Travel Advisory

I am bemused. This word thing is making itself felt in my life with some intensity.

I have had an email from an old school friend who lives in Australia now. Her mother has been visiting her for three months and is due home in a couple of weeks. My friend checked with the Australian foreign affairs department to discover that there is a travel advisory in effect. I gather that it say's amongst other things, that the water system has collapsed and cases of cholera have been identified and that the electricity grid has also failed. Travel to Zimbabwe is only advised if it is an absolute priority. My friend does not want her mother to come back because of the advisory but her mother says "don't be silly dear, I am going home". (really, she talks like this)

She contacted me to ascertain if it was safe for her mother to return home.

Now, experience of Australians (including Australian immigrants) leads me to understand that we have very different ideas of what safe means.

Water, sanitation and electricity are bad here. None of them really work that well, or by some standards, at all. That being so, and being Zimbabweans we have "made a plan". We have generators, solar powered lights and geysers (hot water heaters), gas stoves and rechargeable lights depending on a variety of factors. We have water tanks and boreholes, wells or we purchase water from a tanked water supplier. We have made ourselves as comfortable as possible in the circumstances. And now I have a different understanding of what "essential services" means.

And looking round nothing much has changed since her mother left, except that we have gone from summer to winter and that generally means less electricity available from the national grid due to increased demand for heating but that is nothing new. Been a winter problem for ten to fifteen years. But my friend has not been home for seventeen years and I suspect has no real idea of how we live now.

Furthermore she makes no mention of the fragile political situation, which could change in a heart beat. The last ten years have shown us that. And by almost any standard, except possibly Zimbabwean, we live in a politically volatile place that is a powder keg. We could have elections this year or next or not at all. No one knows for certain. We do know that elections will result in terrible violence and horror and intimidation.

And so I have wondered all day how to answer her. I am tempted to say "yes, of course it's safe" and ignore the difference in understanding of that word that exists between us because, knowing her mother I'll bet she is ready to come home. How do I explain the difference to someone who seemingly wilfully is not open to another interpretation? Guess that's a non starter at any rate.

Words and what they might mean to different people!

Oh I think I should have stuck firmly with numbers!