Novembre Zim

My father in law is renovating a lodge on lake Kariba, at Tiger bay. He invited us over for the WE, so we did what all responsible parents do, we took the kids out of school and headed straight for the lake.
So we thought. The car was packed with suitcases and food, the kids in, all sharp, ready to go.
It just would not start.
Bummer. Not a cough, just the dry noise of an unhappy engine.
That feeling when you are at the height of expectation and then it just does not come,... a serious anti-climax.
I saw the day before that our fuel gauge was not working, so went to get some diesel just in case, filled the car . It started. It was just very dry, and parked on a slope, on the sand pit the kids use as their fairy tale land, filled with cliffs and caves. No Diesel no go, Diesel go.
Act 2: ready (again), off we went. Only 60 km up the road, 5 police road blocks later, the cars starts to overheat. F***k.
To make the story short, we go back home the same night.
It felt like karma, maybe for taking the kids out. Or the car's way of expressing discontent at a compliment my wife made on another car, the legendary Landie sensitivity. So, only a day late, with a borrowed car, we get to the lake. We spend the next 4 days in the middle of the bush, kids mostly in the pool, fishing in the evening, just chilled.

We did not catch anything. People believe it is because of the very low level of the lake. The bad rainy season combined with the way the dam is managed and electricity produced empties the lake. There is less water coming in than taken out. The entire lake dropped of over 4 meters. Harbors are nearly dry, with boats clogged in small space, and the entire ecosystem of the lake changed. We did not really see any oxygen weeds or others, which are normally plentiful on the edges and are the breeding ground for fish. No weeds, no fish. But stunning landscapes.



Lots of elies, hippos and crocs. Far too many crocodiles indeed.
The WE in Kariba was welcome. We returned to Harare, to learn that the school was offering the possibility for parents to not bring their children to classes, because the city dumpsite was on fire. The smoke packed with heavy metals, arsenic, cyanide and other nasty things was a bit too close and did not seem to stop at the school compound's boundaries.
Hot stinky and dangerous.

Finally rain came. It has been nearly 8 dry months, and a heavy build up for it, with record high temperatures over the last couple of weeks.
Dryness and heat, the grass brittle, the trees in flower, and many, many fires. Smokes turn the sky pink and pastel when the sun goes down, flames provide exquisite views when they set a hill alight in the night, but they burn, clog the air and stretch the nature to its limits in the last months of winter.
With rain, dust settles, the sky clears up and the nature breathes.
Temperature dropped significantly. 2 weeks ago we were sweating over 34, and rains dropped the air to a humble 15 in a flash. That is as radical as an ice bucket challenge, unprepared, with nowhere to escape.

 Back to realities. Headlines packed about corrupt officials, outrageous salaries of civil servants and party cronies, political wars,... Unpleasant.

The economic situation is dire. There is no cash available, banks only allow people to take 50 usd per day, and businesses 500 usd. People queue for hours to get their money out of banks. Old faceless dollars that you need to scrutinize closely to figure out if its a 1, 2 or 5 dollar-note. It is not easy to live in a place where everyone struggles to have cash, where plastic and cell-phone based payments become the norm. Now there is the threat of the introduction of the "bond-notes", a type of monopoly money, backed by nothing, the government wants to introduce on parity with the USD. People just fear that their accounts will be changed overnight, and that they will receive bond notes, spiraling again in hyperinflation and scarcity, as it happened first decade of the millennium. It is very frustrating to see the way this place is managed and led, the level of corruption and embezzlement. Very sad.

And upon return from Kariba, we just heard the choice the USA made for president and government, and felt the world was in a worst place than the day before. Very disappointing, sad and scary. The rise of populists, extremists and fundamentalists are never good news. The fact that they congratulate each others is also concerning.
I guess it's karma for having the Cubs win this year. Against all the laws of the universe,... heavy toll.
 
We should head back to the lake, away from civilization, networks and information overload, and live on fish.
Oh, no, I forget, we could not catch fish,...  

Twala

I kinda missed posting this one.

Twala is a great place to go out for a pic-nic with kids, small orphaned animals (from squirrel to lions), a dam where to fish, and many friendly furry, scaly and feathery things roaming around, for the delight of the little ones. Great opportunity as well to follow some of them, outside bars. Gives a sense of wilderness. 

Tamed one do. 

 

bits and bits, skies and crawlers

Some insects bits from my sketchbook, the fortunate ones that have been picked up un the garden, or falling on me or one of the kids. 

The big one, the armoured ground cricket, is a regular guest of ours when in Inhassoro (Mozambique), my daughter use to call it a whassopper, so the name stuck. They are big and totally harmless. Big enough to feel it when they fall on you in the middle of the night. Unpleasant experience. 

My wife hates them.

