Sorry I have been away for so long- pure laziness.
I don’t know if I have ever mentioned the troubles people are having with water. After a prolonged drought and very short rainy seasons (if they happen), Zimbabwe (and parts of southern Africa) is experiencing real troubles with water. Some of it is of course your routine inefficiency and poor planning, to be found in any part of the world; but honestly I do not think anyone could have foreseen how bad the situation would become. Parts of Bulawayo are dry; you may be living in a modern house with very beautiful fittings in the bathroom, but you may only get a trickle of water once a week out of said fittings. This is, as you can imagine, causing serious headaches for people who are already grappling with other things….
….like not getting meat in the shops….
I know I have mentioned the power problems before; I think the water situation is much worse.
But I do not want to leave you with a poor impression of my beloved country (and it is still beloved, in spite of everything). I have had access, lately, to pictures taken by Zimbabweans (who are generally in the Diaspora, and homesick) of the countryside… Zimbabwe is still stunningly beautiful, and it is a country I would come back to over and over if I left. What we slightly pathetic humans are doing with it is just one thing, and really insignificant in the long run. And now we are entering my absolute favourite season- the build-up to the rains- and I suspect that we are going to have a pretty dramatic one this year.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The crucible that Zim is
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2 comments:
Shona! Write more when you can, be lazy later, when things have calmed down in your country (soon I hope), I want to hear from you as regularly as possible.
Water is a problem in so many places, with droughts making the situation catastrophic very quickly. I live in a fairly wet area, so I have to think to realize the problem so many people deal with daily. Having just reread Dune by Frank Herbert, it does sink in a bit more.
May you have wonderful rain soon, and relief in the marketplaces.
I LOVED Dune, read one of the sequels (or is it prequels) recently.... Yes i do hope it rains, it certainly is building up to it, it's been so very hot (and then of course today there was a huge drop in temperature- but I'm still hopeful). it's odd that the rainy season was MUCH wetter even 15 years ago, and i remember learning at school that the Kalahari (Kgalakgadi) desert is creeping into Zimbabwe... So maybe that's the reason for the increase in aridity.
Just waiting for elections now, I think, Jane... waiting...
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