Of Coffee With Paw Paw

If you were having coffee with me, I would… as usual be happy you stopped by, unless of course you have never been here before and in that case I would say you are in for a treat… See nothing is normal and we would try out a steaming hot cup of paw paw/papaya ( at least I think it’s the same stuff right?)

You might want to know what brought this on, well, someone wanted me to research on the benefits of paw paws, which I did.

• Lowers cholesterol. Papaya is rich in fibre, Vitamin C and antioxidants which prevent cholesterol build up in your arteries.
• Helps in weight loss.
• Boosts your immunity.
• Good for diabetics.
• Great for your eyes.
• Protects against arthritis.
• Improves digestion.
• Helps ease menstrual pain.

And that the paw paw leaves contain more than 50 great nutrients such as Vitamin A, B-Vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, calcium, flavonoids, tannins, betacarrotene, folate, karpain, antioxidants, dietary fiber, and more.

Its good for skin and hair and there’s research which shows paw paw leaves may improve memory too. Since I had a “stash” of dried paw paw leaves I decided to crush and mess around with it and see what happens.

Kinda looks like something one could roll into a joint and smoke it….

If you were having coffee with me, in this case it would be dried paw paw leaves and it tastes… a bit green.. I have never eaten a colour before but if green had a flavour I imagine that is what it would taste like… adding sugar removes some of the bitterness and adding lemon makes it an interesting citrus tonic.

I think its something one could get used to… I can feel myself getting smarter. I might mess around and retwist up my own hair.

If you were having coffee with, I would tell you I cant believe I live in a world where people need to be told not to drink bleach… I mean it says so on the label

Also the disinfectant in here kinda looking whiskey coloured, and if lockdown does not end in a week as its supposed, I can see myself messing around with it…

Which reminds me, if you were to drink bleach, and it did not kill you, when you went to pee would it clean the toilet??

Lets blame the crazy ideas on the paw paw leaf tea, I think its affecting me, at least that’s my excuse unlike some of the world leaders we have, I wonder where from they got their government certificate to make decisions for the country.

Our government launched a commendable programme to offer relief funding for the vulnerable communities; for a minute lets not try to think about how much of the population is going to face challenging times ahead between the coronavirus, a drought and economic meltdown or that the $180 ZWL is about equal to $5USD (parallel market rate) and not much of a bail out; when The Food Poverty Line #FPL for one person in March 2020 according to ZIMSTATS was ZWL$473.03 but still its better than none. I was wondering how they would identify those who would get the funds

Apparently a “sophisticated algorithm” was used to select beneficiaries of the ZW$180 Covid-19 relief fund. The minister of finance claims they looked at how much money is in one’s bank account, mobile money wallet and using one’s cellphone number, figured out your location.

Sip you paw paw tea and lets not question whether or not the most vulnerable even have phones or bank accounts and lets not entertain any suspicions that a lot of that money is going to end up unaccountably missing because corruption in the system is like cancer preying on the noblest of intention.

Once upon a time the government lost 15 billion dollars….

If you were having paw paw tea with me, I would ask if you need a refill and if life before corona feels like a dream we have woken up from and can never get back to

I looked all around me
I asked the policeman and said
How much must I pay for my freedom?
He said to me, son
They won’ t build no schools anymore
They won’ t build no hospitals
All they’ ll build will be prison, prison

These lyrics by the late Lucky Dube from his song Prisoner seem to have taken a new meaning in these new age of corona.

Learning institutions seem like they are going to have a difficult time getting back to normal and some people suggest virtual learning as an easy alternative but access to the internet and the tech devices are going to provide a challenge. For starters we really need to start having conversations about the price of internet and getting zero rated information and educational sites and some people need to learn that The Internet is a lot more than Whatsapp and Facebook

Between all that I am always trying to build the blogging community in Africa and find ways of making the world, realise the value blogging has or can have, the shared lessons our blogs can teach. Sometimes I think nobody notices the effort I out in and other times the universe finds a way of letting me know:

Had you known about the benefits of paw paw before this post, but now you do, you are welcome.

A week ago a government official shared a tweet about how travellers who had returned from UK were refusing quarantine demanding being put in hotels the tweet sparked an exchange between people who wanted these people to return to where they came from while others were sympathetic to their plight…

Later their own version of events would emerge and some people would go on to realise how they had been quick to judge the situation…

At the very least blogging spaces offer you a place where you can be heard, how can the world hear us when we cant even listen to each other?

While you finish up your herbal infusion, I would tell you that Knives Out is my current favourite movie, maybe lockdown has scrambled my brains, when the ideal is unavailable the available becomes ideal .. check out my review below or just tell me if you have watched the movie.

So whats going on in your neck of the woods?

~B