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Well, I guess the honeymoon is over. The last couple of weeks in Zim have been a roller coaster of highlights and frustrations. Let me start with the lows so that I can finish this post on a high!

Dealing with bureaucracy

My third week in Harare began with a visit to the Director of Communications and International Relations, or DCIR, at HIT. He is the one that will be helping me obtain my Temporary Employment Permit so that I can remain in Zim. My tourist visa expires on 15 February, so I need the TEP before that or else risk deportation. At least, that is how it was explained to me by the DCIR. He was extremely concerned about my application when I met with him on Monday, especially because I did not have all the necessary paperwork together on my side. He instructed me to work with the Embassy to get everything in order by the following day, while he worked on getting the paperwork from HIT in order, with the plan of going to the Immigration Office on Tuesday.

Needless to say, I was rather stressed after that meeting and immediately reached out to the Embassy. With their prompt help and guidance, I was able to get everything in order on my end by Tuesday morning. However when I went to the DCIR’s office, he did not yet have everything in hand from HIT. So our trip to the Immigration Office got pushed to Wednesday.

And still, when I went to his office first thing Wednesday morning, I caught the DCIR in the hallway rushing off to a meeting. Our trip got pushed again! Wednesday actually ended up being the most frustrating day for me this week because it was the first time that the HIT drivers forgot to drive me home. I was able to get a hold of one eventually with the help of my officemate, but I did not get home until almost 5pm, which would not have been a problem any other day. However, I have started taking Shona lessons with a private tutor who comes to the apartment at 4:30pm (more on lessons below). So on Wednesday, only my second lesson, I missed half of the class. Not a good way to end an already slightly frustrating day!

Thursday we finally made it to the Immigration Office. The Immigration Officer made me go through each piece of paper I submitted to ensure that the application was complete. Then she explained that a file about me would be created and someone would perform a screen on me (or something to that effect, she was talking in Shona with the DCIR, so I didn’t catch everything) and that we were to come back the following morning to see if they had everything they needed at which time I could pay the $500 USD application fee and it would be processed.

So on Friday morning, when I showed up at the DCIR’s office and found it locked, I got a bit worried that our trip back to the Immigration Office would be pushed and that this process would never end! However, before I spiraled too far into despair he appeared in the hallway, looking rather casual in jeans and sneakers instead of his normal formal business attire. He told me to leave my things in his office and then took me out to main road that HIT is on because it was National Clean-up Day. I then helped other HIT staff and administrators pick up trash at the front of HIT’s property.

Then the DCIR and I went back to the Immigration Office. We got there later in the day than we had on Thursday, and it was much busier. So after waiting in a long line, the same Officer we saw the day before said we needed to wait a bit while she found my file. I got the sense that they had not started looking it over until we arrived that morning.

To pass time, the DCIR took me to the Parirenyatwa Hospital, the largest public hospital in Zimbabwe. It is named after Samuel Parirenyatwa who was “Zimbabwe’s first trained black physician“. We were at the hospital to visit a friend of the DCIR’s who worked in the Harare School of Radiology, which is affiliated with HIT. Unfortunately, the friend was not in, but I appreciated the opportunity to visit the hospital.

We headed back to the Immigration Office after the short field trip to the hospital and sat down in the waiting area. I don’t recall how it happened, but I found myself telling the DCIR about the actuarial program at Saint Mary’s and my involvement. He asked if I was free that afternoon because he wanted to introduce me to the Pro Vice Chancellor for Academics (as you will recall from an earlier post, I have already met with the PVC for Research). So, while we waited at the Immigration Office, the DCIR arranged a meeting for me with the PVC for Academics. The DCIR wanted me to meet the PVC for Academics as soon as possible because the PVC’s background is financial engineering, which is essentially actuarial science. After our conversation in the waiting room of the Immigration Office, the DCIR was convinced that I have been misplaced!

We waited in the waiting room for about 15 minutes and then got back in line to speak with an Immigration Officer. (Are you getting tired from the tediousness of this story yet? Good, that is how I was starting to feel at this point.) We waited in an interminable line that did not seem to be advancing at all. But finally we got to the front of the line and the Immigration Officer got her Supervisor on my case, who took my name down and went back to look for my file. We were told to wait on the side for the Supervisor to return. About 20 minutes later I was told to go to the Accounts window and pay my $500 fee. Finally, my application was accepted!

