at my navigation system when a guy came up to me. His name was Brad, and he was from Victoria. He introduced to to two of his buddies, Noah and Dale, and said they were going out to a patio and that I would be welcome to join them. So I did.
We first walked to the main train station to catch the S-Bahn to the area of the city that we were going to. On the way, we passed the following things that I wanted to take pictures of. The first is a pair of huge soccer cleats, and the second is the famous Rhine River.
The patio area that we were going to was called the Hackescher Markt, and it was quite trendy. I enjoyed it, and I may go back there. It seems like a nice place to have dinner. It's about an hour S-bahn commute for me, but that isn't too bad when you have nothing to do, and only CNN on the TV. The other Canadian guys and I went there and ended up talking for about 3 hours before I took off to come back home. Here is a picture of the Markt, and one of me and the guys.
From left to right, it is Dale, me, Brad, and Noah.
After that was all over, I took the S-bahn back home and got here at about 4 in the morning. It was a pretty good night.
Today I went back, but not too much happened. Germany was playing, so the crowd was absolutely huge. It was so large in fact that I didn't even get in until the game was nearly over. I wanted to leave the hotel early so that I could get in line early, but a call from my boss meant that I had to do about 2 hours of work, so I didn't get to leave until it was almost starting. It was no big loss though. It seemed like most of the fans were for Germany, and I didn't get to meet any new people. It would be nice to go back down there when either England or Australia play, but they are playing during the work week, so I doubt that I'll make it down there.
But here are some pictures from today that I took. I will end to blog with these. I hope that it wasn't too long to read.
This is the Berlin train station. A co-worker told me that it is the largest in Europe and that Berliners will be paying it off for 100 years. Might be true. It's like a huge mall inside with trains criss-crossing over and under you.
This is a sand scuplture of the World Cup Trophy.
This is a sand sculpture of sumo wrestlers...not sure the connection with the tournament.
This is a sand sculpture of a German Mt. Rushmore.
These are some pictures of the crowd. I have some video as well, but my connection is too slow to upload those. Sorry.
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
Headed Out
UPDATE:
So, it's 4AM now and I just got back to the hotel. I had a pretty interesting night, but as I see the sun coming up, I know that I need to sleep. So I'll probably update tomorrow. Germany is playing though, so I need to get back down to the fan mile early because there will likely be nearly a million people there tomorrow! Peace and blessings, JZ.
So, after a long week of work and travel, and more tech problems than any one person should ever have to struggle though....I'm headed down to the Brandenburg Gate and the World Cup Fan Mile! My camera is coming with me. Hopefully I'll meet some North Americans while I'm down there. I'll give a recap when I'm back.
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
The Perks of Business Class
Here is a list of things that I was treated to thanks to the Spirit dollar while on my flight from Chicago to Frankfurt:
-Getting to board the plane first and getting let off first, so waiting in huge lines.
-The seats are HUGE!
- The headrests raise, tilt, and have formable sides
- They have lumbar support, and even a cycle function that constantly massages your lower back.
- There is so much legroom that you can’t even touch the seat ahead of you.
- Fully reclining seat with leg and footrests
-You get a blanket and large pillow.
-You get a bag that contains socks, an eyemask, earplugs, tissues, mints, hydrating lotion, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a headset.
-Champagne was served before even all of the passengers had boarded.
-A menu was handed out before all of the passengers had boarded. The menu had the following:
__Appetizers__
- -shrimp, proscuitto ham, St. Andre Triple Crème cheese and vegetable crudité. (while that all sounds really amazing, can I say that the shrimp was kind of warm and nasty, the ham was really grosse, the cheese tasted more like butter than cheese (imagine eating a chunk of butter), but the vegetables where good).
- Fresh seasonal greens
- Classic Caesar or roasted garlic red wine vinaigrette.
__Main Course__
Filet Mignon with béarnaise sauce
- Potato leek cake and spinach with shallots and mushrooms. (My choice…yum!)
Horseradish crusted salmon with dill cream sauce.
- Egg and scallion fried rice with carrots and sugar snap peas.
Pasta Trio
- Three cheese filled pastas with pine nut pesto Alfredo and marinara sauce.
__Dessert__
- International cheese selection.
- Chocolate mousse cake.
-As soon as we got to altitude, drinks were served.
