The Brazil-Zim (friendly) match

For those blissfully unaware, the World Cup is taking place in South Africa this year. This means that increasingly, conversations turn to this player, that team or some other unfamiliar topic for me.

The neighbouring countries are hoping to get some of the ripple effects of tourists and economic opportunities. For Zimbabwe though, that seems pretty unrealistic. The Zim government had tried to get in teams to play, and initially, the North Korean team was supposed to come, but this was cancelled due to pressure of human rights groups (or so they claimed). It is true that it might have been delicate, particularly in Bulawayo where President Robert Mugabe’s North-Korean trained 5th Brigade is accused of committing gross human rights abuses and murder of up to 20 000 civilians during disturbances in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the early 1980s. So it seemed most people were condemned to armchair witnesses of the World Cup, especially since Zimbabwe in February seems to have bought a paltry 34 tickets to the entire World Cup taking place in SA. No surprise with the economic crisis…

Big was the surprise when out of the blue came the rumour last week that the Brazil team might be coming! Imagine, the most famous (arguably, and believe me, I have witnessed a lot of these arguments lately) team coming to Harare! Even if it is just a friendly match and a sort of acclimatizing to the playing at this altitude, when would the Zim national team, the Warriors(ranking 110, behind Rwanda), ever have the opportunity of playing five time world champion Brazil in Harare?! The was also the first time since independance (1980) that a non-African team was playing in Zimbabwe. According to the press, the cost of getting Brazil to come amounted to 1.3MillionUSD, and though 70% of that was covered by 3 Zim companies, the remaining 30% came from the government.

As the news become more and more reliable, excitement rose. Tickets were only available the afternoon before, going at 10USD for the cheap seats, and 40 to 60USD for VIP (though apparently, there wasn’t much VIP about them). The government gave half the day off, the UN followed the lead, and many organisations and business as well. The stadium can hold about 60.000 people, and reporters claim there were 50.000 present. I must say, it was not very chaotic or threatening. Before coming, we had worries about huge crowds, endless queues, pickpockets everywhere and not in the least, that the stadium would just collapse. But no, it was vibrant but secure, the stadium felt very safe and clean, security was there (probably more to watch the game than us but anyway). And at the opening, both President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai were present, our first time to actually see them live! There was a bit of a peculiar moment, when the live feed on the big screen turned it into a bit of a competition for the biggest cheers from the audience, between the two politicians and Kaka, Brazilian’s most famous (and handsome) player. Another article here.

Football fans get into the samba mood before watching Zimbabwe take on the Brazil side. Photograph: Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty Images

Now, in a last minute scramble, our capoeira academy also wanted to take advantage of the Brazilian presence to include a little demonstration in the match, maybe (we could always dream) during half-time break? So, first call to Brazilian Embassy. They referred us to Ministry of Tourism, who referred me to 2010 Department, who referred me to Events, who referred me to Entertainment, and a cell phone number for the big lady in charge, by the name of Kudzi. Nothing really clearly set beforehand, but we decided to give it a go anyway. So, some convincing at the entrance, talking our way into the stadium, and a chance run-in with the big lady, and yes, we were expected to perform during half time! In front of a 50,000 people crowd, with broadcasts to 9 other locations in town and who knows where else. Jibbers… So when half time came, we climbed down with trembling knees, half expecting there would be entertainment everywhere, but no, except for a marching band, nobody else… So we discretely positioned ourselves by the side of the field and started playing. In comes the MC, who tells us':’Why don’t you go to the middle of the field?’. And so we were off, and suddenly it all seemed unreal. It didn’t seem to be people on the benches, just moving colours, lots of yellow and green (the colours for both Zimbabwe and Brazil). We only played for a couple of minutes, but it will be something I will remember for the rest of my life. When the players come on, we hurried off, as if we hadn’t really had a right to be there, intruders. Now I wish I had had the courage to linger a bit, see what kind of reaction the players would have had. But alas, we didn’t and now we’ll never know whether they would have joined us in a friendly game of our nature…

PS for those interested in that kind of thing, Brazil won 3 to 0, surprise surprise… More details here. If you wanna see some of the goals:

Chimanimani festival - the movie

Last weekend we went with a group of 8 (Tendai, Shaun, Vivien, Jennifer and myself as capoeiristas, Thomas, Tendai's sister Wadzi and finally Dani, our last Couchsurfer) to Chimanimani. It was a long weekend (Tuesday is Africa Day, so holiday) and we stayed 5 days.

First two days we went hiking and sleeping in the mountains of the Chimanimani National Park, and the last three days we hung out at the annual Chimanimani arts festival. Compiled it all in a little video (in 3 parts), enjoy for the ones with broadband connection ;-).

Photo workshop with kids from Youth Zone during HIFA

I was asked to facilitate a workshop on photography for kids in the Youth Zone of HIFA this year. At first I didn’t feel particularly qualified for the job, but since it was only a one hour workshop (of which at least 30 minutes the kids would be sent out to take pictures), I thought I’d give it a go.

