I usually deal with Ant on seedling business but as his wife Helen said, he doesn’t cope well with running around Harare so prefers to stay on the farm so she had come into my office late this afternoon to finalize an order. I asked Helen, a cheerful woman a few years older than me, how it was all going. “Hello how are you” is a standard Zimbabwean greeting which rarely gets a reply much different from “fine thanks, how are you” but I decided for some reason to delve a little deeper.
They have already lost half of their farm in the middle of the country and as Helen revealed, they are only still on the remainder because the Minsitry of Agriculture is concerned that she should carry on with her side of the business – raising day old chicks. There is a Fat Cat after it but he has done nothing with the other farms he has acquired and surprisingly (to me at least) the Ministry is refusing to give him an Offer Letter (of the type one has difficulty in refusing) that would give him the remainder of Helen and Ant’s property. The Fat Cat is not the type of person to take this sitting down so has taken the issue to the Highest Authority with results yet to be seen.
“But really, we are fine. And quite happy” concluded Helen.
Zimbabwe Absurdity 
No people like this anywhere else, are there? Onto the prayer list they go.
Is this the Helen that I knew when I lived in Harare?
No, nobody that you know.