- Sparkling, red and white wines were offered.
-Mixed nuts were served in heated ceramic dishes.
-Before dinner we were each given a heated washcloth to wash up with.
-Our tray tables (which came out of the arm rest, not the seat in front) were covered with cloth napkins.
-When dessert was served, they also served coffee liqueur. This made for a great combination with the chocolate mousse.
-Shortly after dinner they started the movies, and while we didn’t have control over the playback of the movies on this flight, we did have a choice of about 8 movies and they played them 3 times since the flight was 8 hours long.
So, that’s my recap of the business class flight. It was nice, but I don’t think it is worth the extra cost just for the 8 hours of being spoiled. It was nice to have the experience though.
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
The First Couple of Days
I should post this now because more and more time is passing since I first got here. I will post my blog on the perks of business class later. Maybe tonight, maybe not. This blog was composed in several sittings over 2 days, so there is a decidedly different tone from start to finish…bear with me.
Greetings from Berlin, Germany!
I wish that I could tell you that everything here is going along great, but so far it has been difficult. Yes, things could be a whole lot worse, but things weren’t quite as smooth as I had hoped for either.
First off, the disconnected feeling coupled with the isolation is very difficult for me. This entire experience would be nearly infinitely better if there was just one other person with me who I could share it with. That would give me someone to talk to, share my joys and frustrations with, and it would provide such a sense of security. I don’t know what it is about me that needs that sense of companionship in order to feel secure, but that is there and I have a feeling that it is there for a reason.
In any case, God has provided many friends to me who I know are praying for me and who do love me, and he has even provided one who called me while I was on the way to the airport, text messaged me while I was in O’Hare, and was available for me to call for a very short conversation when I finally got my work cellphone and was able to make a personal call. I was so appreciative of that. It made this huge world feel suddenly a whole lot smaller, and the people that I love seem a whole lot closer.
I know that in my post before this one I did some lists of things that I liked about my flight over, so I won’t cover that again. But I will just give a brief overview of the past 34 hours since I’ve been here in Berlin.
I arrived at 10AM on Tuesday morning, or 3AM Wichita time. I didn’t really get to sleep on the plane, except for a very brief 20 minute nap right before landing in Frankfurt. There was almost too much good service on the plane to let me sleep. It seemed like just about everytime that I was about to settle down for a nap, they offered something else, whether that be a meal, beverages, or a movie. It was a great flight, but it meant that I got into Berlin tired.
My rental car turned out to be an Opel Zaphoria or some ridiculous thing. European cars are nasty looking, for the most part. How a Porsche can come from the same country that makes these, I have no idea. It is like a cross between a minivan and a car. Sort of a much less cool Subaru Forrester. It seems to be able to move though, so I won’t knock it too much. I’m not sure exactly where the autobahn is, but the speedometer goes to 260km/h, so we’ll see how high it can get.
I got to the hotel at 11 and went to my room. It was a plain-Jane hotel room. Nothing too exciting. There is a nice big bed, a small tv, a large bathroom, and a balcony. My room is on the 5th floor of 5, so my balcony is actually cut out of the roof. It is kind of neat. I’ll try to remember to take some pictures. The hotel is located south of Berlin, in the village of Dahlewitz, where Rolls-Royce is. I have no idea if I’m supposed to say that I am working for them or not, but if you really wanted to find out then you could. It has been leaked to the papers anyways. But back to the story…Berlin is very strange in that as soon as you hit the city limit, everything just ends. There is no transition area. One minute you are in the city, and the next minute you are surrounded by fields. A co-worker told me today that the transit does extend down this far though. There is a bus that will take me to the train, but the bus does not run very late, so I imagine that once I am feeling settled in and want to head to downtown then I will drive to the train station and take the train to downtown.
I was physically and emotionally exhausted by the time that I got to the hotel though, so stepping into the quietness of the hotel room was almost shocking. I was here, a quarter of the world away from where I started out. It hit me with a moment of panic. That didn’t last long though. I composed myself, unpacked, and took a shower.
Then I got up at 3:30 and went to the hotel bar to watch the Germany soccer game. Sure, I didn’t get to go downtown like I had hoped, since the game was being played downtown and that would have been crazy, but I was just too out of it. So I just sat down in the coolness of the basement where the bar is located and watched the game in German, with a bunch of Germans. I didn’t understand a word that was spoken, but I was too tired to care.
