Saturday 15th May - Back Home

Back home I reflect on the visit. Zimbabwe is still in limbo, waiting to see whether there will be genuine improvements, politically, economically and socially. It will take time for confidence to re-emerge, and whilst the 2000s were a welcome period of small but vital growth for most African countries, Zimbabwe went backwards. For most of its libraries, this has spelt an end to book buying funds, a loss of professional staff and a slow decline in infrastructure. Beyond that, the situation in schools is still a cause for great concern, and a generation of Zimbabweans, so well educated until recently, could well grow up illiterate. Teachers have left Zimbabwe and/or the profession in thousands due to poor pay and past harassment. Many of those that remain are poorly motivated. This term was unusual in that teachers were not on strike when it began. And even when the teachers are there, parents cannot afford the fees, and consequently children are constantly sent home from school. For the population as a whole, the inclusive power-sharing government and 'dollarisation' has brought (short-term?) improvement but there is still an air of repression and little prospect of the economy climbing significantly out of its dark deep hole. We can only hope that the bad times are at an end and that it's not yet too late.

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Friday 14th May - to prison (and then home)

My last day in Zimbabwe begins with a visit to a university library we have not supported before and which is temporarily located in Bulawayo until its campus in Lupane, 170km away, is ready. Lupane State University Library is situated in one small room with just a couple of rows of shelving. The university is still small with 500 students and only a few programmes in agriculture, development and linguistics/communication but the library is clearly inadequate and would benefit tremendously from BAI support. The temporary campus is located in buildings vacated by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), which has shrunk in size over the years, but still employs 9000 people, and their library, just around the corner, is my next destination. The library is utilising an old chapel building but is surprisingly spacious and BAI books such as A-Level texts and in engineering and computer skills are very well used.

Next up, I head for prison, and this will be the fourth time I have been inside for BAI! On the way, old steam engines are passed at the railway museum. Bulawayo Prison is a remand prison and the the prison service is trying to reinvigorate its library here in Bulawayo, and at other prisons, including Khami Maximum Security Prison, where educational programmes are also run. The prison yard is full of inmates hanging around and books offer them a way to use their time well. At Khami prison, over 100 inmates are studying for various exams, including O Level and A Level, and they have just received their first books from BAI. This is part of a real effort to reform prisons in Zimbabwe and start a genuine rehabilitation programme. In contrast, not so long ago, many inmates were dying in prison from lack of food and supplies, but this was at a time when food was scarce for everyone. Fortunately, things are now much better so food for the mind is now also much needed.

I get out of jail free and head straight for the airport to start my long journey home.

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Thursday 13th May – information for health

The morning begins with a 20 minute walk to Bulawayo Polytechnic which has many well-used BAI books. Next stop is the National Free Library, an old library with an old collection including leather bounded volumes of Punch going back into the 1800's and 10 volumes of an 1890s series of books on war in the Crimea. The library is a research library but it's large collection has very few up-to-date books. There are two glass cabinets containing modern books, mostly from BAI. Three tourism students from the polytechnic are busy looking for books on purchasing management and find one – they'll have to share.

The rest of the day is spent visiting two hospitals – the United Bulawayo Hospital and Mpilo Hospital. Both have schools of nursing. The first has two small libraries, one for staff and one for nurses, with some BAI books in evidence. The second has a larger more impressive library and is run as an outpost of the University of Zimbabwe which has a medical programme at the library. The librarian is impressive and talks about encouraging the students and their lecturers to use the library. This helped the midwifery students all pass their last exams. Doctors come for information to help treat patients and sometimes this is available on the internet (when it is working and not too slow), and sometimes in textbooks, even if they are old. The librarian assists and guides the doctors and this can make a real difference to whether a patient improves or not, and occasionally it is a matter of life and death. The librarian looks forward to hearing how the doctors get on even though the news may not always be good (and there are few drugs available to treat patients). There are quite a number of BAI books but the numbers are limited , and students steal books and pages. A new security system has been installed to combat this and most key textbooks, including many from BAI, are kept on reserve near the librarian's desk. There are 600 nursing and midwifery students and it is hoped that many will stay in Zimbabwe but many are likely to head for South Africa, Botswana or the NHS. The positive is that their remittances back home are also vital to many.

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Wednesday 12th May - rural libraries and donkeys

The morning paper says that classrooms in Bulawayo are 'almost empty as schools send pupils home'. Teachers are currently only paid $160 per month and want $500 which the poverty datum line, so some schools are charging an extra 'incentive' fee to top-up teachers' pay, as well as fees for textbooks and other items. This can take the fees up to $70 per term, and many can't afford that. It was apparent yesterday on the drive to Gwanda that many pupils had gone to school only to be sent home early. Pupils in Zimbabwe these last few years are really missing out. And there could be an illiterate generation in a country that had become used to having one of the highest literacy rates in Africa.

Back to the library visits - a long drive out of town today to see two rural libraries in schools supported by the Rural Libraries and Resources Development Programme (RLRDP), a long-standing partner of BAI. The schools are both in a village called Guwe, one primary, one secondary. We visit the secondary school first and though it has an established library, it is dominated by multiple copies of US textbooks, many not that relevant, and which have displaced from the shelves many better books including for example a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The library is also very disorganised and RLRDP tell me it was organised and classified efore. However, it does seem the school is starting almost from scratch again following the economic collapse. There is a young teacher-librarian who is unqualified who has a big task to improve the library, but he does have support from pupil librarians, one of whom says the Baby-Sitters Club is a very popular series. RLRDP will offer advice and training to improve the library. A youth NGO in Bulawayo is supporting some former students to resit their O-Levels and most seem to use the library – a Mills and Boon novel is being read by a young male student, and everyone says they enjoy them. Setting up and sustaining school libraries is always challenging, but particularly in a period of economic collapse, but RLRDP, with a track record going back to the early 1990s are well placed to kickstart them again.

The electricity supply has gone in my hotel so I am now writing by the light of my laptop!

The primary school is more of a storeroom than a library but does have two teacher librarians, a borrowing system and library periods, and the books are being well-used. The Ugly Duckling is popular for example. The school also benefits from RLRDP's donkey drawn mobile library in which I have a quick ride. This visits the school every 3 weeks and adds to the diversity of books available, and also visits two other schools. This is one of 20 donkey drawn mobile libraries run by RLRDP. Elsewhere, there are 120 schools served by book delivery bicycles to transport book boxes. The school charges the official $5 for school fees but does not load on any other charges so most pupils are able to attend – it also has an almost full complement of qualified teachers showing that it is not all doom and gloom, though with my laptop power fading, it will be for me in a few minutes!

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Tuesday 11th May – To Gwanda

A drive out of town today to visit the Edward Ndlovu Memorial Library and other institutions in Gwanda that benefit from support via the Bulawayo Committee. The library is funded through the Edward Ndlovu Memorial Trust and well-stocked with plenty of well-used, and well-organised BAI books. It is a real community library with storytelling (the kids enjoyed a reading of Handa's surprise), a long-standing book box scheme for 26 schools and a 'study circle' programme which provides information to groups to support activities such a vegetable gardening and nutrition.

Afterwards, I visit Gwanda Hospital where there is a multidisciplinary school for nurses, midwives and other medics. The library is full of mainly outdated books with a few from BAI. I talk to some students and few seem to use the library though seven are members of the memorial library. At present, the hospital has no qualified doctors making the copy of Where there is no doctor very apt, but when sending this book it was not expected that there would be no doctor in a hospital!Last stop in Gwanda is the Joshua Nkomo Polytechnic. The library is an extraordinary building part spider, part space ship, and perfectly designed for the local baboons who break in from time to time. Like many of the higher education institutions here, the book stock is mainly from BAI.

Monday 10th May – back in Bulawayo

So I'm back in Bulawayo for the first time in 9 years and I'll be retreading some ground, starting with the Bulawayo Public Library. This is a self-run library over 100 years old and although it now has a slightly dated feel (like a British library stuck in 1965, computer centre apart), it is still a very well run and organised library. The library has separate sections for children, students, and adults and also includes a braille corner, good book displays, a red carpet room for premium members, and runs a mobile library van to schools. BAI books from Mills and Boon and Harry Potter to A-Level Physics and business accounting have been extensively used and frequently borrowed.

I then walk around the corner to the library at the National University of Science and Technology which is cramped and, especially in recent years, very reliant on BAI books. Nine years ago, they were set to move to a new library but it is has been nine years of stagnation, so the move has never happened. There has been no money to but books for several years. Next to the British Council where I am to meet the Bulawayo Book Distribution Committee, where it is very apparent that times are still extremely difficult. Bulawayo, and wider Matebeleland, being nearer to South Africa, more Ndebele than Shona, and politically more MDC than Mugabe's ZANU-PF, has perhaps seen a bigger exodus of professionals including teachers than other parts of Zimbabwe. In total, it is estimated that 45,000 teachers have left the profession in the last decade and departed for South Africa or other neighbouring countries, and those that are left behind are often poorly motivated and not always paid.

In the afternoon, I visit two of the nine municipal libraries, which have been very under-staffed and under-resourced in recent years, with many staff leaving, but now new library have been recruited. The second library opened in 2008 and is a new one and needs more books to fill up it up. BAI books are well used but the lack of teachers (and motivated teachers) in recent years and the inability of pupils to pay school fees has led to less use of the library. In the evening, I have dinner at Maureen Stewart's (the British Council Manager's) house. In advance, I am warned there may be no water (many urban communities are having to use water pumps again). As it turns out, it has come back on, but instead it is the electricity that has gone.

Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th May: 24 hours in Victoria Falls

So it's the weekend, and on my third visit to Zimbabwe I finally make it to Victoria Falls for a brief 24 hour stopover. Of course, working for BAI means that a visit to Victoria Falls does not start with the falls themselves. I am picked up at the airport by Douglas Siatimba, the Victoria Falls Librarian, and Sindiso Tshuma of the local Lusumpuko Education Trust, and am taken to the Public Library. The library has only been open 12 years but makes a big difference as there is not another library for miles. It is well organised and has many books which have to be retrieved from Bulawayo, 435km away. The librarian is also trying to establish 3 community libraries, and shows me a picture of one built in a vernacular, Zimbabwean style. The nearest of the 3 libraries is 60km away with no libraries in between. Afterwards I am taken to the Big Tree (a huge baobab tree over 1000 years old) , and then make it onto a boat to catch the sun set on the Zambezi. I can hear the falls but still have not seen them!

On Sunday, I get up early to make my way to the falls, and pass three elephants on the path between the town and falls. I walk along the path with someone who works at the Falls who assures me it is fine – elephants often visit the town!
The falls are as spectacular as you would imagine, though there is a lot of spray, and I am wet through quickly as they are in full flow at this time of year. Afterwards, Douglas and Sindiso, who have turned out to be most excellent local guides, take me to see a view of the Zambezi gorge followed by a snappy visit to a crocodile farm, passing more elephants on the way.

Then, an eventful 24 hours after I arrived, they drop me off at the airport. Air Zimbabwe, despite the doubts of many, gets to me to Bulawayo in the evening on time, ready for the week ahead.