Sie from Zimbabwe
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Description
In this episode Manchán speaks to Sie from Zimbabwe. 'I’d appreciate for Irish people to understand me as a person, not me as an African, or me as a continent,’ says Sie who comes from a village without electricity in a northern province of Zimbabwe called Lubane. She stresses that her family had access to a bore hole for water but other neighbours still fetch it daily from the river. She says it was a difficult life of long trips to fetch firewood and a 6km hike to school each day through the bush, but looking back now on it she says she appreciates many of its positive aspects. She has fond memories of gathering worms from the mopani trees, which the family dried, then used to cook by soaking them in water, then boiling and frying them. They’re crunchy, delicious and rich in protein. 'The good thing about the village it teaches you your culture, values, a sense of belonging, but we are living in a world that is evolving they still don’t have electricity, still don’t have sanitary system. But I still appreciate what's there. My father still lives in the village.' Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.
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