Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Wonder Guchu
1 November 2007
Harare — ZIMBABWEAN contestant in the Imagine Afrika reality television show Yvonne Mangunda says the first few days of her deployment in Mozambique were tough and was tempted to give up and come back home.
The reality television show, an initiative of the African Broadcast Media Partnership against HIV and Aids, started on October 8 with 12 youths chosen from the continent taking part.
The Studio 263 actress, who was one of those chosen from more than 10 000 hopefuls drawn from 31 countries is in the same team with Kenyan contestant Mutembei Kariuki, Rwandan Faysal Ngeruka Birikunzira and Ghanaian Nathalie Anang.
Her team is working on a range of tasks in Mozambique whose official language none of the contestants is familiar with.
"The hardships we faced once we were deployed were in sharp contrast to the wonderful treatment we received in South Africa prior to being taken to Mozambique, where we found ourselves in a survivor type situation.
"There was one occasion when I felt so drained that I was tempted to give up and ask to come back home," she confessed.
One of the major challenges her team faced was being in a foreign country where none of them spoke or understood the official language, which is Portuguese.
Although Shona is spoken in some parts of Mozambique, these were apparently not the parts that the team was taken to.
Another challenge was the relatively underdeveloped cellular phone technology, which prevented them from downloading their tasks via cellphone onto their laptop computer.
"When we were left at the Mozambican border, we had 90 minutes to get to Maputo, find our resource person and find the address where we were to stay at.
"We were supposed to use our cell phones, laptop and a Google map to help them find the destination. However, there was no communication. None of us spoke Portuguese, making it difficult to seek directions.
"However, despite these obstacles we managed to find and reach our house within the allotted 90 minutes," Mangunda said.
The team's first task was to improve their dilapidated house and make it more habitable.
"We shared the house with 12 other people. Four of us had two rooms but we all ended up in one room. We had to rent beds. We bought curtains, sheets and other items, including a plastic carpet.
"We were given R10 000 to cover the whole 12 episodes and so we had to budget carefully, particularly as we had no idea what other tasks would come up and what else we would need money for," she said.
Mangunda admitted that members of her team clashed early on because of strong personalities and differing views but they quickly realised they needed to make all decisions by consensus.
Individually, Mangunda has made her own mark when she was one of the four contestants chosen for a BBC radio interview.
She was also one of the four contestants chosen to meet the chief executives of the Southern Africa Broadcasters' Associa-tion (SABA) at their meeting last week in Namibia.
Mangunda's team is competing with two others, which are in South Africa and Rwanda.
A panel of judges and viewers from 31 African countries will judge the teams.
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