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.