I spend a lot of time sending out job applications, I do my housework and play with my mini human. I think out of everyone in the house he is the one who gets the best menu because 70% of my budget goes to him. There is no time to relax, no playing music or listening to my thoughts. These days you’ll find me in my room getting my ducks in a row.
I haven’t had any luck securing a job or getting a facilitation gig however I had few Rands saved up and I managed to use that to get some groceries. My little brother always jokes that we wouldn’t survive without the sound of an empty refrigerator. We wouldn’t survive if he decides to take up comedy as his day job.
Getting food has been tough and for now, there is come cabbage, Amasi (cultured dairy), chicken feet and chicken necks to cover the entire weekend. My baby has allergies so he will be having a totally different menu from us. I got him rice which he will have with veggies, macaroni and vegetables soup. At the moment I can’t really afford to buy him meat every day however twice a week I make a plan.
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How has my access to protein changed? I don’t think it has really changed because most people see protein as meat, meat, meat and more meat. For my family meat has been seen as a bit of a privilege because I couldn’t afford to get it for them. We would substitute it for milk or we eat Amasi, sometimes we eat chicken feet. That’s our protein and it hasn’t really hindered us in a bad way.
We do have access to fresh vegetables and fruits even though we know that fruits are seasonal but we had an avocado tree, we have peaches tree, we have paw-paw – I’m not sure is it papaya or is it paw-paw – we have peaches right now and there are naartjies on the tree, though they are still green, we do have them.
So, our food situation hasn’t really changed. We still have our spinach, we still cook that. We eat the way we used to, it’s just that we are not eating takeaways like before because we’ve been forced to cut certain things as I’m not consulting a lot and I’m not attending any civil society meetings and getting per diems (daily allowances), things that used to help us.
We still eating healthy. We still able to eat although we eating more pap (cooked maize porridge) which is a bit alarming. I think we are still good, so far so good.
Yes, there are times when I am forced to make very, very soft pap – you know in my culture you eat a bit hard pap, but we will be forced to make soft pap because maybe the maize it’s not enough to make it for the entire week, or just for the night.
I feel like COVID has shut so many doors for a lot of us, especially activists who survived on consulting work. I dream of days where we’d have steak one day followed by grilled chicken the next, then lamb chops and then some nice grilled fish. There were times where I wouldn’t eat in the hotel buffet during civil society meetings because I didn’t want my stomach to get used to the taste of what I call the “good life”.
Securing groceries has been very hard since the Rona (COVID-19) hit us. I have noticed the meat price has increased since I get it twice a week for the little one. I haven’t bothered to check the prices as I value my mental health – I am sure the prices are abnormally high.
Mom started a food garden back in 2012 when she lost her job and we live in a community where your neighbour wouldn’t even pour you a glass of water even if it was your dying wish. Anyway, that’s politics for another day. We grow our own spinach, tomatoes, chillies, potatoes and beetroot. My mother also has trees that grow peaches, pomegranate, naartjies (clementines) and blueberries. We had the avocado tree but because of space, we had to cut it down.
Sometimes there are lessons that will prepare you for bigger things in life. I started taking care of my family in 2014 until now. I have seen how prices change. I used to complain but eventually, you get used to them. These days I don’t even stress myself with prices of other things because when I go shopping I focus on a few isles which is the maize section, milk, toiletries and sometimes the meat sections. So comparing prices of others things is the last thing on my mind, because maybe I would be worried if there would be enough electricity to cook that day or enough money to pay rent.
I think what keeps me up at night is those people who were not able to save up or hustle like me to put food on the table. I wonder what happens to them, I wonder if they are able to get something to eat. It’s those kids who come to school with torn clothes or shoes and you can tell they are hungry. Although I can’t afford to just buy what I want all the time, I am blessed to able to feed the people I live with and for that, I will forever be grateful.
So that’s how my journey has been since the Rona has hit us.
