Millions of Zimbabweans currently live in the Diaspora, exiled from their homeland for all manner of reasons, mainly economic. The United Kingdom, South Africa, the United States, Australia and Canada have become home to a majority of them.

There are others who dare to tread roads less travelled. Some have ventured into countries like Russia, Norway, Austria and even Kuwait. The reasons for leaving Zimbabwe vary with individuals and these range from work, school through to marriage. Although this is not the subject of this short story, it is relevant to explaining what we are doing in some of these countries.

Today’s article is about surviving winter in the sometimes very cold diaspora. Stockholm, in Sweden, is one of those cities which in winter, experiences only around five-and-a-half hours of daylight. This means more than 18 hours of complete darkness in winter. However, to be fair on Stockholm, it more than makes up for it with the bright snow coverage in winter. And the Swedes have a love of lights rivalled by only a few. Moreover, in summer, they have endless days due to longer daylight hours.

These 18-hour daylight days still fascinate me up to today. Imagine having a sunset after 9PM. The days are breathtakingly beautiful.

I have a dear friend who lives in Stockholm. She moved to Sweden as a pre-teen due to her mum moving there for work. Let’s call her Precious. One summer, at the age of 25, having lived in Sweden for more than 15 years, Precious started dating this drop dead gorgeous blond blue-eyed Swede. Summer came, with it the Scandinavian mid-summer celebrations. If you don’t know about mid-summer, let me educate you. It’s bigger that Christmas, probably celebrated more than Christmas. That’s no mean feat.

The mood is usually electric and it’s as it says, in the middle of summer, usually the peak of summer. This means the day is longer than Christmas and people are usually out celebrating till the wee hours. Think bonfires, flowers, cakes, music and of course loads of alcohol. A very festive mood.

Summer came and went, Precious as usual found herself struggling with the cold and sometimes gloomy winters. Her new boyfriend soon noticed the change in Precious’ mood. He tried everything from winter hobbies, skiing, skating snowboarding but it only helped momentarily. Precious could feel herself sliding into this deep and dark depression due to the lack of sunlight.

Those of you who think depression is not a thing for Africans, I dare you to be sun deprived, away from home for four months and see how that works out for you. When I moved to London, it used to fascinate me that my colleagues would take a day off or an afternoon off from work because it was sunny. Now having lived in Europe for over 20 years, I understand why the sun is important to my happiness, zuva rakandikoshera mufunge.

The concept of sun worshipping is probably a byproduct of this vitamin D deprivation. Now back to Precious. One morning Precious’ boyfriend came to her home animated. He said he had found a solution for her gloominess. This solution had often worked with his mum and some of his friends. Precious was super-duper excited about this; if white people in this country use this method then surely it must work. Off to the city centre they went and within an hour they were at a solarium. So, the solution was she had to go into the sun-bed.

For those of you unfamiliar with this, a solarium is usually used by white people, to put it simply, to get a tan. It involves going into a coffin like device (a sun-bed) which emits ultra-violet light to give an artificial tan. Apparently, those who use sun-beds swear that the exposure to the beds leaves them feeling relaxed and also gives them a sense of euphoria leaving the users in a good mood.

Precious thought well, there was no harm trying this magic device, especially when it promised such good tidings. This was her first time doing this so her session lasted about eight minutes. She told me she wanted to achieve maximum results.

Let me just say this did not end well for Precious. As she came out, her boyfriend was waiting for her. What he saw shocked him so much that he couldn’t tell her. All he could see were her eyes and her teeth when she smiled. The sun-bed had turned her pitch-black, as black as charcoal. As she approached, all he could muster was “honey it’s not so bad, what is important is that you are feeling good inside right?”

Precious did not feel good after this episode, she was horrified. She didn’t speak to her boyfriend for a week. They later made up and he so wanted to make up for his mistake. So, he took her to a spa. This was really a beautiful place where they had a jacuzzi, pool and sauna etc. In her excitement, she went into the sauna to open her pores so she could benefit fully from the facial treatments. Precious had been in a sauna before and really enjoyed it. However, on this occasion she forgot that she had a synthetic weave sewed on. It goes without saying that going into the sauna with a synthetic weave is a definite no-no!

The weave started melting and as she panicked, she started pouring cold water on it. That definitely helped with the plastic getting in contact with her skin. The only problem is she was now left with lumps of matted on her. Precious told me it was so bad that when she got home, she cut all her hair off.

There is a happy ending to this story, they got married that same year and they always tell this story with a twinkle in their eyes.