Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006
Subject: Cement Bag
Dear Family and Friends,
This letter is being sent out three days later than
normal because I am now entering the 92nd hour with only enough electricity
for lights in my home. At midday on Friday the voltage to my home crashed and
the power is insufficient to heat the water geyser, run a fridge or stove or even
boil a kettle. 25 telephone calls to the electricity supplier in the last four
days, a personal visit to the faults office, a number of offers to provide fuel or
go and collect electricians are all to no avail. In the villages less than 15
kilometres out of Marondera there is also no electricity which means the
grinding mills are not working. I was told by a friend that there are scores of people now going without food and that the atmosphere is extremely tense.
This morning there is literally mud coming out of the taps in my home which
means there are problems pumping water too. Zimbabwe is now entering the darkest
of days. It is hard to describe how anyone is surviving now and this week I had
the most amazing encounter which helped me put my own problems into perspective.
Standing at the entrance gates of a wholesaler there was a thin, gaunt, tired
looking man. On the ground next to him was a small pile of empty cement bags. He
bent and picked up a bag and held it towards me, asking me to buy it. An empty
cement bag, turned inside out and with two crude holes cut into the top for
handles. "Only thirty thousand dollars" the man said to me. This was literally
just an empty cement bag, it hadn't been sewn, reinforced or even cleaned very
well. I could think of no earthly reason why I would want an empty cement bag
but the look in the mans eyes, the slight trembling of his hand and the thinness
of his body gave me a whole lot of reasons. I gave the man forty thousand
dollars and told him to keep the change. I took my cement bag and the man called
out "God bless you, thank you," as I walked away. We both knew that the money
I'd just handed over would the man just half a loaf of bread but to me, and
obviously to him, selling cement bags enables a slither of dignity to be maintai
ned. Please keep the people of Zimbabwe in your thoughts and prayers in these
very hard times and thank you for reading.
Love
Cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle
7th March 2006. http://africantears.netfirms.com
My books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are
available from:
orders@africabookcentre.com
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