My son loves wildlife, creepy crawlies and nature, 

My daughter loves my drawings

My son collects the creepy crawlies for me to sketch them. 

My wife cannot share the office with me following a running beetle. 

Between my wife and my kids + beetles, tough choice.   

As for the skies, I have been lazy lately, done some but not regularly. Same terrible colour rendering by the scanner, looks very dull and grey. Find it much better on paper 

Zimbabwe Historic Victory against Australia

Yesterday, I have been watching History. 

Zimbabwe won their cricket game against Australia, for the first time since 1983.

Since I do not understand anything about this thrilling sport, It is a bit difficult for me to explain how they won, by how much and why it is historical. 

I know that we spend the day on the cricket ground, in Harare Sports Club, I was so drawned to the game that I sketched it most the time, there was copious amount of beer (I also won a Castle T-Shirt for drinking the beer in the classy way I am reknown for), boerie rolls, the kids had a blast sliding on cardboard, smoking sugar cigarettes, running amok with flags and meeting heaps of new friends. 

The sports club was full, people in high spirits, cheering their team, obviousely understanding what I was missing, really good moment.

So my day was great, I have been witnessing THE victory - which makes me feel a bit more zimbo, and we even managed to go back home with only one kid - we scored big on that one-, the others preferred to stay with their mates. 

For those who are looking to understand a bit better the game and weight the victory, here is the BBC article. Even if BBC is an evil media run by the devious western government of the colonial Great Britain, they got that victory right.

 

Article from: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cricket/29006085

Zimbabwe beat Australia in one-dayer for first time since 1983

One-day tri-series, Harare:

Zimbabwe 211-7 (48 overs) beat Australia 209 (50 overs) by three wickets

Captain Elton Chigumbura hit an unbeaten half century as Zimbabwe defeated Australia for only the second time in a one-day international.

Zimbabwe, chasing 210 for victory, won with 12 balls to spare to claim a famous three-wicket win in Harare.
It was the team's first ODI win over Australia since the 1983 World Cup, their first ever meeting.
Since then Australia, world champions four times, have won 27 meetings, with one match abandoned.
However, Zimbabwe won on the only occasion the sides have met in Twenty20 internationals - a five-wicket success at the inaugural ICC World T20 in 2007.

Zimbabwe's international record against Australia
Format	Games	Zim wins	Aus wins	Draws/ties	No result
Tests	3	0	3	0	0
ODIs	30	2	27	0	1
Twenty20	1	1	0	0	0

Sunday's match was the fourth game in a triangular ODI tournament that also features South Africa - and Australia won their previous match against the hosts by 198 runs.
South Africa, who play Australia in the next match on Tuesday, have won both of their games so far.
Australia had won the toss and elected to bat, but found it hard going as Zimbabwe's spinners claimed six of the nine wickets to fall.
Returning skipper Michael Clarke top scored with an unbeaten 68 but suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury and retired hurt in the 43rd over before briefly returning in the last over of the Aussie innings.
Australia announced after the game that Clarke would take no further part in the tri-series, and would return home to Sydney on Tuesday for scans and further assessment.

"Zimbabwe have been waiting 31 years for this. This is a very special day. If you could see the jubilation in the crowd with singing and dancing in the stands you would understand just how important this win was both for the players and the people of Zimbabwe. "By playing series like this against two of the stronger teams in the world - South Africa and Australia - is the only way Zimbabwe are going to improve and get back to the way they once were." Zimbabwe cricket commentator Dean du Plessis

The visitors had been reduced to 97-5 before Clarke and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin added 50 for the sixth wicket, and they eventually finished on 209-9.
Chigumbura, who came to the wicket with Zimbabwe struggling at 106-5, struck his unbeaten 52 off 68 balls, including four boundaries, to steer his side to victory.
He added 55 in an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 55 with Prosper Utseya, who made 30 not out.
In Zimbabwe's last ODI series, they drew 2-2 with Afghanistan.

One-day tri-series
	Played	Won	Lost	Tied/NR	Net RR	Points
S Africa	2	2	0	0	+0.813	9
Australia	3	1	2	0	+1.130	5
Zimbabwe	3	1	2	0	-1.665	4

Dinosaur Walk

 

Last friday, we woke up before the sun rose, to start a boy's trip back in time, tracking dinosaur footprints in the Mana-Angwa bush. 

A couple of months ago Wildlife and Environment Zimbabwe organized a conference about zimbabwe's dinosaurs, which was very interesting, even if it was difficult to understand clearly if these dinos were truly indegenous zimbabweans or just Gondawa's colonial settlers. I guess the ministry of indegenesation is working on that one. At the end they might just benefit from the greek status. 

