As a child of two government teachers living and working in the small town of Kadoma, fast food, travel, staycations and vacations were never really a thing. I grew up in a home where what I referred to as a holiday was visiting my grandparents in the village, seeing my cousins from bigger cities and, if I was lucky, visiting aunts and uncles based in neighbouring countries – South Africa to be exact. Weddings and funerals were great reasons to get on the road and potentially see new places until they, too, became the usual. That’s how Zaka and Jerera became regular chill spots for my cousins and me whenever we visited our grandparents.

I’m a 28-year-old woman who has never been to Victoria Falls, a world wonder that exists in my own country. I saw the largest man-made lake in the entire world, Lake Kariba, for the first time at the age of 25 only because I went there for a job interview! Kadoma and Kariba are in the same province, for goodness’ sake! How could I not have visited the dam? Oh, can I mention that it was also my first time on a speedboat?

The question is, besides money, what was stopping us from traveling?

Was it exposure, or the lack of it?

Let’s say money was the problem. How, though, were we able to afford trips to Masvingo yet never visited the highest point in our town to view the whole of Kadoma?

Let’s say we couldn’t go there at night because we didn’t own a car and mobility would be an issue, how about during the day? It would have cost just $3 for our family of four to go and return home, especially since I could sit on Dad’s lap. That viewpoint is free and if we had a few dollars to spare, there’s even a restaurant up there.

We also have a dam in Kadoma where people go fishing. You pay $3 to spend the day there. We could have cooked our food at home, packed a basket and sat there for a simple family excursion.

The point isn’t that my parents did a bad job because that would be a lie. I have never slept hungry or lacked anything essential. What I’m painting here is the reality that travel was never really a priority and the most “touristy” things I got to do were on school trips.

My observation is that my family only visited places where we had free accommodation. Had I had an aunt who married someone in Victoria Falls, I’d have been there 20 times by now. If my grandmother had owned a house in Kariba, I’d have eaten 32 tonnes of fish by now—just like I’ve drunk drums of milk from my grandfather’s farm.

Seeing Lake Kariba is free. It’s actually free, guys. You can see it and it’s beautiful both day and night. Cruising is $15 per person but seeing it? Free.

I believe my parents dreaded having to pay for everything: transport, food, activities and convenience. So they calculated. In Zaka, for example, they’d only need to pay for transport. To save money, they would carry my brother and me on their laps and use one straight bus from Kadoma to Masvingo. They’d only stop when the bus stopped for recess.

They’d buy basics groceries at Muhamad Musa: cooking oil, sugar, teabags, two pairs of tennis shoes for Grandma and Grandpa and a blanket for Grandma. When we arrived, my grandmother would kill a chicken for me and we’d have it for dinner.

We did all our game viewing in the cattle kraal and our game drives at the back of a cattle-driven cart. We’d bathe in the river and that, for us, was pure pleasure.

The parcels we brought from the city weren’t the only things we brought. We brought manpower too by helping in the fields and could stay as long as we liked. There was no such thing as a double booking. In fact, the more the merrier. We were thrilled when our cousins came. We ate from one plate, played games and slept on the floor all bundled up to keep warm when the blankets ran out.

Let’s go back to my story. I’ve been to Masvingo at least 20 times, yet I only saw Great Zimbabwe, a World Heritage Site, at the age of 27! Guess what? I’ve also never been to Lake Kyle.

Masvingo is such an important part of Africa’s history. It carries so much heritage in its walls but we never got to explore that. Imagine how much better I would have done in history if I had integrated what I was taught about the Rozvi people with visiting the place where that profound story actually took place.

Imagine how much richer my compositions would’ve been in school.

Why would my grandparents visit Kadoma and all we’d do was take them to the doctor, Edgars and then let them spend the rest of the day at home? Why not a visit to the dam I mentioned earlier, or a picnic at the highest point in our town?

All that said, I’ve been gainfully employed since I was 25. Remember how I spoke about my first time in Kariba?

In the last three years, I’ve travelled to Masvingo three times to visit my grandparents and to put up a tombstone for my great-grandmother. I’ve been to South Africa five times for both work and pleasure. Sun City was my favourite—shoutout to Lera-too Travel.

I’ve been to Bulawayo twice: once to visit family and another time for a family reunion. With my cousins, we road-tripped from Bulawayo to Shurugwi to see my rural home. It was my first time there.

I was also privileged to visit West Africa with Styra Yacho. We went to Ghana and passed through Ethiopia, where I got to see a bit of the country during our 8-hour layover.

Now tell me: why has a single woman with a bit of disposable income still not gone to Victoria Falls? Tell me, because I have a driver’s licence, I’ve bought and sold a car and I can borrow my mom’s. Airlink has made access easier with frequent and fairly affordable flights. The answer? My mindset. Our mindsets.

Travel is “for the rich.” It’s “too expensive.” That’s what my parents thought and that’s what I think too—deep down.

My mind, although I’m trying, is wired to see travel as a logistical nightmare. Flights feel daunting and expensive. The visa process seems impossible. There are places I’d never imagine visiting. I don’t even research them.

Now that I know this, it is my goal to free my mind, to explore, starting with the closest, simplest places and then gradually growing my reach to more distant and beautiful corners of our country.

You too can travel

• Liteboho Mojakhomo