From the News: Mugabe at EU-African summit?

From Reuters, 30 October: EU to invite Mugabe to summit

Lisbon - The European Union will send invitations this week to leaders of all African Union nations, including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, to attend an EU-Africa summit in December, EU president Portugal said on Tuesday. Past efforts to hold such a meeting have foundered over whether to invite Mugabe, accused of human rights abuses. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has threatened to boycott the long-delayed event if the veteran leader comes. (...)

Some Nordic countries and the Czech Republic are also expected to take a hard line if Mugabe attends. African leaders see the Zimbabwean president as an independence hero but western critics accuse him of ruining the economy, rigging elections and violently suppressing the opposition. The EU has imposed sanctions on his government, including a visa ban on top officials.

Airlines leaving Zim

From The Guardian (UK), 29 October: Last BA flight from a grounded economy

The last flight out taxied from the sparkling new Harare airport, built to handle the non-existent tourists, lifted over the city and dipped its wings in farewell. With that, at 9am yesterday, British Airways said goodbye to Zimbabwe, amid mutterings from supporters of Robert Mugabe that the pull-out had less to do with the collapse of its economy than a British government plot to unseat the Zimbabwean ruler.(...)

From The Standard, 28 October: Desperate AirZim courts banished airline

Troubled Air Zimbabwe is courting a banished airline among the list of seven carriers to fill the void left by British Airways as well as cushion the parastatal in the event it fails an international safety audit. (...)

From The Times (UK), 29 October: After 62 years, economics force BA to take flight from Harare

British Airways flew out of Harare international airport yesterday, ending 62 years of service. (...)

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 26 October: Ethiopian Airlines wants out, govt begs it to stay

Government is desperately trying to dissuade Ethiopian Airlines from pulling out of the Harare route, businessdigest can reveal. Ethiopian Airlines has indicated that it will pull out of the Harare route on November 15. (...)

Thanks for wrecking the country

Thank you Mr President for wrecking the country ...
because you made me rich.

says a businessman who sells borehole pumps and generators.

From the News: More dark days ahead

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 26 October

More dark days ahead

Staff writer

The country is set to endure more power cuts as Zesa yesterday announced it will switch off Kariba Power Station for maintenance. This comes barely a week after two thirds of the capital was plunged into darkness due to vandalism and equipment failure. In a statement yesterday, Zesa advised that there will be a significant increase in load-shedding due to reduced generation at Kariba Power Station from October 26 to November 6. (...) Generation at Kariba Power Station will thus be reduced by 250MW, from a capacity of 750MW.

From another article: David Mupamhadzi, chief economist of the Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group, said failure to remedy the power deficit meant any other government measures to boost the economy would be futile. "Unfortunately all government programmes aimed at reviving the economy will not be successful because of electricity problems," said Mupamhadzi.

From the News: Food aid only for ZANU PF supporters

From Zim Online (SA), 24 October

Villagers denied food aid

By Regerai Marwezu

Masvingo - Several villagers in drought-prone Mwenezi district in southern Zimbabwe were yesterday denied food aid by ruling Zanu PF officials amid fears President Robert Mugabe could increasingly use the humanitarian assistance bait to elicit support ahead of watershed elections next years. Hungry villagers gathered at Rata rural service centre in the district were shocked yesterday after being told by Zanu PF officials and members of the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) that they would not get any assistance because they supported the main opposition faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai heads the larger faction of the splintered Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Academic Arthur Mutambara leads the other MDC faction. "Only a few people managed to get food while hundreds were denied the opportunity to get the maize for allegedly supporting opposition political parties," said villager Albert Manjengwa. He said they were told to get food aid from Tsvangirai. "Officers from the president's office told us that the people in our area were not politically correct hence they must starve or get food from their party," added Manjengwa. (...)

ALSO TRUE!!!

From the News: Zim runs out of toilet paper - true!

From News24 (SA), 24 October

Zim runs out of toilet paper

Harare - Zimbabweans could soon become a nation of newspaper collectors. Not that Zimbos love reading newspapers or have a sentimental thing for news. A newspaper has many other uses especially in the toilet. This is because Zimbabwean shops have run out toilet paper. A survey in city shops revealed that tissues are in short supply in most retail outlets while many Zimbabweans have resorted to importing the sanitary paper from as far as South Africa and other countries for personal use and resale. A listed group which manufacturers tissues and toiletry is said to be failing to lift production to initial levels after President Robert Mugabe's price controls ruined the company's raw material base. Mugabe ordered prices of goods be slashed by 50% in June accusing businesses of attempting to remove him from power through a wave of "unjustified" price increases. (...)