But that does not mean I am in the clear yet. I am now waiting for them to process the application and hope they don’t come back asking for more paperwork. They say that the processing should take 7 days or less, but I have not heard of anyone getting their permit in less than 3 months. Since my tourist visa expires on Feb 15, we tried to get it extended while we are at the office. But they would not do it and instead instructed us to return on Feb 14. The DCIR is convinced that my permit will come before then and asked me what I would do if it does. Fairly confident that it will not, I said that I would take everyone out to lunch. If I am indeed right and it does not, then the DCIR said he would teach me how to make sadza. 😉

Financial Engineering

When we got back to HIT, the DCIR took me to meet the PVC of academics right away. When we got to the PVC’s office, the DCIR made sure to mention the bet we had made regarding my permit, to ensure that there was a witness!

The DCIR then indicated to the PVC that he thought I was misplaced and asked me to go over what we had discussed while waiting at the Immigration Office. I explained that my background is in mathematics, specifically probability theory with applications in finance, and that I was hired at Saint Mary’s to fill a position primarily responsible for teaching in the Actuarial Program. I went on to explain that since arriving at Saint Mary’s have branched out to statistics, data science, and computer science, and that my Fulbright proposal focused on my experience in those fields instead of financial mathematics. All of this to explain why I have been placed in the Computer Science Department.

The PVC was very pleased to hear all of this given that the field of financial engineering (actuarial science) requires proficiency in data science skills (like so many other fields do) and he is hoping that while I am here I can help facilitate more collaboration between the School of Business and Management Sciences (which houses the Financial Engineering Department) and the School of Information Sciences and Technology (my school, lovingly referred to as SIST by the faculty). In fact, the DCIR went on to ask if I could organize a workshop or symposium around the goal of bringing together data science and financial engineering. After the very tedious morning we had at the Immigration Office, I was overwhelmed and taken aback by the idea of organizing such an event, so I simply said “maybe”. I will need to follow up with him though, because I think it is a good idea and as long as I got a lot of support from folks at HIT it is something I feel I could contribute to.

My involvement with the Financial Engineering Department does not end there though. On Monday this week (now my 4th week in Zim!) I met the actual Dean of my School (SIST), who had been on leave for the month of January. She came by my office to see how I was doing and then took me to meet the other Deans at HIT, which included the Dean of the School of Business and Management Sciences. I mentioned to that Dean my conversation with the PVC and my experience with financial engineering. His eyes got really big and he asked if I would be interested in helping out his faculty with their courses this semester. Given that I am not teaching the Applied Statistics course for my school until the second half of the semester, I figured I could assist them. He said he would bring the Chair of the Financial Engineering Department by my office some time this week.

Sure enough, later that afternoon the Dean brought the Chair by my office and introduced us. After he made the introduction, the Dean excused himself and the Chair asked if I would take on teaching their Statistical Methods for Finance course. Naturally, I said “yes” as I had already told the Dean that I would help out. Of course, when I had said I would “assist” I did not think that meant taking on a whole course by myself! Needless to say, I have been a bit stressed this week since classes start this coming Monday, meaning I have about a week to get ready to teach this new course. Thankfully, I am very familiar with the course content having taught courses similar to it many times throughout my time at Saint Mary’s, and it is for first-year students, so no teaching online!!!

Weather & Power

As I mentioned in a previous post, the quite pleasant weather I experienced when first arriving was not going to last. For the past two weeks it has been very hot and humid. This past week was the hottest, getting up to 32 degrees C (i.e., 90 degrees F – I’m trying to get used to Celsius so that I can relate temperatures back home to the locals). The heat is exacerbated by the fact that there has not been enough rain! It has only rained twice in the past three weeks from when when I first arrived it. This is not typical given that this is considered the rainy season.

The picture above is from one of the times it actually rained, I took this at the entrance to my office building as I was waiting to be picked up and taken home. I had seen clouds like that on so many occasions during the recent dry spell and they never amounted to anything, so when I got home I decided to go for a walk only to get drenched! I couldn’t be too mad though, given that I ignored the warning signs and that the region needs the rain.

Unfortunately, when the weather is hot like this, my office becomes an oven. While we have windows, its position on the side of the building is such that there is very little airflow. So when there are three of us in there working on our computers, things get toasty! Thankfully, one of my office mates tracked down a fan this week, which has helped enormously. He has also put in a request for an air conditioning unit, but I think that very unlikely to be honored. However, my visit may help influence the decision in the positive. We are still waiting to hear back.

