Sometimes we are trapped in an environment where hopelessness can be very intense. In such an environment life becomes virtually useless, a time passing game without any real purpose. Day after day the, mind gets occupied with wandering thoughts that do not have any meaning. A vicious circle of despair creeps in as a sense of defeat wearies us down.
The people around us sometimes worsen the predicament. They play their part in ensuring that we get dragged into the circles of despair. Every time one tries to start a conversation, what comes out of a person’s mouth is “Life is hard”. This is the reality that each one of us faces around the world. We tend to move along in resignation. It is reality that "Some Days Are Diamonds (Some Days Are Stone)" as in a song written by
Dick Feller.
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| Water is rationed to three days per week. Electricity is very erratic
and refuse collection is done on Mondays only. I have become a voice of
reason within the community that I live in. |
We all need strategies to navigate the rough terrains of life.
I live in a Harare town of Chitungwiza, where service delivery is virtually nonexistent. Water is rationed to three days per week. Electricity is very erratic and refuse collection is done on Mondays only. I have become a voice of reason within the community that I live in. Once when raw sewage was freely flowing through the street, I took it upon myself to fill a bucket of raw sewage and took it to the learned Town Engineer’s office and threatened to spill it on the carpet. The guys acted immediately and the problem was rectified. I did not claim to be a hero. I solved my problem and in so doing everyone else’s problem.
I live in a street where young men have been taken over by drugs. Early in the morning they can be observed “sticking”, a term used to describe their non functionality due to drunkenness. I burdened myself with a responsibility to counsel them. At least a sense of respect has come back to them. They go away to have their drugs elsewhere where they don’t see me and I don’t see them. My heart hurts when their parents even have the guts to ask me to beat their children for them.
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| Water is rationed to three days per week. Electricity is very erratic
and refuse collection is done on Mondays only. I have become a voice of
reason within the community that I live in. |
I live in an environment where society’s moral fibre has diminished. I live within a community where youths and even some old men wake up and group themselves at a street corner. All of them complain that there are no jobs out there. I live in a community where it is normal for one to put on used clothes bought at the local shopping centre. It is in this community where people are born, grow up, earn a living and then die without realising their full potential.
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| Water is rationed to three days per week. Electricity is very erratic
and refuse collection is done on Mondays only. I have become a voice of
reason within the community that I live in. |
I live in a community where the words health and social welfare do not make a meaning in people’s minds.
In the face of these general challenges of life I still GET ON WITH LIFE. It is this community that I am doing my best to effect change. Daily I am doing what I can to share the message of hope and possibility.
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| Water is rationed to three days per week. Electricity is very erratic
and refuse collection is done on Mondays only. I have become a voice of
reason within the community that I live in. |
You may also be in the same circumstances or even worse. Keep your shoulders up, your head high and keep moving forward. There is always hope when people chose to better their communities. Little by little we will change our communities and the world.
