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Christmas in Zimbabwe 2022
December 9, 2022
Dear Family and Friends,
Christmas in Zimbabwe 2022 is:
Towering purple clouds and torrential downpours. Hail stones rattling on the roof. Green, the colour of life, growth and production. Mushrooms emerging to nourish and decorate the newly wet ground.
Streams reappearing and rivers starting to move. Silver trickles of water running down black granite rocks and kopjes. Puddles and mud, millipedes and beetles. Mangoes, big and orange, sweet, sticky and juicy. Huge watermelons, red, sweet and irresistible.
Christmas in Zimbabwe 2022 is:
The roar of generators everywhere as we run out of electricity. Farmers using 800 litres of diesel a day to irrigate crops. Power that’s off for 18 – 20 hours a day, every day. Industry that is ‘d**d.’ “We are d**d; we are not functional, we are not managing…. 18 hours [a day] of no power is not sustainable.” (CZI President). Water that comes out of taps once every ten days if you’re lucky.
On-call doctors who sleep in their cars at the main government hospital in Harare. Hospitals with chronic shortages of basic medicines and ‘sundries’ such as cannulas, syringes, cotton wool, gloves, antiseptic, catheters, urine bags. Hospitals with leaking roofs, broken machines, patients dying from “preventable illnesses.” (ZHDA) Farmers selling fertilizer given to them as ‘free inputs’ by the government.
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Zimbabwe is still listed in first place on Steve’ Hanke’s annual Inflation Dashboard at 397%, miles ahead of the next contender Venezuela (185%) and Cuba (158%).
Six months before e*******s when medical services are on the brink, electricity is on the brink, water supply is on the brink and we have the highest food inflation in the world, the Zimbabwe government is giving cabinet members US$500,000 each, deputies US$350,000, MPs US$40,000 and calling it a ‘loan.’ Who’s fooling who?
I end my Letters From Zimbabwe this year with a message of sincere thanks to you, for reading and sharing these letters, for your emails and your generosity, for supporting my books and caring about our country. I have little to give you in return except for my words and pictures and hope, always hope, that things will get better.
Please visit my website blog page over the next fortnight to see the 12 little stories and pictures I am publishing every few days in the fortnight before Christmas, to share with you some of the wild, weird, frightening and beautiful things in Zimbabwe.
There is no charge for this Letter From Zimbabwe but if you would like to donate please visit my website. Until next time, thanks for reading this Letter From Zimbabwe now in its 22nd year, and my books about life in Zimbabwe, a country in waiting.
Ndini shamwari yenyu (I am your friend)
Love Cathy 9th December 2022. Copyright © Cathy Buckle https://cathybuckle.co.zw/
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