IN Hollywood movies, it is always perfect. A pair of teary-eyed lovebirds is depicted in a final embrace during which the young woman pleads,"Promise that you will wait for me?"

"Yes," replies the man emphatically.

And as the train or bus finally drives away, the two, now parted, wave frantically towards each other and blow kisses into the air between them. Their love, it seems, will never die.

Sadly, real life is not like the Hollywood movies.

Long distance love, it must be admitted, tends to be far less elegant.

The subject is pertinent in a nation like Zimbabwe where so many people have filed through its borders in pursuit of greener pastures throughout the region and beyond. And many of these people are men and women in committed relationships and marriages.

So does their love survive the long lengths of time spent apart, and the different time zones and continents that many long distance relationships demand? Do these relationships remain normal, or do they just become nominal?

"I would like to believe that long distance relationships can work, but I think that after a while, you need physical contact and if your partner is never around to give it to you, then you look for those things in someone else," observed Chipo.

Another Zimbabwean, Thomas, concurred stating: "For a long distance relationship to survive there has to be constant communication but even that cannot replace physical presence -- the smiles, the fights, and bodily odours."

Thomas (32) studied in the UK for a year, leaving his wife and new baby back in Zimbabwe. But, he recalls that constant phone calls, emails and sharing of photographs formed the mainstay of the couple's time apart.

In a research report compiled by OneLove on multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships in Namibia, it was found that one of the reasons that people have multiple sexual partners is distant relationships. According to the report, research participants noted that, "in most cases, if you move to a different place from your partner, you should forget about your current relationship and look for someone else."

And the stories of marriages falling apart when one partner settles in a new country seem to attest to these observations.

But long distance relationships are not, in themselves a new phenomenon to Zimbabweans. With rural-urban migration occurring constantly, it is common to hear of the expression "fatherless" families as it is often the men who migrate to city centres in pursuit of employment opportunities. And perhaps one of the dire consequences of the time spent apart between the two partners is the risk of HIV infection.

In the past, mine workers and truck drivers have been especially singled out as high risk groups for contracting the virus as they often seek out commercial sex workers and "small houses" for sex.

But today, with Zimbabweans dispersed all over the world, the footprint of HIV transmission and spread could be casting itself even further. When the decline in Zimbabwe's HIV prevalence was announced in 2007, one of the reasons sceptical researchers offered for the decrease to 15.6% (from 18.1%) was that perhaps many of those already infected with the virus had moved out into the Diaspora.

If such thinking is correct, then the possibilities for the import and export of, as well infection and re-infection with the virus are almost infinite, which is why Maidei, a 28-year-old Zimbabwean is not taking any chances. Her husband, who left Zimbabwe in 2006, lives and works in the United States, but visits every year.

"When he comes, we go and have an HIV test first," she states. "No test, no sex. I trust him but I know he is a human being who is capable of doing anything. So I must protect myself too."

Maidei claims that she herself does not indulge in extra-marital affairs.

But while it is all well and good to talk about long distance relationships, it is important to remember that many partners living under the same roof are still unfaithful to each other. At times, long distance is not only in the physical, but also in the emotional, social and verbal distance that can arise when two people grow apart.

"If a relation is doomed to fail, its doomed to fail whether its long-distance or not, but of course distance plays very much into making a relationship to fail," said Thomas.

Food for thought, in a nation that is slowly returning to its feet as more Zimbabweans contemplate a return, it is only glad tidings and not a new tide of HIV that they bring with them.