An interesting take on challah

My little Chinese four year old gave me another gem today while we were having our usual high tea after his lesson. We each had a Chinese bun and he proceeded to take his and said it was challah (he goes to a Jewish nursery school). He covered it with a white napkin and said he must now sing. I was waiting for Hebrew but instead he decided Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was appropriate.

Tomorrow my mum, my friend Lucy and I are setting off for Kariba until Sunday. We are a little apprehensive of the police road blocks that await us. On the way back from La Rochelle we were fined twice. Hopefully we'll be lucky. Lucy has been to Big Sky to check her car is police compliant. I won two nights at Caribbea Bay from a raffle at a Dance Trust of Zimbabwe show earlier this year. We are going to hire a boat for Saturday afternoon.

Went in with a friend yesterday to try and get the re-entry sticker for permanent residents on foreign passports at Immigration. As we were walking to Linquenda House we saw a headline saying the MDC protest was going ahead. This was the first we'd heard about a protest. We carried on though and joined the queue. I got to the front eventually only to be told that I needed to provide school certificates and a water bill (even though I told them it was in my mum's name - they said I still needed to bring it to show I have lived here, sigh). This meant I had to go back today with these. Yesterday the part of town we were in seemed pretty dead and there was no sign of the demonstrations although on Facebook later we saw footage of people burning tyres somewhere. When I went back today they luckily were happy with what I brought and I then proceeded to queue to pay US$100. Thankfully the swipe machine was working - I really didn't want to part with that in cash. They turned several people in front of me away who were trying to pay with bond notes - ridiculous that they won't accept those. I now have to go back on Monday to get my passport back with the sticker hopefully in it. I do feel a tad bit uncomfortable leaving my passport there as people's files do go missing. Just have to hope and believe.

La Rochelle art weekend

This last weekend I packed up my art supplies in a friend's land rover and headed to the Eastern Border Highlands region of Zim for the La Rochelle artists' retreat. It felt like packing for an expedition as I had my tubes of paint, sticks of charcoal, various types of paper and canvas and an array of paint brushes. It was my first time at La Rochelle and it was interesting to visit Penhalonga as it is where my great grandmother came from and where my Greek great grandfather came during the gold rush there.

Cherie Marais' sketch of La Rochelle

Gardens at La Rochelle

We arrived at La Rochelle and the others had already started, so we quickly put our luggage in our rooms and then headed for the botanical gardens in the dell. This required loading up a car as we were a little weighed down with art supplies. We found the others in amongst the aloes and were told to walk around using a view finder and take it all in. We then did some blind contour drawing to get our left side of the brain working. After lunch we made a mini composition with things we had found and used wax resist and water colour with a bit of ink. Sheena Chadwick and Sarah Fynn, the two professional artists running the weekend, were very encouraging throughout and never passed negative comments - I don't know how they did it. On Saturday we played with light and charcoal and then did a two tone study using burnt sienna and ultramarine blue as the only colours on our palette. We were then set the challenge for Sunday of doing a landscape on a square piece of paper that captured the open spaces and slopes of La Rochelle and had a human element somewhere e.g. a path, bench or person. We could if we wanted be influenced by the work of Webster Mubayirenyi. Quite a daunting challenge.

Work by Webster Mubayirenyi

We were given a history of La Rochelle whilst we were there. The Courtaulds who built it were of French Huguenot descent and were wealthy from the family fabric manufacturing business. Lady Courtauld was by all accounts a real character, supposedly having a tattoo up her leg which was scandalous for the 1950's. The hotel was full of artefacts and had the original sliding door glass panes framed as they used to have their guests sign them. One of the signatures is that of Herbert Chitepo. The house is full of orchids from the orchid house and there is apparently one orchid that was given to Lady Courtauld from Singapore and was very rare. It had died back but an orchid specialist from Mutare had managed to get it to grow back from the root. When the specialist was dying the orchid bloomed for the first time in many years and the staff and La Rochelle sent the orchid to be placed by his hospital bed and he saw it the day before he died.

