Becoming The Muse

Bus Ride From Bulawayo To Harare

Being in a 6 hour bus ride is quite a testing experience… Also in an interesting aside why do we have a travel culture of people wanting to snack when they travel? (Un)Fortunately this bus had air-con and the windows were sealed shut so one couldnt go around buying snacks from vendors outside.

The in-house entertainment was not working, which was actually a good thing because local buses seem to have same playlists, as if all the buses are shipped with exclusive distribution rights for Dorcas Moyo and Blessing Shumba… Its fun until its not and you visualise sticking your fingers into your ears till you pop an ear drum…

The road isn’t very smooth so while packing a book to read seems like a genius move, you might find the actual reading to be stressful and end up just looking out the window and enjoying the view, which is about as much fun as watching paint dry…

@beatonm5

Reading a book on a long bus ride Intruders by Mohale Mashigo booktok bookworm

♬ Look at the Sky – Porter Robinson

I was tempted to take out my laptop and watch a movie, but first I had to do a very important Zoom call… I could feel the other passengers drilling me full of holes with their eyes. With important business out of the way I then filmed parts of the view outside my window… bookmark and watch 🔖

The journey was a return trip from the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair which I had attended so I could provide media coverage… Media coverage, that’s right, I am an accredited media person, how about that.

Being accredited has its uses, such as not being nervous about walking over to a group of police going over their duties and asking them if they don’t mind if you record them for a publication…. I am not a big fan of the police but I was impressed with how during the Trade Fair, they were controlling the traffic to help people cross a busy highway to get to the exhibition grounds.

While I was doing my coverage shenanigans, someone came up to me, super excited that he had never met a media personality in real life and asked if I could record him, as he had never been filmed for TV before.

Of course I didn’t have the heart to burst his bubble and tell him that the video clip would only end on my blog and most likely never be televised, neither was I a hot shot media personality. He was beaming and it was contagious.

After the interaction I was thinking about how sometimes I might feel like I have not made it, at least not in the way the over-achiever version of me expects, but here I am doing things I would never have dreamt of, forging diplomatic relations, meeting up with foreign dignitaries, and watching a community of African Bloggers taking charge of their storytelling narratives.

Its so easy to downplay our wins… next time when someone asks if I am a media personality I am going to graciously affirm, as per my Intellifluence profile I am one of the top 10 Zimbabwean influencers, so put some respect on your favourite blogging uncle…

~B

#WinterABC24