Harare

All week I have been listening to the heart rending reports on the BBC Radio 4 Today show directly from Zimbabwe - of course, they reinforce that what I saw is not the whole story: I am completely aware of that - but, although I don't want to be Pollyanna-ish about this, the fact remains that the experience that we had on our extraordinary visit there was that, in the areas in which we worked and played (Harare city centre and Vic Falls, respectively) everyone talked about a sense of slowly growing optimism - that the National Unity Govt is making things different - the fear is receding, in the city centre at least - the BBC and others are right to foreground the terrible damage in every sense but it's not the only truth - and real change will only come with real investment and it seems real investment will only come when foreign governments are convinced that change is happening - and their refusal to help till then just means that more children die every day -