Returning to Zimbabwe, life looks tougher for most

By Stella Mapenzauswa

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - As I drove from the border with South Africa to my home town I recalled the refrain Zimbabweans use when pondering the economic meltdown in their country: "surely things cannot get any worse than they are".

That mantra has helped them soldier on during the last eight years as they grappled with an ever-growing list of shortages, which now include water and electricity.

But on my journey home to Bulawayo, which should have taken three hours but lasted double that as I dodged gaping potholes in the pitch black night, I realized things had gotten worse.

After 14 months living in Johannesburg, with its tarred highways and bustling, well-stocked shopping malls, getting reacquainted with the hardships back home took the joy out of reuniting with family and friends for Christmas.

When I went to the bathroom in my parents' house, my mother handed me a bucket of rain water to flush the toilet and wash my hands, because there was nothing in the cistern or the tap.

Although drought-prone Bulawayo was enjoying its wettest summer in recent history, running water from the city council had been erratic for months; there was no money to import treatment chemicals.

I got used to seeing women and children balancing containers on their heads along dusty township roads, begging water from residents lucky enough to have some.

Bulawayo long enjoyed a reputation as Zimbabwe's cleanest city, with charming, colonial-style buildings, but the walls were now peeling and gone too were the street cleaners who used to keep the central business district pristine.