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to-go mark, I bought buns, cakes, doughnuts and Cokes (not much of a selection.) The
landscape really began to flatten out and my pace increased tremendously. I passed by a
pair of baboons on the side of the road as they watched me cycle by. (They were not as
entertaining as those at the Senegalese-Guinean border though.)
Ipassed myfirst highway rest stopinsub-Saharan Africa. Iwhizzed intoKaroi and
watched a rugby tournament being played in the rain. I left to look for a place to sleep and
found a nook behind a closed church. Because it was so late, I didn't wash or change my
clothes. Unfortunately this nook was close to the toilets so I had to contend with an over-
powering smell all night which was made worse by the heat and the mosquitos. Needless
to say, I slept poorly really not due to the smell or the amount of mosquitos (my net saved
me) but because of the mosquitos' high-pitched noise. On the bright side, I at least had a
roof over my head in case it rained.
The next morning I woke up to catch a magnificent sunrise. I went to the church's
rectory and met Father Christian Werchosel. He told me that if I arrived later the previous
night he would have welcomed me to stay inside. After we sat down for breakfast, I took
a quick shower and shaved. Since it was Sunday, I decided to attend mass first before de-
parting.
The mass was short and Father Christian introduced me to speak which I did. Mrs.
Groot approached me after mass and asked me if I wanted to visit their farm for breakfast.
Food did you say? And so I put my bike into their pick-up truck and was driven to her
place 7 kilometres from town. They had a 6,000 acre farm and had 80 families living on
the property who worked for them.
A quick aside: The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe appropriated these
farms later on from the Zimbabweans of European descent (many of whom could trace
their roots to the 1800s.) These farms were quite profitable and significantly contributed
to Zimbabwe's economy through their exports. However, Mugabe's policy of farm appro-
priation for the landless Blacks caused productivity to decline to the point where for the
first time, the nation imported food. This very same policy occurred in Zambia many years
before. The farmers of European descent lost their farms and were expelled. When I was
in South Africa at the end of the tour, the Zambian President Chiluba began to advertise in
South Africa for the white farmers to return. I believed that Mugabe was dragging his na-
tionfurtherdowntheroadthatZambiadidandworse,whereSeseSekoMobutuwastaking
Zaïre.
BacktotheGroots:theygavemeatouroftheirpropertywhichincluded twolakes,
acres of tobacco fields and 800 head of cattle. I then attended their friend's birthday party
and met a great cultural mix of people (Blacks, Coloureds and Whites.) These unfortunate
labels were not mine. They were used to generally represent the country's demographics:
TheBlackAfrican,TheWhiteAfrican(Europeandescent)andtheColoureds(descendants
of when the first Europeans copulated with the Black Africans.) The people I met at the
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