12th December: Closure

The Memorial Service

Today was late mother's Memorial day which went very well. I shed a few tears, quite unwittingly. Extended family arranged music, flowers , church minister and last but not least, sadza (even more authentic than the  Jo'burg meal with enough variety for vegetarians including dried cauliflour with tomatoe, onion and dovi, pounded by my cousin Kumusha (at her rural home), and meat lovers would not have been disappointed either.
I have pictures of sister-in-law G slaving away over big black pots on the fire, complete with African wrap-round and head adorned with duku. 

Tradition says female spouses and in-laws  do all the work at funerals. The men sit together and discuss 'important' matters such as how they will afford to keep a second  or third wife...still an obsession within this culture. G also carried water on her head and knelt on the ground to deliver it to the grave so as to wash the grave-stone, symbolizing closure. I at first took the micky out of G but later was overcome by the reverence shown by family and broke down in tears. A metal plate, and cup was ceremonially placed on the grave to ensure the diseased would want for nothing in the next life. To my dismay P went on to crush the cup and plate after the service and then explained that this would stop them being desirable to thieves.

I talked to my newly acquainted  niece at length. She is doing A level English, History and Divinity and wants to become a lawyer. The only problem she faces at school is that she is looked down on by her peers for being slim. Zimbabwean men like their women voluptuously big so she is devastated that she just can't seem to conjure up the appetite to stuff her face to obesity. She has the same obsession with texting as us and can afford a cellphone. Zimbabwean air time is US$1 for 1 week of constant texting on whatsapp. An international call is $1 for 5mins. Not too bad I thought.

We later visited an evangelical church I frequented for a few years, now called the Celebration Centre. It had undergone a gob-smaking transformation from  a  humble school hall, into a building the size of Birmingham History  Museum  (one of the few specimens of 21st centuary modernity seen in all of Harare), set in an extensive garden with palm trees, large car park, and large African sculpture. It's state of the art interior includes a  bookshop, offices, conference rooms, celebration hall and coffee shop (best coffee I've drunk in years) and restaurant. 

There was a service being held  to commemorate 12/12/12 in which the prosperity message was in full swing starting with a prayer of repentance from stinginess and a petition to make us more generous givers. Naturally this church is mostly attended by the rich middle class blacks who own large mansions in opulent neighbourhoods like Emerald Hill and Borowdale  (with flower gardens, orchard, horse stable in some cases,  thatched gazebos, tennis court, outdoor swimming pool, etc etc which I spotted when taking a different walking route this morning. ) We left Celebration Center prematurely with a bad taste in our mouths, and went to see the Christmas lights at a very posh shopping village built by a Jew called Sam Levy, then  ate supper at Nandos , bought out by the Inn Corporation who also own the Chicken inn, Bakers Inn, Creamy inn and Pizza Inn. They are everywhere... the local fast food and bread  monopoly that have well and truly  conquered Zimbabwe. How? ZANU have a 10% share. I will say no more.

We ate pirri pirri chips and chicken liver with onion sauce served with light fluffy crusty Portuguese rolls and a big salad. The kids played with  x -boxes in the children's playzone, a welcome but unusual service considering the high theft rate in Harare.