An afternoon at Domboshava with the CS'ers

We decided to take Liam, Leslie and Gavin to Domboshava, after having run some errands, preparing for the influx of people for HIFA. We stocked in on water, bought an extra mattress (300USD, thank you please) and got loads of beers. After all this shopping, time for some sundowners at Domboshava, so we headed out there just in time for the sunset.

Liam is into photography (like really), and he really took some awesome pictures, with the sun setting that I wanted to share in the most narcistic manner.

Liam and Leslie make such a sweet couple. I really took to them, and the way they interacted.  Leslie comes from this tiny place in Oregon, where her travels are sometimes the topic of the local newspaper, while Liam is from sunny Brisbane in Australia. She used to work as a nanny, while he's a mecanical engineer that loves to explain why roads can get bumpy. She was brought up a catholic and still clings to some aspects of faith, while he's all into evolution and scientific proof (the god illusion). But they fitted, at least now in modus traveli. 

I liked them both very much. It is the fun and sad part about CouchSurfing, random people come and go.

They eventually left on Thursday morning, after a final treat of some belgian chocolat at Doon Estate. I must say, despite the sweet taste of chocolat, it was still sad to leave them by the side of the road hitch hiking to their next destination. 

I know, I've been in their shoes so many times, leaving, saying goodbye. No real reason, you're simply on the road, and you move on.  I've had to explain so many times without being able to. "But why do you need to go, you don't have anything in particular waiting for you, stay a bit longer..." Such a sweet question but impossible to answer.  

It did get a little tail, when at HIFA we met this Brazilian girl, Vivian, who had picked them and given them the ride. She just arrived to Harare and was interested in starting capoeira, so they had given her our phone number. It was funny to hear how the roadtrip had been... 

HIFA is here... and so is everyone

This week, the Harare International Festival of Arts (or HIfA in short) is taking place. This is THE main cultural event for all of Harare (and a lot of Zimbabwe), with lots of local and international artists perfroming during 7 days in all corners of the city (and then buggering off, leaving Harare as dead - or maybe I should say comateus - as it was before). 

Everybody's been talking about it for ages. When the programme finally came out, people had lunchons, going over the schedule, deciding what they wanted to see, which show to buy tickets for and all. Many of them have been brought in by embassies, so our diplomatic friends also have their two cents to put in. We've been a bit more laid back about it then most people, haven't even bought any tickets yet and just hoping at our good fortune to be able to get last minute tickets without having to queue for eternities. 

With this festival taking place, our CouchSurfing network has picked up once more. For those who don't know it, Couchsurfing  is a website to hook up travellers and locals, where you host them or meet up for coffee and share what you know of your city. Great system since it allows people to get a bit off the beaten track and interact more with the people living somewhere (as well as being cheaper). Both Thomas and me have benefitted of it numerous times and had great trips through it, so time to give some travel-karma back. So, since last Thursday, we have two Ozzie guys, Gavin and Liam and one American girl, Leslie ("loving America anyway") staying with us. Two Germans are scheduled to arrive this evening (with their tent), adn Thursday, some French chick from the Alliance francaise in Lusaka would be coming with 4 more friends. Others coming is still possible, so our house might get a bit hectic over the next week, but the more, the merrier, right? 

Loic, my godchild has just arrived!

Yesterday evening, we'd already turned in, at 23.30, the phone starting ringing. I must admit, it is sort of a shock. It is one of the first times I get a phone call so late, so it was funny to see what my reaction was. You just can't help wondering if it is bad news, to be calling that late. "Oh, I hope my parents are okay." "Hope it isn't any bad news for Bart". I could actually imagine a bit of those thoughts that would run through a parent's head. 

But it turned out to be the best news ever: my brother, Bart was on the phone from Belgium. The minute I heard his voice, I could guess what he was calling about. His wife Dominique had given birth, and all was well. Little boy, 2.9kg, named Loïc.

Le prénom Loïc est un dérivé de Louis. Les racines germaniques "Hlod-" et "-wig" signifient "gloire" et combat". Au fil des siècles et des monarchies, le prénom est passé de Hlodowig à Louis. 

