Sunday, December 21: We were all at the Catholic church for the
Christmas thanksgiving service but it was not the same as past years. This
is the worst of all years.
We brought boiled water for drinks and the priest gave us mealie meal to cook;
but it was so scary all the people eating together, using the same plates
and toilets. All I could think about was cholera – I lost a third friend
last week.
Walking back home, I saw sewage on every road. I had to step over dirty pools
with flies and worms right by the houses.
In the afternoon I went to Marondera hospital to visit my friend and her baby,
who was born prematurely at seven months and has a broken leg. They were not
hard to find: only one ward was open and all the men, women and children
were there together.
There are about 40 patients but no doctors and no medicines, just nurses who
are only there because they are scared of being beaten but are not being
paid so don’t do anything. There’s no electricity or water and it is very
dirty and there are several cholera cases.
If you are sick you are just stranded. You think if you go to hospital someone
might help you but really there’s no point. My friend and her baby were just
sitting there, like they were hoping for a miracle.
Last time I went to the hospital there was a woman in labour and screaming in
pain but the nurses said they weren’t going to help her. She begged and
cried and eventually gave birth on her own to a stillborn baby in front of
my eyes. It was so awful.
The worst thing is walking past the hospital mortuary. It’s full of bodies
from those days of murdering after the elections of March 29 when Mugabe
wouldn’t accept he had lost. You can see stuff seeping out under the door
from the rotting bodies. It’s so disgusting. All the mortuaries are full so
if a person dies you have to keep the body in your house until you can get
money to bury them.
Monday,December 22: Today I went to the bank. I used to work as a nanny
and cleaner for a white family but they lost their farm six years ago and
it’s a long while since I had work. We survive because my eldest daughter,
Priscilla, lives in the UK, working at a care home, and sends us £75 when
she can.
As usual the queue at the bank was long and we waited outside for hours and
hours and hours. Rain came and I was soaked but we stood so long I got dry
again.
In the queue were soldiers and policemen. We would never have opened up with
them because we were scared but now everyone is so frustrated and discussing
openly that Mugabe should go. When you hear him say there’s no cholera you
get furious. I have seen it everywhere.
Eventually, at 4.30pm, they said there was no money left in the bank and we
would have to go to Harare [45 miles away].
Money is a huge problem. Banks only allow you to withdraw Z$10 billion a week
and that doesn’t even buy a kilo of wheat. If you buy a bar of soap then you
have no money left for anything else.
The government has no paper so is printing only big denomination notes of
$500m and nobody has change. Some of the notes are printed on cotton. Every
few weeks they take off three zeroes then start all over again.
Some of the shops now take only foreign currency – American dollars or South
African rand.
Tuesday December 23: This morning I stepped out for a break from the
kids and there, right outside my house, there was sewage flowing with
flyworms in it. I couldn’t stand it and had to go back into my little box
house.
I heard today that a man in my road has got cholera. It’s like this monster
coming closer.
The government is saying schools will open but I don’t think it’s a good idea
with all the cholera. I’m not willing to send my kids now.
I can honestly say none of my kids learnt anything at school all year. All
they did was play because there were no teachers. Precious, my 10-year-old,
who is enrolled at the local school, hasn’t been since before the elections
in March.
My 16-year-old, Susan, went to a Catholic mission boarding school. The white
family I worked for used to pay the fees, but they can’t help any more.
Susan was supposed to be doing O-levels this year and the headmaster asked me
to pay foreign currency and buy groceries for the teachers. I tried to
manage from the money Priscilla sends from the UK but she has her own life
and, in the end, Susan was sent back home.
The next oldest, Loveness, is 18 and used to dream of going to college. I’m
worried what will happen to the children. I have no education to teach them.
It’s so painful.
Also I’m asthmatic and need a Ventolin pump but have no medicine. I’m waiting
for the day I have an attack and die. Two months ago I had an attack and had
to use herbs which made me even worse but I was saved by a woman who gave me
some tablets that helped, thank God. Now it’s the rainy season and it will
be worse.
Wednesday, December 24: In other years I would have been busy preparing
for Christmas today. We used to have chicken, sticky rice, lamb, ice cream
and jelly. This Christmas you are happy if you have sadza (mealie meal
porridge) and mowa, a kind of weed you find in the bush during the rainy
season.
As usual I wake about 4am and wait for it to get light. About 5am I go to the
forest and pick wild fruits or roots, either to sell to others to buy mealie
meal or to boil up.
We’re eating once a day, if at all. Sometimes we’re going for days with
nothing. I can’t remember the last time we bought bread or meat. Everyone’s
getting thinner and thinner. Those who have food are those who cross the
borders to other countries, Botswana or South Africa, and bring it back to
sell at ridiculous prices.
Thursday, December 25: It’s Christmas Day and very different from any I
have experienced. People have nothing special to eat. Since I was a baby
there hasn’t been a year when we didn’t have a chicken, however bad things
were. This year I prepared some nyeze, wheat which I mixed with sadza. I
also had two cups of rice I have been saving.
We started off the day at church. We prayed, as we do every day, that things
will get better, but it’s going on for so long. Sometimes we ask: “Where are
you, God?”
I spent the day with my three younger daughters, my son-in-law and my niece.
My son stayed in Harare because he didn’t have money to come home and also
there was no point. I told him it’s a special day and we should all be
together but I guess he was right.
We had no presents, none at all. The girls had been collecting empty Coke
bottles for the deposit money and my son-in-law managed to get some Cokes.
It was such a treat – the girls were all running around like something big
had happened.
We did have electricity, which was a surprise, so we could watch television.
We have a dish and can pick up South African TV. I don’t watch ZBC [the
state channel] any more as it’s only lies and lies.
On the South African news we heard this guy called Desmond Tutu saying Mugabe
should be removed and if he won’t go he should be forced. Everyone feels the
same. We don’t understand why people don’t do anything. Now everyone is
hoping America will help us with this new President Obama.
This week is a new year and, to tell the truth, most people have lost hope. I
was hoping and hoping and hoping. This year in March, with the elections, I
hoped things would get better. Instead they became even worse. Then, when we
heard there were peace talks, I thought maybe now the kids can go back to
school and I’ll get work, but instead cholera came.
Sometime I get so cross or wonder what’s the use.
