To all the Zimbabwean men out there, did you know that male circumcision reduces the potential of contracting HIV and AIDS by 60%when having unprotected sex? It is considered one of the key defenders against the HIV virus. Please note men that I did not say it is the only defender and it is only 60% effective, meaning there is still a good percentage of getting infected if you have unprotected sex with an HIV positive woman.

Back to circumcision. The foreskin of the penis has HIV target cells called langerhans cells. So if you get rid of the most vulnerable part of your penis even the risk of getting STIs is reduced. The foreskin is very rich in blood supply and we all know that where there is blood the virus does not take long to attack. Not only is the foreskin rich in blood supply it can easily tear during sex especially with this dry sex practice that has taken the southern part of Africa by numbers. I say this because dry sex has increased not only the HIV virus to go on the rise but the ladies who practice this have a high chance of suffering from cervical cancer.

Circumcision does not take way from sexual pleasure; in the words of the lady who was doing the presentation from Population Services International (PSI) pleasure is in the mind. She also reassured the males that were in that discussion that the procedure is not painful. In fact with the kind of drug they use to make your penis feel numb, your whole penis could be cut off and you wouldn’t feel the pain. The pain you feel after the procedure is the same pain you feel when you have a minor headache. I hope I am encouraging someone to go for circumcision especially the ones who are HIV negative. This procedure is not for any one living positively because they could be some complications but to all the healthy males you can be out and about in six weeks.

I know I sound like an expert and as if I have gone under the knife myself, it’s just that the lady who gave us this information on Tuesday had good examples. She even had a dummy penis to show us what it takes to be circumcised.

I would like to stress that getting circumcised does not mean you are free from contracting the virus if you have unsafe sex. Practice safe sex always, stick to one partner and above all abstain.

Zimbabwean cool drink vendor, Memory Murinda, is motivated to work as hard as she does in order to provide for her children. She wants to make sure that they eat, wear clothes and go to school. Her day starts at 7am and can end as late as 8pm. Business is good when its summer because she can serve up to 200 thirsty people a day.

The challenges are many in her line of her work. “Some people have juju (magic) money . . . one minute you think you are holding a $5 note from a person and the next moment when they leave, you find out its only a dollar.” Not only does she deal with people who have juju money but also some customers are rough. Just like in any working place where you meet people on daily basis, the customer is always right and you just have to accept it.

I cannot believe that Memory is talking to me with all the drama around us in Zimbabwe where you are in fear of being labeled this or that, and everyone has an agenda. I am really surprised that she agreed to speak with me without requesting payment. She is easy going and she reveals a lot to me about her life and what made her take the step of going out into the world to fend for herself.

And so, I ask her a very daring question. Daring because often people do not want to realize their own value. So I say, what difference does your occupation make to the people of Harare? And this lady replies with a lot of self worth saying that people would die because a central part of being a vendor is taking care of people, and without vendors, people would struggle to buy products.

When I asked her about strikes she said, “Strikes are not good because if they happen most of us who are single parents are worried about being fired. I think that employers, to avoid strikes, must give their employees good working conditions and salary increases at the appropriate time.”

Her face brightened when I asked her if she had any funny experiences related to her job. With laughter in her voice she said that a lady once left R5 change with her and came back the following day saying that she wanted her US$5 back! Memory asked the lady how her money could have grown over night?

Memory told me that the situation in her home made her desperate for a job. One day she just went to Lyons and asked for a job but they turned her down. But because of the situation at home she kept going back until there was an opening.

I asked Memory what her biggest wish for Zimbabwe is? She said that wants people to respect one another – especially the people in government. She said if they respected us we would not have so much unemployment and we would have better working and living conditions.

I have come to realize and know the people who matter in our country. They are not the high and mighty in posh cars with fancy suits sitting in big leather furnitured offices. The people who matter are the ones in the streets making ends meet doing various jobs to put food on the table for their families. I would like to call these people Zimbabweans who make Zimbabwe work! I am on a mandate to give them their space to shine.

