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The Saga Continueth
Shane Kidd, Chimanimani, Zimbabwe
June 25, 2004

Tuesday 8th June, 2004
1st thing in the morning it's shopping to get $2,000,000 worth of hardware to fix up the office - mostly paint and nails - there's no point in doing anything about the widows, they will only be smashed later on in the year as election fever grips us. Then we get a phone call from Maguta. The warvets have reorganized and about 10 of them have occupied the property during the night. This morning there are more of them industriously painting ZANU (PF) slogans all over the place? Actually if you think about it they probably trace them. I don't think any of them actually have the brains or the literacy to actually spell coherent sentences. Not that I'm much better - the spell checker has waved its white flag in capitulation and now refuses to acknowledge me.

So here we go again. I get hold of Roy to tell him Birgit and I will be wading into the fray on Wednesday. Tell you the truth I'm a bit reluctant, Wednesday is golf day and I can see no point in ruining a perfectly good day. Roy is of the opinion that we should wait for the court eviction order. When are the politicians going to realise that they will not win votes in the courts. It's their constituencies that count and that is where the fight will take place. Birgit wants to stop at the MDC office in Mutare to talk to the guys and ask them what they intend to do. I'm not really that interested but use the occasion to vent a bit of spleen.

Doug asked me today why we do what we do. I rather glibly replied "we each have to draw our own line and make our own stand." But that's not really the answer. Birgit for her part is still a true believer in the MDC and the justice of its cause, but even her faith has been sorely tested and is somewhat jaded at this stage of the game. The MDC's public apathy has done nothing to bolster their image of leadership or their moral authority as fighters of the good fight. As for me, I think they are a bunch of plonkers. Somewhere along the way they formed the idea that their cause could best be won in the courts and the forum of international opinion. They lost sight of the fact that as an opposition party beset on all sides by a corrupt and repressive regime, the thing that they should have done was lived in their constituency, setting a moral example to people on how to live with dignity, pride and without fear under this murderous govt. The only reason I support them is because Mugabe and his thugs tell me I can't and keep trying to intimidate us. I'll be buggered if I'll be told what I can and can't do in my own country. But there is more to it than that. While we were at the MDC office in Mutare this morning, 3 Chipinge woman came in. 1 of them was an MDC councilor in Chipinge. All 3 have just had their homes burnt and destroyed in what the Govt and diplomats euphemistically call electioneering. The councilwoman was one of those who attended all my trails in Chipinge a couple of years ago as a show of support. When Birgit told her what we had done Monday it brought a smile to her face and a little hope. Somebody was actually doing something instead of taking about doing something. Whilst we were repainting the MDC office in Chimanimani, men and woman walk past smiled and said "well done, thank you." Maybe these are the people that are worth fighting for, if someone can show them that they can stand up for their rights then perhaps some day they will and will lead others to do the same. God knows the MDC hasn't set much of an example. Enough of my pious and maudlin waffling, back to the present.

Coming over Skyline we received a message to avoid the village. Mutezo's gentlemen of leisure were running around trying to cause strife. They ambushed Hennie midmorning outside the MDC office by putting a ladder across the road. As Hennie stopped the car they surrounded him and tried to take the keys out of the car. Hennie thinking quickly, reversed and then drove forward around the ladder causing the fools to scatter. There was a bit of banging on the car but no serious damage was done. When he got home and reported it to the police they denied all knowledge of any disturbances in the village. Just after Ngangu, Moses one of my employees waved me down and told me to go around the village to the house, not through it.

When we arrived at the house, Maguta was there to brief us. Munacho Mutezo the ZANU (PF) Chimanimani candidate for next year's elections had his nose put out of joint when he heard we had repainted the MDC office and his highly paid warvets had deserted when faced with Birgit's fearsome finger. He stormed up to Chimanimani this morning were he spent a good deal of time screaming at Mrs Knight in the ZANU (PF) office before coming down to the MDC office to address his fresh batch of troops with the new plan of action. The Kidd's seem to be his central problem, apparently we are to be kidnapped and then "disappeared"! There were suggestions made that we should 1st be made to work in the gold fields of Rusitu to earn Mutezo money before our demise. You're never quite sure how serious to take these arsehole threats but one thing's for sure, we're not running away.

Afternoon interlude; at about 4pm we get a call. The masses are on their way up to the house. Well that definitely gets the adrenaline pumping.

We get rid of Point our 80 plus year old gardener . He walks out the gate with a look of disgust on his face. Perhaps it was one of his more lucid moments. He hasn't done a stroke of work since he joined us 10 years ago and spends the majority of the day talking to the trees or the bushes, whichever catches his fancy. He's one of Birgit's charity cases and quite frankly we've never really expected him to work. His day is divided into 2 parts. The 1st part of his day consists of Point rambling up and down outside the kitchen mumbling to himself. The volume of noise is directly proportional to how late Birgit is in producing this morning tea and sandwiches. On those mornings when there are unavoidable and prolonged delays the volume of his muttering increases drastically and there are pointed glares and comments passed at the kitchen window. The rest of the day is spent talking to the trees and deciding what to take home with him. Please understand, he's not a thief, he simply regards everything within the confines of the fence as belonging to him. If we wish to leave anything outside then we have to get Peter, our other employee, to explain to him loudly and repetitively in Shona that it is ours and he is not to take it. Once it's being designated as ours then there's no problem and it's safe. If we fail to take these elementary precautions and something goes missing, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. To be fair he does occasionally bring things back that are broken for me to repair.

