Two Visitors Per Patient

It is the lunch time visiting hour at a major city hospital.An elderly woman lies in a drug induced sleep on a hospital bed and her relatives have come to see how she is doing.The notice for two visitors per patient is ignored as her anxious relatives  crowd around her bed and try to see for themselves what they have from phone calls or chats that they relative is very ill.

Two Visitors Per Bed

Whilst all this is well intentioned but the patient just needs to be left alone to rest,for her body to heal itself.It is quite a contradiction because those who prophesy to love and care for her are the ones who disturb her by waking up and try to talk to her.Wanting to know how she is feeling and whether she recognizes  them.The lady is very ill, the notes on her bed indicate that she has breast cancer and she is unresponsive to treatment.She is no longer eating neither can she talk.

Some sane minds among the visitors suggest that just a few visitors at a time should be by her bed to no avail.Waking up and finding a lot of strangers around ones bed does not exactly augur well for a very sick patient.Eventually after the initial flurry of rubber-necking is over,the visitors realize the gravity of the situation and sit in the chairs provided and talk among themselves.It is taboo for anyone to mention how ill a patient is traditionally but all and sundry can see that the patient is struggling.

For the immediate family,the children,watching their mother being turned into a spectacle is heartbreaking,no matter how well intentioned the action might be.They can only stand by and watch. Should they tell the visitors to keep their distance,it will be misconstrued as arrogance.It is a catch 22 situation.  

Husband Sees Red After Discovering Sneakers Under Bed

The father of three, who ditched his wife three years ago but has remained friendly with the mother of his children ,going to her place on a regular basis to ask for bus -fare got the shock of his life when he discovered a pair of men's sneakers under the bed of his estranged wife's bed.

Husband Sees Red After Discovering Sneakers Under Bed

On enquiring what was going on his worst fears were realised as his wife confirmed that she had moved on and found a lover who was taking care of her and their children.The former husband saw red when he was invited to come inside to be introduced to the new man who had replaced him in the woman's heart and bed.He unexpectedly head- butted the woman and a melee ensured resulting in the man getting bruises to the face and upper body.The woman was able to stand her ground and pounded her former husband for wanting to spoil her new- found happiness.With tail between the legs,he went back home to freshen up and wear a new shirt as the one he had been wearing was completely ruined.

Realising that he had bitten off more than he could chew, he completely disowned the children

This means the new man has both the mother and the children.Interestingly the former husband remarried three years ago and has children with the new wife.The two women actually get on well together.

Are You A Cannibal?

I was asked this question quite a lot during my travels in Lesotho.One of the most hilarious tales i ever heard was the fact that people North of the Limpopo river are cannibals.

Are You Are A Cannibal?

I love my country,failed economy and all.It has the highest literacy rate in Africa.I contributed a bit to this statistic, the tale of which will be written about at a later date. One can pardon me therefore for being a bit defensive when the assertion was made that our country was full of cannibals.

Most of the Basotho i met with would regale me with story of a Mosotho who married a foreigner,went to visit the husband's country of origin and was forced to marry a baboon.I tried to explain that this was impossible, to no avail.What I later discovered was that there was a lot of uninformed stories about Africa.You could have thought you were in Europe or the Americas, the lack of knowledge their is about Africa in the countries south of the Limpopo.In Lesotho this would have been perpetuated by the fact that History is not taught in the schools.Those schools which teach it

Are Chitungwiza Residents Getting The Service Delivery They Deserve At Last?

For the past two weeks ,water supplies have been coming to Chitungwiza residents regularly from Sunday to Wednesday morning,quite a departure from the usual Monday mornings to Wednesday morning.

Are Chitungwiza Residents Getting The Service Delivery They Deserve At Last?

Imagine our surprise then when we saw a caterpillar front-end loader early in the morning piling sand and rubbish that had been dug up from the water drains along Hombarume drive and tipping them into waiting rubbish dump trucks,to be carted away to some distant landfill.

The fact that 624 workers were laid off not more than two months ago seems to have jump-started service delivery in our beloved community.One to think really hard to when last we saw anything similar to this happening here.

However, a lot still needs to be done in regards to the provision of refuse bags.I have personally gone to the office of the man in charge of the issuing of refuse bags and have been assured that i will get one this month.I am going to demand this service since I am paying my rates diligently every month.We do not want the enforced water rationing that we have been forced to endure.Other suburbs in the town have uninterrupted water supplies,what sins have we committed to be singled out for such arbitrary action.

The area of St Mary's township previously known as C.A.A still reeks from the stench of overflowing raw sewerage.This problem has been going on since time immemorial.One question which begs to be asked is if this area has any councillors.If so what are they being doing because one is led to believe that these are supposed to report any poor service delivery to the town manager.Another question is whether the said town manager ever meets with residents to find out any complaints they might have.

In The Kingdom In The Sky

The first time I arrived in the country ,Lesotho,I was really impressed.It was the middle of May and it was bone-chilling cold.

Students learning

My friend ,who had generously agreed to show me the way , lead me to a hostel where other foreigners lived.What I noticed within days is the proud sense of belonging among the local people.Their love for their country,language,and their culture.Whilst quite a few would try to communicate in English,they made it a point to remind one that one is in Lesotho therefore one had to learn Sesotho,the local language.On the whole, the people are very friendly and welcoming.

Since more than half of the people one meets tells one to learn the local language,I went to the biggest bookshop in Maseru and bought a handbook of English and Sesotho translations.Within three months I could speak the language well.A lot of the people  I first met, when I did not know how to speak Sesotho, were amazed.What I discovered is that, if you love something ,then it will grow and you will succeed at it .The fact that I was  not afraid of making mistakes helped a lot.I had a group of young children children around nine and ten years old who would correct me and teach me the proper pronunciation,by the end of my sixth month in Lesotho, I could  hold my own in a simple conversation.As I write,I can safely say that I am proficient in the language since I can even interpret the meanings of idioms and some obscure expressions.

The essence of what I am trying to say is ,when one learns a language they make it their own.They then use it when they please.There is nothing more rewarding than seeing people's faces when they realise that as a foreigner in their country ,you can communicate in the local language
.Opportunities opened up for me and my fellow countrymen ,who had not bothered to learn the language quickly realised their folly and started learning too.

Maggie The Gambler

Maggie is a forty-something professional.She is a single mother of three school going children.Her biggest vice is gambling.

Maggie The Gambler

It has got to the extend where the Lesotho Sun Hotel actually gave her a gold class access card for use of one of the special rooms designated for  their most loyal customers.The doormen and service people know her by name.Every month-end, without fail, she is at the gambling tables, slot machines or whatever it is that takes her fancy to try her luck.

The unfortunate thing is that she could have had a home of her own,good furniture.The gambling bug has really bitten very deep.Maggie gambles her earnings away and has to rely on loan sharks in-order to make ends meet.It all started innocently as a night of fun with the girls from work,but now her life is up-side down.The loan sharks have possession of her A.T.M card and passport which she had to surrender as security.At the month end , she goes and collects the remainder of the amount left in her account ,usually about a hundred and fifty rands.This is hardly enough to pay the three hundred and fifty rands rental for the two-roomed rented garden flat in one of the not-so-elegant suburbs of Maseru as well the food for her children.To make ends meet she has to immediately borrow from the loan shark at an interest of around 30%,so the vicious circle continues.After getting the loan she gambles in the faint hope that she will be able to score a big enough amount to clear all her debts but slowly but surely she is sinking deeper into the hole of desperation fuelled by her debts and gambling habit.

Her children know that on her payday she will arrive home late after visiting the hotel for a gambling session.The eldest, a tall thirteen year old,does the best she can to look after her eleven year old brother and two year old sister.She has lost all respect for her mother,to the extent that she back-chats and is generally unruly.

What makes this situation tragic is the fact that Maggie actually has a college education,one would have thought that she would be wise enough to the dangers of addiction and the poor influence she is having on her offspring.She foolishly believes that she can stop at any time but this has been going on for a while.Her younger sibling, who has a well paying job in one of the government departments,has vowed not to feed Maggie's gambling habits and will not give her any money at all.

My sympathies lie with the children who have an AWOL mother on the day they should be enjoying her monthly toils.If children cannot partake of the mother's hard-earned cash,whilst she feeds it to the slot machines,can one really blame them for feeling neglected.Were it possible those children would have been taken into foster care.

Making Marriage Vows And Sticking With Them

This is the second funeral I have been to in a week.The deceased, a father of four grown children had been bed-ridden for more than five years.He was paralysed from the neck downwards and could not do anything for himself.

Making Marriage Vows And Sticking With Them

It got me thinking about the spouse who has been by her husband's side all the time during his illness.Had the ill spouse been a woman,how long would it have taken for the man to get a side-dish.Almost all the time ,some women take their marriage vows seriously and will stick by their partners through thick and thin.Does this make men incapable of loving and staying faithful to their spouses for rich or poor ,in sickness and in health ,till death do them part? Or is it just a question of self-indulgence on the part of the male partners who believe that society will accept their philandering ways.In most cases society sides with the man and makes excuses for them.

To those ladies who suffer with their men,keep their marriage vows and keep the family together in times of trouble a heartfelt THANK YOU.

Are You Are A Father Or A Sperm-donor?

Our prisons now hold quite a number of offenders against society who have shirked their responsibilities and have either flatly refused to pay for the upkeep of their off-spring or try to play hide and seek with their spouses for child support.These men are sperm-donors.

Are You A Father Or A Sperm-donor?

A father is one who goes into a relationship and is prepared for the consequences should he sire a child.Raising a child is one heck of a task and responsibility.It is not for the faint-heart .Children are expensive to raise; formula,clothes,medical bills and they require a lot of Tender Loving Care.Expecting the women alone to take care of all that is the height of irresponsibility.Should a marriage breakup then the father of the child should step up to the plate and do the right thing without waiting for the mother to drag them screaming and kicking to court for maintenance payments.

The fact that our government has decided to incarcerate errant fathers for none payment of maintenance is definitely a step in the right direction.We cannot have a generation of children who fail to go to school because their fathers do not want to do the right thing .Often times ,when the child raised by the single-mother does make it in life by the grace of God ,these sperm-donors then want to crawl out of the woodwork and claim to be the fathers,in which case they want to be looked after by the children they would have abandoned.If you behave like that SHAME ON YOU.

Are You Reinforcing Your Child's Misbehaviour?

I recently accompanied a friend to a prison complex and was amazed at the sheer numbers of visitors there.

Are you reinforcing your child's misbehaviour?

One outstanding thing I noticed were the goodies that the relatives of those incarcerated had bought.Is this not going to be misconstrued as a reward for misbehaving,what will stop someone from committing another offence so that they return to the correctional facility if things do not work out on the outside.Statistics suggest that quite a large number of people imprisoned are actually repeat offenders which buttresses my assertion that relatives of prisoners are the ones enabling offenders to wrong society because they know they will be treated well if imprisoned.The scenes were akin to parents visiting their children at a boarding school, viewing the types of foods that were on display.There was a lot of fast foods ,beverages and all sorts of cookies .Some visitors brought reading materials like books and newspapers.

Prisoners should be made to feel that they have wronged society and therefore have to make restitution.

Hollywood Movies Lead To Moral Decay

I love watching movies and the biggest number comes from Hollywood.Since having granddaughters ,I am having to rethink the effect these might have on their impressionable minds.

Hollywood Movies Lead To Moral Decay

Some of the movies churned out by Hollywood contain so much swearing and images of nudity that no self-respecting African would allow their offspring to watch that.Some of us grew up in an era were nudity was frowned upon,one could not be found in possession of a  nude photo,let alone be caught watching a movie with sexual scenes.It is true most of these movies have age restrictions and parents are supposed to enforce these.The bulk of parents cannot be bothered to learn how to activate the parental controls on the television sets.

I now understand why certain  church denominations bar their congregants from owning television sets.They are such a strong corrupting influence on young gullible minds.

Apart from the swear words and nudity,some of the violence and gore shown in these movies is not for the squeamish ,it is most likely to leave a lasting impression on young minds.Parents I implore you to censor what your children watch.A quick study of the users manual of your television sets will inform one how to set the parental control and Walla,temptation gone.

Count Your Blessings -Zesa Blackouts

Every dark cloud has a silver lining ,mine is Zesa.Whenever there is a power outage in my area,it is time for me to get up and go into my vegetable garden.I did not realise it at first but any power outage has become a blessing.

Count Your Blessings

Should i decide to dig or weed in the garden ,the health benefits are immense:
        I get a full body workout at no cost.
       The peace of mind derived from the fact that i am producing my own fresh organic vegetables.

A lot of noises have been made about the fact that the average number of children per couple in our country is very low, so as the powers -that- be have suggested ,when Zesa pulls the switch,please get busy and lets populate this beautiful country,Zimbabwe.
     
     
     
   
     

The Power Of Gratitude

A little gratitude goes a long way in reassuring the multitudes toiling in thankless menial jobs in the diaspora.

I had an interesting discussion with a nephew of mine the other day.We have a mutual friend who has a partner who loves him to bits.The said partner is  fortunate to be in the diaspora earning a decent salary and she makes sure that the financial needs of the male partner are taken care of,back home in Zimbabwe.Now the bone of contention was , were the contributions enough or should the partner demand more as a right.This raises the question of entitlement.If one gives unsolicited gifts surely that is cause for gratitude instead of looking the gift horse in the mouth. The tendency among a lot of us Zimbos is a misguided belief that the streets of the various cities in the diaspora are paved with gold ,hence the family members or partners there should send money home ad -infinitum.Very few realise that most people work two or three jobs to make ends meet ,let alone send money home.

My view therefore is, if one has a relative who thinks of them and sends them money ,THEN  they need to be grateful.Stop  feeling as if just because of a lucky stroke of coincidence that you have a relative in the Diaspora,you can lift your heels, sit back, relax and enjoy a stress-free life.Spare a thought to our brothers, sisters, fathers,mothers,wives, husbands,sons and daughters who are toiling to put food on the table as well as take care of their kith and kin.

The Workplace Spouse, Do You Have One?

The rage nowadays is the emergence of workplace spouses.Most people spend most of their waking hours at the workplace,so it makes sense one would suppose that they would need someone to make the long dreary hours manageable.

The Workplace Spouse, Do You Have One ?

The advocates of this trend, which I learnt started in the early 1900s,say it is made to help one blend into the workplace  and make one socialize better.They caution that one needs to be completely open with their marriage partners at home about their workplace spouses for it to work.The relationship is supposed to be platonic but there is no ruling out the fact that being human a good number of people who indulge in this arrangement would end up crossing the line and having a workplace romance.

Being an African ,brought up in the church , i have always believed in marriage being a union between a man and woman who are supposed to live happily ever-after.I know the politically correct term these days is for marriage to be between two partners,gender irregardless.The trend just gives me the creeps.I cannot imagine my spouse taking kindly to me having a workplace spouse,THANK GOD I work from home.One can just imagine the number of nights I was going to spend on the couch because of a misuderstanding between my spouse and I.A clear case of different strokes for different folks I suppose. 

Mobile Phones And The The Social Ills They Spawn.

It is really unfortunate stroke of fate that some of the people who are able to afford mobile phones may not be well endowed with common sense.Maybe manufacturers of mobile would include a few hints on the social norms around the use of mobile devices much like a users manual.

Mobil Phones And The The Social Ills They Spawn.

It is unfortunate that mobile phones do not come with dos and dont’s. The side-walks of cities are littered with jay-walkers distracted by the by their mobile phones and one has to take evasive action in-order to avoid collision.

Whilst at a neighbour's house,where I had gone to pay my condolences for the deceased father of the house ,I encountered one of the worst ills brought about by a mobile phone clutching member of the church choir which the family attends .The woman ,in her late forties ,was busy texting on her mobile device .The other members of the choir as well as members of the immediate family and other church members were inside the house praying for the departed soul.It is my humble opinion that one needs to mute or switch off their phones during church services or funerals.Texting on ones phone during a funeral just seems crass and insensitive.