Of Coffee, Thanks Giving And Best of The Year
Hello December hello, that is how I would greet you, if you were having coffee with me. It’s finally the Friday of the months, there’s something about December, no matter how hard your year has been, come December you usually try to end the year on a festive spirit with Christmas being the highlight of the year. Small wonder January is a bit of a difficult month, imagine jumping from Friday to Monday without the weekend in between.
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that the last Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day in America but here in Zimbabwe its not on our calendar. I mostly know about it from the movies that there’s family dinner traditionally with turkey. We may not celebrate it but I love its sentiment; in a world with so much going wrong, stopping to give thanks for that which we have, family, friends and life.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that I don’t think I have seen any shops with Christmas décor up yet, or heard snippets of Christmas music playing in the stores. Maybe its still early days but growing up I remember a time when by mid-November you would know that the holidays are coming and before schools closed some class would have done a nativity play.
Perhaps I have outgrown Christmas or maybe it’s a sign of the times; could even be a bit of both, 2019 has been a challenging year, and if there’s a year when Christmas felt like it should be cancelled or postponed or the Grinch stole Christmas this would be it, but then the holidays have been commercialized so much we forget the Christian meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ.
If you were having coffee with me I would say, walk up to any random stranger in the street and just sigh and say “Pakaipa” an urban Shona slang meaning “things are bad” and soon you will be bonding over the hyper-inflation, the rising prices of well basically everything, the electricity shortages and having to come up with an inventive bathroom schedule because you cant count on having running water…
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that for the next couple of days will be participating in a 25 days of holidays blogging challenge, themed Best Of The Year #BOTY2019
I will be looking back on the year and celebrating some of the highlights, kind of like an award ceremony for the Best Of The Year 2019
I did this challenge last year alongside other bloggers; this year feel free to join in the fun and do check out the hashtag #BOTY2019 during the course of the month, you can click button below to see my posts from last year
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you I am thankful that I have never needed to visit a doctor this whole year. Doctors at state institutions have been on strike for close to 3 months now citing incapacitation and the government fired 440+ of the striking doctors and apparently now trying to fast-track the current medical students into becoming practicing doctors, sounds like a shortcut to halfbaked doctors and that cant be good.
Strive Masiyiwa, a philanthropist and owner of the largest telecoms company in Zimbabwe through his Higher Life Foundation made an offer to supplement the doctors income for the next seven months but they have “kindly” rejected the offer
They also rejected another moratorium by the government and mediated by Catholic Bishops that all the fired doctors could return to work no questions asked provided they did so within a 48 hour ultimatum…. they havent returned
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you its so hard to find a functional sector of this country I keep asking myself if the people in charge have a plan or they are just making it up as they go.
Still each day I get up and give thanks and try not think about of things could be worse….
Happy holidays
~B
PS This holiday season I am sending out personalized postcards to a few select bloggers provided when you get it you will share it on your blog because am curious to know how long snail mail takes to get to you and I love handwritten sentiments of the posted kind.
If you are interested please hit the contact me button with your details and my people (meaning me…) will get back to you as soon as possible
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?