Whizzing by on the bus in the dusty southern rural countryside a women flashes a big smile as I snap a picture through the windshield.

If the future of a nation is in its youth, a visit to two rural schools confirms for me the resourceful exuberance of Zimbabwe’s young generation.

A young student at the Hartzell School in Mutare takes a break from his chore hoeing kale at the school’s vegetable plot to give me a wave.

The tables are turned as a student with a smartphone photographs the travel journalist while I snap away.

These were the facial expressions I encountered as I toured this beautiful land for two weeks in October, not the quizzical expressions of mild shock when I informed American acquaintances of my travel plans.

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