Zim's

Here're the kids from our newly found electrician for the car. He's one of the relatively lucky Zimbabweans in Botswana, having skills people need, his family staying with him, and a house (although it's falling apart because it's next to the railway). As Zimbabwe falls apart, more and more people cross the Botswana- and South African borders. Far more than the Botswana- and RSA economy can absorb.
You can imagine the problems that causes: crime, illegal refugee-camps in the bush, houses declared not fit to live in packed with illegals in Joburg. Last year some of those houses burned down (no electricity, so everything is done with paraffin equipment), without any escape for the inhabitants.
At first, years ago, Zimbabweans had good chances in Botswana. Due to their excellent education you still see that many of the good mechanics, chefs, printers, etc are Zimbabwean, like our friend Hardy, the designer & screen printer at Mochudi Museum, and our new car-electrician. But now there're just too many, and many of them don't have skills.
Their desperate situation hurts of course them, but also the Batswana and the South Africans, especially the poor ones. Crime hurts everybody, but the poor people are the ones pushed out of their jobs because an illegal Zim will do the work for a quarter to half of the money. Money that wasn't much to start with; it's the 50 to 200 euro a month jobs that get done for a fraction of the salary now. Often it doesn't pay to exploit illegals like that, because a lot of stuff 'disappears', or you get lousy workmanship and have to redo everything with a traceable local guy.
As I'm writing this, the dogs go crazy. There must be goats or cows to close to the fence, or an unknown visitor. It's mister Tshuma, the elderly Zimbabwean who did most of the stonework around the house. It's really an art, this building of terraces and walls out of natural rock. We already worried about him when he didn't turn up anymore last March, but he's around again, he says, living 'somewhere behind that hill'. Next to being a good stoneworker he knows a lot about fauna (he helped treat the puppies last year) and flora. So we checked out the vegetable pad and the seed projects together, and he came up with a good plan for the poor misplaced Passion Flower. Now I learned it's nice to make a shade out of it, because the snakes avoid contact with Passion Flower.
A lot of Europeans will lean back and say: 'Yeah, but those SADC-leaders, especially Mbeki, always support Mugabe if push comes to shove.' It's okay to be critical, but don't shout too loud if you come from a country that still has an embassy in Harare big enough to service neighbouring countries. Or knowing that the UN doesn't acknowledge the refugee-camp in de north of Botswana has to be properly serviced - for the refugees and to protect the local people from harassment. Or one of the many other ors.