After that I ate dinner down in the hotel restaurant and read some of tthe book about the DaVinci Code and how to make arguments against that which was handed out in church a few weeks ago. Dinner was good. The hotel restaurant is pretty fancy. I ate slowly, and read a lot. I had nothing else to do that night, and didn’t feel like spending any energy. I was still just feeling exhausted.
After dinner I went to my room, watched some CNN and some soccer and eventually went to bed.
Then, the strangest thing happened. Even though I was exhaustedly tired, I woke up at 2:45 in the morning and could not get back to sleep. I was awake for over 2 hours! My body just wasn’t ready to got to bed (in Wichita it was only 7:45 still), even though I had only slept a few hours in the previous 3 days. It was very strange.
When I finally got to sleep, it was almost impossible to wake up. My alarm when off and I reset it for about 30 minutes later because I was finally sleeping well. Well, true to form, I set it wrong and it didn’t go off again. So I didn’t get up when I needed to in order to shower and get everything ready that I needed to. At 8:50 I was startled awake by room service starting to open my door. I jumped out of bed and hurriedly put on my suit and ran out the door. Being late on my first day wasn’t my idea of a good impression.
Thankfully, Rolls-Royce is right across the road from my hotel, so I made it just after 9 and with all of the waiting that I had to do to get through security, no one knew that I was late. Start and end times are flexible anyways. My largest complaint was that with the heat of that day and from the previous night, I felt pretty nasty because I didn’t get a shower.
Work went well. I got into the office and was re-united with the company laptop and cellphone that was left here for me. I don’t have internet at the office, and likely will only get e-mail access once I get a tech PC on my desk, but that is okay. As a result I am allowed to get internet in my hotel, so that means that I have more freedom to use it for personal use and I can freely do my blog and do e-mailing off of company time.
The office that I work in is brand new. It is on the ground floor and is on the corner. It also has nice big windows, so there is a gorgeous cross wind that blows through. It is quite comfortable. There are 4 other people who work in my office room at the moment. One is the project manager for the project that I’m on, so I have to work hard around him, but that’s not hard to do because he keeps me hopping. The other 3 guys are seemingly newer guys and work hard, but I think that’s because they don’t all speak each others language. They each know a functional amount of English and German, but one is Italian, one I think is Russian, and the other I think is German. The Italian guy has been working closely with me to show me around and he seems pretty cool. His English is pretty good too, so we go to lunch together and the canteen and meet with others of his friends. Also, after lunches it seems that everyone who works here goes for a short walk around the campus. So in these walks I get a chance to talk to some other people around here. Most are only somewhat functional in English, so it is a little bit hard to have a good conversation, but the work atmosphere in general is much more open and social than at Spirit.
But that pretty much ended my day. I worked until 6 and then went to the hotel and set up my internet. Once I did that, I did some more work that I needed to do now that I had internet, including checking my work e-mail and making sure that all of my accesses worked. In the end, I spent between 10 and 11 hours working, which isn’t a whole lot, but I started out pretty tired, so it was nice to relax at the end of it all.
Things are starting to seem a little bit more settled now. I’m not nearly as jetlagged, and I’m starting to feel a little more confident about being here. I am sure that this weekend I will start to venture out into the city. I will likely head down to the fan mile, by where the soccer stadium is. First I have to figure out how to get there, but I’m sure that I’ll have no trouble doing that. I will definitely update on how everything goes.
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
Hallo! From Berlin
I have so much that I want to blog about, but unfortunately, I have had way too much to do today and it is getting too late. I just want to sit back and relax now. I have at least 2 blogs that I want to do. The first is on what flying business class is like and is just a big list of things. The second is everything that has happened since I got to Berlin yesterday morning. I've started both in Word documents, but I'm not going to finish them tonight. For tonight I'm going to finish watching the Dutch-Argentina football game (In Dutch...only CNN is in English over here) and then go to bed.
Sorry that it can't be longer, but I am tired.
Peace and blessings,
JZ
Packing...not the Most Fun Thing.
Hello everyone!
I can't type for long because I am flying out in exactly 10 hours for Germany. I have nearly finished packing now. I think that I will finish up the last odds and ends in the morning. I basically just threw most of what I owned into my suitcase and I'll go from there. It's easier when you don't own anything. I like that I have kept my possessions to a minimum, it keeps things very simple. The hardest part was honestly to decide which suit to pack, which to wear on the plane, and which ones to leave behind. Also, I had to decide which shirt/tie combination to wear with it. Initially I was thinking which ones would be the best for during my flight, but then I started thinking that if my luggage gets lost then I will need to wear the same one for possibly a few days. So I went for the black pants (original!), tan suitcoat, wine shirt and matching tie. Should go over just fine, and that coat is tailored really well for me and is nicely vented so it should be comfortable for the extended period of time.
Anyways, I am just killing some time before I go to bed. I am a little wound up with excitement for tomorrow. I'm also beginning to miss everyone here. It was nice seeing so many people tonight and I am so grateful to God for putting each of you in my life. You are truly a blessing. I plan on updating the blog often to keep in touch with you. 6 weeks is not too long and I will be back before I know it, but I will miss you immensely. Not that I will let that affect the time that I am having overseas. That will be great too. But it will be so nice to share it with you all.
So keep reading, and write comments so I know that you're checking it out! I will likely be able to update on Wednesday night.
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
In the News
I read the following article in Zimnews (Zimbabwe's largest online newspaper) over lunch today. It referenced the fact that Zimbabwe released it's largest denomination of currency last week, the Z$100,000 bearers note, so I have included an article about that as well. I cannot even begin to imagine what must be going on in a country where your largest denomination is worth $0.98 US and can't even buy a loaf of bread.
Praying that they will find peace and blessings,
JZ.
Zimbabwe Ranked The Poorest Of The Word's Poor
Wednesday, June 14 2006 @ 11:05 AM BSTContributed
by: Zimdaily
The government of Zimbabwe, a country in the throes of a major economic crisis, has rejected a recommendation by a U.N. committee that the cash-starved African nation be "downgraded" to the status of a least developed country (LDCs), the poorest of the world's poor. The recommendation by the Committee for Development Policy (CDP), comprising 22 U.N.-appointed experts, can be implemented only if the decision is acceptable to the country concerned.
In a letter to the CDP, the government of Zimbabwe said it "does not give its consent to be downgraded to LDC status". An African diplomat told IPS that some countries view LDC status -- rightly or wrongly -- as "both a political and economic stigma". "I am not surprised that Zimbabwe has rejected the recommendation," he added. Additionally, an LDC status is considered by some as an admission of failure of a country's economic policies. And in the case of Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has refused to accept failure.
Mugabe, who still commands respect in the African continent, has blamed his country's economic crisis on sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) -- and prompted by Britain -- in retaliation for his land reform policies which transferred white-owned farms to landless Zimbabweans.
The Zimbabwean president has defended his policy as necessary "to redress the gross imbalances" of British colonialism. The EU has also placed a travel ban barring him from visiting any of the 25 EU member
countries. Currently, there are 50 LDCs, of which 34 are from Africa. Since the General Assembly adopted a resolution creating the new category of LDCs in the 1970s, the number of countries has grown from about 22 to 50. So far, the only country that has graduated from an LDC to a "developing country" is Botswana.
Besides Zimbabwe, the CDP has recommended that Papua New Guinea also be downgraded to the status of LDC. A response from the government of the Pacific Island nation is pending. As a result of significant economic improvements, however, four countries are now considered "eligible for graduation" from LDC to developing country status: Equatorial Guinea, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
In a report released last week, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said that in April 2006, inflation officially topped 1,000 percent, helped by the decision to print 230 million dollars worth of Zimbabwean currency to pay international debts and sustain operations.
"Unemployment is over 85 percent, poverty over 90 percent, and foreign reserves are almost depleted. Over four million persons are in desperate
need of food. HIV/AIDS and malnutrition kill thousands every month," the report said.
Agriculture, the major source of foreign currency earnings, has been particularly hard-hit. "There are severe shortages of basic consumer items, and the prices of fuel and food are beyond the reach of many," the
report added. Ralph Black of the Association of Zimbabweans Based Abroad says the CDP recommendation to the U.N.'s Economic and Social
Council to declare Zimbabwe a LDC signals a renewed effort by the
international body to engage in reaching a resolution to the multilayered crisis that has crippled what was once "Africa's breadbasket".
"Finally the Zimbabwean crisis is firmly on the U.N. Agenda," Black told
IPS. Most noticeable signs of this fact are the assessments of the U.N.
Special Envoy on the affects of Operation Murambatstvina -- which involved the destruction of shanties -- and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's reported diplomatic involvement in seeking a political resolution to the current impasse. Clearly, he said, the vulnerability of Zimbabwe relevant to its designation as a LDC is driven on three main fronts.
First, the nation's domestic national income has decreased rapidly over the past three years, mainly due to quadruple-digit inflation. Second, the country's human assets have been adversely affected by the deterioration of educational standards and decreased enrollment and increased dropout rates, affecting literacy rates over the long term. Further, Zimbabwe has experienced declining nutrition, adversely affecting mortality rates, especially amongst the most vulnerable segments of the population -- children and those affected by HIV/AIDS. Due to economic constraints, the health delivery sector has collapsed
further, exacerbating the national hygiene and wellness and adversely affecting mortality, he noted.
Third, Zimbabwe's economic vulnerability has reached alarming proportions due to the disruption of the agricultural sector's output/production.
Inflation-hit Zimbabwe unveils Z$100 000 banknote
author/source:Mail & Guardian (SA)
published:Wed 31-May-2006
Harare - Zimbabwe's central bank will issue a new Z$100 000 banknote
after inflation topped 1 000% last month, one of the world's highest rates, a state daily reported on Wednesday. The new banknote, worth US98c, will go into circulation on Thursday and will hold tender until December, The Herald newspaper said. Zimbabwe started introducing bearer cheques with a temporary validity three years ago to ease critical cash shortages. The latest note, with a picture of the world-famous Victoria Falls, comes four months after Zimbabwe's reserve bank unveiled a Z$50 000 bearer cheque. "It is not the first and last time to see us introducing bearer cheques and we will not hesitate to introduce higher denominations," The Herald quoted Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono as saying. "For the past few months, we have been assessing to see whether the current denominations were still serving the intended purpose."
Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic crisis with galloping inflation,
which peaked at 1 042,9% last month, soaring poverty levels, a 70%-plus
unemployment rate and acute shortages of fuel and basic goods. Central bank governor Gono had forecast that annual inflation would peak at 800% in March and recede to below 500% in June before reaching double-digits in 2007. But independent economists are warning that Zimbabwean inflation is fast approaching the 2 000% mark. "In economic terms, the velocity of the circulation of money will be increasing rapidly," John Legat, of the Harare-based Imara Asset Management, said in an alert last week. "Wages are likely to be rising as fast as inflation. Prices are being driven by ever-higher input costs at point of manufacture. This suggests that current inflation is nearer 1 500% to 2 000%." At the country's independence from British colonial rule in 1980, the Zimbabwean dollar was roughly at par with the pound sterling. Zimbabweans then used cents, one dollar coins and bank notes in four denominations. But due to inflation, the Zimbabwe government introduced five new denominations from 2001, while coins were phased out as the value of the Zimbabwe dollar continued to depreciate
against major currencies.
A Day in the Life
I realize that it has been a little while since I have updated, and I am sorry for that. The intent of this blog is to document my trips this summer though, and I haven't yet left. It is getting close though. I leave on Monday. This week is just crazy with all of the goodbye's that I have to say though, plus all of the regular stuff that obviously hasn't ended just because I'm leaving.
But I do promise that I will do more of a daily update of things once I get to Berlin, but for now I will just do this. I found an article written about a woman that I believe that I will be working alongside when I get to Zimbabwe. I thought that it was an interesting read and adds some further perspective to one side of what I'll see when I get there. Please continue to be praying for this country and for this woman.
