Dear Family and Friends,

Every day things in Zimbabwe get just a little bit harder and while ordinary families stagger from one crisis to the next, the country's leadership seem to be completely bereft of ideas. The latest phrase from government officials and ministers is "Very Soon". It's never completely clear if 'very soon' is a threat or a promise but the litany is faithfully regurgitated at every occasion.

Dear Family and Friends,
On Friday morning, escorted by uniformed police, two young girls carried a banner through the Marondera town centre which proclaimed: "Protect Life On Earth." Behind them marched the Prison band in spotless bottle green uniforms with shining gold buttons and all carrying gleaming musical instruments. Behind the band came dozens of drum majorettes, young girls in bright and colourful uniforms. At the rear of the procession, which had bought the town to a standstill, were more police and an ambulance.

Dear Family and Friends,

I think that like most people I have an intense love hate relationship with Zimbabwe these days.

It seems you have to go through all manner of hardships and horrors in order to truly be able to call yourself a Zimbabwean. These are Zimbabwe's rites of passage and they are not for the feint hearted. Land seizures; cancellation of title deeds; state acquisition of personal property and equipment; being removed from the voters roll; being called an 'alien' in the country of your birth and residence; having your own money seized from you by the state; having to go and collect the police if you get burgled; sitting in a petrol queue for at least one day; having to queue all night in order to get a number on a bit of dirty cardboard which will allow you - not to get a passport- but to stand in another queue to get a form to get a passport.

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I write about peculiar and mixed messages. This is very similar to what our lives have become here - disjointed, fragmented, confusing and almost always with nothing guaranteed.

Everyone thought there would be an extension to the 21 days given by the Reserve Bank to hand in old currency and convert to the new money - that isn't really money and has been pruned of three digits. It seems we Zimbabweans haven't learnt a thing though, least of all the lesson that what we most expect is that which is least likely to happen. There was no extension to the deadline and in the first week of the new money most people were totally confused.