TRUE!

From the News: still no power in Avondale

From VOA News, 22 October

Zimbabwe power outages said to cause five deaths at hospital in Harare

By Carole Gombakomba

Washington - Persistent electric power outages across Zimbabwe are having deadly consequences: in Harare at least five patients have died at Parirenyatwa Hospital due to a lack of electricity to run essential medical equipment, hospital sources say. Medical sources at the hospital said five patients requiring emergency surgery died when the hospital was without power Tuesday for 12 hours - one a pregnant woman. Hospital doctors speaking on condition they not be named said the hospital generator did not provide enough power for surgeons to operate on all patients needing care. (...) Meanwhile, residents of Avondale, the Avenues area and Cranborne Park in Harare said they have been without electricity for nearly 10 days. Some said they have been forced to move out of their homes or to empty their refrigerators. (...)

From the News: Zanu PF supporters assist white farmer

From Zim Online (SA), 23 October

Zanu PF supporters block eviction of white farmer

By Farisai Gonye

Harare - More than 20 people sustained serious injuries following violent clashes as war veterans, villagers, and Zanu PF supporters ganged up to block the eviction of a white farmer by militias aligned to a top ruling party official in Zimbabwe’s rich eastern farming district of Burma Valley. (...)

ZESA =

Zimbabwean Electricity Seldom Available

From the news: Still the power problems

From Associated Press, 20 October

Massive power outage for 5th straight day in Zimbabwe capital

Harare - A dozen main districts of the Zimbabwean capital were without power for the fifth straight day Saturday. (...) The five-day outage was the worst in memory in Harare, householders said. Routine outages last between four and 17 hours and have forced many homes and businesses to install gasoline-driven generators and inverters - rechargeable battery packs to power lights and low-voltage appliances that do not include kettles, refrigerators or stoves. Several stores with shelves bare of the cornmeal staple and most basic goods shut down early through the week to save generator gas. Clinics and hospitals, usually spared power cuts, ran standby generators Saturday, but staff at one clinic said patients were moved out after its standby generator overheated and broke down during its first constant use. A nearby blood bank cut back its operations and shifted blood stocks to facilities in unaffected districts.

First -5days? I met a friend yesterday. He has been without power for 12 days now.

Second, ZESA fixed our problem exactly the time they had promised to get it fixed.

Third, I just drove past that area they talk about in the article. There is still now power. Now there are a lot of rumours in Zimbabwe. One that makes sort of sense to me: It is a caused by a problem with an underground cable, but no one knows where exactly the place of the problem is. and furthermore the ZESA digger does not work so one would have to do the digging manually. who is going to do it?

From the News: Mugabe names successors

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 October

Mugabe names successors

Dumisani Muleya

President Robert Mugabe has reportedly named four top Zanu PF officials as his possible successors in a recent conversation with South African President Thabo Mbeki. Reports this week indicate that Mugabe two weeks ago spoke to Mbeki about the ongoing talks between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to resolve the country’s worsening situation and in the process delved into his leadership succession. The reports say Mugabe noted that there were four serious candidates to succeed him, senior Zanu PF politburo members Emmerson Mnangagwa, John Nkomo, Sydney Sekeramayi and Simba Makoni. The notable omissions from Mugabe’s list are Vice-President Joice Mujuru and Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, both widely touted as potential successors. Mujuru, whom Mugabe during the Zanu PF congress in 2004 publicly anointed as the next president, has fallen out with her boss over internal squabbles. (...)

From the News: No Power in Harare?

From SW Radio Africa, 19 October
No power in Harare for a week

Tichaona Sibanda
The country's capital, Harare, is slowly grinding to a halt after large sections of the city have gone for almost a week without electricity. Harare routinely suffers from periodic electricity outages, but this one is described by residents as one of the most extended and widespread in recent memory, according to our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa. (...)
Power supplies in Harare have been sporadic all year. Critical institutions like Harare and Parirenyatwa hospitals have power for just a few hours a day. Muchemwa said nearly all residential areas in Harare have been in darkness since Monday, except Borrowdale, which is home to Robert Mugabe and most of his cabinet ministers.(...) (and in Borrowdale the little spot wihtout power - that was us)

Well. I guess it was just an unusal area that had no power for so long.

Me at the doctors'

I went to the doctor today. Something is wrong with my arm. Nothing really bad I heard but of course, as every doctor does in Zimbabwe, he prescribed me some very strong drugs for it. But more interesting was the only advertisement in the waiting room: "Instant HIV testing now available"

And in the background I could hear the nurse discussing with a patient about where to possibly find eggs. That is Zimbabwe.

Halfpower

Since yesterday we have "halfpower". That was a new concept to me. Little enough to dim the lights quite a lot, let us have cold showers and to cut the internet and telephone connection but strong enough to boil the kettle and keep the fridge going. So I sat with candle light at my computer at night until the battery died. Now we have less than quarterpower. So no lights and sometimes the kettle.

Mbare

We spent Wednesday morning in Mbare. I would say the most famous high density suburb in Harare. And it's shocking! The huge difference compared to other high density-low income suburbs is that there are not only little shacks but big blocks of flats dating back to colonial times. Back then they were called "bachelor blocks" and made for the black workers that usually were not allowed to bring their families with them. Now a whole family of ten people lives in a room that was built for one person only. so these blocks are totally overcrowded and under way of breaking down, because nobody repairs broken windows or collapsed stairs or looks after sanitary facilities. And there is rubbish everywhere lying in big heaps on the road or softly burning away in a corner. and of course the usual electricity and water problems. amongst others this makes people burn plastic to prepare their food, when they cannot afford firewood. And then they start coughing all the time.

One of our partner organisations just decided to introduce their own local money worth an hour of work per unit. Good idea!

Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls just does not feel like Zimbabwe. Everywhere you go you have to pay in US Dollars. If you want to pay in Zimdollars, which makes the stay much cheaper, they look you like you are crazy and then you have to show your local ID which they make a copy of. Even to get a beer in a pub.

Supermarket shelves are empty as well but in the hotel you can get virtually everything you want and there always seems to be power and water.

But apart from that the Vic Falls itself are amazing, the national park is great and the mighty Zambesi is pretty mighty!

Back at Harare airport first thing we notice, no water in the toilets. Welcome back to Zimbabwe!

Not bad - one million

From VOA News, 17 October

Zimbabwe inflation approaches 8,000%, local currency plummets

By Blessing Zulu and Ndimyake Mwakalyelye

Washington - Inflation in Zimbabwe soared to nearly 8,000% in September after briefly falling under 7,000% in August, according to the country's Central Statistical Office. The official 12-month inflation rate was 7,982% in September, the statistical office said, following 6,592% in August, when it declined from over 7,000%. Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe dollar has plummeted in value in recent days, depreciating to Z$1 million to the US dollar compared with Z$700,000 a few days earlier. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's official exchange rate is Z$30,000 per US dollar. The statistical office did not offer a breakdown as to which items were driving inflation, saying only that food inflation was marginally lower than non-food inflation. Economic experts and business leaders expressed concern at the latest collapse of the currency, warning this would drive the inflation rate even higher. Most businesses have to turn to the parallel market to obtain hard currency, which obliges them to charge ever more for their products or lose money under state price caps. (...)

Not bad - one million!

From the News: Czechs consider boycott of EU-Africa summit

From Reuters, 17 October

Czechs consider boycott of EU-Africa summit

By Ingrid Melander

Brussels - The Czech Republic is considering joining Britain's Gordon Brown in boycotting an EU-Africa summit if Zimbabwe's controversial leader Robert Mugabe shows up, a deputy prime minister said.

From the News: Police severely assault protesters in Harare

From Zim Online (SA), 17 October

Police severely assault protesters in Harare

By Sebastian Nyamhangambiri

Harare - Police on Tuesday severely assaulted and injured more than 30 members of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) political pressure group for attempting to march to Parliament to protest against constitutional reforms agreed between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition last month. (...) In a statement, the NCA said its activists were on a peaceful march to Parliament to show their disapproval of Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill No. 18 when the police pounced, beating up and injuring 34 of the marchers. (...) Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed the police had clashed with the NCA demonstrators but denied excessive force was used. He said: "They were asked to disperse. Some took the orders but a few tried to resist the orders and some minimum force was used. It was not anything serious but just to make them disperse."