A Day in the Life
written by Rosemary Hack
It’s 10.00 am on a Tuesday, Vicky Graham’s Land Rover pulls into a
Zimbabwean school yard. About 70 people of all ages and both sexes are sitting
in the shade of the trees awaiting her arrival. She opens the back of the
vehicle and sets up her mobile medical clinic. Medicine is limited, but she has
more than the local clinic, which rarely even bothers to open anymore. This is
not just Zimbabwe, already suffering shortages, but this is Tongaland, looked
down upon, neglected and despised. The first patient is an old man; he looks
about 80, but is probably somewhere between 45 & 50. Life is tough for these
people and they age quickly. His name is Mnube, he is half blinded
by cataracts, Vicky can do nothing for those, but she can treat the seeping
wounds on his legs. These are caused by a fungal infection and the ever present
swarm of flies ensures that they quickly spread from one person to another. His
“consultation” takes about 4 minutes, he comes every week and leaves a bit
cleaner, having heard some kind words and knowing that someone cares. The next
patient has flu, nothing that a couple of Aspirin won’t fix. He is followed by a
boy with fly encrusted wounds, which Vicky cleans. Patient number four has
bilharzia, “We’ve no medicine for that,” Vicky explains, “we’ve run out and
can’t get anymore, it’s expensive too”. The next patient has a hacking cough,
probably TB and she is very weak. Vicky doesn’t need a blood test to know that
this old lady is HIV positive. A simple infection could squeeze the remaining
life out of her. The clinic is out of TB medicine too. She gives her a few
vitamins and a kind word. And so it goes… malaria, AIDS, a baby with syphilis
and probably HIV positive as well, more AIDS, more malaria, children scream as
they are given chloraquin, foul tasting but life saving. By 12:00 noon there are
over 100 patients, 50 of whom have been seen. Today is relatively slow, often
over 200 will turn up. “75% of the eye infections and festering wounds would
clear up if it weren’t for the flies and lack of hygiene,” comments Vicky. “We
are starting to teach some health education. Before the clinic starts they
listen to a gospel message and get some health education.”. 5 year old Prince is
another typical patient. He injured his finger with a hoe; the local clinic
sewed it up. 6 days later his mother took him back to get the dressing changed
but the clinic was closed. The next day she travelled 40 kilometers to see
Vicky. By this time the wound and dressing had firmly adhered to each other.
Little Prince sat there stoically; not crying but beads of sweat formed on his
forehead as Vicky soaked the dressing and slowly separated it from his wound.
Two mothers, with their babies on their knees sit waiting for treatment. All are
suffering from STD’s and are HIV positive. “STD’s are a major problem, and along
with them comes AIDS. This is a both a highly immoral and polygamous society.
Most of the women who come to the clinic don’t know where their husband’s are. I
am starting to get tough and telling them I will only treat them if they bring
their partners”. With medicine being scarce and expensive it is pointless to
treat someone who will soon be re-infected. “But, it’s hard to be tough on these
ladies. They are very much the innocent victims. I saw one young girl who had
been married two weeks, she was a mass of festering wounds and didn’t really
know what had happened, you can’t turn people like that away.” There is not much
AIDS awareness. Vicky will get called to see people on their deathbeds. She
tries to teach the family to care for them. “They know what’s going on, but no
one will admit it – AIDS has such a stigma. Humanly speaking the situation is
hopeless, the only thing that will help these people is the truth of the
Gospel.” Not long ago an elderly lady told Vicky, “You need to pray for us old
people, we are so stuck in witchcraft and can’t get free. How can old people be
free?” Vicky explained how. “Whilst we were sharing you could see her accepting
Jesus and suddenly realising that He makes a difference - she doesn’t have to
worship her ancestors or go to witchdoctors – the greatest joy is to see a face
change from something that is distorted and bound, into one of absolute peace.”
And that, in a nutshell, is why this very competent lady is living in a caravan
in a remote tribal area in one of the more inhospitable parts of the planet.
Hard to imagine, that's for sure. But I will become acquainted with it soon, and I pray that God would strengthen me to be able to be of some use there.
Peace and blessings,
JZ
Always a Struggle
I have found that it is almost always a struggle in my life to figure out what God is telling me to do. I have battled with this many times in my life and through all of it, I have little better idea now than I ever have. However, I have been forming a clearer and clearer picture of how it is that God tells us His will.
Last night, as I was studying 2 Corinthians, I came to a new understanding of something. Bear with me. After a lot of study I have come to the conclusion that the three ways that God uses the most in my life to direct me are open doors, a sense of peace, and input from solid believers. What I had never considered though is that these things work together and what seems like direction from one of these sources may not actually be His end calling. Here is where I get that from:
"Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-bye to them and went on to Macedonia."
