On being realistic

I don't believe in being realistic.  I believe in things that aren't real, that haven't yet become real.

I need to.  Because the only way I can motivate myself to take action is by believing in a reality that does not yet exist.  I need to believe in a result or outcome that has not yet been seen.  I have to believe that what I do will make a difference -- that the reality, which I see today will not necessarily be the one I see tomorrow.

So please don't tell me to be realistic.  I just don't work that way.

Your test

I wrote this for Sahar today and I realized that I need this reminder myself...

Know that wherever you are, whoever you're with, whatever situation you're facing -- is exactly what Allah has written for you.  This is your test.

Impress Him.

Expose your ignorance

I'm reading about how to be a successful entrepreneur. 

It's stuff I've heard before -- about making mistakes, about learning by doing (as opposed to learning and then doing)... about just doing.

And one line that hit me was "Expose your ignorance".

I think that's one of the things that just holds us back so unnecessarily.  We have this image of perfection that we want to uphold.  An immaculate reputation.  An unattainable ideal.

So we hold back.  And plan and analyze and research and get stuck in a vortex of confusion and uncertainty and second guessing.  Analysis paralysis.

We're afraid to do anything until we know it's going to be perfect.

But we can't know it's going to be perfect.

In fact, we know it's not going to be perfect.  Because we're not perfect.  Nothing in this world is.

So rather than aim for something unreachable and set ourselves up for disappointment, we can just do.  And be.  True.  To who we are.

"Expose your ignorance"

The pitfalls of perfect

I think I've made this reflection several times, but it keeps coming back.  I clearly haven't learned the lesson yet.

Perfect is the enemy of good.

I have this idea in my head of how I want the blog posts to be.  I want to re-count my Zimbabwe trip in a contiguous series of posts (which at this point is already broken).  And I'm getting to the part that was just so awesome, I don't think any post will do it justice.  So I just leave it.  It doesn't get done.

And because I don't want to post anything else until I post the rest of that trip, nothing else gets done either.  Ideas come and go and nothing is written.  Everything is on hold for this unattainable contiguous ideal in my head that I'm sure doesn't matter to anyone else.

It's ridiculous, really.

So, I'm letting that go.  I may or may not post the rest of the pictures from that trip.  But even if I don't, I'm not going to let that stop me from posting other things.

Phew.  That's better.

Bigger things

I was just about to do another post with more travel pictures, and then I caught a glimpse of a BBC program on the melting polar ice caps and how the change is accelerating every year...

...it kind of puts any and every other little worry and concern and project I think about into perspective.

Maleme Dam and Matopos

On my second weekend in Zimbabwe, Aunty's extended family went on a picnic at Maleme Dam.  This dam is located in Matobo National Park (also known as Matopos), which is an area known for its balancing rock formations.

Impala and a baboon

Artisan selling hand-crafted fruit baskets ($35-$50 each)

HUGE cave!

Cave Paintings

Looks like two boulders talking...

Prickly pear

Lizards!

Maleme Dam

Balancing boulders

Vervet monkey

Baboon walking

Baboon running

African Jacana (or Jesus bird, as Aunty calls it)

Fish Eagle

Black Eagle

Bulawayo - in town

City Hall

Bulawayo Public Library

Central Post Office Building

Haddon & Sly - formerly one of the finest department stores in southern Africa

The Bulawayo Club

Cape to Cairo Restaurant

Fazak's Gift Centre (great souvenir store!). This is the street in front of the store.
The streets are so wide that two rows of parking fit in the middle of the road.

Street market

"Bend Over Bazaar", where you'll find piles of second-hand clothes being sold
at $1 a piece

Bulawayo airport

After three days of traveling (including one night stay in Doha and one night stay in Johannesburg), we finally arrived in Bulawayo.  Alhamdulillah.

Now, I don't generally consider airports to be very interesting (at least not worth a whole blog post of pictures), but the Bulawayo airport is not like any other airport I've ever been to.

Actually, I should correct myself.  It wasn't the proper airport that I went to.  It was the "Temporary Terminal" (which has functioned as the airport for well over a decade -- probably closer to two).

Now, that was not like any other airport or terminal I've ever been to.

To be fair, here is the official, new airport building, which, I've been told, is due to open very soon:

Here's the building that you actually go into after getting off the plane and taking a short bus ride:

Don't you love how they label the doors "Domestic Departure" and "International Departure"?  There's a third door for arrivals as well -- I just wasn't able to get a picture of it from where I was in the bus.

This is a view of the airport building from the parking lot:

This is what it looks like from the inside:

And you know those doors labeled "International Departure" and "Domestic Departure"?  I thought it was a typo that 'departure' was written singular instead of plural.  But, I stand corrected.  You see, here's the information board with incoming and outgoing flights:

It says there are exactly two arrivals and two departures every day.  One plane is supposed to arrive from Johannesburg and then leave about an hour later (International Departure) and another is supposed to come from Harare and then leave a little while later (Domestic Departure).

Inside those little wooden drawers near the bottom, there are extra plastic letters and numbers that you would use to change the information on the board.  Now, seeing as there is actually only one flight that comes in and out of that airport every day (i.e. the Johannesburg flight), they clearly don't update this board very frequently.   On the other hand, seeing as everyone knows that the Harare flight no longer comes in and out of here, I guess there's no need to update the board.

This was also the only airport I've been to where your boarding pass and luggage tags are handwritten.  You have to be quite vigilant when they're writing your luggage tags, though, because it's easy to get these airport and flight codes mixed up.  On my flight out of Bulawayo towards Jakarta, the first luggage tag they gave me had my bags going from Bulawayo to Johannesburg to Doha and back to Johannesburg.  Luckily, Aunty caught that mistake, had them rewrite my luggage tag, and my luggage traveled safely to Jakarta.

And just a couple more pictures:

Customs and Immigration

Airport car rentals

Airplane food!

Not exactly a seasoned business class traveler, I did what any respectable and sophisticated professional first-time-passenger would do -- take dozens of pictures of everything from the seat to the tray table to the seat control panel and stop the stewardesses to take pictures of me as well.

Unfortunately, many of those pictures turned out rather foolish looking,  so I'll just share the pictures of the lovely food.

The first pre-meal "Indulgence"

The table setting (they do this before every meal)

Appetizer - seafood salad

Main course - pasta arrabiata

Dessert - vanilla ice cream with berries

Fruit plate

Breakfast - blueberry pancakes

Pre-meal "Indulgence" on Doha - Johannesburg flight

Breakfast omelettes (Qatar Airlines serves only halal)