If you were having coffee with me, I would happy to welcome you here, social distance protocol observed….
Would you like a pinch of salt in your coffee?…. I accidentally added some salt into my herbal tea, well the sugar did look like salt… until the first sip…. I was just thinking about how if I were to tell people that adding a pinch of salt into a beverage of your choice would boost your immunity and help prevent COVID, you would probably find that a salt shortage would start and the global price of salt would increase….
That’s the power of stories, one doesn’t need any scientific evidence to believe a story, its like we are born with this insatiable need to believe the stories around us even when we really should take the stories people tell with a pinch salt…
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you about how in my latest adventures of going into town, every trip is practically an adventure…. I got to ride in a station wagon, and I was sitting in the boot section, I didn’t complain too much because I got a discounted fare and so I saved a couple of bond notes which in hindsight turned out to be a lifesaver….
For the return trip I got into a pirate taxi expecting the fare to be the standard $1 which could be paid as $100ZWL bond using what has became the default street rate… Imagine my surprise when the conductor announced that the fare would now be $120 which means the street rate of the Zimbabwean Dollar rate has taken another tumble… The Zim dollar rate has been on a downward spiral since the government instituted Statutory Instrument 127 of 2021 officially the rate is at 1:85 but who listens…. Certainly not the conductor of a pirate taxi who tells you boldly to get off if you cant pay…
Fortunately for me, I had saved a couple of bond on my earlier trip so, I had enough to cover the unexpected fare increase, but I wouldnt say the same thing for a fellow passenger.. He was pleading with the conductor that he only had $100 Bond left and couldn’t afford the extra $20. He also refused to get off when the conductor told the driver to stop the taxi so the gentleman with the insufficient taxi fare could get lost.. You cant imagine the commotion that was going on with this guy pleading to just go home or if they could take him at least further along the way…
I still had a bit of cash due to my earlier good fortune and passed the conductor a $20 bond note to cover his remaining fare and we finally got on our way… A few minutes later the gentleman taps my shoulder and I assume its to thank me or something but instead he hands me money and winks saying “you know what Rasta, its not that I didn’t have the money, but we cant let these people just have their way with us like this….”
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that you have to take every story with a pinch of salt… Schools were supposed to be opening today but due to increase in COVID-19 cases that has been deferred by two weeks… When stories started circulating that schools opening would be post-poned the governemt was quick to issue out a statement that this was untrue…
And a few hours later ..…
How do you believe anyone if they say one thing then do another thing totally different, cant blame people for banking at the NMB (National Mattress Banking) because cant trust that money in the bank will be safe… The Central Bank is trying to encourage people to bank money asking banks to start giving interests and such… but we remember what happened the last time, they promised money in the banks was safe… Fool me once…
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that the COVID cases are increasing and the ministry of health twitter account has taken to giving midnight updates and I can feel it another hard lockdown is looming.. Word on the street almost expected there to be increased lockdown starting today… Our neighbouring country South Africa had new measures announced yesterday… and we seem to read from the same playbook, so I am just waiting for the shoe to drop…
And speaking about news in South Africa remember the story of lady who was said to have given birth to decuplets, well it turns out it was a hoax, which is reflecting badly on the journalist who broke the story, the media company he works for and the journalism fraternity in general. The lady in question was reported to be undergoing psychiatric evaluation and she didn’t seem to show any signs of having given birth meanwhile the journalist maintains that he stands by his story but the facts don’t seem to be in his favour… do you want more salt with your coffee?
If you are having coffee with me I would tell you that it’s the final week of the WinterABC and its all about storytelling… and if you haven’t you can catch up on my last batch of posts from the Fashion and culture week
•50 strands of dread – me just showing off my hair
•Hairxpress yourself – Africaniwa virtual exhibition
•HairExperiences – navigating life while rasta
•The Origins Of The Shona – a quick research into the History of the Shona Language
•Vana vana vana vana vana vana – you just have to check this one out yourself
And of course we had the monthly virtual bloggers meet up and it was in collaboration with Wired 2 love and Thrive about blogging as a therapeutic tool with guests such as Elise Tirza from Ghana who blogs at lettersfromthisheart.com heart and the duo of Linathi Makanda and Loic Ekinga from And That’s The Chat! podcast….
Whats the story from your neck of the woods?
~B
PS Am curious when did you last see a commercial or advert for salt? ^_^
Becoming The Muse 
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