There are many many people struggling in Zimbabwe at the moment. Take Martin for example, a chap Jonny met the other day. He is 70 and lives with his wife (who is 60 but invalided from a bus accident) and 8 grandchildren whom he supports. His son died and his daughter is in South Africa, and has been for a year, getting medical treatment for a condition she has. They have about 20 acres of land 30 miles outside Harare (this is not uncommon, the government gave land to people before all the contraversial land grabbing started). He has to come in to Harare to try to find work, to support the family. This involves a nine mile walk (he is 70, I reiterate) to the main road and a bus the rest of the way, with no guarrentee of work in any case. They have enough maize from last year’s crop to last the ten of them until march. If he is going to plant maize (to provide food for them until the next rainy season) he needs to do it in the next few weeks before the rains come. One hectare will cost around $250 to plough and plant and fertilize (if doing it in the way he normally does it). Where does a peasant farmer with no extended family support get this kind of money? And martin is probably one of thousands if not millions who are unable to resource their planting. We went out to visit him and the family, it was pretty stark the situation they are in. The children, however, were some of the most contented I’ve ever seen. They were all under the age of about 10, and yet all (except the youngest who was barely walking) helped with the firewood, collecting water, looking after the younger ones, cooking the pea nuts. Very peaceful children. But there are so so many people like this and I just dont know how they survive. Its very sobering. (TBC internet about to go)