In order to escape harsh Zimbabwean reality, both Thomas and me have submerged ourselves in fantasy. Evenings without electricity, Harare without a lot of cultural possibilities, so we often spend hours with our flashlights on our head, reading.
Our current different universes include classics: Stephen King (the entire Dark Tower series), the vampires from Anne Rice, Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, but also my most recent discovery, Robert Jordan’s books series called “the Wheel of Time”. There are eleven books for this one, but apparently he died before finishing them, to the great frustration of fans.
Must be the biggest check I ever made out... For your info, that was worth about 100USD, made out to Air Zimbabwe, for the return flight of 8 people from Bulawayo, that are coming to Harare so that we can go together to the Zambia workshop....
Cinema here sucks big time. We used to try and go see a movie every week. It was (and still is) dirt cheap, about 1 or 2USD to see a movie (usually the equivalent of a local bus fare, nothing compared to the outrageous prices in Europe, where it averages around 7-8€). The cinema in itself is quite comfortable and even still has a curtain going up at the beginning. But honestly, I don’t think we have seen a decent movie since we got here. You can usually choose from three movies, and it seems to me to have a pattern: - One is usually a ‘black’ comedy, with the likes of Eddy Murphy or Queen Latifa. - Two usually is a ‘Fast and Furious’, cars combined with bad acting and a storyline thinner than Pietje Puk - And n° Three can be a kung fu movie, or a big hit, like the Sex and the City Movie, which will then stay on the bill for weeks.
We had to settle for 'Deception', which was pretty bad. But at least it makes for an outing. Anyway, still very happy we have a projector now through work so that we can show some less main stream movies at home...
This week doesn't feel that special, or maybe that is just me. I just don't feel like I have much worthwhile to share. So let me just focus per post on a single every day aspect of our life here. Tuesday is, just like Thursday and Saturday, capoeira day. I have been quite disciplined at going, and have missed only a couple of classes when I was out of Harare. It has definitely been a life-saver here for me. Not only does it feel good to be active and sportive again, it is also a martial art I have always liked and admired. I like the way it is intense and acrobatic, and makes your entire body work (and ache in the beginning:-). Also the philosophy behind it, the game, the not touching each other but still anticipating, bluffing. It is not called “fighting”, but “playing” when you go into the rhoda.
I remember this Youtube video a friend forwarded to me, in which you see an excited crow around two guys fighting. One is showing off, doing handstands and backflips, fancy capoeira moves left and right, the other one just looking mean and waiting. When the show-off guy gets close enough, the mean one just hits him once and the show -goes down.
Though it was probably meant to ridicule capoeira, portrays it as a show off fight sport that is worthless, I actually got quite a different message. It is a sport meant to show off, but not to hurt the other one, or even to his expense. The players actually have to allow each other to do the impressive moves and stuff, kinda like while you’re dancing. When you do a tango, you can only make fancy moves if the two work together and feel each other out, stimulate or at worst tease and provoke each other. Capoeira to me feels very similar. Yes, you do sort of bluff and try and intimidate the other, and you can show off and be ‘better’ or ‘win’, but it is not aggressive or anything. Which is one of the reasons why some of us were even talking about using it with youngsters, especially the ones from the militia. During the election period, there have been many stories of youngsters forced into youth camps, where through endless singing and scanting brainwashing sessions youth militia were created. These then went about intimidating and brutalising people. Since the end of the elections, many of these youngsters are quite lost. They can hardly return to their community, because often people they intimidated are still there and know what they have done. So they roam, still in ‘gangs’, sometimes with weapons, sometimes with the support of the local politicians.
Capoeira, allowing aggression but no physical violence could be a way of working with these youngsters. And it is considered cool and would keep them busy, even possibly provide them with an income if they got good at it. Of course, the main obstacle to such a project would be how to get into their world, what could be used as an entry point… Because it doesn’t look like the current regime would stimulate or even allow this kind of peace building…
