struggles

There are bush monitor lizards for sale in the pet shop at Golden Stairs' Nursery in Harare.

"600 US each," says the woman behind the counter. "You have to buy the tank too. It's got underfloor heating."

The monitors -- from Australia, I learn -- are like giant white chameleons with ruffled white collars. They're nosy things, sniffing at the glass walls.

"It's the latest craze in (plush Jo'burg suburb) Sandton," says the petshop owner. "The women walk round with these things round their necks."

....

"Auntie, I need to talk to you," Mai Brendan says. I look up from my laptop. I'm struggling to meet a deadline. I push out a chair for her.

"Please, if your maid doesn't come back, I need her job." She's stammering now. "Where I stay, I get paid 20 US for the month."

She works six days a week, 6.30 am till 6 at night, plus two hours on Sunday mornings.

"Yesterday I was ill and the owner said I could lie down. But then she came to find me after a few hours. And I am breathless, like this" -- she mimics a struggle for breath.

Her husband works as a gardener for the same people. Salary: 30 US. "And we have to send money to my young sister in Dangamvura. She has to eat too."