October 22

My alarm rings at 5am and I almost fall out of bed I am in such a hurry to grab a bar of soap and my towel and run down to the cottage and have a shower before the electricity goes off. As it is Tuesday, the municipal water is off so unless there is electricity, the tank won't work.

There is a beautiful sunrise.  The moon is still up and the sky is the most delicate of pinks.

There is talk of a public holiday on Friday.  This is so we can all go and protest against the supposed sanctions placed on Zimbabwe by the West which are apparently crippling it.  As far as we all know, the only sanctions are those imposed on government ministers, their wives and families who enjoy travelling to London and New York at the average Zimbabwean's expense and splashing out in Harrods and Bloomingdale's.

At midday, John messages me to say that he managed to buy electricity, but it is now off.  A few weeks ago, our bank changed everyone's bank numbers but didn't tell anyone what the new one was.  Everyone is expected to go in, fill in a form, wait in a queue and be grateful if, after at least two hours, they are given the new information.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a look at our page on booking.com from the perspective of a visitor looking to stay. Ever since, I get a daily message from Booking.com, saying 'Bryony, Bulawayo is waiting for you! It's the exclamation mark that really gets to me; there is no need for that kind of exuberance.
I receive a message.  Do we do weddings?  Absolutely not.  Not unless you want Rolo in all your pictures.  I tell them that we do not have a lodge, we have a two-bedroomed cottage. Later, the same person messages again.  Can we accommodate 25 people? Sigh.  Some people just don't get it.

Late afternoon, it rains for about a minute.  We all get incredibly excited.  The smell of rain on dust is one of the most beautiful smells in the world.  I think that if we left Africa, that is what I would miss the most.