Working women
Zimbabwean cool drink vendor, Memory Murinda, is motivated to work as hard as she does in order to provide for her children. She wants to make sure that they eat, wear clothes and go to school. Her day starts at 7am and can end as late as 8pm. Business is good when its summer because she can serve up to 200 thirsty people a day.
The challenges are many in her line of her work. “Some people have juju (magic) money . . . one minute you think you are holding a $5 note from a person and the next moment when they leave, you find out its only a dollar.” Not only does she deal with people who have juju money but also some customers are rough. Just like in any working place where you meet people on daily basis, the customer is always right and you just have to accept it.
I cannot believe that Memory is talking to me with all the drama around us in Zimbabwe where you are in fear of being labeled this or that, and everyone has an agenda. I am really surprised that she agreed to speak with me without requesting payment. She is easy going and she reveals a lot to me about her life and what made her take the step of going out into the world to fend for herself.
And so, I ask her a very daring question. Daring because often people do not want to realize their own value. So I say, what difference does your occupation make to the people of Harare? And this lady replies with a lot of self worth saying that people would die because a central part of being a vendor is taking care of people, and without vendors, people would struggle to buy products.
When I asked her about strikes she said, “Strikes are not good because if they happen most of us who are single parents are worried about being fired. I think that employers, to avoid strikes, must give their employees good working conditions and salary increases at the appropriate time.”
Her face brightened when I asked her if she had any funny experiences related to her job. With laughter in her voice she said that a lady once left R5 change with her and came back the following day saying that she wanted her US$5 back! Memory asked the lady how her money could have grown over night?
Memory told me that the situation in her home made her desperate for a job. One day she just went to Lyons and asked for a job but they turned her down. But because of the situation at home she kept going back until there was an opening.
I asked Memory what her biggest wish for Zimbabwe is? She said that wants people to respect one another – especially the people in government. She said if they respected us we would not have so much unemployment and we would have better working and living conditions.