Purple Zimbabwe

“There are so many trees with purple flowers!” I said as we drove into Harare, Zimbabwe. “Oh yes,” said our Taxi driver John, “Those are the Jacaranda trees.” The punch of purple surprised us, the royal color contrasts the burnt reds and yellows of the surrounding landscape.

Not only did the shock of purple set Zimbabwe apart, but the dry heat and dust storms made it quite unique from the other places we’ve visited. We also didn’t see mosques, but in their place we saw many mega churches. On Saturday and Sunday, we saw churches alive with singing and music. When we went to the museum, there was a church renting out space within the building. As we walked, we also passed an outdoor service in a temporary tent packed full of dancing and praising. No matter the time of day on both Saturday and Sunday, we passed or heard a church service.

In Harare, one of my favorite days was visiting a special art exhibit from a school called the Cyrene Mission, which was the first school in Zimbabwe to offer art as a subject to African students. It was founded by a former Anglican priest named Canon Ned Paterson who encouraged his students to paint scenes of Zimbabwe and from the Bible as they themselves saw the stories, not how they were depicted by European artists. The artwork was displayed in London in the 1940’s and 1950’s, but then were lost and rediscovered in 1978. The exhibit was on display until October 31st at the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe, so we were so grateful that we just so happened to be in the country at the right time.

After exploring Harare, we took a bus to Victoria Falls. It was a weekday, so instead of a church service, there was Christian worship music in the Shona language coming through the bus speakers. (We took 4 buses in Zimbabwe, and every single bus had Shona worship music pulsating through the speakers.) We took frequent stops on our way to Victoria Falls, but there was an unexpected stop when our bus broke down. As we waited for another bus to pick us up, we met a local Zimbabwean named Blessing who was on holiday.

Once we arrived in Victoria Falls, we settled into our grass hut hostel for the night, hearing the rumble of the waterfall in the near distance. In the morning, we met a woman named Allison from New England who just finished hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro. There were other backpackers milling around the patio area (where the wifi and coffee was), but we soon got on our way to see a wonder of the world. It was a short walk to the falls, and as we bought our tickets, we happened to see Blessing from our bus ride with his friends and family! We were so grateful to reconnect and meet everyone. Blessing helped us take a photo by the welcome sign, and also took a selfie with us, too!

Nothing prepared us for the vastness of Victoria Falls. The width of the falls is 1708 meters (1 mile). One mile wide. There are 16 viewpoints of the falls with trails connecting one point to the next. Each point gave us a unique perspective of its force, size, and elegance. The surrounding landscape was untouched, and the rugged rocky canyon dove to a deep 108 meters (354 feet); that’s a building about 33 stories tall! We felt so small next to the expanse of boulders and falling water. There were places where the water was so heavy, fast, and energetic that its spray cooled us off. There were other places where the falls were so light the mist seemed to be standing still, water molecules loosely together in the shape of a slight waterfall.

The two main reactions to Victoria Falls were sheer joy and awe. We passed an elderly woman in a wheelchair singing the hymn “How Great Thou Art” in the local Shona language as she looked at the falls. At a different viewpoint, a man came up to us who looked oddly familiar, and asked, “I think you both are staying at the Backpacker’s Hostel, too?” His name is Frank, and he is originally from South Africa but now lives in Australia. We end up walking through the rest of the viewpoints with Frank, talking about movies, South Africa, family, and traveling. We took each other’s pictures and gaped at the amazing wonder. As we continue to walk, we ran into Blessing with his family and friends again, and somehow, not exactly sure how, we all broke out into dancing. After finishing our walk in the park, Frank, Mekael, and I walked to a bridge that is the halfway mark between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

After an astounding experience in Victoria Falls, we took a bus to Bulawayo then another bus to Masvingo. In Masvingo, we visited the ancient ruins of Great Zimbabwe, one of the earlier civilizations in the region. It was constructed during the 8th Century, late Iron Age. The king’s castle was built on the top of a mountain with intricate walls of stone, while his 200 wives and the rest of the townspeople lived below. There were eight soapstone carvings of birds found in the ruins, and because of that, the Zimbabwe flag has a soapstone bird on it.

We soon found ourselves on an overnight bus to Johannesburg, South Africa; our seven days in Zimbabwe were over just like that.