Becoming The Muse

Coffee With Rice

If you were having coffee with me, I would be happy to have you visit my tangle of words. Make yourself at home. Hope you don’t mind some rice in your sugar…

We are going to pretend that “someone” added brown sugar into the rice jar to absorb moisture, thus prevent it from getting lumpy and not because the electricity outages meant one could not see which jar was which jar and so here we are…. Some rice with your coffee.

Rice is such a lifesaver, ever dropped a phone in water and ended up having to put it in rice to absorb the moisture. My current phone has a decent IPX rating so dropping it in a bucket while bathing hasn’t been something to worry about. Why would the phone fall in a bucket while bathing some of you might wonder… well by now you know we have electricity challenges and the phone’s flash serves as a handy flashlight… using a phone as a torch in the bathroom is just an accident waiting to happen….

There is also a water situation which has been going on for so long its become normal to bath from a bucket in the bathtub. I ran into an article on emergency gift buckets about how one should keep buckets with emergency supplies such as water to be prepared…. in case of emergency situations.

When considering what we already do, having buckets and drums of water stored up for daily use, does this mean we could be classified as living in a state of emergency, where one cant trust the electricity to be there when you flip on a switch or that you turn the tap and water comes out…. Maybe the country needs to be put in rice…

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that in Masvingo, a tourist was arrested for spreading falsehoods by recording a video in which he complained about the water or electricity in the country… ironically during the trial, there was no electricity in the court-room and the lawyer asked if it would be a falsehood to point that out…. if convicted the tourist could face 20 years in jail for publishing a false statement with intention to incite the public.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you about how growing up, when important guests visited us, we would be expected to be on Sunday best behaviour, there would be soda drinks and mum would bring out the special dinner-service that was reserved for Christmas dinner and other special occasions. If one misbehaved, they would get that talking eye that signified that as soon as the guests left there would be shedding of premium tears….

The 44th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads State and Government will be held on the 17^th of August 2024 in Harare, Zimbabwe. The government has spared no expense in ensuring that the visitors will be impressed, roads are being renovated, trees being painted, palm trees planted, streets are being cleaned out, pirate taxis are being shut down and street vendors cleared out from the CBD.

There’s also been a clampdown on activists ahead of the summit with civic societies complaining about violation of rights. Another irony is how the preemptive moves to discourage disruptive behaviour during the summit portrays the government in an unflattering light which might actually result in what they had hoped to prevent in the first place…

If you were having coffee with me I would ask if you know who doesn’t need to be put on rice? Olympic shooters from Turkey and South Korea. Watching their performance felt like the stuff movies are made of. Picture it; an old retired agent coming back to do one last job but what they didn’t count on was their protégé having orders to leave no loose ends….. *saves story idea to drafts*

The Olympics have not been without their drama from disqualifications to key athletes pulling out from their last Olympic event participation… anyway the show goes on…. Team Zimbabwe has been performing well and 2 Zimbabwean athletes are through to the men’s 200m finals….. They run like they are trying to leave their problems behind…. Thought the Olympics would distract me from the problems of home but everything reminds me of home….

Oh look look look we been here for 11 years…. Whats been going on in your neck of the woods?

~B