Anyway, back to the adrenaline rush. Peter and Moses are told the situation and are told to make their own decisions. Peter decided to take up a post on the verandah. Birgit starts to hit the phones. I go up to the gate to wait. Moses is at a loose end. I suggest that if he's got nothing better to do then perhaps can go through the bush beside the road and see if there is actually anyone coming. Moses goes off and I sit down to wait and think. 10 minutes later Moses comes back saying it's a false alarm. Great, Birgit gets on the phone and starts telling people to relax.

The evening is not yet over. Birgit's crowning moment of glory is yet to come. At about 6.00pm Birgit gets a call from the Finnish Embassy in Maputo, Mozambique. Who then proceeds to respectfully but determinedly shit on her from a dizzy height for having the temerity to stand for her rights?

"Don't you understand you are risking your life, you are in a very dangerous position? These people in Zimbabwe have no concept of law and order. There are many people with court orders who haven't got their property back. What you are doing is playing with fire. You had better move to Harare now!"

Birgit told her home was in Chimanimani and she wouldn't leave because some one had to stay and stand up for her rights.

"What I recommend is for you to move out of the place now!"
Birgit thanked him for being one of the many callers on Friday the 28th.
"That doesn't help, they can't read any high court orders and they don't talk to us when we phone or they lie. The only thing that I can do is take your remains back to Finland. I hope that you and Shane take my advice and move to Harare while you are still alive."

Birgit thanked him. Of course, he had no idea were she would live in Harare or what she would do for money. The strange thing is no one with any brains believes that some foreign power will come in and rescue foreign nationals. The only thing that people expect or want is ever increasing pressure on Mugabe and his thugs. When someone is arrested, beaten or abducted all those calls coming into the police station make the police aware that the outside world knows that they are colluding with ZANU (PF) and they are working in the dark. There is nothing that dictatorships fear more, than having their evil little schemes exposed to the light of day. He probably fears the embarrassment of having a dead Finn on his hands.

You can imagine it the scene in an English diplomatic setting, over cigars and a whisky in the drawing room in the evening.

"I say Gerald old boy, dastardly bad luck one of your nationals dying like that"
"Yes terribly bad form, it's not like we don't have enough work on hands at the moment with packing for the summer hols."
"We had a similar case last year, lots of paper work. The really terrible part is asking the local boys all those embarrassing questions with stepping on to many toes."
"One would hope that if people are silly enough to make victims of themselves, they could at least do it at a different time of year. It's dreadfully inconvenient and very inconsiderate of her."

One wonders what the Finnish version of this conversation is. Who ever it was at the embassy obviously relent later. Birgit had a phone call from a secretary who had been instructed to phone her on a regular basis to ensure that she was okay. Brigit said relax she would let them know when things went pear shaped.

The good news is that I've just been watching the news and there's a cold front moving up from South Africa. We are not going to do any thing about the MDC Office until Monday. That will let Mutezo's tame war vets camp outside and freeze their arses off for a few more days. You see life is full of little joys; all you have to do is look for them. To cap it all I get to play golf tomorrow instead of painting the bloody office.

Another bit of good news is that Short Wave Africa is reporting tonight that we took back the MDC office. Technically not true at this stage but at least it will give some of the benighted people in this district of Chimanimani something to be cheerful about.

Wednesday 9th June, 2004
Allah Akabar god is great; I woke up this morning to gray and overcast skies and delightful drop in temperature. Mutezo's boys and girls are about to start freezing their butts off. Had a game of golf with Mike this afternoon lost my money gracefully, got thoroughly wet, cold and miserable and lost my balls in the mist. But if the Scott's can do it so can I.

Saturday 12th June, 2004
Well the rest of the week has been relatively uneventful. On Wednesday night after golf we had intruders in the yard. The dogs went wild and barked for about an hour. I couldn't see anything but Celia was sporting a cut from a machete on the top of her back leg on Thursday morning. Poor Celia, 1st poison now the machete, she really has been in the wars for the last 2 weeks.

Nonie's daughter Acacia went down with malaria and was very sick in the Chipinge Clinic for 3 days. They had to put her on a quinine drip. She is now back in the village and recovering.

On Friday I went around to Allen's for a game of backgammon at about 12 o'clock. I managed to humiliate him 3 games to none. Mike Durkin arrived so we had a drink and then one thing lead to another and I eventually got out of there at 5.30pm. Mike and I spent most of the afternoon discussing politics in what I felt was an intelligent fashion. With the benefit of hindsight and the throbbing of my head this morning I'm no longer sure just how intelligent the conversation was. The one thing I do know was that I'm definitely a more fortunate man than Mike. I drove most of the way to my bed. When I left he was still going strong, but he has a 2 ½ hour walk back to Beedale in the most inclement weather.

The lawyers have the papers in the high court and will ask them for an emergency interdict. They are running around today trying to serve papers on Mrs Knight and her band of fools. The lawyer's secretary phoned me up yesterday and asked me if she faxed them to me would I serve the papers. I was game but Trust Mandaa the lawyer phoned me up later to say that he was organising a Messenger of the Court instead. He felt that it was a bit off sides to ask me to do it. Regardless of what happens I'll be back at the office painting it again on Monday.

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