Hi and welcome to my 1st entry

Let me give you a little background on the situation. I’ll tell you now, I’m going to tell two lies, see if you can figure out which two are the lies as I outline my story. I’ll reveal the two lies at the end of the entry.

Top secret end of June my wife and I won a little cash on the lottery (just a few grand) and decided to run off to Zim and invest it on businesses and be with family. I mean ‘what would any other sudden lottery winner do’. Anyways we’ve managed to keep it silent until now. To all those who considered me a close mate, I’m sorry that I didn’t let you in on this (a thousand apologies)

So yes, June 2009 my wife who was on maternity leave, after giving birth to our second beautiful young daughter Mimi. I had just finished my long term contract on a fantastic project down south, we had just picked up a little stash(from the win) and we decided enough was enough and we would try moving down to Zim for at least a year and see how we would fair out. Besides everybody had spoken about the unlimited number of opportunities that lay in our economically destroyed country. Opportunities, opportunities that’s all you ever here about in the diaspora. It was time for a test drive and to make those opportunities a reality(God willing).

So for the next 3 months leading up to August (our departure date) we started preparing our move. Some may call it a coincidence, but for me it’s fate, that we were going to be arriving back in Zim exactly 10 years to the day I left back in 1999. So anyway, we decided to pack up all our prized belongings, stuff them in a container and say our goodbyes. Thanks to some typical anti-Zim article in one of those so called ‘pro-human-rights’ international Zim newspapers, warning that expensive looking cars were prime targets for local thieves, and anyone moving to Zim should reconsider bringing in a good car until things have settled down, we returned our much loved kia Sportage to the finance company even though we had almost paid it off(what utter rubbish, as we see much more amazing vehicles in and around Harare every day, and haven’t heard of a single jacking since I got back). Anyway, thanks to that article we managed to convince ourselves that coming back to Zim and starting from scratch would be a great idea and we would then be able to tell the story of how we rose from the ashes with the new Zimbabwe. August came soon and we set off for Africa.

Having taken the long route to the Motherland via Dubai and Joburg with 2 kids under 3 (tell me who else would attempt the same), the anticipation was slowly growing. We left Birmingham airport at 9pm and arrived at Harare International Airport at 9pm the next day. Yes! that was a clear 24 hours on the move. I must testify thought that it was on this long journey that it became more than apparent that we were on a mission set by only The Almighty God alone. We were sent to go back and rebuild our beloved Zimbabwe, and I’m sure my wife will second that.” Why?”, some would ask. Simply because we had the smoothest journey one could have the whole way with good Samaritans stationed at almost all the areas we thought we would face the most difficulty. In addition the thought of being back home, around family seeing my brother, Mother and Father again and my in-laws, knowing that it was not going to be a short 2-3 week break as before, was priceless to say the least. Filled and loaded with emotion and anticipation, we walked into a lowly lit arrival hall and waited for our bags. I think the main electricity supply was down and they were on a generator, nevertheless the excitement was building. We walked right our and faced absolutely no hassle from the highly feared immigration authorities. Seeing the family was an extremely joyous moment combined with high emotion, anxiousness and anticipation of what lay ahead of us in our new Zimbabwe. As I walked out of Harare international airport and took a prolonged deep breath of fresh Zimbabwean air, damn I felt on top of the world. It was great to be finally back in the motherland and no feeling can compare!

For those still trying to figure out the two lies mentioned above.
1: We didn’t win grands in the lottery, just a few quid though our syndicate he he…
2: 9pm UK time to 9pm Zim time is not 24 hours it’s 23(well it was still 1 hour difference when we travelled)

Anyways till the next entry l8rs.