Great Zimbabwe

Thursday 2nd February

The first activity for our day was to visit the Great Zimbabwe, which is about 20 mins drive from Masvingo. Great Zimbabwe was a town of imposing stone buildings. In its time, it was the arrest settlement in Southern Africa. The site is a National Monument and World Heritage Site. The word Zimbabwe consists of two key root words, -mba- which means house; and -bwe- which means stone. The word therefore means house of stone.

Great Zimbabwe was built and occupied between the 12th and 15th centuries. The town's landscape was dominated by imposing dry stonewalls forming enclosures and in certain areas terraces and platforms. In some cases, the stone walls filled up gaps between boulders to form semi-natural enclosures. The entrances were normally lintel led with either stone or wooden crossbeams. Within the enclosures, earthen houses were built.

No one can account for the fall of Great Zimbabwe, but by 1552 the Portuguese noted it was abandoned and in ruins. And that is the state with which we found it. The earthen houses were no longer, however the great walls were still standing magnificently high. We had a tour guide, Bertha, who walked us around the compound for 3 hours. The stone walls had no mortar, and were built using granite blocks. The builders discovered that if you heat up granite, then cool quickly, it cracks along straight lines easily forming blocks for building.

We had lunch in town, at the Hidden Garden. I had sudza and brim....it was delicious. Howard and I then popped around to the shops and bought some chicken for dinner. We met up again with the rest of the group, and drove back the Guest House. We cut up potatoes and cabbage and tomatoes and put the chicken in the oven. We had time for a little rest for 30 mins, before we once again piled into the car to head to Masvingo Polytechnic.

We arrived at the college at around 5pm. We spent the next 2 hours talking to students before the meeting started. The meeting was loud, the music loud, the dancing intense and the singing....well it puts Australians to shame! From a guess there were 100 students there.

I was lucky enough to speak with some fellas about some issues of Christian living. Zimbabwean culture is accepting of polygamy, so we discussed the reasons why this was not OK as a Christian. Another guy wanted some clarification about the resurrection. I discovered that the Zimbabweans have a deep desire to know God, but have had little or poor teaching. This country is so open to the gospel, it puts Australia to shame. I didn't want to leave...I would be happy staying here forever, just teaching the bible.... But a theological education is vital...so I need to hold onto this passion... And maybe then return :-)

We arrived home around 10pm, and then ate dinner and went to bed. Another wonderful day spent in service of our Lord in Zimababwe.