A little before midday on the second last day of October it rained for the first time in six months in my home town. The rain was neither heavy nor prolonged but just enough to wet the dust and cut through the searing heat which had reduced most of us to melting pools. The delicious smell of African rain in the air and the first sighting of a Burchells Coucal in the garden bought a moment of sanity into what is fast becoming a crazy and frightening time in Zimbabwe.

Just when we had dared to hope that perhaps we could stagger on in this lopsided unity government until we got a new constitution and a new election, the wheels fell off completely. Most ordinary people only realized that something was going on when suddenly there were police roadblocks everywhere. Gone was the usual bored interrogation of motorists by painfully young police details, watched by even younger uniformed chaps standing nearby in the bush with AK 47's. Suddenly this was a serious business: open the trunk of the car, open your suitcase, what's in the bag, what's behind your seat? They wouldn't say what they were looking for but it turned out to be arms and ammunition which had apparently disappeared from Pomona Army Barracks in Harare.

Then we heard the frightening news of the armed abduction of an MDC employee from Mufakose and the attempted armed abduction in the centre of Harare of the MDC's security administrator, Edith Mashayire which was foiled after she repeatedly screamed for help. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa then told us exactly what we feared. he said:
"What we are beginning to see is the genesis of a political storm of persecution, abductions, and even murder."

Then came the own goal everyone's been waiting for Zanu PF to score, and they did, in classic style. After ten months of posing as new improved, reformed leaders, everything fell apart at Harare airport. Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, was denied entry into Zimbabwe. Despite having been invited, and then un-invited by the government, and then re-invited by no less than the Prime Minister of the country, Mr Nowak wasn't allowed out of the airport and was later sent back to South Africa.

Suddenly after months of silence, Zimbabwe was back in the world news. "Totally unacceptable, unprecedented, a major diplomatic incident," said Mr Nowak. And so, here we are, back in this grim place where it's Zimbabwe against the world. It was like being back in time this week when a BBC reporter speaking about a recent interview in Zimbabwe used phrases including: "increasingly tense... safe house .... in hiding ...make sure we're not being followed..."

The rain storms haven't started but the political and human rights ones sure have.
Until next week, thanks for reading.