The difference is in the basics...

I have to start the morning with a good, strong cup of coffee, and today realized that perhaps there was a comparison to be made between different places in the world simply in the preparation of your food and drink. Here is an illustration of how I've prepared my coffee in different areas/phases of my life:

Living in Cape Cod, Massachusetts:
- I worked from home so would wake up and put a pot of coffee on the stove, using a gas-burning stove. The smell would greet me as I entered the house after an outdoor shower (yes, being a beach area, outdoor showers are very popular, even in America!) I'd then warm up some milk and froth it in a nifty little container, made specially for frothing milk!

Living in Cambridge, Massachusetts:
- For the last six weeks I lived in the USA I stayed with a dear friend in Cambridge, while working retail part-time. The pace of life in the city is a little different from the Cape, so here I'd wake up and put on the electric coffe-machine and warm my milk in the microwave. I didn't worry about frothing it - time was always of the essence!

Living in Harare, Zimbabwe:
- This morning I made my coffee as I always do: when leaving for my shower I put a pot of water on the stove to boil. (and it's good news, the electricity is working!) When I return the coffee is boiling and I take out my little coffee funnel and filters and wait for the water to pour through the Zimbabwean-grown coffee. The milk is "Chimombe" - long-life milk, which you depend on here, in case the electricity goes out and your refrigerator turns off! I make sure the sugar (which can also sometimes be a shortage) is tightly sealed, otherwise the ants, always looking for an opportunity to eat through your precious resources, will find their way in!


So there is a simple illustration of how life is different for me. After the redundant protests that were supposed to have happened yesterday, I was thinking that really life is not that different here from anywhere else. We human beings are amazingly adaptable creatures and it is the little things that make a difference in our daily life.

Yesterday I heard another interesting expression from a friend here. She asked me if it was a 011 or a 010 day. Hm...what do you think that could mean?!

It's refering to meals! In Zim, where food is ridiculously expensive in comparison to the salaries, people regularly skip one or more meals. Yesterday was a 111 day for me - I managed breakfast, lunch and supper. But most days have been 011 (no breakfast, but had lunch and supper!) As I write this I have to wonder about today. For how many people around me will today be a 000 day?

The Dry Season

We are dry, we are dry,
Blood sucked from our lives
Life sucked from our veins
We are dry, we are dry,
The wind blows, blows through us, around us, before us
We are dry...we are dry.

Our voices, our tongues
They are dry, they are dry
Where's my tongue? Where's my voice?
It is dry, dry, dry...
Why?

When will the rains arrive?
When will our voice return?
Will my hope survive this dry, dry, dry?
Will I make it out alive?

Rains water our hope
Make it alive, alive, alive
Weed out my doubts
Let them die, die, die
Our voices, our tongues, don't let them sigh, sigh, sigh
Let us live, let us die
Make us alive, alive, alive.

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In Zim the dry season is a time when the earth is cracked, the water has disappeared, and everyone looks with hope to the coming of the rains - which we hope will arrive in December. But what of the dryness that eats at our souls? Has Zimbabwe lost hope? How do we regain our hope and vision for a brighter tomorrow, when today seems so limited, frightening and fragile? Do we look to the sky for rain to water our dreams? Or do we look deep inside the earth to find the life buried beneath, the water that will allow us to rebuild, grow and strengthen ourselves?

Yesterday there was supposed to be a protest march in Harare, organized by the trade unions and other human rights groups. What happened? Very little. Why? The leaders of the march were arrested before the march could take place. Without leaders, people will not follow. Especially if there is the threat of violence - which there was. I had my first taste of what happens when the "people speak" in Zimbabwe...the center of town gets shut off by the police. Everyone who has to drive into town has to go through numerous roadblocks - which were still there when I went to church at 5:00p.m. and still there when I returned around 9:00 p.m. So another failed attempt to voice concerns? Perhaps... What is the alternative? This morning I was talking to a friend who put it very well. He said that Zimbabwe has to look within to solve its problems. For too long we have been looking outside - looking at colonization; looking at international donors; looking outside the real reasons the people here are suffering. As a people we need to be strong and find our voice - quench each others' thirst and find a united, Zimbabwean way forward. Violence is definitely not the answer - history has taught us that. But complacency isn't either. So when will the rain come?

