I miss Botswana!

Can Coronavirus end already so I can come to Botswana.

Having lived and worked in Botswana for many years, the country now feels like my second home and I never miss an opportunity to come over.

It’s been seven months since I last crossed the border because of lockdown due to Covid-19. It feels like an eternity!

I swear I will be amongst the first people to travel the moment President Mokgweetsi Masisi opens up the borders.

I miss shopping for food, toiletries and clothes. I miss window shopping, withdrawing money from the ATM, buying chicken and chips from the popular fast foods outlets, fuelling my car with proper fuel and just being in a country with economic stability.

It’s not that I don’t buy food and toiletries here in Zimbabwe. Things are available but it’s the pricing that gives one a mini heart attack.

Prices of some stuff are tenfold this side and unless they are basic, one just has to forget about them.

For example, I love tomato sauce and it’s one thing that is never missing from my groceries when here in Botswana; after all, I find it very cheap compared to buying it from our economic crazy nation.

Here in Botswana it sells for about P18 for the 700ml bottles yet currently in Zimbabwe it costs about P55 – see why I said our prices can cause a heart attack!

How on earth they arrive at these prices, I just don’t know. I might sound petty because someone could be thinking; it’s just tomato sauce but these guilty pleasures do make a difference. However, buying a bottle for the equivalent of P55, hell no!

So the moment I set my feet in the Ghetto, I will give myself a treat and buy the things I haven’t eaten for months like yoghurt, cheese, fruit juice, pizza and whole lot of other goodies so I can enjoy myself like a child sucking a lollypop. Eish, just writing about them is making me hungry!

And by the way, there are no shopping malls to talk about in Zimbabwe so I really miss shopping or window shopping at Foschini, Woolworths, Mr Price, Miladys, Clicks and Game amongst many others.

We don’t have these kinds of shops this side, I guess because these stores don’t want to operate in an unstable, extremely risky economy.

I also miss withdrawing cash from an ATM, sounds silly right? These are the things we have been deprived of as a nation as cash shortages have meant we all queue at the banking halls to be given that little that is available.

I thus pray Coronavirus will soon be consigned to the past so that I can enjoy these small things that can otherwise be taken for granted: its been far too long!