Waiting on the edge
Since Monday, queues that are miles long
have filled the streets outside banks
waiting to draw the maximum allowed – equivalent to US$2 per day
People are unable to buy food
or to get to their jobs or their rural homes
3 million Zimbabweans
- families that were once self sufficient robust farmers
now stand on the edge of starvation
these are our people
skilled and powerful
gentle and loving and patient and resourceful beyond belief
brought to their knees
. . . and still they battle for power at the top
from in here,
we begin to understand
that this is not just about saving lives
- for we may not be able to do that
in the last 2 weeks I have sat in circles and listened to stories
from faces grey and worn and desperate
for their parents
and wives and children
out in the rural homes without food
‘eating fruit and roots of indigenous trees’
‘what will become of them?’
‘we have no news’
the evidence is already before us
as we begin to hear of the deaths
we are outside the limits of our power to help
what is it that we are able to learn at this time?
apart from bearing witness
to how amazing we are
as we negotiate this space
with dignity and respect
and wait for our voice to be heard
above the clamour for power and wealth
waiting to emerge from old wounds
wearing new wings of hope