Of Coffee With The Caged Bird

If you were having coffee with me I would be happy to welcome you into my cosy little cage…

Its week two of lockdown and I yearn, for freedom. That’s what the caged bird sings about, freedom. When will the outside be allowed because my dream is to touch the sky?

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you I am jealous of the birds flying out in the sky with big fluffy marshmallow clouds, they know the whispered secrets between the wind and skies but if you ask them, they won’t tell you, they will just whistle at you….

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you I am jealous of a stray cat that I last saw jumping over the security wall defying lockdown conditions for destinations unknown. When it returns maybe I will name it Freedom, just like a waving flag… Freedom is coming tomorrow

In the meantime, if you have a minute if you could pop over to the last story I wrote, it’s a magical realism vignette about the pets I have had and the symmetry of freedom, which may have been wildly inspired by Stephen King’s Pet Sematary… anyhow click on the image below to open that story in a new tab.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that our country celebrates its 40^th year of independence in a week on the 18^th of April. Lockdown is supposed to end the day after this but I suspect an extension is looming, several countries have extended theirs and WHO has warned countries against relaxing lockdowns

Our neighbouring country South Africa extended its deadline by two weeks and most of us are just waiting for our president to make a similar announcement… though in our case simply extending the deadline without any metrics seems in exercise in futility.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that as at current stats 14 people out of a cumulative of 563 tests conducted have confirmed positive for the coronavirus.

People worry about the low numbers due to low testing meanwhile the police are more vested in arresting people who are defying lockdown, 5226 people have been arrested in the first fortnight of the Zimbabwe Lockdown.

If you were having coffee with me, I would ask you if like me you think there’s interestingly a lack of information of what you are supposed to do when you contract COVID-19. Stay home, wash your hands and don’t touch your face is what you are told, everyday, but lets say you do have it what then? Are there some things you could do to help lessen the symptoms, I am not saying a cure, I am just saying some remedy that would make life bearable or are you just supposed to tough it out and hope its not the serious case that needs ventilators and hospitalization…

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you, I have no idea what flatten the curve means though I have seen this phrase being thrown around a lot when encouraging people to stay at home…

Staying at home is easy for some people, but what about the others who need to go out and hustle for their daily bread.  The government recently allowed for money transfer agencies to resume work citing how some families relied on remittances from diaspora communities for sustenance, later on they allowed for the largest fresh produce market Mbare Msika to reopen as the vendors who operate from there also rely on it for a living. These were good decisions but without structures of how this would operate it can simply be opening the door to chaos…

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that one of the 4 coronavirus deaths was confirmed post-mortem one wonders how many others cases are under the radar or how about the cases of pneumonia that seem to be rising but aren’t being tested for COVID-19 because don’t meet the WHO case definition, since they only test symptomatic patients… maybe the door to chaos is already open and we are far from ready….

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that when I reviewed the movie Contagion finding parallels to whats happening now, I had tried not to think about how society collapsed in the movie and the riots and looting… I have been seeing reports and videos about looting of liquor outlets in South Africa and I don’t mean to be alarmist but looks like if not contained people will get bolder and a tiny spark  could lead to a large bang…..

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell I half forgot this was an Easter weekend, everyday seems like a blur of the same day over and over again. If all days could be the same day repeated why cant it feel like a Friday, instead each day feels like a crossover between Sunday and Monday…

I have been tracking my computer usage and looks like I have been quite productive in the past week and also been highly distracted if you look at these statistics.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that hours spend on Google Analytics Academy did pay off and I have a cool certificate to show for it, well I am not an expert but hey I now understand analytics better, when the outside is allowed I might add web analytics to my CV…. you can read my new found insights on analytics below

If you having coffee with me, I would tell how I am watching the birds fly past the windows and I wish I could touch the sky, they know secrets and they just whistle at you and even when you cage them they will still trill…

I guess that explains how we can still find laughter even when the world turns upside down. I have been laughing at memes of this sextet of Ghanaian pall bearer funeral dancers who perform highly amusing choreography sequences at funerals

How is your neck of the woods? Maybe there’s some freedom in death.

I know why the caged bird sings

~B