Bulawayo is still beautiful
Bulawayo
In this gently humorous article comparing
Bulawayo past and present, long-time Bulawayo citizen MARGARET KRIEL finds that
the new is as lovely, if different, from the old. However, the government’s
crackdown on informal sector trading could soon put an end to it all.
The CBD has moved - no longer does one buy one’s
furniture at Meikles, one’s lingerie at Haddon and Sly and one’s school uniforms
at Sanders!!
If you need a recharge card for your cell phone you will find a willing seller sitting patiently at every robot, every intersection, every cross roads in the city - one on each corner diagonally facing the talk-hungry passengers in the vehicles, which hoot for attention. Nimble feet dodge the traffic to sell you a card, in just the right amount of time it takes for the traffic light to change (or who cares if it takes longer?)
If you do not have a cell phone you can find a phone shop just about anywhere, phone booths are a thing of the past, cos someone stole the phones.
I think the most ingenious phone company I have ever seen is the one right outside the Post and Telecommunications Building. There in the middle of the pavement is a table, an umbrella and an array of bright blue telephones.
The lady takes your money and times you with a stopwatch. It does not take a genius to see the wires cunningly concealed under the tablecloth - leading into the storm drain and possibly into the Posts and Telecommunications mainframe phone system.
Now if you need flowers forget the once-famous Joan the Florist or Wright's Florist, they no longer exist, BUT the City Hall flower sellers are doing a roaring trade.
They no longer sell just loose flowers in colourful plastic buckets - they have become talented florists in their own right. You can buy anything from your entire wedding floral requirements including the bride’s bouquet, to a funeral wreath, an upright arrangement featuring proteas and gypsophila or a Valentine's posy with cellophane and satin ribbon.
Morrison's and Zippers Dress Shops, where one could buy that special imported outfit, no longer exist but there is always the Bend Over Bazaar outside the City Revenue Hall.
Imported outfits abound here, imported from China, Botswana and Swaziland. You can get some good bargains here and the vendors are lovely people. If you need to try the garment on .... no problem ... off the vendors' backs come the babies... dumped unceremoniously on the floor and the towels used to tie baby on back, are smilingly held in a neat square while you undress, in the middle of the market square, accompanied by a great deal of appreciative clucking at how nice you look in your new garment.
A hairdo is also hard to find these days unless you make an appointment with Mark at least six weeks in advance. But if you stop off outside the Renkini Bus Station or outside any suburban shopping centre, you can have your hair braided beautifully (if you have about seven hours of spare time) or if your hair is too short, you can have long extensions woven into your existing locks. Right on the sidewalk in the nice open fresh air too, sitting comfortably on a wooden crate.
Broken a heel on your shoe? Well don't worry about trekking lopsidedly all the way to Jivans or Jacobs, there is bound to be a shoe repairer in your neighbourhood, probably sitting right outside your garden, with his various stiletto heels or pieces of leather from which to cut you a whole new sole.
If you are looking for fuel, don't be daft and expect to find it at the more traditional garages (service stations) like Dulys and Thelwalls, pop into the alley behind any garage and there is bound to be an enterprising fellow with a 44 gallon drum and a hose pipe.
And the piece de resistance, if you need bird seed, veggies, millet, sorghum, dried bean, macimbi (mopani worms), solar panels, ghetto blasters, anything electrical smuggled (oh sorry I mean "brought in") from Botswana, in fact dried or fresh anything at all, the colourful, bustling, noisy vendor markets in Fife Street and Fifth Avenue are your very best bet.
What a tragedy that this way of life, which has evolved naturally, gradually and beautifully over the 25 years of Independence is now under threat of destruction, in the most cruel and vicious manner, from the government of the day.
If you need a recharge card for your cell phone you will find a willing seller sitting patiently at every robot, every intersection, every cross roads in the city - one on each corner diagonally facing the talk-hungry passengers in the vehicles, which hoot for attention. Nimble feet dodge the traffic to sell you a card, in just the right amount of time it takes for the traffic light to change (or who cares if it takes longer?)
If you do not have a cell phone you can find a phone shop just about anywhere, phone booths are a thing of the past, cos someone stole the phones.
I think the most ingenious phone company I have ever seen is the one right outside the Post and Telecommunications Building. There in the middle of the pavement is a table, an umbrella and an array of bright blue telephones.
The lady takes your money and times you with a stopwatch. It does not take a genius to see the wires cunningly concealed under the tablecloth - leading into the storm drain and possibly into the Posts and Telecommunications mainframe phone system.
Now if you need flowers forget the once-famous Joan the Florist or Wright's Florist, they no longer exist, BUT the City Hall flower sellers are doing a roaring trade.
They no longer sell just loose flowers in colourful plastic buckets - they have become talented florists in their own right. You can buy anything from your entire wedding floral requirements including the bride’s bouquet, to a funeral wreath, an upright arrangement featuring proteas and gypsophila or a Valentine's posy with cellophane and satin ribbon.
Morrison's and Zippers Dress Shops, where one could buy that special imported outfit, no longer exist but there is always the Bend Over Bazaar outside the City Revenue Hall.
Imported outfits abound here, imported from China, Botswana and Swaziland. You can get some good bargains here and the vendors are lovely people. If you need to try the garment on .... no problem ... off the vendors' backs come the babies... dumped unceremoniously on the floor and the towels used to tie baby on back, are smilingly held in a neat square while you undress, in the middle of the market square, accompanied by a great deal of appreciative clucking at how nice you look in your new garment.
A hairdo is also hard to find these days unless you make an appointment with Mark at least six weeks in advance. But if you stop off outside the Renkini Bus Station or outside any suburban shopping centre, you can have your hair braided beautifully (if you have about seven hours of spare time) or if your hair is too short, you can have long extensions woven into your existing locks. Right on the sidewalk in the nice open fresh air too, sitting comfortably on a wooden crate.
Broken a heel on your shoe? Well don't worry about trekking lopsidedly all the way to Jivans or Jacobs, there is bound to be a shoe repairer in your neighbourhood, probably sitting right outside your garden, with his various stiletto heels or pieces of leather from which to cut you a whole new sole.
If you are looking for fuel, don't be daft and expect to find it at the more traditional garages (service stations) like Dulys and Thelwalls, pop into the alley behind any garage and there is bound to be an enterprising fellow with a 44 gallon drum and a hose pipe.
And the piece de resistance, if you need bird seed, veggies, millet, sorghum, dried bean, macimbi (mopani worms), solar panels, ghetto blasters, anything electrical smuggled (oh sorry I mean "brought in") from Botswana, in fact dried or fresh anything at all, the colourful, bustling, noisy vendor markets in Fife Street and Fifth Avenue are your very best bet.
What a tragedy that this way of life, which has evolved naturally, gradually and beautifully over the 25 years of Independence is now under threat of destruction, in the most cruel and vicious manner, from the government of the day.