The cake of good hope
"I marii? "I ventured in the local shona language.How much is it?
I hadn't planned to buy a cake.A few days earlier, donny, a student friend, came up to me: "Auntie, will you make a cake for our youth club this weekend? "
"Auntie"Agreed.I've known donny for three years.He'd never dream of calling me by my first name.I am married, i have a child:According to zimbabwean custom, i must be shown respect.
At first i thought i'd bake my staple sponge cake.I baked this cake so many times during zimbabwe's eight years of food shortages and political tensions that i know the ingredients by heart.When what i needed for my cake wasn't available in the shops, i found alternatives:Custard powder for eggs, donated pancake mix for flour.
But this saturday morning, i was distracted.My motherinlaw dropped by with red apples from the mountainous nyanga district.We chatted.A smell of burning wafted from my oven.
I grabbed my purse. "I'll try the supermarket,"I said.
There the cake waited, in all its glistening glory.A cake like this would have been unthinkable in much of zimbabwe not long ago.Often in the past decade, there was no bread for sale.Desperate shoppers queued for sugar in lines patrolled by police dogs.When president robert mugabe ordered a controversial price slash in 2007, stores emptied and stayed that way for months.Like many others, i safetypinned my waistband tighter.
Finally in february, mr.Mugabe swore in a coalition government with former opposition leader morgan tsvangirai as prime minister.Zimbabwe began its long slow climb to recovery.
These days i count
Pandora Charms UK the small signs of change:A family with bulging shopping bags eats icecream cones.Council workers shovel sand into potholes.
In a downtown supermarket a creamdotted cake beckons.
"It costs $6,"The shop assistant said.Just six?Not 6 million or 6 billion dollars?Last year, zimbabwe's inflation reached 231 million percent, according to official figures.Six months into the new coalition, the rate is 1 percent.
I laid the cake on the passenger seat and hoped it wouldn't melt.
On a dusty plot at the other end of the city, donny and his friends were playing rounders.They were using a deflated football and a cricket bat.
Some of the youths drifted over to chat.Philippa, an educated 20something, was wearing a new mintgreen top and black leggings.Last year, she worked as a cleaner to make ends meet.When police raided her employers' home in the border city of mutare searching for diamond dealers, philippa was beaten. "Things are better now,"She told me. "We can afford to buy what we need. "
Lawrence, a gifted public speaker, has plans to go to university. "I want to study it,"He said.We talked of how zimbabwe's universities have opened after months without lectures, of how aid groups have ensured clean water.
The smell of meat sizzling on a barbecue floated over the thorn hedge.Last year, meat was so scarce and so expensive that some zimbabweans substituted salty water for chicken soup.
There were murmurs as the lid of my white cardboard box was lifted.
"Thank you for the cake, auntie,"Donny said simply.
The white rosettes were a little squashed.The butter icing would not have lasted much longer on this hot spring afternoon.Still, it was a beautiful cake.
Nancy Grace
Florida millionaire brutally killed on business trip.Wife wanted him dead for money?
A young florida woman goes from being down on her luck to becoming the wife of a millionaire.Was the son of prominent hotelier and businessman, ben novack sr., the onetime owner of Miami Beach's famous, lavish Fontainebleau hotel.In the early 80's after his father lost the luxury south florida hotel to bankruptcy, novack jr.Branched out on his own starting a successful, thriving convention planning business, convention concepts unlimited.The majority of novack jr.'s wealth was earned planning conventions for Amway International.
Ben novack jr./ Police say his gold bracelet may have been taken
A native of ecuador, narcy novack, was reportedly a stripper when she met ben novack jr.The two were married shortly after in 1991.According to reports, ben novack jr.Treated his wife's biological daughter as his own and by all accounts they were living a glamorous life of wealth and privilege in fort lauderdale, all working together in the multimillion dollar business.That bond would soon be broken and there would be trouble in paradise.According to the miami herald, allegations of spousal abuse, never proven, affairs and even a divorce filing that was later dropped, sent the mansion of cards tumbling.
Robbery or twisted sex game gone wrong?
In the wee hours of june 2002 fort lauderdale police fielded an emergency call from ben novack jr.Insisting he was the victim of a home invasion robbery set in motion by his wife, narcy novack.According to the incident report, ben novack details a 25 hour nightmare in which he claims he was bound, gagged and blindfolded all while handcuffed to a chair in his bedroom by several men who gained access to the home through his wife, narcy.
Novack says he was held at gunpoint while his wife demanded all her personal belongings, $440, 000 in company petty cash funds secured in the safe, company records, personal papers and documents were removed from the home.When police insisted on dispatching officers to the home, novack refused the help saying the house was under watch and he received death threats warning if cops showed up he would be killed.After finally getting inside the home, police found a disheveled ben novack with cuts on his lips and redness on his wrists.A floor safe was wide open and cleaned out.In the master bedroom cops found a reclining chair surrounded by ropes and binding items, including handcuffs.Other rooms throughout the home were also cleaned out of narcy novack's things, like her clothing and personal items.After attempting multiple telephone sting operations on his wife hoping to implicate her in the robbery, narcy novack had a much different story to tell police.
When fort lauderdale detectives finally got narcy novack to come to headquarters to answer to the robbery claims, she was armed with bags and boxes of explicit photos and magazines she alleges are part of her husband's sex fetishes and the couple's twisted sex games, including bondage.Narcy novack told investigators many of their nights involved handcuffing each other to the very chair where ben novack reports he was held captive for hours in a home invasion.And it wasn't only sex games novack told cops about, she also claimed the relationship was violent, alleging physical abuse and claiming she was tricked into getting breast implants.Narcy novack insisted the alleged home invasion was just another sex game.But novack's changing story just didn't add up, according to the incident report, and when cops confronted her it appeared there was more of a volatile history between the couple.Narcy novack threatened to expose her husband's sex fetishes and other secrets if he went through with prosecuting her.In the end, ben novack signed papers agreeing to drop the case and the two decided to reconcile.But that wouldn't last for long.
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