Day 7

Waking up to the sound of dogs barking and general commotion outside, I start wondering what the time is. Gadgets fail me, for I have not a single thing in the room which could tell me the time. I get up anyway, and find eventually (had to resort to looking up the time on my camera) that the time is about 5:45 am. Groan. Have a shower anyway. We leave at around 8am for the factory in Rusape, where this season’s shelling is about to begin. Basil strides around the plant checking the place out, stopping occasionally to talk to the workers in Shona. It’s all I can do just to keep up with him and so I spend the day following him around like a lost puppy. At the plant I feel doubly conspicuous for the fact that I am clearly the only white person in attendance, amoungst a workforce of over a hundred.