For Paul, what was an open door did not instill the peace of God. So he moved on to where he had that peace, proclaiming the gospel on the way. This isn't to say that God hadn't willed him to go to Troas in the first place. Paul felt called there and he went, which God knew he would, so that must have been God's call. But he was not called to stay. So he was used there and moved on.
So why is this an issue for me? As I head out this summer, I know that it is God's call for me to go. Unless something miraculous happens, I will be going. But I don't necessarily feel peace right now. A lot of that is likely fear of the unknown, and to combat that I fall back on my faith and my belief that God is leading me and guiding me. But it is my prayer, and will continue to be, that I might find a peace once I get to the places that I am going. If I don't find that peace then I pray that I at least find direction as a result of that lack of peace.
It will be exciting. So many avenues that could result from all of this. I'm keeping an open mind.
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
What Suffering Will I See?
I honestly don't know what to expect when I get to Zimbabwe, but keeping current with the news from that country rarely shows any signs of optimism. If you don't know where Zimbabwe is, just look for the darkest shaded region in Africa, and it's pretty much dead center there.
I don't really have much more than that. The graphic speaks for itself.
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
Camping - Fall River Lake
This weekend I was able to go camping with some of the people that I play volleyball with. It was a good time, and it went by way too quickly. Here is a brief recap of some of the things that happened though:
Got up there on Friday night after a little delay leaving. I will take the entire responsibility for that. I went out to dinner with my house-mate and ended up being about 20 minutes late to where we were supposed to meet. But we had plenty of light to set up camp and get a fire going. We even had some time to toss around a frisbee for a little while. Then we sat around the fire for a few hours before heading to bed.
Before I went to bed though, I had a great time by myself to sit by the fire and do some reading. One of the things that I read was 2 Corinthians 1. I was really impacted by verses 3-11. This is something that I have been struggling with lately and it was great to hear again through scripture what I know to be true, but don't necessarily always feel in my heart. In the coming months I will experience many challenges, from greatly different cultures, to feelings of extreme isolation. The question that continuously arises for me is "Do I trust God?". Do I really trust him? He is sending me out to these places alone and I know that it is His plan to do so. So I have nothing to worry about. I can rely on Him for comfort whenever I need it.
After I had done my reading, I went to bed. I didn't have a tent, so I slept on a concrete picnic table. Since I normally sleep on the floor at home anyways, this wasn't a problem...I didn't think. At 3:30 in the morning I was awoken by the sounds of rustling in the bushes. Since I was startled by this, I kind of jumped in my sleeping bag, nearly fell off the table, and knocked my flashlight off of the bench where it was sitting. So now I'm laying on a picnic table with rustling beside me and no flashlight. I try to sleep it off. This doesn't work. 5 minutes later the rustling has gotten closer. So I lean over the side of the table and feel around on the ground for my flashlight. After finally locating it, I shine it into the direction of the rustling and see the culprit....or should I say one of the culprits, an armidillo.
EWW!! These things are UGLY! Plus, while I am looking at one, I hear more rustling from at least 2 other places. But I focus my light on this one and begin a stare down. I figure that the nasty thing will be scared of me and my flashlight and will run away. But he doesn't! He comes closer, and closer, and closer, until he is about 5 feet from the table. So I start talking to this thing: "Get out of here!", "Go away", "No you don't!". Nothing works. So then I clap, trying to scare it off, but it still won't go. Instead I succeed in waking up the 4 dogs that are with us and they start to bark. At this point I have had enough of sleeping out in the open with the armidillos and I pick up my gear and get into a jeep where I sleep on the back seat for the rest of the night. Not the most comfortable place to sleep, but WAY better than being eaten by an armidillo!
So that was my harrowing adventure with the armidillos. Saturday and Sunday were mostly just regular camp things. Pete and Tracy brought their jetski to the lake, so we sped around on that for a while during the day. The record speed of the day was 71 mph. It was a lot of fun. No one would tandem with me though. Bryce also brought a slackline which he tied between two trees and we tried balancing on that for a while. Really good people are able to walk across them, but we are new. I tried 3 or 4 times and wasn't able to stay on for more than a second. But Bryce was getting pretty good by the end of the day and could stay up for maybe 10 seconds or more. Pretty neat stuff.
But that is all that I'll write for now. Nothing else overly exciting happened. It was just a good time out in nature to relax for a while.
Enjoy the pictures!
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
