Zimbabwe Absurdity

On Monday night I attended the 21st birthday party of my cousin’s eldest daughter. I must be getting on a bit as it’s been a few years since I went to a 21st and it must have been one of my contemporaries. Still, it was an interesting evening’s entertainment away from the worries of day-to-day existence in Zimbabwe.

My cousin is one of those people who has done really well in the inclement business environment of Zimbabwe so expense was not an issue. All number of beer brands were piled high in the central bar and he’d gone to some trouble to find his favourite Scotch. We did have a small reminder of the usual hassles when the power went out briefly but otherwise it was a very social event. Us oldies were of course in the minority but it was interesting to see how the youth of today party. Actually, not so different from “my day” and even a lot of the music was the same! They were much better dressed but then I was at university when I went through that era so jeans and T shirt were the dress of the day. I asked my other cousin if we looked that young at 21 and she said, yes, probably!

The rest of the week has been taken up by the usual survival issues, namely a power cut emenating from the same storm that put the power off at the party. Eventually on Thursday I took the contents of my deep freeze over to an absent friend’s house where they have some spare storage space only to get back home to find the power on again. It took another day to come back on at work and in the mean time, we were relieved of some 6000 seedlings. Not slow are the criminal element. I can cope with the loss of the seedlings but the trays in which they are grown are prohibitively expensive.  Aluta continua.