Surviving Zimbabwe

September is a raw, beautiful month in Zimbabwe: yellow, gold, orange and brown. Many of the trees are still leafless or just starting to get their spring colours and whirlwinds swirl for miles across parched, dusty countryside and over wide, dry, sandy river beds. September is survival month when everything is gasping, waiting for the rain, desperately trying to stay alive. A tiny fledgling Plover runs for cover across a dusty rise which is normally two metres under water. Making it to a rocky outcrop the little bird pants as it recovers in the shade: a Kittlitz plover, long legs supporting a small fluffy body, its survival in such harsh surroundings a tenuous thread.  Later a Rednecked Falcon stands in the same rocky outcrop and you can’t help but wonder if the Kittlitz plover managed to survive. Much later when the sun and dust have gone and the sky is ablaze with stars, a genet appears, its golden fur covered with black spots and long tail ringed with black circles. Silently, effortlessly, the genet leaps from rock to rock checking every crack and crevice for a morsel, a scorpion or beetle, rodent or bird. Again you wonder about the little Kittlitz, is it really possible it survived that day?  These images of Zimbabwe in September are the little things that help divert our attention from the trauma of every day in a country in a desperate state. Then there are the big things which smack you in the face as soon as you go back into everyday life. The shocking sight of mile after mile of illegal mines dug a few metres off the main highway; red, stony mounds of soil piled up, rough hewn tree timbers supporting treacherous, unstable holes and caverns, waiting for victims in the hunt for gold. The ‘miners’ are often young men, lean, hunched, filthy, emerging from the depths and trudging along the road carrying picks and shovels; their despondency and exhaustion palpable, how can they survive this Zimbabwe? As I write it has been over thirteen days since five men were trapped underground at Task mine in Chegutu where a shaft collapsed on them; among them are two brothers, one just 17 years old, trying to find gold to sell and raise money for his school fees.  Oh Zimbabwe, there are no words for the burdens and pains carried by our children.  Dragging your eyes away from the roadside mines because it’s too painful to see what you are seeing and imagine what’s going on, two huge low-loaders approach on the highway each carrying an army tank covered in brown square netting. Next comes a truck full of soldiers, police cars with blue lights flashing and another truck of soldiers. You dare not even think about where they are headed or what is going on in our country.  Again the news has been filled with unanswered questions and absurdity this past fortnight. The issue of the hire car from rental company Impala which was seen on CCTV being used in the abduction of a 22 year old journalism student who was beaten and tortured for three days six weeks ag

Видео Surviving Zimbabwe канала SAC DEP BEAUTY & SPA