Farewell Zimbabwe! (ZAHNNIE DOES UPDATE)

IMG_0971Finally back in China and compared to Zimbabwe, the WiFi here is 6G so figured now would be a good time to recap my last few days in Africa.

This past Sunday, Zah took me to his ancestral village. It’s a giant plot of land a couple hours outside the city where anyone with Zah’s last name “Chimedza” is allowed to call home.

IMG_0981Fun fact: In Zimbabwean culture your Aunts and Uncles are also considered to be your mothers and fathers and you cousins are also your brothers and sisters. So while some of Zah’s mothers and sisters cooked us a delicious lunch, Zah gave us a tour of his compound and introduced us to his extended family.

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You’ll have to wait for the videos to see most of the village footage but one of the highlights was taking a spin in the Village Mercedes Bens S600.

Chef Donny left a couple days before me so I spent the remainder of the trip chilling with Zah and the fam back in the city. Zah’s mom has a tailor and loads of African fabrics so she insisted I get some clothes made.

Cultural appropriation? Fuck that noise. This is some cultural appreciation king shit.

Zah’s mom is truly a saint. I mentioned that I loved her homemade chili sauce she was serving at every meal so she bubble wrapped a bunch of bottles so I could bring them home with me.

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Our last night in Zimbabwe I went out to a quiz night at a local pub with Zah and some of his friends that was quite a cultural experience as well.

For example, they had a “name that song” question where they played Bon Jovi’s “Living On A Prayer” and we had to pick which artist sang the song. The options were:

A. Nickleback
B. Avicii
C. Bon Jovi
D. Fall Out Boy

Laughably easy if you grew up in the U.S. but who knows if you’ve lived your entire life in Zimbabwe. Not sure Bon Jovi ever quite broke into the mainstream out there. Then some other questions were like “What is the name of the graduate school entrance exam in Zimbabwe” which stumped me but must have been a breeze for everyone else.

Something I forgot to mention in my previous blogs was that when we were in Victoria Falls I got a tour around the Elephant Hills golf course and the place is a god damn ZOO. All the fairways were jam packed with impala, kudu, warthogs, and baboons…

These past two weeks I’ve spent in Zimbabwe have been a truly unforgettable experience and want to give a giant shout out to Zah, our guide Fuzz, and Zah’s whole extended family for making me feel at home. I also want to thank Barstool Sports for approving a trip like this that has absolutely nothing to do with sports or gambling. You guys are the best.

I started recapping the trip with Zah on this week’s episode of Donnie DID and next week Zah and I will take a deep dive into the highlights and lowlights of the trip so be sure to check both of those out.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have about 400GB worth of footage to go through so we can start getting these videos out.