This
Women’s Month, I am also remembering my mum she has been gone for 17 years and
she is not forgotten.
This morning our 7 year old son came
to the lounge after 5:30am and I told him to go back to bed. You see he is
unlike his mother, he is an early riser like his dad🙈. Even last night we had to force
him to go to bed early. So after 6am he comes back to the lounge. He sits next
to me and he says, “Daddy my teacher says if you are sick you must not come to
school.” I look up from my book and say ok. I am wondering to myself who is
sick because you are not sick. I didn’t swallow the bait. I was not born yesterday🤣.
I suspected that it was just Monday Blues.
He went on to log on to the computer
and started playing his game for a few minutes before preparing for school. He
then tells the same story to his mother. We look at each other. When you have a
toddler you monitor a lot of things eg their appetite, body temperature, change
of behavior such as are they playing like their usual normal etc. Most of the
time you don’t need a kid to tell you they are sick as you always find out on
your own. We tell him you are not staying home today .
When I was growing up my mother was
so strict, the only time I missed school was when I was admitted in hospital.
Almost every year I would come down with malaria and tonsillitis. I would
travel by bus from Amaveni Township to Kwekwe General hospital and at times I
would be admitted. With tonsillitis I would be required to come back for the
next few days for injections (Eish). So like most township schools we had hot
sitting where another grade uses the classroom in the morning and another in
the afternoon.
In the morning I would take the
direct bus to Kwekwe General Hospital and after the injection, I would walk to
town in order to save the money for use during break time at school ( You see I
knew money from a young age🙈). I would then go to school from the second day
onwards. My mum also insisted that we wake up very in morning even on weekends
or during school holidays. It was later as an adult when I started appreciating
what she did for me by teaching me this.
When I came to South Africa at the
end of August 2007, I joined my employer in Pretoria in September 2007 and
worked for 10 years and one month before resigning to run my own hustle. In
those 10 years I worked there, I only took 2 days sick leave. I have been fortunate
that I have not been admitted in hospital for 25 years now. The last time I was
admitted in hospital was during Lower 6 at Marondera High School during the
winter of 1994. I had been cycling to school during the harsh winter in
Marondera. I developed pneumonia and I was admitted at Marondera General
Hospital.
Many of us don’t like Mondays and
for me the turning point was when I joined Zimbabwe Insurance Brokers at the
end of 2002. Every Monday morning started with a management meeting in the
boardroom chaired by the General Manager- Retail Broking. My boss Mr John
Mapani would expect you be well prepared and present your team’s report and be
prepared to answer questions on the age analysis report.
When I joined my employer in
Pretoria in September 2007, like in all claims departments of Insurance
companies Mondays are extremely busy. We get paid based on your performance so
you can’t afford to relax on Monday otherwise everyone will leave you behind
and you won’t be able to catch up. Other weekends I would drive to Harare and
due to the delays at Beitbridge border post, I would only arrive in Pretoria
early Monday morning and I would proceed to go to work.
When I was self-employed it was even
worse, I would leave the house around 6am and run to the train station, I would
arrive back home around 7pm and do that for 7 days a week. There was a day when
I went to carry a load for a client in Pretoria East whilst loading the client
asked if I could carry another load to Wedza, Zimbabwe that day. By 8pm I was
on my way to Zimbabwe and would come back two days later.
I am very grateful for the
mentorship I got from my mother as well as all the mentors I met in my career
journey over the last 23 years. The most transformational figure in my career
is Ms Tendai Chingovo she was my boss at AIG Zimbabwe and she taught me two
important lessons:-
1) You work for yourself and not the
company
2) Do excellent work always and
someone will notice, that someone can be a manager from another section, a
competitor, a client etc
Due to challenges that come with
being a foreigner where your experience and your qualifications don’t really
count for much, it has been a challenge to apply the advice but I did so
nevertheless.
I came back to work in April last
year ( One day I will blog about my 6months of self-employment). Since December
2018, I have worked overtime on Boxing Day, New Years Day, Easter holiday,
Youth Day and I normally work overtime every Saturday.
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