afropolitaine: To Midlands We Go

My first weekend in the country, I went with my granddad and cousin of mine to khaya (Ndebele)/kumusha (Shona) in the rural areas. The drive is about 3 hours from Bulawayo and short of a few sticky and rocky parts, it's pretty smooth sailing. Most of the drive is on dust roads. I hadn't been to khaya since 2008 during the last elections. This was just a day trip and we took a route that was new to me. The way my granddad changes based on the seasons and the state of the roads. This time we took a new route that apparently was opened up by the Chinese because of their "exploring for minerals". I did the biggest side eye when I heard that because the road was pretty long and the dirt was freshly dug up. The Chinese, in the name of "exploring are probably carting out tons of all kinds of minerals. That's a rant for another day, but #StopItAfrica. This route referred to as "umgwaqo wamaChina" (the road of the Chinese) did help cut down the time of the trip to be fair. I was bothered though. In all the years that we have been driving to Mberengwa (Sh.)/Mbhelengwa (Nd.)/ Belingwe(Eng.), it's until the Chinese are coming up to dig up the country that there's now a faster and smoother route. What are we doing ourselves?! So many answers and not enough.

Zimbabwe is still and will always be a beautiful country with amazing and picturesque landscapes spewn wiht foliage and rockery. Just on surface level I saw so many types of stones, I can only imagine what can be found when one scratches and digs a little deeper. Enjoy the pictures: