CHINOTIMBA Township, Zimbabwe

Flater took us for a tour of the local market/shopping center today, followed by a traditional African meal at her home in Chinotimba Township that she shares with 20 family members (sister, sons and nieces mostly). I never quite mastered the art of forming the porridge-like maize into bite size balls for dipping up kale or beef as evidenced by my gooey fingers. Flater served us at least six sides (ordinarily she would only have one at each meal) that were all greeted happily by my discerning tongue.

On our way into Flater's house there were some full-grown men milling about. "These boys are going somewhere," she said, "they all play on the soccer team." I still don't know if she meant that because they were good soccer players this would afford them some measure of success or simply that they were all waiting together for the bus to go the 700km for their match. They good-naturedly humored me while posing for my requested portrait that I will send to Flater to distribute to the team.

"Our wealth is our cattle and our goats, not our houses," said our driver Richard on the way to the market. That is why, he explained, though people come to the cities for work they value their villages more. "We are like baboons," he said, "we share everything in common." This communal family structure brings them a sense of strength and security and joy even in difficult times. And it is being tested severely as huge numbers are being wiped out by AIDS (what is referred to here as "the slimming disease") and in many families children are the only ones left to raise the children.

Though the tourism (which is down significantly) at Victoria Falls keeps people afloat in this area, most of Zimbabwe is sliding deeper and deeper into poverty with prices increasing everyday and the currency having less value than toilet paper. It's become essentially cash and carry for tourists as the credit card machines can't handle the number of zeros needed to tally up the price of a meal (though this received a boost three weeks ago when the government arbitrarily slashed off the last 10 zeros in a currency revaluation). Zimbabwean citizens are advised at the Vic Falls Hotel that Zim dollars will not be accepted and in rural areas bartering is becoming the only means for procuring essentials.

Everywhere we traveled in South Africa there was a collective lament for the tragedy of Zimbabwe: "How could Zim go from being the breadbasket of Africa to a country of starving people seeking refuge?" It is on everyone's minds because they fear a similar fate. And no one has an answer to reverse the decline. While this perilous future hangs in the air we enjoy a meal together and revel in the smiles that we have shared with each other knowing that today is all that matters.