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Christmas in a place called Grim
Sunday Times (SA)
December 22, 2007

http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Insight/Article.aspx?id=667183

With only his coat for protection from the driving rain, Kuda Rombera huddles into the cold, muddy pavement.

Alternately lying down and squatting for some respite, the primary school teacher patiently counts down the hours to 8am.

For it will signal the opening of Stanbic Bank - and, with luck, provide him with a solution to his Christmas nightmare.

"I must be the first bird or else I might not be able to travel," says the 36-year-old father of four of his decision to camp outside the bank on Wednesday night. "I have decided to hibernate at my rural home because in town things are unbearable."

What Rombera needs is simple: to withdraw some of his own, hard-earned savings to prepare for Christmas.

But in today's Zimbabwe - a Zimbabwe battered by Monopoly money thanks to record inflation, empty supermarkets and blackouts - Rombera, like millions of others, is finding it a mission impossible.

Repeated trips to the bank - including one on Tuesday that came to nought when the bank ran out of cash - failed to net Rombera the Z50-million he needs for transport to his rural home in Masvingo, about 350km from Harare.

Hence his desperate decision to camp outside the bank.

"I can't afford spending the holidays here in town where there are shortages of everything and, apart from that, things are expensive. At least in the rural areas people are not fancy," he says.

Rombera says the Z50- million he wants to withdraw - the maximum he can - will just be enough to cover his and his children's Z10-million-a- head tickets for the trip to Masvingo.

His wife, Edna, is already there, having made the trek when schools closed in the first week of December.

But other than the comfort of home, this is not a Christmas that Rombera is looking forward to.

There will be no new clothes, groceries or Christmas presents for anyone - let alone his four children.

For this, cash shortages are not to blame, but the general economic hardships facing the country.

"I have a goat at home. This is what I will slaughter for my family," says Rombera. "Christmas is now just a name. We can't celebrate with this suffering."

Rombera, who supplements his meagre monthly salary of about 24- million by selling sweets to pupils at his school, says he will hawk some grain he has been storing since the last harvest to fund his family's return trip.

It is all a far cry from Christmases past.

Eight years ago, he spent the festive season wining and dining with colleagues in Harare. This year, he will spend his time tilling his family's plot as it provides an additional source of food and income.

But by far the worst is knowing that the magic of Christmas has forever been destroyed for his children.

"My kids know that they have to forego new clothes and other goods they used to enjoy about eight years ago when things were normal," he says sadly.

Next to Rombera, Cecilia Mafu, a municipal police officer with the Harare City Council, is in slightly better spirits despite her country's fraught circumstances.

She sarcastically suggests that the authorities should have postponed Christmas.

Mafu, who earns 20- million a month, is queueing for money for last-minute shopping. She says that while she cannot afford to shop at department stores , she intends going to Mbare Musika Market , which sells second-hand clothing mostly from Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo , to buy jeans for her three boys.

Mafu is still scratching her head as to where to get food for her Christmas dinner.

"God knows where I will get the basics, but I hope to get some economy beef from a back-yard butcher in our township," she says.

With chicken costing up to Z10-million a bird, Mafu is not expecting to lay on a feast, just enough to provide her family with a square meal of sadza, meat and green vegetables.

While Mafu is talking, a smartly dressed passer-by loudly decries the misrule that has destroyed the joy of Christmas.

"What we need," she intones, " is political change. Now we are being made to forego Christmas because of politics."

Two kilometres from the bank queue, Gabriel Shoko is jostling with about
1000 others as he tries to find a way into TM Supermarket .

"I heard there was bread and joined the queue," says the 25-year old accountant with a merchant bank. "I might be able to bag a few items for Christmas.

"We are now like hunters and gatherers."

Usually Shoko hosts a party on New Year's Eve, but 2008 will be ushering in more than the new year for the accountant.

"I think I will work at my small plot planting trees for firewood for resale in Harare. Remember there is no electricity in most townships."

Another person who has had to change her plans is Ntombizodwa Sibanda, a financial services manager . She has shelved plans to visit her family in Bulawayo because of the water shortages crippling the city.

"I could not imagine spending the whole festive season in Bulawayo without bathing," says Sibanda. "I am stuck in the capital. At least there is water here."

Water. And lights.

For the ever-prepared Sibanda has also stocked up on enough candles to avoid having to spend Christmas in the dark. Electricity is out for about 20 hours every day in the cities due to Zimbabwe's inability to afford to buy all the electricity it needs .

"The fridge was long switched off, so I don't have to worry about that," says Sibanda. " I have enough candles and dried food to keep me going for a week."

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