Telephone directories and the edge
11.40am
the thermometer on the verandah reads 32.7 (humidity too low to measure)
we still have to get to 2.30pm before it will stop rising…
Last week I paid a visit to Tel-One (our land line provider)
I parked in the shade and watched a few bemused and disbelieving people
stumble down the old steps clutching a large yellow book
Inside there were no queues
or bustle
just the guy entering and re-entering your ID number slowly into the computer
in 10 minutes I too was floating down the worn PO steps
I too was clutching a 2011 Telephone Directory
(last one was issued 2006 – all hope of a new one was lost years ago.)
with yellow pages:
that reassures that all the electricians, plumbers, panel beaters etc. who disappeared off the map
have indeed re-emerged
(it is a comfort to find Mediocre Business Merchants still listed in Kaguvi Street)
even more………
I also held a paid up receipt for US$65 confirming that within a week
a ‘splitter’ would come and split my land line
and we would be connected to the internet via a fiber optic cable
for a small monthly fee of 30$
imagine
– a gateway into the 1st world – wherever it is – and no-one else seems to know!!!!
(this is an added comfort as the satellite broadcasting BBC and NPR seems to have dropped out of the sky lately and radio addicts like Mel and me feel as if we have lost a good friend.)
Internet – in the house!
no longer will I saunter off next door, computer under-arm
through the coffee trees and the vegetable garden
to perch on a rock under the masasa trees to down load my email
A friend or ours arrived here a few years ago with all her goodies packed in zip-lock bags
as she saw us pounce on them with whoops of joy she said in the nicest way
‘you Zimbabweans are so easy to please’
Since we moved into American currency so much has changed:
we now get zip-lock bags and Thai green curry paste and South African crackers
even if there is no change under a 1dollar note
We cross the edge in small steps
first the outdoor fire under the fig tree
then a gas ring
then a spare water tank (for when the power is out and the borehole stops working – municipal water failed years ago)
later came an inverter – so we can watch a video / listen to music
then a reading light in the lounge
Mel took us our latest step over the edge
by fitting lights above our gas plate and kitchen sink
(low power – connected through the inverter to a battery)
No longer is there the same rush to get all the candles lit when the power goes out whilst cooking supper
And I wonder
will we lose our ability to flow, to make a plan, to ride the waves?
our need to connect to one another to know what is going on
our creative spirit born of living on the edge?
It’s all so much more convenient…
having a telephone directory that works