Gosh, I am so glad! It is a bit of a weird feeling, being so far away and all, but my mind keeps going back to it. I have been looking up headlines for today's papers, the top 10 songs for this week, the name, all such. Thought it would be cool for Loïc to read later on, once he bigger, what were the headlines at the time, listen to music that was in fashion the date he was born... Shame our internet connection isn't that great, if not, I could do so much more. 

But I will definitely come back to Belgium for the party (12th of July). Have been pestering Volens to go ahead and make the booking, but it's been taking some time...

Our world, your world too

I just came across this publication for IRIN, a UN agency, about orphans and HIV, called 'Our world'. I found it quite touching and therefore wanted to share it with you. Go to their website or download a first chapter through this link. 

They also give some radio reports: 

Giving children a chance to live
 'I don't want to die alone' - the challenge of prevention
 Looking forward to life
 Children bear the brunt of AIDS crisis

SPECIAL SPECIAL, READ ALL ABOUT IT: The Zims n°5 are out

Yep, our little Easter Egg, The Zims Issue 5, hatched especially for you.

Download the latest news on our lives as development workers in Zimbabwe and Zambia here.

Issue 5 - April 2009: EN - FR - NL

Away for the Easter weekend: to Nyanga

This long Easter weekend, since we'd worked so hard before, with all the reporting and everything, Thomas and me decided to leave the stress of Harare behind us and go to Nyanga, about 3h away to the east. It has beautiful sights, high up, with rocks and mountains. It used to be very touristy and still has a lot of infrastructure, but with the external image of Zimbabwe, there are hardly any international tourists and with the dollarisation of the economy, most locals can't afford it. 

The first night, we stayed at the Inn at Rupurara (a rock which translated means bald head). It also boasts a small game park, with girafs, zebras and kudus. Very nice views and luxurious. We went for a horse ride which allowed us to get really really close to the girafs.

The second night we stayed at the National Park lodges, which are really still very affordable (only 20USD for a lodge for two people). It is all self catering, so we had to look for food to cook on Easter Saturday, and wait till 19.30 before the electricity came to be able to cook, but that was largely compensated by the open fire and the space. Until at 7.45 on Easter Sunday, the caretaker just walked in without knocking and found Thomas and me sleeping in front of the fireplace...

Work work work... What is in a report....

This period is an administrative nightmare for cooperants. April is the month in which we have to combine two things: 

• the reporting of 2008(financial and narrative) and 
  
• the planning for 2010 (activities and budget).

Two very different frames of mind and hard to combine, but necessary, if we want to receive the funding for 2009. Biggest chunk  is of course the reporting, which we have to do on soooo many levels, it almost becomes funny (notice how I stress the 'almost'). 

• for each cooperant: a report on all his/her activities and how this contributed to the results Volens wanted to achieve (bijlage 5).
• a compilation of all of these reports (bijlage 6)
• for each cooperant: planning for 2009 (bijlage 4)
• a compilation of all of these plannings (bijlage 3)
• For each Partnerorganisation: how they contributed (bijlage 2)
• a compilation of this (bijlage 1)
• an AFAU 4 document, which each cooperant has to fill in to explain what contributions he/she made to the regional dynamics and the south-north dialogue
• an R8 for each cooperant: giving a brief narrative summary of activities.

Then, regarding the orphans and vulnerable children programme I am facilitating:

• a logical framework (P10 AFAU 2 F LK) 
• a planning of the activities for 2010, (P10 AFAU 2 F)
• a specific file for the entire region, Zimbabwe and Zambia, R8P10 AFAU, which gives a general overview of our activities (R8 AFAU);
• a file with pictures that illustrate our activities (R8-AFAU-2-F-fotomateriaal).
• a financial report for all the money spent in 2008, according to whether it was spent in Belgium (modele 7a) or in Zimbabwe (modele 7b)  (and of course taking into consideration the varying exchange rate, which is in...modèle 7c). Thank God mom was here to carry all of the receipts back to Belgium. Just hope they will be approved... And, before I forget, of course, there are also separate accounts and reporting to be done if the activities consisted of:

1.  attachments (look and learn visits between the partner organisations) or 
2. scholarships (bursaries to go abroad and study something).

