I was born in Norton, Mashonaland, Zimbabwe on the 15 December 1997. I was born into an ordinary family, mother (Frances), father (Charles), two older brothers (Jeremy and Alastair) and more recently, sister in law, Imogen.

Not to forget our dogs and numerous extras.

But my family doesn’t stop there, the Mugari/Sofia family is my extended family in terms that they have been with us since before I was born. They have been through everything with us and have become a part of our family. From when I was born, Susan Mugari was my second mother.

She was and still is my African nanny/mother but now days has been promoted to the dizzy heights of cook for my mother and father. She and her family have lived with my family for the past 27 years. I call her Shusha, as I couldn’t say Susan and even to this day, she is known by the whole family as Shusha. Orbert is her husband and our gardener.

Susan and Orbert live on the property in their own home. They live with their son and his wife and children and Susan’s sister’s children who were orphaned when her sister died. The terrible impact of AIDS and general poverty and disease means that many children are orphaned and have to live with their extended family.
They are very fortunate in some respects as my parents help them with educating the children and assisting with medical fees and my parents bring in monthly provisions from South Africa including Mealie Meal, Cooking Oil, Soap, Camphor Oil, Tea etc. When shopping for weekly groceries , we buy them their food as well, and a weekly order of ration meat for them, otherwise the cost of meat is completely out of their reach.

There is nothing we won’t do for this family! After everything they do for us, we have to make sure that they are living a better lifestyle than most in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately a few years ago Orbert managed to damage his teeth badly and until recently he had only 5 teeth left, it got so bad he could not chew any of his food, so my Father took him to the dentist, and now he has a full set of dentures, and you can always see him smiling throughout the day!

Shusha has been on many adventures with us as a family. One of the earliest was when we went camping in Mozambique. I think she wondered why we would want to leave our nice houses to go and live in a tent for two weeks with lots of sand and coconuts falling out of the sky. At first, she wasn’t too keen on going into the sea but after a few attempts got used to the waves. She must have had such stories to tell.

When I was quite young we took Shusha on a plane to Cape Town, South Africa. Poor Shusha was terrified and gripped the sides of the seat for dear life! Even worse was when we took her up the cable car at Table mountain. She dropped to the floor in shear terror and was very happy when we returned to terre ferme. However, she soon got the hang of eating seafood and to much amusement from friends could be heard to ordering her calamari!

Everybody loves Shusha, my parents, brothers and all my friends. She has such tremendous zest for life. She makes the best roast potatoes ever and is a legend at dancing!

She has managed to embrace technology, which is very impressive as she is 60 years old with very limited education but now is a proud owner of her own Amazon Fire where she downloads recipes, whatsapp’s and follows facebook and youtube so that she can follow her Prophet.

When I go home she spoils me rotten, still calls me her baby. Life wouldn’t be the same without Shusha and Orbert and their family.