Lady Courtauld's portrait at La Rochelle

Made it to half term

This first half of the term has seemed long and short at the same time. I made it up to Monday without a dip but had a low and didn't make my morning session. My mum luckily is on holiday and filled in for me and the parents were very understanding unlike my previous employer. I was scheduled for a check up with my psychiatrist Monday afternoon any way. He wasn't concerned and said the shorter days and less sunshine at this time of year often cause lows. He upped my venlorflaxin and sent me on my merry way. He did manage to stay awake for most of my consultation but writing prescriptions, which is his usual downfall had him nodding off. I had to just sit patiently til he woke up.

I house sit again for my former high school biology teacher from tomorrow for the half term weekend. Hoping all will be well as her poor dog has gone down with pancreatitis. Have my two dogs Jasper and Elsie curled up at my feet currently - it is cold today. I dressed warmly for personal training this afternoon. When my personal trainer announced when she arrived that we'd do pilates today, not cardio, it felt like the heavens opened with a beam of light and the angels were singing hallelujah. We'll be back to cardio next week, but today I am really tired.

Next weekend I am going with some people from my depression support group to La Rochelle for an artists' retreat with Sheena Chadwick and Sarah Fynn. Hoping it's not too cold but looking forward to it. Had a meet up for the support group last weekend at Ballantyne Park and had some new people. Had a slight panic on the way back when I was trying to get petrol as all the garages' swipe machines seemed to be down. I tried six places. Apparently the internet was down too - the joys of the cash shortage.

Sarah Fynn

Sheena Chadwick

Joss Stone in Harare

Happened to see on Facebook last week an advert for Joss Stone in Harare. I know who Joss Stone is but am afraid couldn't really think of any of her songs. I youtubed her and found I knew one. Wasn't going to go but a friend kindly offered me her mum's ticket as her mum was sick. Was a bit stressed going as I had arranged to have friends round for boardgames the next day and I needed to bake for it and I only found out at 3 pm that my form three student was doing an essay on the book Spies and not Macbeth which I would need to prepare for for the lesson the next morning (he's been doing Macbeth all week so I thought that's what we would be working on and hadn't read ahead in Spies).

We got to 7 Arts theatre early but there was already a queue. When the queue started moving I got very irritated by people pushing in. There was only one door open to the theatre and it got quite claustrophobic being pressed in on every side, especially with people pushing through. My mind did think about terrorist attacks and how I was pinned in on every side. Once we got through the door the crowd thinned and it became more pleasant. The opening acts were good. It was an entirely female ensemble, with Joss Stone and then Tamy Moyo, Gemma Griffiths and Ammara Brown. Joss Stone only came on at around 10.30 though so it was late night.

I had wondered what kind of backing Joss Stone would have - whether she would come with a band or using a backing track. Turned out she had brought a guitarist with and he played the entire accompaniment. I have never been at a concert where men flock to the front of the stage - they did last night and some kept calling out "I love you" and "I want to marry you". Cringe! At one point Joss  came to the stage apron and bent down and held hands with some of the men. One guy reached up and started stroking her hair. She didn't react but am sure she was probably a bit freaked out.

I had intended on waking up at 6 to finish reading Spies but didn't manage to. Luckily I was saved by this week's essay looking at how suspense is created in a specific section of chapter 6 - phew, but I need to catch up. It would be helpful though to get a little more prior warning to prepare.

My Chinese student has his grade 1 entrance test on Thursday. He is coming along well with his nursery rhymes but to my horror he had forgotten what a square is. Will need to concentrate on shapes once more before Thursday.

Africa Weekend

The supposed long weekend from Africa Day has come and gone. I was teaching Thursday, Friday and Saturday so it wasn't a long weekend for me. However I did have a fairly social one. I went with a friend to the Convent school production of Chicago on Friday evening. Noise control of the audience was definitely not like it was in our time at Convent. We were pleasantly surprised though by the talent shown, although the choice of musical for a Convent production was slightly questionable. One elderly nun coming out at interval looked slightly traumatised and I noticed she didn't come back for the second half. Apparently the costumes had been lengthened several times at the request of Sr Kudzai, the head.

After teaching on Saturday morning I headed out to Hatfield so see my friend Nina and her family. We went for a 3.2 km walk with Nina's baby. I raced back from Hatfield to go with a friend to Evening of Words at Reps Theatre and from there we went to Borrowdale to watch the Guy Ritchie film King Arthur. The film wasn't that King Arthur-y but was different. It was the first time I'd been to a film in the Prestige cinema. The reclining arm chair seats do put you in danger of falling asleep - it was a long movie.

