War Living: Part 5

Post-war, actually. Independence hit, celebrations were many, and Rhodesia became Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, and then Zimbabwe.

But the country's troubles were far from over. Again, us kids didn't know the half of it, we just assumed this was how life was.

Sanctions were instituted and the basics became hard to come by. Coffee, tea, sugar, cooking oil, petrol - there were queues when they were available, and blackmarket trading when they were not. You had a contact in the back of a shop and brought your own container. Prices hit the roof and shelves emptied.

Cars were left in kilometers-long queus at petrol stations, waiting for the next fuel delivery. Those who had a little left in their tanks and needed to travel would mark out their car's space, stick up their numberplate details and drive until they ran out of petrol. If the queue moved, their space was moved by honest queue-waiters so they didn't lose out. My dad had to do all his pastoral travelling on less than 10 litres a month at times.

There was a joke going around: two guys were waiting in a petrol queue for the umpteenth time, and one got fed up. He told his friend "I've had enough of this. We stand in queues for sugar, for oil, for petrol. I can't take any more. I'm going to go kill Mugabe". His friend was rather shocked, but said "OK, well, come back and tell me what happened." Half an hour later he was back - "there's a queue there too..." :)

We made do. We ate well, although we were limited to what we had, to what we could grow. Everyone had a veggie garden. When something ran out we substituted, or made our own. I think that's where I get my love of self-sufficiency from, a result of having to live like that for a long time.

One cannot be materialistic in such an economy. Possessions are of no importance, luxuries do not exist. When we moved to South Africa in 1984 we were extremely culture-shocked by materialism here - and it's not half as bad as elsewhere!

But in the absence of things, one finds pleasure in persuits. Our family had picnics at a nearby dam with heaps of friends, we learned to identify edible plants and find interesting creatures. We climbed huge granite boulders, made forts and tree-houses, turned elephant grass into tunneled mazes. We created and played and spent our days on our bikes outdoors, or swimming in the roadside ditches after a summer storm. TV was a luxury, we didn't have one until 1986. That's about the time we got our first computer too.

Growing up like this, through a war, through a time of scarcity, has made me who I am today. It's formed my opinions and loves, my joys and sorrows, my hopes and dreams. Tough times? Yes. Would I change what I experienced? No, not a chance.