Instead of the planned 16 kids (since I had 8 still cameras so they’d have to share by two), 33 children of all ages showed up, and then the projector failed to work so things were a bit hectic at first. It was still fun though, teaching some basic concepts and techniques and seeing what the kids made of it. The 3min clip below is a compilation made of selected pictures.

Easter trip: to MozamBeaches

For Easter, the four of us, Thomas, Hannah, Vivien and me, decided to hit the beach in Mozambique. Since we only had ten days, we decided to limit ourselves to two places: Vilanculos and Tofo, two of the most famous (and touristy) beaches in Mozambique. From Harare, it's quite a trip: 1.200km and the roads are not in perfect condition (though less bad than I expected).

We went with our car and Thomas did most of the driving (occasionally getting caught in the Mozambican police speed traps). We'd made it such that an inflatable mattress was in the back, mostly for Vivien, who was suffering from horrible back aches but nothing could hold her back (no pun intended).Vilanculos is nice, quiet and dusty. It was fun to be again in a more latin feel, with people in the streets in the evenings and music playing everywhere. And of course, something especially my three co-travellers had been looking forward to, sea food!

It was such a relief to see the sea again, be at the ocean. Landlocked Harare and Zimbabwe have great things to offer, but after having lived so often by the sea, I do miss the openness and space by the seaside.

It was mostly a lazy holiday, nothing too active or exhausting. We spend time on the beach, working on our tan.

The challenge of building a sand castle,

an entire civilization to be swept away afterwards by the waves.

And lots of reading (5 books in ten days and not even trying)...

But what is especially an attraction for Vilanculos, is the nearby Bazaruto archipelago. It is a group of six islands of the coast, some very touristy developed, with resorts and airstrips. It offers great clean and sandy beaches and snorkeling opportunities. Lots of little fish, fluorescent colors and so relaxing.

We however went there to also sleep.

Though not a 100% legal, the four of us with two guides spend the night under stars on a tiny island with nobody else (unless you count the scores of crabs around). Not that comfortable we had a perfect night's rest, but the view and the atmosphere made up for the crawling crabs over our legs and the sand getting everywhere.

Sea to the left, and sea to the right, so small was the island...

'Knibbel knabbel knuiland, wie knabbelt er aan ons eiland?'

In Tofo, the main attraction was the whale shark diving. We got into a boat with about twenty people and whenever the skipper would spot a shado under the surface, he yelled 'ready - GO!' and then we'd all jump in. Needless to say, we were among the first diving in, which gave us twice a great opportunity to see these massive beasts up close.

A whale shark is the biggest fish, up to 12 or 15 meters long. This spot is famous for a large population, 83% male though and juvenile. Seems like it is the hang out place for them, like a bar in a small town. Hugely impressive, and we were so close we could have touched them (which you can't since bacterias from our hand could cause infections). Then we'd snorkel alongside or above them, until the animal would get fed up with us (though we must have seemed like just small but possibly irritating insects to it). We were lucky to spot two, though unlucky to not see any manta rays, which are also very common there. Maybe next time...

Most of the time we were in bed by 9 or 10pm. Once the sun goes down at 6pm, and with us camping, or sleeping in dorms, we would get up quite early to avoid most of the heat so by 9pm we'd all be yawning. One night however we'd agreed we would go out. So here in Tofo, the happening place was supposed to be Dino's, a beach bar with cocktails and music. Only a 5 minute walk by the beach so after a couple of beers at our place, we headed down there. Not a bad place, and the cocktail list looked promising. I picked a strawberry daquiri (can't go wrong with that I thought) but others had the same idea and we wanted to be able to swap, so I ended up picking the Dino's orgasm. When we finally got them though, had a big toast ('knibbel knabbel knuisje...) and sipped, all our faces went like this:

The most foul and disgusting cocktail I ever had I think....

Of course, we might be on holiday, but with three capoeiristas travelling, it was also the opportunity to play around on the beach and have some photo moments. Capoeira on the beach is always great fun, and one evening we had the moon rising behind. That is, until Hannah inadvertently aued me and almost dislocated my jaw. A couple of days of avoiding too much hard food and chewing on one side and it all went back to normal again.

All in all, a very relaxing and beautiful holiday. After this one and the last Kenya coast trip, I'm ready for something a bit more active and exciting for our next holiday though. But how could I possibly complain?

A cloud of my words...

Okay, liked this tool and since I haven't posted anything for a while, thought I'd copycat from Liam.

These are the words I most often use in my blog, through http://www.wordle.net/. Pity though that you can leave out common words used (like articles and such) but only in one language (hence the huge 'de') while I sometimes write in several. 'Hosted' comes out quite a lot, of course 'Zimbabwe', and (no surprise there) 'Thomas'. 'Weekend' is nice, 'counting' and 'chiffres' made me smile.