I was talking to a kombi driver, who to me, is among the people that make Zimbabwe work. Being a kombi driver is not a last resort for Simon Chirombo. He has invested time into it and has no plans of leaving the driving business. In fact he has hopes of driving trucks so that he is able to see the world. What motivates him everyday from 5am to 9pm is a selfless drive for the upkeep of his family.

The kombi driving business is not spared from troubles just like any other business under the sky. He says that there are kombi drivers who do not bring dignity to his profession and all of them have been painted with the same brush. He says people do not trust kombi drivers; that in people’s eyes drivers are out to cause trouble, but in reality it is not the case. There are some kombi drivers like Simon who respect and value his customers.

Just think how hard it would be to make it to work, home or anywhere else if kombi drivers decided to stop working – so many of us depend on them. For those of us not blessed with cars as yet, we depend on the kombis to make traveling from point a to b possible.

Did you know that there aren’t any post women in Zimbabwe? I know that does not sound right but I was talking to a manager of a post office and she said that when they advertise for postal delivery people women do not come up to bring their applications. I was at least relieved when I spoke to a lady manager. Why is that women are not coming up for postman jobs. Is it because they are afraid of the bicycle or the long distances you need to cycle delivering mail. Or is it that the postman title is a way to make women scared of trying out for the job?

A couple of female artists are taking a more serious look at the arts industry – me included. We are realizing and appreciating that there is more to being a performer, let alone a female one in this man’s world. All thanks to the Flame Project by Pamberi Trust, we have been getting lessons on branding, pricing, marketing and related subjects that make what we do not just entertaining and enjoyable on stage but that it is a serious career and we ourselves much treat it as such.

For anybody outside yourself to realize your worth, you first need to realize it yourself. That is just the essence of what we have been learning. We had such an amazing session last week and it was a different meeting all together. I guess with a lot of artists in the same room, no meeting is the same as the last one! We have become sort of a family; there is a sisterhood going on with us and it has been growing since we began our first module. However we did not do the typical artists in one place act but we did accounts. Yes we did accounts and we had the most fun! Our facilitator was Virginia Phiri. That lady does not walk on ice skates – she is the most down to earth person. She made it all seem so easy and by the end of day two of our workshop we were accounting and it was making sense. Accounting for me was just demystified. You know how it is that when you hear accounts you are thinking mathematics but it is just simple algebra. If there is one thing that I think all of the ladies that were there came away with is that basic understanding of business will make things easier especially in the arts industry.

Above all, for me I realized that anything is possible if you set your mind to it.

You realize you men out there, that this question is not directed to you, but to all my mothers, sisters and female human beings. The Vagina Warriors have an agenda; to show women and men alike that there is an issue here and as long as it is not discussed they are going to come right out and ask if the vagina had a mouth what would you hear it say? To be a bit precise these are called The Vagina Monologues.

If you did not attend a function by the Young Women’s Leadership Initiative (YOWLI) that was themed reclaiming our bodies, demystifying sex and sexuality, let me then tell you it was about dissecting issues relating to young women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Yes, you read right; this is not from foreign lands but stories of young Zimbabwean women in our communities subjected to a whole lot of different experiences. I was shocked at what other people think and feel about sex. From the monologues that were there, issues ranged from having sex without using condoms to shoving some liquids down your privates so that you are relatively tight for him.

After that function I read somewhere that these mentalities are the ones causing HIV and AIDS to be on the rise in Southern Africa – that is creepy and scary. The article said that if a woman shoves ice into her vagina she is bound to experience pain and bruising, making her body vulnerable to a lot of infections.

African as I am there is a lot of things that I would have loved to say about this whole subject but my culture prevents it. I can only encourage you to go to these functions and get enlightened. Who knows maybe we are the generation to kill these mentalities and restore our bodies, male and female to God’s original intent. To be adored, cherished and treated fearfully and wonderfully just the way we were made.