Dear Family and Friends,

We are struck with feelings of near hysteria just coping with everyday situations almost all the time now. The past fortnight has seen a dramatic plunge in the value of our money and massive price increases of everything from food to fuel and everything in between. Top-up bills for school fees arrived barely half way into the term, medical aid costs have risen five fold and as the month end bills and service accounts come in, most people have no idea how they are going to cope over the next thirty days.

Dear Family and Friends,

I am writing this letter late at night when the electricity is on because supplies during the day, both in the week and at weekends, are now very sporadic. At any time, without warning the power goes off, sometimes for just an hour or two but more often it is for solid chunks of 8 or even 10 hours at a time. When all these power cuts began we were told that it was because all the electricity we had was going to go to the wheat farmers who needed to irrigate the crop for the nation's daily bread. Some people sort of half heartedly believed that story but not for long. As it was last year and the two previous years - the growing wheat crop is just not there for us to see.

Dear Family and Friends,

I stood for over forty minutes in a line at the bank to withdraw my own money this week - its not unusual to have to queue for even longer than this.  There was no electricity - again - so the ATM machines were not working - again. Even if the ATM's were working, those queues often need an hour and a half to get to the front. Because of the oppressive, iron-fist regulations from Harare, individuals are only allowed to withdraw one and a half million dollars at a time from the bank - even if they have just deposited a hundred times that amount the same day. The bank charges a 'handling fee'  for the withdrawal of amounts of one and a half million dollars or less but you can cannot withdraw more without applying  for permission from the Reserve Bank in Harare.

Dear Family and Friends,

This week all semblances of normalcy collapsed in most parts of Zimbabwe. The supply of electricity was negligible for most of the week and we found ourselves behaving in the most absurd fashion in order to remain functional. Going to bed at  7 in the evening in the cold and the dark - and 'waking up' when the lights came on at 11pm.Mostly your body doesn't know which way is up as it struggles to understand your new absurd routine. Doing the ironing at 11 pm; downloading emails and working on the computer at midnight. Getting up again at 4am to cook porridge for breakfast and being thankful for that achievement as the electricity goes off again at 5am and another day of insanity starts.

Dear Family and Friends,

As ridiculous as it may sound, little lights of hope are flickering on all the time now in Zimbabwe. They are not practical everyday lights of decreasing prices, increasing food and medical supplies or improved services - quite the contrary in fact. The lights of hope that I am talking about are those that are beginning to illuminate the future direction. Some are from events across the border where it seems there are actually things going on - although no one is saying what!

Dear Family and Friends,

A friend phoned recently with the news that her grand-daughter had just had a baby. The words of congratulations for the great grandmother froze when I heard that there were serious complications. The baby had been born with her bowel and intestine outside of her abdomen. Under normal circumstances in a fully functioning country this would be dire news. In Zimbabwe it sounded like an almost certain death sentence. Doctors and nurses strikes, chronic shortages of drugs, ten to twelve hour electricity cuts, interrupted water supplies and worst of all, the brain drain. Seven years of political turmoil, oppressive laws dictating every facet of our lives and the devastating economic collapse has seen professionals pour out of the country in hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions.