Christmas Shopping the Easy Way

      14/12/2024       Next-->

I pity those poor folk who are doing their Christmas shopping on Amazon or Take-a-Lot!!

They are missing all the fun!!
Bulawayo at Christmas time is such a joyous time..

Those Amazon scrollers are unable to experience the exhilarating games of Russian Roulette played at the out-of-order traffic lights!!
They are unable to join the parking lot jeopardy game where the cars don't give way to pedestrians but do their best to run them over!

There are an amazing amount of disabled folk in Bulawayo, all the special parking places are filled with perfectly able looking drivers, tossing their takeaway packets out of the window with radios on at full blast.

Lines and lines of hopeless looking people circle the banks, Ecocash points and ATMs desperate for a few dollars to buy water and bread. Water should be a free and given right in any city
Oh no the Internet is down again, there is a power fault, but cannot afford to lose my place in the queue, so I sit down on the boiling hot pavement and swat at the desultory flies, and all the while, the hottest summer in decades is taking its toll.

If one shops by Amazon or Take-a-lot, one misses the people's preoccupation with the sky, scanning furiously, forever hopefully, looking rain clouds. Is it Cumulus Or Stratus or Cirrus The most visited sites on the internet right now in Zimbabwe are the Rainfall Outlook sites..

Another glorious pastime undertaken by Christmas shoppers, is the TTI Peril! Now the TTI, as they are fondly known, is Zimbabwe's own Municipal Police Force, designed solely to hassle the Christmas shoppers in the CBD.

The youngsters in the yellow fluorescent jackets are nice enough, friendly, courteous, amiable, but don't you dare park with even a millimetre of your tyre on the non-existent white line, or venture one metre away from your vehicle without paying your dollar, and you will become embroiled in a scenario that will stick in your mind forever!!

But shopping in person has its upside too! There's Maxwell, waving at me happily, sitting in the same place, on the same piece of cardboard for the last twenty years, selling his beautifully woven wicker and cane furniture. There is Sipho, resplendent in her neat apron, she sells wooden spoons, curios and baskets. There is Richard the Rascal, he manufactures beautiful wire beaded chameleons, geckos and flowers. Richard merchandises to each season too, today it's green and red Christmas wreaths, and miniature Christmas trees!!

Ah yes, its much more fun out here in the sweltering heat, dodging the potholes, playing death defying traffic games, and waiting for rain, than sitting in a cool room, doing one's Christmas shopping on the internet!!


WATCH DOG

The Morning Mirror will be taking a break over the Christmas period.
The Last edition for 2024 will be flighted on the 17 December and the first edition for 2025 will be flighted on the 7 January.


Betty from Good Hope Orphan Care would like to have a Christmas party for all the children on the 18th of December at the Nketa hall.
They are looking for donations of any kind that will go towards their day (from food to second hand clothing). Please may you place an advert on the Morning Mirror

Donors can contact Betty direct on 0773 743 671 or drop of items at Edith Duly