As if for the first time, as if for the last time
As if for the first time
The day before yesterday, I went shopping in one of those supermarkets that are now selling groceries in US Dollars. It’s amazing how packed it was. People were shopping like crazy.
I stopped at a shelf that was loaded with mayonnaise. It had been long since I’d seen the stuff on a Zimbabwean supermarket shelf. US$5,00 for a 750g bottle. I was standing there doing some sums in my head, wondering if it was expensive or not, when up came a woman and her daughter of about ten.
“Mayonnaise!” the little girl seemed even more shocked than I had been to see it on the shelf. It was almost as if she was seeing a real bottle of mayonnaise for the first time in her life. The mother stopped and smiled at her. “Yes, you want it?”
Her daughter nodded furiously.
“Take one,” the older woman seemed proud that she was able to offer her daughter this treat.
The young girl reached up and excitedly picked a bottle.
Touched, I stopped doing sums and grabbed a bottle for myself. In my head I was now thinking, “what on earth have we done?”
Our kids get excited when they see mayonnaise on a supermarket shelf? In Chitungwiza a few weeks ago I witnessed a whole bunch of kids leaping and screaming for joy when the power came back on. What on earth have we done?
As if for the last time
Later on in the early evening I went for a bicycle ride around the neighbourhood. It’s been an intense week of work- trying to get a new website up, along with other pressing demands on my being- and I felt I needed to unwind. There I was riding along, listening to Enya, when at one of the gates I noticed I young couple (late teens or early twenties).
The girl was hugging the guy really REALLY tightly. Her arms were clamped around him so tight I could almost feel it myself. He, on the other hand, was trying to pull away- gently.
Against a post near the gate, his mode of transport awaited- a bicycle.
As I rode past I noticed she looked really sad. It was as if she was seeing him, hugging him, smelling him, touching him, for the very last time…
Written by fungaijames on October 31st, 2008 with
2 comments.
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fungaijames
Unofungei? Unoitei? I capture the stories that often escape the lenses of big media. I record the life of a pregnant nation. This is a door into the country that I love. These are my thoughts. These are my memories... 
#1. October 31st, 2008, at 7:36 PM.
And to think most Americans are finding ways to free themselves of eating…., especially staying as far away as possible from fattening substances like regular mayo…; I always find myself saying, “Here you are going into depressions because of wars with weight, while elsewhere (and I always mean Zimbabwe) it wouldn’t matter whether the Coke is regular or diet, with its real sugar or splenda, just being able to get it is the struggle. So, yes, my friend, what have we done?
Note: Each time I’m in a pushing a cart of food in a supermarket, a sense of guilt overcomes me, thinking, “Here I am looking at all this food, and elsewhere….”
Regarding the bike ride, you deserve it. You are doing a great job with these websites.