And of course, all of this has to be coherent, not only with all the cooperants involved in the programme, but also with the other programmes (Caroline's and Kristien's). Needless to say, it means a lot of emails back and forth, small changes, numerous versions of the same documents and all. But the end of the tunnel is in sight, as we would say in Belgium, with most of the documents finalized (or almost). Now let's see what Volens Brussels is going to give for comments....

Beside all this, we also have a monthly overview with planning that we do to keep track of what is happening in the programme, extra funding proposals we introduce with provinces and cities in Belgium, etc... Amazing how much paperwork we have to produce... And how little of it will really be read. Of course, I understand we have to be held accountable for the funds we receive, which is a good thing, and though they might not read all of it, the Belgian government does do checks on randoms files, so all of them have to be in order. It is just frustrating to spend so much time doing paperwork and not focussing on the objectives of your programmes...

Fototentoonstelling in Halle over landbouw in Zimbabwe

Met de hulp van ons programma gaat er in het stadhuis van Halle een fototentoonstelling door betreffende de landbouw in Zimbabwe van de 20ste april tot de 30ste april.

Landbouw in Zimbabwe: Een stap verder...

Sinds 2000 ligt de landbouwsector in Zimbabwe in puin! President Mugabe voerde een landbouwhervorming door. Eigenaars van grote landbouwbedrijven werden verdreven. Kleine landbouwfamilies kregen meer land. Maar de regeringssteun viel bijna volledig weg. Zaden en meststoffen zijn nog maar moeilijk te krijgen. Dit alles leidde tot de instorting van de landbouwsector en veroorzaakte enorme voedseltekorten. Bijna de helft van de Zimbabwanen (meer dan 5 miljoen mensen) is vandaag afhankelijk van voedselhulp. Bovendien is de ecologische degradatie, veroorzaakt door de huidige manier van boeren, enorm.

Als gevolg, met de steun van internationale en lokale NGOs, zijn duurzame, ecologisch verantwoorde landbouwpraktijken erg populair geworden in Zimbabwe.

De duurzame landbouwactiviteiten van kleine familiale boeren in Zimbabwe zijn redelijk productief, maar de gewassen worden nauwelijks verwerkt. Boeren missen de kennis, de ervaring, contacten en middelen om landbouwproducten te verwerken en te vermarkten. Het toevoegen van waarde aan hun producten en de verkoop ervan bieden echter enorme mogelijkheden: een grotere productiviteit en grotere verscheidenheid aan geteelde gewassen, een meer gebalanceerd dieet bij eigen gebruik, extra inkomsten en het stimuleren van de lokale economie.

VOLENS tracht daar verandering in te brengen door een netwerk van lokale NGOs de mogelijkheid te bieden om hun ervaring in verwerking en vermarkting van landbouwprodukten te vergroten.

Meer info op de website: http://volens.be/expo/

Playing at Emerald Hill

Our Capoeira group also has a class with children from an orphanage, realy close by to our house. The place is called Emerald Hill and also has a school for the deaf. This Saturday, it was their end of term and so we went to do our practise there, rather than have a training. It's always so nice to do it with children that are seeing capoeira for the first time and great fun.

After the rhoda with the kids, we kept practising and generally fooling around. It's always a good opportunity to practise moves, ask people for how they do a jump and so on. And of course, it's always the best of times to take impressive pictures, being outdoors and all. 

One fo these attempts I orchastrated finished in a catastrophy though, when I requested the three trainers to do the same move for a picture. Ed got hit on the head by Tendai, who injured his ankle... Dangerous job, to be a capoeira model... Worst of all, I missed that specific moment for a picture.

Our new housemate, Kili...

For three days now, we have had a new cat. Dexter, our previous cat, disappeared while we were away for the Christmas holiday and was dearly missed. I truly love having my own cat, despite the hassle and our frequent travels. It is simply such a joy to come home and play or caress a cat. And I derive such great pleasure from it, that I don't see why I should deny myself the enjoyment. As long as the cat feels at home and seems happy...

One who isn't looking too happy about all this, is Thomas, but he eventually agreed. So, through a friend of ours, Melissa, we heard about this girl who had kittens and was trying to get rid of them. We could chose between a gray male one and a ginger female. Well, we don't want kittens, and needless to say, we prefer males, so gray it was. Still no set name yet, I feel we have to wait a bit, getting to know his personality and all before naming him, but currently, we're leaning towards Kilimanjaro, since he enjoys climbing a lot, Kili in short.

