Zimbabwe, like many of the places we have been to, has gone through a lot.  Talking to the people that we came across, there was one common theme that seemed to permeate the discussion of happiness:  Survival. To be there, to be alive, to survive.  We were told stories of people who on one day had trillions of Zimbabwe dollars in their bank accounts and on the next day had nothing, the currency having been outlawed.  Through it all, they still survived, still shared, still laughed, still played... they still survived.

During our short stay in Zimbabwe, people talked about sharing and community, about family, friends and sports.  However, stripped of all complications, broken down to it's bare essentials, the common theme of happiness was simply, survival.  That simplicity, in turn, should make us all think about the things we claim to require in order to be happy.