be doing well enough financially to pay fees. The two elder children who were left behind in Harare are still there, but the family is not clear how they are faring or whether they are in school or not. Communication is apparently very difficult between them. The store, run by the wife, is well stocked and they appear to be making a reasonable living from it. However the store needs a ceiling because the health inspectors said it was needed and this they say they cannot afford to put in. The father is practising his traditional medicine and has fee-paying clients. He has taken on two apprentices. They seem to have had a reasonable harvest. The family is considering purchasing an established homestead from the widow of their late brother. This is a very nice homestead with three huts and a roofed summerhouse. There is a need to clear the front yard and do some renovation, but it is structurally sound, with doors and windowpanes. It is fenced and has a field that is also fenced. The relations within the family are sorely tried however. The husband is very stressed about the fact that he and his mother-in-law are not getting on well, which is why he needs to buy another homestead and move. She feels he is not doing much for the family and all the moneygenerating is being done by her daughter, his wife. He says that he is doing more than his mother-in-law realises, as he is the one organising stock for the store. Although the couple were used to living in one house in Porta Farm and now live ten kilometres apart, they are managing to maintain their marriage. The wife thinks that everything is fine, except they need more money to renovate the shop and homestead. They are not thinking of going back to Harare as they have decided to try and establish themselves where they are. This family is what could be referred to as a rare success story. In the last year since losing everything in the demolitions, they have made a new start and are looking ahead. They are obviously a highly competent couple who were successful in Porta Farm, and who have taken their survival skills and competence with them back to their rural area, where they have a family with resources to supplement them while they get established. Situation eight Ngozi Mine: informal settlement razed to the ground in June 2005 Around 400 settlers lived here at that time In the last report, there were interviews with several settlers from this area who were assaulted by soldiers during OM. Everyone in this area lost all their possessions. Ngozi Mine is close to the municipal rubbish dumps, and people in the vicinity often scavenged from the dumps as a way of surviving. People living here are among Bulawayo’s poorest and most vulnerable. Update, July 2006 [see front cover photo] This informal settlement is slowly rebuilding itself. However the community remains very afraid of strangers and very hesitant to talk to outsiders. People when asked, all profess not to be actually living there, but to be just passing through. Over some weeks of observation and interaction, the authors have noted that in fact there are many people who scavenge off the dumps by day but do not live there, and there are others who are in fact living there. 63