Day 6

This morning we go to Basil’s ‘village’, which is to say the village actually belongs to him. On arrival we attend a midday church service, at which I am conspicuously the only white person in attendance, although no-one else seems to notice. The church is very small, just to service the small community, and the service lasts about half an hour, much of it singing in Shona, while moving from standing to sitting to kneeling. At the end a gong sounds about six times, and the service is over. This type of thing is repeated morning noon and night every day of the week, and I’ve no doubt every member of the village regularly attends. I am to stay overnight here and return to Harare tomorrow evening, after spending the day at the Rusape factory where shelling is to start in the morning for the season’s crop.