July 14

The electricity is still off and all calls to Zesa prove useless.

Me: Hello, I would like to report a fault in Hillside.

Zesa: It has been reported.

Me: Do you have any idea what the problem is.

Zesa: We have not been informed.

Me: Do you have any idea when it will come on again?

Zesa: We have not been informed.

When it does come on again, I do my Thank You, Zesa dance.  This involves a lot of jumping in the air and shouting, 'Zesa, you're the best!' Due to the acute shortage of water in Bulawayo, we only get municipal water twice a week and the rest of the time rely on our tank - but the tank won't work without electricity. If I had to choose between the two, I think I could probably live without electricity, but I cannot live without ready water.

I did a very foolish thing recently: I bought two African Violets.  African Violets and I do not do well and the only reason I bought them was because I felt sorry for the vendor selling them.  Feeling sorry for vendors is one of my great downfalls in life.  When we lived in Ndola, there was a vendor outside one of the shops who always sold wooden spoons and so I always bought them.  I bought so many, I used to give them to people as presents.  In the end, John had to take me aside and tell me, in no uncertain terms, that I had to stop buying them.  The funny thing is that no long after that, we went on holiday to the UK and I bought wooden spoons from a homeless man selling them on the pavement.  They are the only wooden spoons John has approved of as they are very nicely carved.

In my first year at university in the UK, I bought an African Violet in the misguided belief that it somehow connected me with home.  My mum always had African Violets on the windowsill in the kitchen.  Unfortunately, despite all my valiant efforts, the flower died and I have had a great fear of having one since then.  I don't like fussy flowers, the type whose roots only must be wet (how on earth do you manage that one?) or who must be in full sun in the morning but shade in the afternoon.  This is all far too much hard work.  I just want to throw some seeds in the ground, water it a couple of times a week and see flowers bloom. Why then have I just bought two African Violets?