No cash, Domboshawa and an accident

Well since I last wrote the art festival at Wild Geese went well. I sold a few prints of my photos and it was a good day out and fun sharing the stand with three other friends. This last week I have also started to feel the cash shortage that is plaguing Zim. My one student can no longer pay directly in cash and asked me to open an EcoCash account and they also paid me with a petrol coupon. The fuel voucher really did feel like we're back to the not so good times.

On Saturday I went out to Domboshawa with friends and on the way we stopped to try draw cash from Standard Chartered Bank's ATM. We then learned that as of that day non-Standard Chartered clients cannot draw from their ATMs any more. This is a bit of a blow as it is how my Mum and I have been surviving so far. We are having to rethink how to pay for things now. It's really hit home.

Enjoyed the time up Domboshawa and watched the full moon rise and met some other friends up on the rocks. On our way back into town though we encountered a drunk driver who was swerving all over the road. He missed us but a mini bus taxi behind us had pulled out to overtake and it collided with the drunk driven car. I just caught the mini bus flipping over onto its roof behind us. Two of my friends are doctors and they got out to help. Luckily everyone was OK and all the people in the mini bus managed to get out. It was all a little surreal in the light of the headlights and the thought that it had very nearly been us that got hit by the driver.

Art, theatre, Imire and Serbia

Have just finished painting my last piece for tomorrow's Wild Geese Art Festival and have framed and mounted about sixteen other pieces. This has been a lot of work. Not sure will sell anything and am tossing around prices in my head. People in Zim don't really have money at the moment though.

This week I have also been working for Conservation Travel Africa and Imire doing their bookings and invoices. Picking up on someone else's emails has not been easy and finding my way slowly. Conservation Travel Africa works with projects in Zim as well as Malawi, Mozambique and Namibia. Went from doing work on this on Friday to a play at the HIFA theatre week - an Irish one on James Joyce titled "Joyced". I think I needed to have read Ulysses to really follow and my brain was elsewhere in spreadsheets and bookings. Watched a second play performed by the same person titled "Olive Tree" which looked at Palestine. How the actress Katie O'Kelly kept two full one-person plays in her head for the same day of performance beats me.

Katie O'Kelly who performed The Olive Tree (and wrote it)

Just got an email from the founder of the Youth Encounter for Sustainable Development project and courses I went on in Switzerland about a six day project in Jazak, Serbia. It is to use art to address social change and is at a new centre for sustainable development and rural learning. CERUDA: CEnter for RUral Development and Applied Learning (www.ceruda.org)
I am very keen but it starts the day after my Mum gets back from England. I am playing with the idea of going to that though and then on to England to try work a bit there before my sister gets married. All just an idea. Will see. I need to email language schools next week and see if there is any work and what is possible.

For now I am going to sleep and get ready for what will probably be quite a long day tomorrow at the Art Festival.

England in October

So my sister Beth will be getting married in October in the UK so I will be in that part of the world again at almost the same time of year as last year. I may see if there are any language schools that want a TEFL teacher (although I know it is off season as most students come over the summer). My Mum will be going over to help my sister prep for the wedding in July.

Rozanne Tumner who will be exhibiting at the Wild Geese on Sunday.

My jolly bee sting has become an ear infection with my inner ear canal affected. Went to the doctor today and she's put me on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and written me a prescription for a bee sting kit to carry with me at all times as I am allergic. The joys! Will avoid the cherry blossoms from now on.

Sunday, the day of the Wild Geese Art Festival looms large on the horizon. I still have my cosmos painting to finish and have a lot of mounting and framing to do between now and then, eeeek. We are supposed to get there at 6 am on Sunday morning. I'm aiming for 6.30 am but my friend Nina is an eager beaver who wants a good spot and will get there for 6 - go Neens!

Will post a link to my paintings when I'm done. Those in Harare, please come if you can.

HIFA, bee stings and bond notes

So this year due to a number of factors HIFA (the Harare International Festival of the Arts) didn't have it's usual week long festival with all art forms but instead are having nine mini festivals for different art genres. Last weekend they had a classical music one at Saint George's College. We went along to Baroque 2000 from South Africa, the Harare Philharmonic Orchestra, the opera gala featuring four South African singers and one local Zimbabwean soprano and then the Spanish guitarist Rafael Serrallet. I also got coerced into going to a workshop on how to go about managing a festival such as HIFA and the business side of it which was interesting. There will be another mini theatre festival next week. Unfortunately I will miss some of it as I will be manning a stand with friends at the Wild Geese Art Festival. Printed some of my photos to exhibit today (this weekend I need to finish painting some pieces and mount work on card).

Here's a slightly shaky snippet of Bongiwe Nakani singing from Carmen at the HIFA opera gala.

After stressing about using an interactive white board to give a demo lesson at St Johns as part of my interview for possibly teaching bio in the third term I got an email saying that they no longer require someone. Found some useful youtube tutorials though. I have got some more work though with Imire and there might be some consulting work on water resources. The home school started again this week but as yet the one remaining student hasn't paid fees for part of last term. I got stung by a bee at the International School and had an allergic reaction to it with my ear swelling and making me look like a lopsided Big Ears or Big Ear to be precise. Still taking antihistamines and feeling a little fragile. Must carry a bee kit with me.