The other thing I have noticed with the increased temperature is that we have been losing power at HIT more frequently. I am not sure if it is related, but nearly every day this past week we were without power for at least a few hours and on some days it never came back before I left for the day. I have still been able to work when the power goes out because I am always sure to have my laptop battery full charged and since the internet at HIT is so unreliable I have been primarily relying on accessing it through a mobile hotspot on my phone. I also brought the battery pack I had with me last summer when I hiked the PCT, which allows me to charge my phone and laptop. It is going to be interesting to see what happens next week if we are without power while I am teaching. I am not sure that my battery pack will be able to power a projector…

Shona lessons

As I mentioned above, I have started taking Shona lessons with my roommate. I shared in my last post that Shona is one of the native languages in Zimbabwe. Most everyone in Harare speaks Shona. My office mates and our secretary are often conversing in Shona. Also, when students visit my office mates, they almost always speak exclusively in Shona. So even though instruction is in English and everyone can speak English, I often find myself surrounded by folks speaking Shona. Thus, I want to learn it.

However, it is not just for my own benefit. The fact that I am learning Shona has been well-received by everyone I interact with, from my office mates and secretary, to the DCIR and the Dean, to my drivers, to the women that clean our apartment, etc. It is a gesture on my part that I am trying to learn more about the culture and traditions of this place that I am visiting.

Our Shona instructor was recommended to us by the Embassy. She is a high school Shona teacher who also teaches for the Embassy’s language program. She comes to the apartment on Mondays and Wednesdays for 1-hour long lessons. She is absolutely wonderful! I have learned so much in such a short time. I am also practicing with everyone at HIT, especially the drivers! Everyone loves that I am learning Shona and is so excited to help. I learn new vocabulary and phrases every day.

Everyone here says that Shona is very easy to learn. And some parts are easy. For example, the vowel sounds are very straightforward. They are just like the vowel sounds in Spanish and they are always pronounced the same way. For example, there is no long “a” or short “a” sound, “a” is always pronounced like “ah”.

But there are some very tricky consonant combinations that are not like anything in English. Examples are “mw”, “nzv”, “nzw”, “rw”, and “tsv”. Then there are some sounds that I cannot distinguish between, like “b” and “bh”, which are pronounced differently but it is so subtle to my ears. Oh, and sometimes things are not pronounced like they are spelled, i.e., like they would be pronounced in English. The “tsv” combination is pronounced more like a “ch” sound, but with a “t” sound at the end. I still don’t think I’ve successfully pronounced words with the “tsv” combination!

I have mastered the greetings though, as well as phrases to describe the weather and days of the week. Here is an example of a formal greeting for the morning:

Below is a recording of me saying the greetings.

And here is my go to phrase about the weather: Kuri kupisa. It’s hot.

The days of the week are great because they are based on the corresponding number. For example, Tuesday is Chipiri and the number two is piri, while Wednesday is Chitatu and the number three is tatu. This mathematician quite likes the logic of this!

Next week we will be learning conjugation of verbs. My roommate, who can speak Portuguese fluently and also has a working knowledge of French, started teaching himself how to conjugate verbs during our second week. I was trying to keep up, but am so grateful we will be formally learning them with our tutor on Monday!

Second hike in Zim

As promised, I am going to end this rather lengthy and wordy post on a high.(I also promise to try to post more frequently so that my posts aren’t so long!) I am guessing that this what most of you come here for, the pictures!

My second hike in Zim was on Saturday, February 3rd, in an area northeast of Domborembudzi Mountain and south of Nyaungwe Mountain. It was yet another awesome experience. The scenery was just as amazing as the first hike, with countless domed mountains popping up all over.

When we first arrived to the area, the leader (who was working on memory of visiting the place as a young child), asked a pair of teenage boys (and their dogs!) that walked by us where the trail was. The boys ended up taking us to two pools with some of the clearest water I’ve seen outside of the alpine lakes of the Sierra Nevadas in California! We ended up hiking a loop beginning and ending at these pools so that we could go swimming after working up a sweat!

A lot of the hike was walking on rock faces, which meant being exposed to the sun, but it also meant we had amazing views almost the whole time. I took so many great pictures (and hard time cutting any from this post)! However, we also did some bushwhacking and class 3 scrambling, sometimes simultaneously! I cannot express how grateful I am to have found this hiking group. Getting out of the city every weekend and exploring such beautiful countryside is so fulfilling and rejuvenating.