Inflation

I tend to be a fairly optimistic person. I can usually find the positive in most situations, but of late I find myself shaking my head and wondering where we are headed. If I analyze this, it usually happens in the grocery store or over the issue of finding petrol. I’ve been doing a lot of head shaking this week.

Monday was a holiday (Mother’s Day – a national event here), so the banks were closed, but I ventured to the grocery store to get some staples. I didn’t come home with what I went after. First I went to the ATM. It was closed so I decided to shop for just a few things. Because it was a holiday, the local baker was not producing, so there were NO loaves of bread in the store. I ended up buying some of the few rolls that were left so my watchman would at least have something for his evening tea. There were no eggs either. I took my rolls and headed to get petrol, but there was none. For the last three weeks diesel has been scarce but there has been plenty of petrol. Not on Monday. I went home shaking my head.

Tuesday Maxwell took the car to get in line to get petrol at a station that was receiving a tanker. Before the tanker had finished off-loading a fight broke out among some of the men waiting in line and the owner closed the station rather than to incur more trouble.  Maxwell came home to report and to say he would return the next day, when the station opened again. On Wednesday he sat in line for 6 hours, was 2 cars from the pump and the fuel ran out. Last evening, when I was telling Thomas about this, I shook my head as he said that in Ntaja the only fuel available was on the black market and it was going for MK7000 for 5 liters. (That means that while we usually pay the equivalent of $1.69/liter or $6.70/gallon, he is paying $8.75/liter or $35/gallon). Things in the village are much worse than here in town, and the folks in the village are much less able to afford this great increase.

This morning, Maxwell left at dawn, armed with new information about a station that had a tanker coming. He returned at 2:30 with fuel and a story. He ran out of fuel in line and paid two fellows MK300 to help him push the car to the pump, where he was told he could only buy 20 liters, the limit per car. But for a bribe of MK500, the attendant filled the tank for him. People are looking for ways to make money from this situation any way they can find.

With fuel, and the bank open, I headed out to do some necessary shopping. I found myself shaking my head again at the increase in prices in just a few days. The cost of bread had gone up 20 kwacha a loaf. Eggs had increased 50 kwacha for 18 eggs. Peanut butter had increased 80 kwacha a jar. That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it adds up. Over the last months, a kg of sugar has increased from 90 kwacha to 174 kwacha, a kg of ground meat from 990 kwacha to 1400 kwacha. Again, I can afford to pay it, but I am being careful, trying to make the most of my money. I worry for those who make less, those who were already struggling to make ends meet. I am having a difficult time finding the silver lining in all of this at the moment. The increased costs are predicted to continue as the fuel shortage extends. I just shake my head, again.