The other big event this week was the announcement that there will be an introduction of bond notes in an attempt to ease the severe cash shortage we are facing with the US dollar. People are panicking a bit as it will mean we will be operating with a currency that is not recognised outside Zim's borders and there is the fear that it will evolve into the Zim dollar. There is a part of me that wonders if now is not the time to leave while you still have foreign currency and I am suddenly reluctant to spend the US dollars I have. Have to just have faith all will be well. Although apparently when times get tough in Zim people still buy Belgian chocolate. Went to Veldemeer's today in Arundel and they had sold out of pastries by mid-day. When in financial crisis eat more Belgian pastries it seems.

If you want to have a look at my photos for Wild Geese go to this link on Tumblr.

Depression in the Time of Typhoid

So it appears Harare has a typhoid epidemic, although the government hasn't really responded and there is no medical alert. A close friend of mine has had it and is recovering. She's not sure still where she contracted it from. Guess one has to be wary about eating out and what water you're drinking. Have become familiar with the tale of Typhoid Mary.

Am helping my two students that I tutor at the International School with their assignment on plastic. Learnt today that the first plastic was invented in the late 1800's as a solution to not using ivory for billiard balls. The inventor Hyatt instead created a plastic out of cellulose and camphor. Also found an article on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a floating mass of floating plastic waste spanning from California to Japan. My Chinese student got quite emotional about it and it's effects on animals and the environment but my Swedish student was rather unfazed. Claire the Chinese student may come up with a solution, who knows.

Only had two others come to tonight's Depression Support Group meeting. It was constructive though and we were able to share on different challenges with depression and our own experiences. Was told about a TED talk by Andrew Solomon. I think the one below is one of the best I've heard on depression to date. It was brought up at the group that we could try do work on raising awareness in Zim and try offer support to those who can't afford treatment. A girl I was at school with is currently running from Harare to Victoria Falls for awareness on mental health and to raise money for the Zimbabwe National Association for Mental Health. If you'd like to sponsor her have a look here. You can also read her posts as she runs on Wordpress here.

Nellie English running for Zimbabwe Mental Health

TED talk on Depression by Andrew Solomon

Photograph not a painting

I am busy preparing for the Wild Geese Art Festival in 3 weekends' time (eeeeek). The coordinator, Leslie Johnson, posted on Facebook my photo of one of Imire's dams with the msasas in the early morning. She simply stated it was one of my landscapes but failed to say it was a photograph. It was amusing that I got over 20 comments saying how life like my painting was and how it looked just like a photograph. Had to put a comment that it is indeed a photograph and not a painting - I am not that good at capturing life like imagery in my painting. Several acquaintances also said they had seen a painting of mine and didn't realise I was so talented - again I had to break it to them, haha. Below is the photo and my current attempt to try paint it in acrylic so I have actually tried to capture it in paint.

Speaking of Imire I will be filling in for the Volunteer Coordinator for a week mid-May. The home school have said it's OK as for the moment we only have one student for next term. They will be trying to get more students but schools go back next week. In the meantime I have picked up another student to tutor AS level maths to. So far we've been doing arithmetic and geometric progressions. It has been a while since my brain has had to think like that. I guess it's good for my grey matter. I also have a friend who wants me to revise statistics with them.

Have been doing better than when I last posted. Seen my psych who put my olanzapine back up again as that may have contributed to my low. I had had an exceptionally social Wednesday prior to my crash. This was followed though by days when I didn't have structure to my day which is never a good thing. I also spoke to my psych about how lithium seems to numb my emotions and I just don't feel passionate about things any more and how this is potentially affecting my faith. She has said I will have to decide if I want to switch meds again - potentially to anti-convulsants or stay on lithium. To quote her though "lithium is the gold standard of medication for bipolar" and the other meds will come with their own baggage of side effects. I need to research up on them.

Having our next Depression Support Group meeting on Wednesday and topics people have put forward are 

1) Dealing with the lack of desire to socialize;

2) anxiety, how to cope with change and lack of control; 

3) when should you tell someone (work, boss, friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc) that you have a mental health problem?; 

4) being overly sensitive and empathetic, is it a bad thing? how do i deal with strong feelings?; and lastly 
5) getting over the guilt of taking care of yourself first (is it selfish)

and 

Coping alone

Finding and changing drugs/doctors that work for you

How to tell someone about your mental health issues 

Treating yourself through diet and exercise

Coping with change

The issue of coping with change is a big one for me as it causes me anxiety and can trigger dips.

Retreat

And just when I thought I was doing fine
the chemistry in my brain is changed and I retreat.
Between the bed clothes I hide
away from the world, work and myself.
I feel like nothing and shrink into my shell.
To the outside world all has to be well.

I just don't get this thing called life
and all the things for which we strive.
Others don't understand and pass remarks,
they're unappreciated and inside I grimace.
This unpredictable bipolar brain and its drugs,
just when I thought I had it tamed.