So we woke up this morning with the goal of watching some of the cricket match that Ben and Pete from Masvingo were playing in. We figured we had a little time in the morning to explore a bit of downtown Bulawayo before driving to the cricket ground. We went into the centre of the city and parked near the restaurant we seemed to be frequenting. We first headed to the bank to see if the very nice woman we met the day before had been able to contact her friend. She told us that her friend had been able to find the $10, $50, $100 and $500 million dollar banknotes, she told us that he would be arriving in town in about an hours time, so we thanked her and walked around for the next hour killing some time. We figured we would use this time to ask everyone else we could find if they knew where we could get any of the old notes.
Our first stop was a shoe shop next to the bank where one of the members of staff said he had plenty at home they would bring for us the next day. We kept checking a few shops but the rest of them either said they didn't have any, or that we should pay them a lot for the notes, which we were not going to do. One Indian man who owned a clothing store came out of the back holding a tattered 50 000 note and told us that he had more at home but they sell for between $20 to $100 at the airport so it would depend on what we would pay him. We thanked him and left swiftly, knowing we would never come back. The notes do not sell for that much at all, and if they do it's only the brand new $100 trillion notes, not the smaller denominations we were looking for. We also asked at the reception in the reserve bank, as that is where all the notes went, and the one guy there gave us his phone number so we could "talk freely" later because the bank has "eyes and ears"! We decided it felt too weird so we didn't phone him after work!
We got tired of asking around for old notes, and I was getting really hungry, so Dan and I went back to cafe Munandi for brunch. It turns out that they used to be the restaurant called Sisters that I remember fondly, but it was sold and changed hands to this new cafe. They still do really good chicken and mayonnaise toasted sandwiches, which is what we both had. After our sandwiches we went back to the bank and waited another half an hour for the guy to arrive. Eventually he did show us and asked us if we could go chat in our car about the notes because it was considered illegal to sell the notes as even though they are now useless the government still classifies them as valid currency.
In the car he pulled out four packs of 100 almost brand new bank notes of the four denominations! We knew what the notes could go for on eBay and haggled with him till we were all happy with $10 per 100. It is a fair price for the amount of notes we bought for the game, and he was happy too. I left Dan and the guy in the car while I went and tried to get change for our $50 note. Everyone claimed not to have any change at all, and even when I went back into the supermarket to buy something small she claimed they didn't have any change, which I know was a lie. Anyway I eventually had to go stand in the queue at the bank and thankfully got the note changed there. I got back to the car after about 20 minutes, I think they thought I was never coming back!
We left the centre of Bulawayo then, happy with our stash of notes. We also told the guy that we may come back to him if we can't find the rest that we need for the game. We headed for Dave's company to collect the keys and to show him what we had bought. He was really impressed with our purchase of notes and wanted to know how to contact the guy if he wanted to buy some. He gave us the keys to the house and instructed us to drop them off at his office before we left town. From there we drove back into town to pick up some snacks for lunch at a spar near the bank and then programmed the sat nav for the cricket grounds.
Upon arriving at the ground we were unsure if we we in the right place because there seemed to be no sign of life. I walked up a small embankment so I could see into the grounds and sure enough there was a cricket match taking place with about 15 spectators. We grabbed the blanket from the back of the car and our lunch supplies and walked around the pitch until we found a spot in the shade of a giant tree to watch the match. When we arrived the score was 172-2 and we soon realised that Ben was fielding about 20 meters in front of where we were sitting. We had a short chat with him during a change of batsmen and found out that his team was all out for 150 in the first innings of this 4-day test match.
Soon after we arrived a few wickets fell and before we knew it the score was 225-5. Jenny was reading a book on the iPad and not paying too much attention to the cricket. I told her that if I said "ball" a 6 was headed our way and she should cover her head. About 10 minutes later their 7th man hit a long 6 that was headed straight for us. I shouted "ball", we lost sight of the shot in the tree overhanging us and we both covered our heads. Good thing we did because the ball passed within a foot of my head and landed 2 feet behind us!!! Jenny continued reading for the duration of the afternoon and I continued paying close attention to the match. At 16:45 their last wicket fell and I felt bad for their #2 batsman who was still on for 189!!
We left the grounds having thoroughly enjoyed our day and drove to TM to pick up some supplies for a pasta dinner. When we got back to Dave's house I cooked dinner while Jenny continued reading. We then had our food and watched a couple of home design shows before calling it a night after a very relaxing day.
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