Coffee With Potholes
If you were having coffee with me, I would be happy to have you visit my tangle of words, in this auspicious month wrapping up the first quarter of the year.. Are your Christmas decorations still up? 🎄
Cant believe we have only 3 months into the new year considering the state of well…. everything in the world… There’s been executive orders, cuts in funding and potholes on the road to… I have no idea where we are going.
If you are having coffee with me I would tell you that when I travelled along the Masvingo-Beitbridge road I encountered potholes the likes of which I had never seen; the type that could unbuckle your seat belt and change the radio station to start playing “Knocking on heaven’s door” as your tires explode, and the car suspension gets wrecked leaving bits of metal, rubber and oil on the asphalt…
Each pothole tells a tale that sounds like expensive car noises. In Zimbabwe we are supposed to drive on the left side of the road but the reality is we drive on whats left of the road… which isn’t much. You cant help wondering, why they dont just scrap off the tarmac so we can stop pretending…
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that while navigating a particularly bad stretch of road we crawled past a car with South African registered plates, the driver waved at us and we waved back and shouted “Welcome to Zimbabwe…“
He laughed and we laughed but I am sure he did not forget that encounter, nor the first impression of Zimbabwe… maybe he was an immigrant worker returning home for the holidays, maybe a visitor on holiday we will never know, but for a split second we shared a trauma bond riddled with potholes the size of little graves. Even my uncle who one to keep his political inclinations to himself kept muttering below his breath…. “we need new leaders”
When you experience those type of potholes you cannot help ask yourself how a major highway that connects countries could get into such a state, where all vehicle taxes and the funding collected from tollgates goes?
The Bulawayo – Victoria Falls route is another road which has had notorious potholes considering it’s a status road that leads to one of the country’s greatest natural wonder, The Victoria Falls.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that a viral photo of tourists chilling in a pothole with the caption that the potholes have become a tourist attraction stirred the teapot shaped country. Though the government acknowledged that the roads were in need of attention, they denied the pothole in question being one of the ones there….
One good thing to come out of the spectacle was that the government has decided to rehabilitate the road as a matter of urgency. I hope it wont take another viral photo of potholes on the Masvingo – Beitbridge highway for them to also give it similar attention… Maybe now that our as of now former Minister of Sport Kirsty Coventry an Olympic Gold Medalist Swimmer, was recently appointed as the President of the IOC perhaps we should let the potholes become swimming pools and train for a future as Olympic swimmers… if life gives you potholes.. 💧
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that I kinda of understand some of the reasoning behind the cutting of USAID Funding, to out things into perspective the Zimbabwean dream is to leave Zimbabwe in pursuit of greener pastures and the next best thing was to work for a donor funded NGO because those usually have attractive remuneration packages.
Donor funding has been supporting various initiatives which have come to sudden halt following the executive orders by the American President. I wont go into my thoughts on how donor funding has been a double-edged sword which creates dependency without actively creating sustainable solutions beyond the funding and can be used to push certain narratives or how some of that funding gets misappropriated without making it comprehensively to its intended beneficiaries.
If you are having coffee with me, I would tell you that corruption is like systemic potholes on the country’s road to development, that over 40 years after independence its as if we are going backwards, back to the war? Controversial war veteran Comrade Blessed Bombshell Geza whose interview landed the journalist who interviewed him incarcerated on allegations of inciting public violence, posted a YouTube press release where he again called for mass protest and the removal of the president.
The atmosphere in the country has a sense of unease as we wait to see what happens from the 31st of March, police patrols and road blocks seem to have increased and a speculating person might wonder if the current internet connectivity challenges arent priming for an internet shutdown… its happened before.
Potholes hey, whats been happening in your neck of the woods.
~B
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?