Why Setting Matters
I was in Zimbabwe at the beginning of the year. I travelled cross-country by car, and this was my first time driving in Zimbabwe, a vantage point quite different from the bus or combi journeys. I was also with nearly all the members of my US-based family, an experience which put us in situations of thinking we were meeting for the first time, or perhaps it was just that I excited by this whole thing of being back in Zimbabwe with family, with my American kids, so to speak. And we travelled, we lived the different Zimbabwes I grew up through . I use the word "through" because each stage of my life in Zimbabwe was like a passage to another stage. We were tired, but each stage of the journey was worth the effort. The word effort works here too; the condition of the roads made the travel or ride a bit bumpy. That road from Mandamabwe through Chivi, then the Beitbridge road itself too the fun out of the journey somewhat, but one we go on the road from Ngundu to Chiredzi, our spir