Rise!

"Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this,..."

What powerful words on an emotionally and spiritually-charged day! I read this passage this morning while preparing for the day - it's written by a US religious/thought-leader whose work I study, Mary Baker Eddy.

September 11 will be a day etched on people's minds and lives for a long time. I was living in Boston at the time and can vividly remember where I was, what I was doing, watching those planes slam into the Twin Towers. The phonecalls to relatives far south in Africa, to assure them I wasn't anywhere near it and physically unaffected by this, the tragedy of modern terror. THe anxious phonecalls trying to reach friends in NY.

But today was different. Today I woke with a feeling of hope, a feeling of possibility. A sense that we can rise above all the junk the world throws at us and be free. After reading this passage above I pondered what it means to "rise in the strength of Spirit." What does it mean for the USA? What does it mean for the rest of the world? What does it mean for us here in Zimbabwe? What does it mean for me?

If God has made us capable of all good. If God has made us, has made me, capable of resisting anything that is unlike good, that means we have the strength right now to rise up and BE everything we can be. We cannot be held back - as individuals or as nations or people - by anything evil.

It is my sincere hope and prayer that the world will exercise this God-given ability. That we, here in Zimbabwe, don't give in to whatever form of evil tries to hold us back. That as a world we don't grow bitter and selfish and only look out for our own interests. As an individual I pray that I never get trapped by circumstances or become governed by anything aside from God, Spirit.

Wishing everyone a blessed day...Keep the spirit alive and never stop hoping and striving for good. When we stop doing that, that is when evil has won.

Money, fuel, electricity

Three things on many people's minds in Zim: Money, fuel and electricity (or the lack thereof!) These three things are basics many of us need to function effectively, and they are three things that are sometimes hard to come by here. But so far so good...right now I have enough of all three so am feeling very blessed!!

I can hardly believe a week has gone by and my first week of school is finished. (you know the expression "TGIF"??!! Yea....ahh.....!) For those of you who don't know, I'm going Careers Counselling at a private school in Harare, and the third term of the year started this week. Since I'm living on campus I also had hostel duty (although thankfully don't have it this weekend)

There has been so much to learn and so much to adjust to. Since I was last here (May this year) the Zim currency has been "re-evaluated". WHat does this mean? Well, when I was last here you could buy a litre of petrol for $250,000. Yes, $250,000!!!! So to buy 20 litres you would be forking over wads of millions of dollars! As of the middle of August, the Reserve Bank slashed three zeros from the currency to "restore dignity" to the Zim dollar. Well, petrol is now "only" $700/litre - the equivalent of $700,000/litre with the old currency. So not sure how much "dignity" has been restored - or rather, how much the average person cares about the dignity when they can't afford the commodities because inflation is still raging ahead at over 1,000%!

But like I said, I am feeling particularly blessed. The dear friends I bought a car from handed it over with a full tank of petrol - so so far I haven't had to use a precious petrol coupon. (yes, we use coupons instead of cash!)

And then there are the electricity cuts...but that's another story for another day.

Needless to say, I'm loving it here! Every moment is an adventure and you can never predict how your day will turn out as there are so many variables!! But my friends and colleagues have been amazingly patient with me this first week and have really helped me settle in...and so far I haven't frozen...but there's time. (oh yes, didn't anyone tell you that the effect of global warming on Africa drops the temperatures dramatically??!! Kidding...I know no such scientific information...all I know is that September's supposed to be warm here and at night it is FREEZING!!!) Welcome to Africa!!!