However a ZimOnline reporter who was monitoring the NCA march witnessed dozens of riot police, some who carried guns, round up the demonstrators and ordering them to lie on the tarmac, not far from the offices of the government’s flagship Herald newspaper. Then a police officer, who was referred to as Marondera by his colleagues and who appeared to be their commander, ordered the police to assault the NCA activists. "Give them what they deserve and let them go," thundered Marondera, upon which the police began beating the NCA activists with baton sticks before ordering them to disperse. (...)

Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls

Older news from the news: people voluntarily participate in fasting

"The unpatriotic hoarding of food gives the impression that we have a problem, which clearly we haven't, except in the South African media's mind. We do not call it starving, we call it fasting. Fasting is actually good for you. Lots of famous people have fasted for the benefit of their people. Gandhi, for instance. In our case, the people themselves will be encouraged to fast, thereby strengthening themselves against the onslaught of colonial imperialism. We have no objection in principle to people eating. Those of us in government all eat, but only because persons in our important positions have to. What we must guard against is the belief that people have the right to break the law if they're hungry." - Doc Mtusi, official in Zimbabwe's Finance Ministry, interviewed in the Cape Times. Extracted from The Week, September 15, 2007.

From the News: Merkel says Mugabe has right to attend summit

Being German I have to report that in full length

From The Observer (SA), 7 October

Merkel says Mugabe has right to attend summit

Tracy McVeigh, foreign editor

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is entitled to attend a Europe-Africa summit in December, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this weekend. Her pronouncement puts her at odds with Gordon Brown, who has threatened to boycott the talks if Mugabe goes. During talks in Pretoria with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who has been mediating between the Zimbabwean opposition and Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party, Merkel expressed disquiet about the worsening crisis in Zimbabwe. 'The situation is a very difficult one. It's a disastrous one,' she said. But she did not back calls for Mugabe to be barred from the summit between African Union and European Union leaders in Lisbon. 'The President of the republic of Germany wanted to invite all African countries to that summit, and it's up to countries themselves to decide how they are going to be represented at the table,' she said. ‘Obviously we will make all our assessments heard. We will also raise all our criticisms. We would do so in the presence of each and everyone.' However, her refusal to back efforts to ban Mugabe may now mean it is Brown instead who does not attend the summit.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the Prime Minister's position had not changed and that he would not attend if Mugabe was present. Merkel's comments brought a harsh response from Zimbabwe. The state-owned Herald newspaper reported yesterday that Mbeki had staved off pressure from the German leader. It said Merkel had been expected to take a tougher stance, but left the meeting with Mbeki 'singing from a different hymn sheet'. The Zimbabwe government hit out at Merkel for labelling the crisis 'disastrous' and said Germany should not pass judgment on anyone. 'It is ironic that Germany, with a history such as it has, has the temerity to see a speck in Zimbabwe's eye,' Secretary for Information and Publicity George Charamba said. Last week the Zimbabwe government averted a strike by civil servants and junior doctors after negotiations lead to unions cancelling a walkout planned over salaries. Also yesterday, Zimbabwe's police revealed that more than 23,000 people have been arrested for flouting price controls imposed by the government three months ago.

Dear Econet Managers

I am sick of
"call failed"
"call rejected"
"network busy"
or
"sorry, the subscriber you have dialled is not reachable"
every time I try to call someone!
AND of
70 per cent of my messages not arriving at their destination.

At least I get my weekly messages from econet telling me that they are sorry for me not being able to send messages at all or not being able to call other numbers except econet-phones for the last week.

