Pies, Rand and Radio Licenses

Yesterday when we were “at the shops” Liam (Kaela’s younger brother) and I went to get some meat pies while Mikaela waited with the car with Janet and Esther whom we had picked up. Mikaela’s Grandma Rosemary (Roro) told me the other day that when they were in America they saw Marie Calendars and were excited to eat some “proper” pies in the States. To their dismay, they found that all the pies were “sweet pies” instead of the normal “savory” pies you get here. Since I had never had a “proper meat pie” she said I had to have one soon.

I was pleasantly surprised when I did. The closest thing we have in the States is the chicken pot pies (which I never really liked when I was little) but meat pies are a bit simpler in that instead of veggies and peas and noodles mixed with the meat, its just savory meat with a little sauce baked in a flaky pastry. Forget the microwaveable aluminum tin, forget the cardboard box wrapping and nutrition facts, its just a circular croissant under a heating lamp next to the donuts at the bakery. And its the simplicity that makes them really good! Add the fact that they are $1.20, and I have now found the source of my lunches for the rest of my stay here!

When we paid for the pies at the counter I discovered another little interesting tidbit about Zimbabwe. Because the country now runs solely on the US Dollar, it has plenty of cash on hand, but hardly any coinage. Instead of change, they give you a credit note saying “You can reclaim this for 85 cents worth of goods at this store”. Consequently, whenever you pay for something, you search your wallet for any little credit notes that you might have received from an earlier visit and use them when you shop. Despite this, when I paid with a US $20 bill, and was supposed to receive $13.50 in change, the guy gave me 13 USD and a coin for 5 South African Rand.

?

As we were heading back to the car, I saw an African man with a neon green vest (with reflector strips) walking around looking inside each of the cars. “The Radio Licenses,” Liam said. “He’s checking if people have radios in their cars, and making them pay the licensing fee.”
“So you guys don’t have a radio in your car?”
“Nope- we don’t want to pay the fee!”

When we got back into the car, I looked to where the radio console would usually be and noticed for the first time since I have been here that it had been stripped out completely.

Isn’t it funny that Zimbabwe can’t feed it’s population, yet it employs men patrolling the parking lots looking for radio licenses…