I stand to be corrected, maths was never my strong point, but we folk on the Squash Courts side of suburbs have had approximately half of our civilised power supply for the last few weeks.
Just this last week alone, out of a possible 168 hours we had no power for 80 hours, and most of those outages were during the day. We are however allowed glorious power when we are all asleep...
Most days the power goes off at 5.25 am and returns at ten pm, eleven pm, and sometimes midnight!
The reason I have been keeping a close watch on the power this week is because our own home fail safe power method, carefully thought out by HeeHoo, collapsed in monumental way. That Zimbabwe Ghost reared its ugly head and destroyed our very existence!!!
What are the essentials We had worked out that for our sedentary lifestyle, its lights, TV, Wifi, pumps for water and fridges and carefully assembled an array of gadgets to cover all these exigencies including a generator for emergencies. But Boom !! Even the trusty generator was shaking its head in bewilderment!
Now I am well aware that we are the privileged few that are complaining about power and that the majority of women in Zimbabwe still cook over fires and draw their water from a well miles away, but this is 2024 and not the Middle Ages!!
That aside, an amusing fact that has been punted by the media, is that the USA election results can be partially 'blamed', demographically, on Middle Aged Women !!
It's hilarious but it made me feel good having always been an ardent women's libber! Musing on the disappointing ZESA figures before me I wondered if us Middle Aged Woman could possibly make a difference to the power woes in Zimbabwe! But sadly the women in my circle are well past middle age, we are indeed demographically challenged!!
So it's now up to the Middle Aged Zimbabwean Women to take the reins and help sort out this benighted country!! We have hundreds of astute, powerful, magnificent Zimbabwean women in this country, where are they Is it a socialist doctrine, reduce everyone to foraging around trying to eke out a very existence, and they will have no time to rise up and demand what is rightfully theirs
And so as I wake up before the crack of dawn, to load and run the washing machine, boil the kettle, shower and dry my hair, I wonder how the average urban Zimbabwe woman copes with this barbaric power arrangement No water, no power, children to feed before school, homework to be done in the dawn's early rays, a pile of clothing needing to be washed....
Zimbabweans have always been admired for their tolerance and lack of angry demonstrations against injustice, why Because they have no darn time for anything except trying to keep body and soul together.
WATCHDOG
The Bulawayo Theatre Club proudly presents our pantomime
'Little Red Riding Hood'
The Gala Evening will be on 6th December with
All proceeds to Bulawayo Help Network.