From the news: White farmers in court for growing crops

From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 6 October

White farmers in court for growing crops

Johannesburg - Ten white farmers appeared in court in Zimbabwe yesterday accused of growing crops on their land - in a country where millions of people will need food aid within the next few months. (...)Didymus Mutasa, the lands minister, has said that the few hundred remaining white farmers will be forced out, one way or another. "The position is that food shortages or no food shortages, we are going ahead to remove the remaining whites," he said recently. "Too many blacks are still clamouring for land and we will resettle them on the remaining farms." In fact many farms were given to members of the government and their cronies, and one minister has admitted that the new farmers have failed in their cultivation efforts.

hunters and gatherers

Today we have been driving through town, when we suddenly saw someone with a sack barrow and three crates of coke on top walking down the side of the road pushing the sack barrow .
Of course we stopped and asked where he got the coke from. "From XXX". - That's about 7 kilometres away from where we saw him.
"And how long did u have to queue?"
- "oh just one day."

full shelves again soon?

From The Associated Press, 1 October

Chronic shortages to end this month, says Zimbabwe central bank governor Gono

Harare - The state central bank announced measures Monday that it said would help to restock empty store shelves by the end of the month. (...) "I leave you with a promise most basic goods should and will return to the shelves in the next three weeks," Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono said on state television. Gono said the bank also planned to change the nation's currency, striking more zeros off bank notes for the second time since August of last year.

Let's see if we have to find out that washing powder and pool acid are considered basic goods. I hope not.

From Newsdesk (Sweden), 1 October

Swedish development cooperation organization demands: Send food observers to Zimbabwe

Now, the international development cooperation organization Kooperation Utan Gränser/Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC) demands the creation of a food observer force. In the same way as the international community supervises elections in other parts of the world, an independent international control of the food aid is demanded to assume that it reaches those who most need it(...) Farmers whom we have interviewed confirm that the distribution of food is controlled politically, says Anna Tibblin, director of the SCC in Southern Africa. (...) The Swedish Cooperative Centre/SCC considers that the surrounding world should urge the regime to accept an increased international control of the aid.

That's no big news, but I am glad for the support.
Why do you think MDC ares get now more food aid at the moment?
And what do you think the military feeds on?

from the news: personal experience

GREAT!!!! ... Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 1 October

Going home

Everjoice Win

Going home … going home … am a-going home … The lovely words of Aaron Neville’s song ring in my head for a whole fortnight before my three-week vacation in Zimbabwe. Each day I wake up and pump up the volume. I am so excited, I can’t wait. I haven’t been home for more than five months. This is long overdue. August is vacation time for me and my son. It also is time to renew insurances, annual medical check-ups and, of course, sweet potato time. I love that stuff. I could live on sweet potatoes for the rest of my life. And, believe me, they don’t grow them that sweet anywhere else. I have not been home for so long - it’s the first time I have stayed away that long, partly out of fear of what I will find and partly denial. I cannot face the dreadful realities that have become the story of my country. The constant text messages from home don’t help; the place sounds as if it will fall apart at any moment.

The one thing that sustains me as I work outside Zimbabwe is the belief that I will always go back home. I still hold on to the illusion that my son will go to the same university I went to, because I don’t trust anybody else’s education system. And yet the bad news from across the Limpopo has been too much to bear. "Will you be okay? Have you bought enough supplies? Can we help with anything?", empathetic office colleagues ask in the weeks prior to my departure. I am angry. Why am I being asked these questions? Where do they think I am going? Darfur? Iraq? I am reminded of how I reacted when I met women from Nigeria during Abacha’s time or women from Palestine. When I met Rana from Palestine, with a lovely hair-do and manicured nails, I asked her if she really lived "there". I had to be reminded that life goes on - births, deaths, weddings, falling in love, parties - in the middle of all the atrocities. Zimbabwe is no different.

As I step off the plane and into the arrivals galley I could kiss the ground - pity the formerly blue carpet is now a rather squalid grey. The immigration officials chat to me and laugh as I "manage my passport", telling them where to stamp, so they do not fill the pages. Getting a new passport is not easy, don’t they know? "Ha sister," the officer says, laughing. "Those of you coming from the diaspora can buy these things. Only US$200 these days." The customs officer waves us through. Too bored? Too tired to search us as they normally do when they see large pieces of luggage? We get out swiftly and in minutes my brother is driving us into the city. Harare is not called the sunshine city for nothing. It is a beautiful spring afternoon. The sun shines brightly in the blue sky. Not too hot. A gentle breeze is blowing. I am overwhelmed. I feel intensely happy as the sun sinks into my bones. I lower my window with no fear of a gun being levelled at my head at the traffic lights. Even my son sticks his hand out of the window to catch the breeze. We haven’t done this in a long time. Not in Johannesburg. The streets of Harare are clean. Too "clean", I notice, in that there are few people about. The street vendors were "cleaned" out by operation Murambatsvina a year ago. While some brave ones have ventured back, it is a hazardous business. I notice there are few cars on the road. The fuel crisis is biting. But I am too happy now to worry about it. I just want to enjoy being home.

I wake up on my first morning to another beautiful day. The house is eerily quiet. No radio. No television. Not even the boys on their PlayStation. I realise the electricity is off. My friend Nozipho tells me it will be on again about 2pm. It is Sunday. That’s the schedule in her neighbourhood. I soon learn that in the leafy suburbs there is a regular schedule for power cuts and occasionally for water cuts too. So you can schedule your life -- when to do the laundry, when to iron, what time to start cooking ... By the end of the first week I have the schedules worked out. I know whose house to go to for breakfast, whose for lunch and when to recharge my cellphone. But things are not so easy in the non-leafy, high-density townships, where the power goes off at any time. Perhaps the thinking is that poor people are too poor to need regular schedules.

But there are some things you can’t schedule, like the ever-present funerals, mostly the result of HIV and Aids. How do you conduct a wake by candlelight? How do you feed the mourners in the dark? We soon find out. My friend’s dad passes away in Bulawayo. The power goes off in the middle of his wake. Dozens of candles hardly make a difference in the pitch darkness. The women - always the women - struggle to heat water, cook and feed the large crowd. They manage. At yet another funeral in a less well-heeled township, things don’t go so well. The candles run out after midnight. The firewood runs out after one meal. No one has fuel to go on a quest for these essentials. The mourners go hungry. Many leave. By the time the burial is over there are barely 30 people left. We drive into Mkoba township in Gweru on a dark evening when the power is off. The entire place, 20 villages in total, is in darkness. Thick smoke hangs in the air. I am worried about women’s and girls’ safety and security. Several scurry hurriedly to get home from work, the market, shops, church. I am scared to ask if the statistics for violence against women have gone up.

On day two I experience cut-off number two. Water. I am shown the dozens of buckets, containers, pots, plastic bins -- anything that can hold water. Every household I visit is the same. You keep storing the stuff, just in case. Unlike electricity the schedules for water cut-offs are less regular in every area. But things are worse in the high-density areas. It is much worse in Bulawayo, where cut-offs last anything from one to seven days. No one has that many containers. Once again I see crowds of women and girls around the few boreholes or water points. There is an almost festive atmosphere as they converge there. They laugh, talk, joke and wait. Sometimes the water comes out quickly, but often it’s a slow trickle. The lines move slowly. Nerves get frayed. Pushing and shoving starts and pandemonium breaks out. Local youths come to "restore order", abusing women in the process. Meanwhile, back home the children wait, home-based care patients fret and husbands get angry.

Women’s and girls’ lives have gone backwards in time. The development that seemed within reach by 2015 is a distant, hollow hope. If it’s not a water queue, it’s the search for firewood. Countless hours are spent searching or collecting something. In Glen View a group of young women says it takes them up to three hours to walk to a farm to search for firewood, another three to collect and cut it down and another three to walk back. Meanwhile, other domestic and economic activities must wait. What time do they have to go to school? Learn new skills? Earn an income? Or do anything else in this hunter-gatherer context? We are back to the rural way of life, but without the necessary tools and changes in other circumstances to make this manageable.

I have been home for a week and I haven’t eaten beef. I am beginning to have withdrawal symptoms. There is lots of expensive chicken. As a visitor I have been fed plenty. I can’t face another drumstick. The government deregistered all abbatoirs, so there’s no beef anywhere. I call a friend in the president’s office. He is one of the new farmers. A very productive one. I ask if he has beef. No beef, he says, just more chicken or he can do mutton. I opt for mutton. Sadly, the president of Equatorial Guinea is coming to town, so I never see the mutton. On our way to Gweru we drive into Kadoma Ranch Motel, hoping to buy a burger. I ask for a menu. "You want to see a menu, mother? What do you want to see on a menu?" the waiter asks me, with his arms akimbo and a sneer on his lips. I lose my temper. I want the menu. Isn’t this a hotel?

to be continued...