Having lived in Zimbabwe my entire life, I guess I have come to terms with the pros and cons of living in the Third World. After all it is all that I have known for most of my life.
I love the hustle and bustle of the City of Bulawayo. The fact that there is always someone near you. Pedestrians abound, because 'footing it' is probably the only way to get around really, few motor cars, few buses, few combis, few bicycles and with very little money to pay for public transport, it is probably the only way to get around.
I remember when I was young the road was thronged with folk on bikes. Those marvellous old Raleighs with the square handlebars, front and back brakes and no gears at all!! I think another name for the bikes was a Sampson if I am correct
There are always people on the roads, sitting on the verges, walking here there and everywhere or these days the lucky few, waiting for transport on the side of the road with a series of convoluted gestures as to how far one needed to travel.
In The First world , except in the big cities, there are very few pedestrians, you just try crossing a fifteen lane highway, it takes enormous courage even if there are pedestrian lights!! In the suburbs yes there are walkers and joggers but noone actually walking from A to B for a purpose. Everyone has a car, and then there is Uber!!
Well I am a big fan of Uber in the USA as I absolutely refuse to drive and HeeHoo is not always around to ferry me. Its so reasonable to Uber and generally the time passes quickly as there is always something to chat about with an Uber Driver.
One of the amazing things I have learned from being here, is that there is no reason to be aware of theft as one is in Africa, No need to tuck my cell phone deep in the depths, no need to clutch ones handbag close to ones chest, you can happily leave it on a table or on the supermarket trolly. If you do leave your mobile or even your wallet or handbag in a restaurant or cinema, chance are high that you will get your property back intact in no time at all.
Dry cleaning is a breeze, one merely hangs ones clothes on a hook outside the front door, and hey presto, in a day or two's time, one will get home to find ones clothes neatly valeted, hanging in plastic covers, beautifully cleaned and pressed, on the front doorstep, again in full view of the road, with no great walls and fences to keep anyone out of one's property.
The cherry on the top came yesterday when HeeHoo was updating an app on his vehicle GPS. The update arrived on a flash stick in the post. Parcels are left on the front doorstep, no matter what they contain - iPhones, computers, Amazon deliveries are dropped off by UPS and Fedex and one can be quite sure not to have ones property purloined, even if the porch is two feet from the road.
HeeHoo plugged the flash stick into one of the many USB ports in the car, the car is fitted with its own WiFi, and all that was needed was fifty minutes of download time to update the GPS.
HeeHoo happily took me to the store, left his car running, with the keys in it, outside the store in the parking lot while we shopped, and hey presto, GPS was updated, and most impressive of all, the car was still there when we had finished shopping!!
One often comes across cars running driverless in the car park, especially if its very hot or very cold. Coming from the Third World I think this is an awful waste of 'gas', and I chastised HeeHoo accordingly!!!!