specimens, some over 100 feet in the air. You can see that once upon a time this was a stunning tribute to the city. But time and neglect have rendered it a relic. An old abandoned miniature golf course is at the park's center. There is the shell of a once impressive zoo including an aviary. 
An old locomotive was once used to take kids around a narrow gauge track within the park. The track is still here and the locomotive sits nearby. There are slides and beautiful walking paths. I saw one elderly man in a uniform gamely watering plants from a lone spigot. Very sad. 
This park needs a benefactor, someone to spend a couple hundred thousand bucks to revive a once great piece of this community.After the museum I went in search of something from my Lonely Planet guide. The book showed an Arts & Crafts building on the outskirts of town where locals made and sold art work. I figured that would be a great place to buy a gift. I began walking out Sixth Avenue as my guide book instructed. Within about fifteen minutes I was outside the city proper in a residential district that looked very much like public housing projects all over the world. Block upon block of identical single and double story brick buildings lined my way. The homes were small with about 200 square feet of front 'lawn'. Most had trees out front, citrus and other fruit crops in the majority. A few had paved the front area with decorative stones or cement. Most merely had sand or a few small flowers. Most residents did their gardening on the side or out back where I saw many local veggies being grown.
I got lost, as usual, but was able to quick people on the street often enough that I didn't go far astray. As I neared my objective I was greeted by a flood of school children from a local primary school who were going home for the day apparently. I suspect that the school day here is short owing to the extreme heat that covers most of the school year. I tried to ask for directions from the kids but no one understood my English. Language is an interesting issue in Zimbabwe. There are three languages, Shona, Ndebele, and English. The latter is the official tongue and all store fronts are in English. Yet most people seem to speak the native languages. Last week there was a hullabaloo because some of Mugabe's backers wanted new constitutional changes printed in Shona as well as English. My sense is that this is a side issue that crosses party lines. Anyway, I am most surprised that no store owner has opted to put up Shona or Ndebele signs. Seems like a smart marketing move to me.
I found the Arts & Crafts place. There were two buildings, one for pottery (no good for me; too fragile) and one for other crafts. But, like most things in Zimbabwe in 2011, the crafts people have fallen on hard times. I found a small store with some basic basketry and weaving from which I was able to procure one gift. But I suspect if I'd been there twenty years ago I would have found a more robust facility.
Bulawayo is so reminiscent of Malatya, Turkey, a place I found two years ago. Each has a terrific museum. The Bulawayo Natural History Museum must be one of the finest in Africa. It has hundreds of rare specimens including one stuffed elephant reputed to be the second largest ever taxidermed. Each city also has an interesting archaeological site nearby: Malatya had Arsenteppe, a 6,000 year old dig dating to the Hittites.
Bulawayo has the Great Zimbabwe, which I hope to visit tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment