President Robert Mugabe's antics are well known all over the world. We see the news reports, we hear about the political deadlocks, we read about an inflation rate that looks more like a misprint than a real statistic, and we get a glimpse of the human suffering; but can we actually conceptualize daily life in Zimbabwe?
Catherine Buckle, author of the books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears", lives in Zimbabwe and documents daily life there in a collection of letters. These letters can be read on a website dedicated to her, www.cathybuckle.com
In one letter, written on 12th July 2008, entitled "I Am Failing Them", Cathy makes reference to an attempted shopping trip, where there was virtually no food available - but a butternut squash carried a price tag of 30 billion Zimbabwean dollars. When she queried the price, the man in the shop showed her his earnings. He had earned 28 billion dollars for the month - less than the price of a butternut squash; and he had a family to support.
Catherine Buckle's writing style is so beautiful, so descriptive and so pertinent, so easy to read, that I cannot and will not attempt to describe or reproduce the atmosphere or content of her letters in my post. I urge you to read those letters yourself at www.cathybuckle.com, or go directly to her October 2008 post.
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