Day 14: the departure: Mams and Jan go back to Belgium

Today, Mams and Jan went back to Belgium, the end of 14 days in Zimbabwe and Africa. For mams, the first time in black Africa, for Jan, memories from his Congo holidays coming back.

Though it was short, it was also very intens and diversified. They got to see parts of my work and parts of what Zimbabwe has to offer tourists. They met people from all walks of life, colleagues, friends, blacks, Indians, Belgian and other expats. Most of them were impressed that they had come, despite the entire catastrophy image that is portrayed in the western media.  

The first week, in Harare, it was really great that she could meet some of our partner organisations, see some of the tools we are developing for artistic self expression of the children, how street kids turn acrobatics upside down, play capoeira, and how we develop these activities... Since she's also strongly involved in the solidarity group that is supporting our work in Belgium, and she's genuilly interested in this field of work, this was an outstanding opportunity.

The second week was more of touristy Zimbabwe. This map shows how we travelled around:

1. From Harare to Great Zimbabwe (Masvingo): where there are stone ruins from 12-14th Century civilisations.
   
2. From Great Zimbabwe (Masvingo) to Antelope Park (Gweru): to get a taste of the wild life in Africa, a carriage safari.
   
3. From Antelope Park to Bulawayo and Matopos: the second biggest city of Zim and where 4 of my partner organisations work. 
   
4. From Bulawayo to Victoria Falls: see the Smoke that Thunders, in the biggest waterfalls of Africa.
   
5. From Vic Falls back to Harare: by plane, Air Zimbabwe.  
   

Lots of kilometers, lots of different places and people, but Mams, always interested and talkative, Jan, always ready to lend a hand and give advice.  Thanks for coming! Hope these posts gave an idea of what they did, and inspires others to follow their example. 

And maybe see them back in 2010?

Day 13: Mams en Jan veilig terug van Victoria Falls

Gisterenavond veilig terug in Harare met het vliegtuig aangekomen vanuit Victoria Falls. 

We zijn dan op terugweg van het vliegveld nog even langsgegaan bij het Zimbabwean German Society, waar we Shona lessen volgen. Daar was het een feestje voor het eind van het trimester, en dus deed elke klas een klein toneelstukje. Het viel me op hoe anders de atmosfeer was vergeleken met ons laatste feest, dat ergens in oktober was. Toen was het nog heel gespannen, met maar weinig studenten (denk dat we een twintigtal waren tegen gisteren rond de 75 of zo).  Mensen hadden andere prioriteiten veronderstel ik. 

Onze klas, met 4 studenten, hadden een klein toneelstukje in mekaar gestoken waarbij onze lerares, Beatrice, belt om te verwittigen dat ze ziek is en er geen les zou zijn. Dat wordt dan op met slecht netwerkverbindingen en misverstanden dat ze cholera heeft en al gestorven is. Als de studenten dan afkomen met een traditioneel begrafenislied, is de moeder heel verbaasd en roept Beatrice. Doorspekt met enkele slang uitdrukkingen (Network yakadhakwa: het netwerk is zat, dwz werkt niet goed), het was goed genoeg voor algemene hilariteit.

Daarna nog even een natje en een droogje en dan huiswaarts. Vrijdag gaat eerder een rustige dag zijn, bijkomen van al het reizen en de emoties. Een kleine drink voor al de mensen die ons moeder haar pad hebben gekruist om 17u. 

Day 12: Victoria Falls

For their honeymoon, Thomas and me had decided to offer Mams and Jan two romantic days in Victoria Falls, the most touristy place in all of Zimbabwe. We'd booked them in a nice hotel, Ilala Lodge (at local residents rates, which they had to debate before the manager accepted), with view on the Smoke that Thunders, with the rise of waterclouds, about a minute from the waterfalls and 5 from the centre.  

They came back with loads of stories, how they socialized with the tourist security men, going to the local market to buy fruit,...

They also got to see some wild life, warthogs playing on the field in front of the hotel, and even two big male elephants that decided to linger on the path when they were returning back to the hotel on the first night. Nothing much to do, but do what they do best in Africa: wait and be

 patient.