Andrew
NEWSPAPERS this week feasted on pictures of people who pulled countless comic stunts as they scampered for cover from the rains that caught them unawares in various parts of the capital city.
I personally enjoyed the photograph of a young lass, who let expensive groceries soak in the rain as she did all in her might to cover her head.
The rains spoiled the party for one woman, too. She had her real complexion revealed when the rains washed off a layer of face powder she had applied to conceal scars on her face.
Bed-wetters had to make do with sleeping in a high moisture environment after their blankets failed to dry up due to the rains. However, the comedy ends there. The moment rains fall, there is trouble in the ghetto.
Rains mean sleeping in the cold for some families that live in poorly constructed dwellings and unauthorised buildings, usually built of cheap material, in the backyard.
“Whenever it rains, I have sleepless nights. The roof of my apartment leaks and this exposes my electrical appliances and carpets to water,” a workmate told this writer recently.
“The rains also trigger drainage challenges at my house and this is really a nightmare for me and my teenage son. If I had a way, I would fight to ensure it never rained,” she said with a contorted face, in an expression of discomfort.
Commuters hate such times the most because they always have it rough when it rains.
“My brother, transport is a challenge these days and I take rides in open trucks to and from work. My plight is worsened when it rains because that mode of transport is just easy to deal with in dry weather conditions,” a friend told me in Mbare recently.
“Kukangonaya, ndotoziva zvangu kuti chabhiridhira.”
Housewives do not enjoy life whenever it rains because this results in more mud around the house and more work for them. Adolescent boys and girls particularly hate this time of the year because it increases their prospects of being seen by their love targets tilling the land and/or applying fertiliser to crops.
For children, it is as if their resilience is being tested in the most difficult way when they are assigned to weed crops or carry packs of seed along busy streets. It is not unusual during this time of the year to find otherwise respectable people hurling expletives at each other over pieces of land on which to grow crops and vegetables.
Some even consult those with spirits of divination to fight their wars.
“Manje kana ndiri seni zvangu, yangu haiperi. Ibvai pamunda pangu kana mada rugare or else ndinokuenderai kuChipinge,” I heard a certain woman telling a neighbour.
“Ini hangu kufa ndajaira. I fear God alone,” the neighbour fired back.
Gentle reader, the moment rains fall, a new breed of land barons emerges as the characters parcel out State land to whoever needs it for a fee.
While this is clearly illegal, one risks failing to plant as long as one refuses to pay the money demanded by the space barons. Like fire, which can be a good and bad master, rains have their positive and negative sides.
Inotambika mughetto.
rosenthal.mutakati @zimpapers.co.zw
Online Reporter