Zimbabwe Absurdity

On Sunday I was having lunch with Peter at his sister’s place in Mount Pleasant. I used to work with Peter in my Hortico days and he was en route to Kenya and Liberia from Australia for some consulting work so it was a chance for a visit to see his family still in Harare. Now Peter is something of a story teller so when he mentioned that his sister Gail had gone to a funeral the previous day and was asked to take along a shovel as the grave diggers had none, I was more than a little sceptical. Gail assured me it was true. The Catholic cemetery just outside town where the funeral was held indeed had no grave digging implements so a friend texted her beforehand and asked if she could bring along a shovel. So they had to wait while the gravediggers dug the hole. Ready mixed concrete was then poured in a slab over the grave (when closed) so that the coffin could not be stolen and sold for reuse. I kid you not.