Level raMundikumbuke Macheso never reached it again. I was a temporary teacher at Gotora Secondary kuBuhera in 2001. One weekend I was tasked with accompanying the athletics team kundokwira bus to Mutare at Masasa township. My responsibility was just to help make sure the students were safe. I wasn't part of the delegation to Mutare.
We get to Masasa, the place is already closed. We had just walked about 6km & were told the bus usually gets there around 4am. There was a bar which had a round hut behind it. They made a fire in there for us. We ask for ma scud, they were finished. Then the lady says "But we have Black Label...."
"You guys have no electricity here, Black Label renyu hatiite nyongo here?" I asked rather dismissively.
"Tine ice cold Black Label quarts chete." She responded with a rather "what-do-you-know" nonchalancy..
She went inside and took her time, we thought she had gone to sleep. When she reappeared, I saw a miracle! She had four quarts, two were tucked under her armpits, two were clawed between the fingers on her left arm. On the right she had 4 jumbo glasses, you know those frosted glasses with a tummy and a handle we used to win in the Don Juan/Montello competitions of the 90s. She was biting on a bottle opener.
For a moment she looked like an Israelite coming from picking manna. I have traversed the whole of Zimbabwe but I have never seen Black Label looking that perfect EVER! The bottles were looking wooly white like a specimen coming out of a cryogenic freezer.
I later learnt they had a paraffin fridge and those Black Labels had been hibernating in there for weeks waiting for teachers' & nurses' payday. She then led the kids to another room and left us to indulge. A few moments later she emerged again, this time carrying a car battery in one hand and a dusty double decker Trident P-2000 radio. Varozvi vangu vakapera nenda!
Black Label + Mundikumbuke = Life... All I remember is that I ended up in Sakubva. How I became a delegate, I don't know. Monday mustaff room kwaingova kubvunzana "Takahwina here?"
Anyway, Mnangagwa must go!
"I am a citizen. I can't carry my ID everywhere I go in my own country; I can't bring Home Affairs to check my fingerprints every time."
— A South African man breaks down after his countrymen arrest him, mistaking him for a foreign African. 😭😭
With the kids out of school for summer this mother found a really neat way to help the kids cool off and be creative at the same time. How cool is this?