If you were having coffee with me, I would be happy to have you visit. You are just in time the water has boiled and coffee will be served with a mud cake, hand moulded and sun baked.
It doesn’t matter how old you are, but when a young child bakes you “cake” and invites you to a tea party. You attend. You smile. You sip on your pretend tea (which could be in a pretend cup or an empty cup or maybe just plain water if you are lucky because it could be a suspicious leafy concoction) You ”pretend” to chew your mud cake and when asked if it tastes ok, you reply that it’s delicious.
Don’t act like, as a child, you never baked a mud cake and played house with the kids next door, I bet you even took a real bite from a slice of mud cake… I know I did.
And now here we are playing pretend on the internet, I pretend you are having coffee with me and you sit right there where you are, read this and imagine we are having coffee and conversation.
If you are having coffee with me, I would tell you that, someone from my book club, The Harare Book Club made a comment that having met me, in person, I am a cool, calm and collected individual and you would never imagine I was wordsmith dabbling in swashbuckling literary (s)word play (well it wasn’t in those exact words but it was along those lines) and this was after I had posted a message designed to be provocative and signed off as The Torrent Pirate.
But if you ask me, I promise you I am the same person, just that, in the real world *gesturing outdoors* I am less likely to speak my mind yet always on the verge of almost speaking… I observe things and I write them down.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you there had been a spirited conversation in the Book Club in response to the age old problem of piracy which had been sparked after a fellow member shared their article Fighting My Inner Pirate. I think that book piracy is more a symptom than the actual problem, be it authors and publishers still trying to hold on to traditional publication, to having flawed distribution networks, incorrect pricing models and also socio-economic factors…
As an author do you think your body of work qualifies as something your reader has to make a choice between reading your book and starving? Do you want to be read or paid? I guess both would be ideal, now can we figure out a system, a new one, one, that is mutually beneficial. Otherwise we may as well as play pretend with mud and watch the world revolt.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that the country’s security chiefs hosted a press conference to dismiss the rumours of an impending coup and declare that Zimbabwe is peaceful and stable unlike the medley of falsehoods being peddled by political adversaries and opportunistic elites.
Before this announcement I hadn’t been aware there had been rumours of an imminent coup, well, at least none that were serious enough to warrant a special press conference declaring the country’s stability. From experience whenever the government announces something, the opposite is usually true; once they said we were prepared for COVID, turns out we weren’t, the numbers keep rising each day. They said they had quarantine facilities ready for returning residents but we have had cases of people escaping quarantine because of the horrendous conditions. They said the economy was on the road to recovery and here we are now with an inflation that’s over 700% and have even government officials saying its like the economy is plagued by demons. They say the country is stable…
So when an announcement is made that there is no imminent coup, the mind wonders what game of politricks is afoot, mudding the waters, after all we have had a coup-like something before, which lead to the late former president ‘retiring’. Meanwhile COVID seems to be the perfect scapegoat….
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that the president has declared 15 June 2020 Presidential Day of Prayer and Fasting in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A virtual service will be broadcasted on State and Social Media from 10am to noon, and the nation is invited to attend.
I really wish they would also pray about the demons plaguing the economy, that cannot be seen but can felt, and the corruption that eats away at our core, each day we read and hear about scandalous multi-million dollar deals. Invited to fast but never to the feast.
Meanwhile although we are still at Level 2 lockdown restrictions government has eased some of the regulations, people can now attend church services provided the congregation is less than 50 (right on time for the national day of prayer and fasting) The informal sector is also set resume provided they register with the local authority. With over 75% of the population informally employed, lockdown has been difficult, especially when you factor in the continuously rising prices. But still I wonder about the registration requirements, if they will end up another way to control people and also become a goldmine for corrupt authorities who will line their pockets to issue the registration papers or to look the other way when they spot an unregistered informal trader.
If you were having coffee with me, I would ask you if you would have another slice of mud its all I can afford, in this teapot shaped country.
Whats been going on in your neck of the woods?.
~B
PS the winter blogging challenge is still in full swing we half way through and now have about a 100 participants spread throughout 11 countries. Awoooah!!!
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?