Today I did lesson prep before heading out to the airport to pick up my friend Xenoula who is out from England to run dance outreach workshops in Epworth with Brian Geza. On the way I saw a man hobbling along the road with his leg in a cast. His thigh was exposed and was all raw and bloody. I felt I should have stopped to help him but didn't know what I would do. I wondered if he had been a victim of political violence. Our car mechanic said last week that there have been a number of bodies found in his area recently and they are thought to be political murders.

Back to the bank and trying to get fit

Well yesterday was Africa Day, but my students (or rather their parents) decided they all still wanted lessons. I had my four year old and grade 2 in the morning, then my Chinese student and form 3 in the afternoon. For my form 3 I have been trying to read more of the book Spies, but it turned out he was back to Macbeth at school, so we worked on questions on Act 3 Scene 1.

At lunch time I had my first ever session with a personal trainer in the garden of the flats where I'm house sitting. The trainer has been and still is trying to put a class together (anyone in Harare interested?) but for yesterday she gave me my own slot for $5! I only got home 5 minutes before she came and was literally pulling on my leggings as she rang the gate intercom. I am a little tender today but it felt good. To my dismay though I discovered I can't hold my foot up to my butt to stretch - that used to be so easy, sigh.

Last night I went to a braai and a farewell for one of the US marines who is base here for the embassy. Originally we were going to go to a Vietnamese dinner at Jam Tree with Gemma Griffiths playing, but unfortunately our booking was lost. The braai was nice and chilled though.

After teaching this morning I ventured once again to Barclays Bank to see if my payment had gone through to South Africa. When I first walked toward the bank I saw a dreaded queue snaking out the door and along the pavement down the street. I decided to ask what it was for and it turned out it was for drawing cash. I don't know how long those people had stood there. I went to the shorter queue. Several elderly white men were in the line behind me and one of them said they should be allowed to go to the front based on age. This happened as I got to the front. I let an 80 year old go ahead but next thing a whole lot of other younger people started pushing forward and saying they should also be allowed to go based on age. I began to feel a bit fed up as I had already waited in line for almost an hour. They eventually let me go ahead but it turns out my transaction hasn't gone through. I've been given a number to phone to enquire about foreign payments. Wish I could simply do this via the internet but I am lucky to not be one of the people who were queueing outside in the hope of elusive cash.

Of banking and Ecocash in Zimbabwe

Like most people in Zim many of my students' parents are struggling to find cash. As a result I am being paid by some by bank transfer and then others by Ecocash. I was happily accepting Ecocash until a few weeks ago when I needed to pay for much needed new glasses lenses and the optician didn't have the facility for Ecocash payments. I tried numerous outlets for Ecocash to try cash out but there is no cash to be had. (Ecocash is a mobile phone banking system where you can make payments on your phone to other people's accounts. Theoretically people deposit cash at an outlet and other people can then draw from this. I was told apparently the army was being paid by Ecocash, hence the severe shortage of cash. Everyday on the way to school we pass people queueing hopefully for cash in Arundel Village). I did finally find a solution to my glasses and now have better vision - I can actually see things clearly!

Today I needed to make a payment to South Africa and ventured into the bank for the first time in months. I was surprised that the queue was much shorter than what I have seen previously - where it is often snaking out the door. I joined what I thought was the right queue and got behind a man making a deposit of gazillions of dirty tattered one US dollar bills. This was going to take a while as he peeled the grubby notes apart. It turned out this was the queue if you were going to make a cash deposit. I went and joined a different line of people and had to try squish my irritation when people jumped ahead. Long story short I eventually submitted everything but have to check on Friday if it has gone through. Apparently online transfers invariably fail and it is better to go into the bank in person.

Am pretty busy with teaching as I take my four year old and his sister in grade 2 in the mornings and then have various students in the afternoon. Preparing my Chinese pupil for his grade 1 entrance test and trying to get him to remember nursery rhymes as this is one of the requirements. Realizing how random so many of them are, but he is picking up a few. We have been looking at power points of Barnaby Bear visiting different countries. In a huge oversight I forgot to get Barnaby Bear visiting China. I have rectified this, and we have also been to Zimbabwe and South Africa.