Of Coffee With Change

If you were having coffee with me, would be happy to have you visit my corner of the internet, welcome make yourself comfy. Today we had weather, a funny way of saying it’s cold, it should be summer but the weather is being plain weird these parts, climate change maybe?..

The way it is not warm…

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) August 30, 2021

Last time as I tried on my hoodie, well, paying attention to people who told me that hair doesn’t get cold *stares into screen* so you can just stick it out the hoodie either to both sides or to a single side.. I have been laughing at myself for not trying such a simple solution I have no idea what I have been doing haha…

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If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that I am happy to tell you that I survived another trip into town today. ^_^ First had to wait for what felt like ages trying to flag down a lift. One suspicious car did stop for me, a Toyota Vitz, new shape, metallic blue paint and windows tinted so dark, that you could not see who or what was inside, I just ignored it the way Mr Bean ignores that 3 wheeled excuse of a car, one can never be too safe.

Finally flagged down a banger of a mini panel van, packed with people which seemed like a safer choice, with its cracked windscreen and a driver with his hoodie up like some sort of monk.

Between worrying whether you are in a vehicle with well-intentioned people to worrying about how recklessly they will drive when the police start chasing your vehicle as they will throw tyre spikes and such yeah one is always thankful to reach their destination.

For my return trip, I managed to board an official ZUPCO for a change. The pricing system is weird, the trip costs $90 (ZWL) which is marginally cheaper than pirate taxis but if you pay in USD they will “rate” it and won’t give you change back… Money changing opportunists will be lurking by the ZUPCO terminus to change your $1USD into $120 ZWL local currency at parallel market rate which makes more sense and cents than using US Dollars directly

A gentleman next to me asked if I could transfer mobile money to him since he wanted to buy calling credit and only had USD notes, this was a bit of a scoop for me as I also needed USDs to pay back someone who wanted their money back and would only accept it in Real Money and not the funny money. So we exchanged currencies which was a somewhat not legal transaction but a win win for both of us, I gave him a higher rate than he could have gotten and I acquired USD at a lower rate than had I tried to buy from the money changers

Trust me, I live here and even I don’t even get what happened with our economy.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that the country is set to receive close to a $1 billion payout from IMF Special Drawing Rights which the Minister of Finance says “will go a long way in buttressing the stability of our domestic currency.” I have no idea what that means or entails but I hope it means that things will change for the better even if am not holding my breath….

Today the city was packed with parents and guardians finalizing the schools opening which feels like it was kinda of an ambush. Even though the government insists that it had been telling people to be ready for schools opening…  I mean just last week they had announced that lockdown had been extended by two weeks and then the following day up and announced that schools would be re-opening starting the following Monday (meaning today) for exam classes and the rest the next Monday. Wait, what about lockdown, curfew and all that jazz?… heck if I know.

Oh and restaurants are now open to sit-in patrons provided that they produce their fully vaccinated cards, and some companies now won’t allow employees to report for work if they aren’t fully vaccinated… I was just thinking about this as I sat in my transport home, how long it would take till they say we can’t be in public transport without the vaccination cards… Oh snap am I giving them ideas…

Meanwhile, I had an urge to cough and when I did, I noticed people high key adjusting their masks.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that The Zambian president was inaugurated last week and I was thinking how ironically on that same day in 2018 our own president was being declared the duly elected winner by the Supreme Court after the opposition party had petitioned to challenge the election results.. Anyhoo our president congratulated Zambia on its 7^th time in changing presidents, looks like they have more experience at this thing than we have..

I am proud that this is the 7th time Zambia has changed Presidents and it has been done smoothly.I believe that SADC and the rest of Africa should take pride in knowing that we have countries in the continet where transition of power is done without incident says @edmnangagwa. pic.twitter.com/XhzNmgxUo0

— ZBC News Online (@ZBCNewsonline) August 23, 2021

Oh and of course for the last Saturday of the month Afrobloggers hosted its usual Bloggers’ Meetup and the theme was play as we talked about how childhood play shaped the adults we become. I worry about the kids these days, I mean growing up I climbed trees, fell from them and the holes in my jeans were from experiencing life, through play.. Now kids just home stuck watching cartoons and playing video games… Good thing schools have opened, a change in pace perhaps.

Group Selfie @afrobloggers pic.twitter.com/7eznSMuThT

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) August 28, 2021

So whats been going on in your neck of the woods?

~B