Dear Family and Friends,
Culture shock is the understatement when you arrive in Zimbabwe from a first world country. No matter how brief your time away has been you are almost immediately engulfed in the endless struggle of every day life in Zimbabwe. Nothing is simple or straight forward and its’ an entirely man made mess, caused by greed, bad governance and political power.
Hundreds of people were queuing outside the bank on a hot October morning. The line was two or three deep and completely filled the pavement and spilled out into the road. Groups of women were sitting on the edge of the pavement with their legs outstretched making navigation almost impossible. I joined the bank queue mayhem out of necessity not choice in order to collect a new debit card. Cell phones with Ecocash and plastic debit cards which everyone calls “swipes” have become the only lifeline for people in Zimbabwe as the cash crisis gets worse and worse. Thank goodness for Strive Masiyiwa, I think, the Zimbabwean who revolutionized communications and phone baking and put it in reach of millions of ordinary people.
It’s commonly accepted that if you’re not trying to withdraw money you don’t have to join the queue and so I tip-toed through the mass of humanity, outstretched legs, dusty shoes and flip flops and got to the doors. Inside the banking hall you could hardly move and even the queue for the information desk was long, winding and painfully slow. Only one teller was available for withdrawals and with hundreds of people outside it was obvious that not many would succeed in getting their own money out of the bank today. Was this a policy of the bank: to only have one teller for withdrawals? It seemed very likely in a country with no cash but cruel and unfair for desperate customers who’ve queued for hours to withdraw the bank’s daily maximum of US$20 of their own money.
It took half an hour to get to the front of the line for the information desk; two minutes to get my new debit card only to be told that I now had to join another queue in order to activate my new card. I shuffled across to the other queue and tried not to think about how hot it was or how still the air was or how much valuable, productive time I, and everyone else, was wasting, not to mention the loss to the economy and the country. None of the overhead ceiling fans were on and doors and windows were firmly closed.