The speaker, Dr Ali, passionatly spoke about how people (including him) found exceptional signs of dinos in the country, including skelettons and footprints. I am going to zap on the technicalities of the types of sauropods, teropods and layers of rocks in which they were found. At the end I found out that there was an excursion organized to go find and see some of the bones and footprints. 

How excellent!

5 to 7 hours drive from Harare, four days camping in the middle of nowhere, in National Parks, under the leadership of a flamboyant geologist, tracking footprints of animals who disapeared millions of years ago. Really cool. 

So my mate Rob and his boys joined in with me and Seb and a dozen other curious good people. 

And the trip was really worth it! It was incredible to see those prints, set in sandstone in the riverbed as if the beasts have wandered there yesterday. 

Bordering the stone formations were the sauriens prints were, we could see, fresh in the sand and mud, hundreds of tracks of elephants, kudus, hyenas and other animals so we could really visualize the dinos walking, as if we just missed them a minute before. 

Ali explained how these were formed, with tons of great 12+letter words such as sedimentation, jurrassic and mineralization, giving small details that really made us see and imagine the surroundings, 200 millions years ago! 

The fact that the prints are in the middle of the bush, in an actual river bed added to the magic. 

It was really impressive, very visual. There were tracks from the teropod type of dinos (like the T-rex and allosaurus) and enormous sauropods ones too (the brontosaurus type). 

 

And as a bonus, the walk and country were spectacular, we got to see a petrified forrest, the stars under the moonless sky were incredible, and the company was excellent. 

I have to admit that my cooking has been better, but hey!

Oh, and we managed to keep beers cold until the end. That's more than a bonus: its a skill, a talent and it makes the difference between life and good life. 

And we did not get mauled by a lion (althought the kids are still persuaded that a leopard tried to get into their tent whilst we were socializing around the camp fire).  

And they all got to drive the landie, which is quite a great experience when you are 12, mwhahaha. 

So a good trip it was, back in time, just a great way to spend a WE: time travelling, learning new stuff, camping and walking in the bush, great company, and unlimited sky above.
the only thing missing was a group of friendly swedish lingerie models,
and,
obviously,
my lovely wife

my great moves online

I finally got some recognition for my dancing skills and am figuring in the Happy Harare version of Pharrell Williams's hit. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1CNgQhf8bA

It probably did help that my wife -urban space Harare- was organizing the video.
so the entire family joined in and now even my one year old sings Api Api Api.
Cannot be better!

Hail the zim-dolla, lets spray green!

Spray painting to start 2014. 

I haven't done much  sketching lately, just been finally moving and settling down in Zim, closing my time and work in Mozambique and hop, here I am in front of a big, huge blank page in Harare, with my wife and kids, and family. 

I am looking for jobs, the kind that brings trillions of zim dollars in. So in the meanwhile, I used my sprays and stencilled this portrait of Gaylo and Forrie. Lots of cutting and preparation for the quick pshit- pshits. 

Speaking of zim, there were rumors that we would have the opportunity to use a renewed version of the zim dollar, which if it was true would have probably made me brazillionaire this year. Then the idea faded away. Our comrades managing the country probably did not only see the great comotion the news created, but they understood better the great labour of the masses, who, tirelessly,  day to day, indegenise the american green buck and therefor litteraly spit and piss on the illegal economical sanctions the country suffers from the anglo-saxons.
I somehow could not explain the revolutionary and symbolic aspect of the currency to the waiter at the cairo airport, who choosed not to greet the zimbabwean-USD with a smile. I need more convincing powers.  
I say zim-dolla rule. 

Houseboat on Kariba.

Houseboat on Kariba, 

 

House boat on Kariba, a perfect title for a movie that can have tons of sequels. The principle is simple: bring a bunch of people on a boat, and let them float and mature  for a few days,  on a lake full of wild and dangerous animals. And add, as an option, some alcoholic beverages, swords and knives, a fishing rod or two, non-floating children, sun-cream, and kilos of biltongs.  

Depending on the proportions things can go horribly wrong, or beautifully right. For example: throw a non floating child in a crocodile infested lake when the adults are looking for another alcoholic beverage – that can go wrong- , but then add a fisherman and the child is caught and all is merry and good again. Yey. 

There is a story of a houseboat were things went out of hand. A group of friends, happy and jolly good fellows, went for a fishing trip on such a boat, nobody really knows what happened, probably some old frustrations and feud got back on them (most certainly about a girl or a guy on board who had a previous fling with one or more of the partners of the others and drunk eyed them inappropriately, or maybe about the exact size of the bream caught, or divergences on how to resolve Fermat’s problem, or something similar). All we know is that the boat now floats empty, and the people were never to be found. It’s a classic story, the ghost ship etc. but it could be true on lake Kariba. In a place where there is even a paddle steamer, anything can happen. 

I am back

Well, a month without sketching, going through a scanning adventure and uploading went by, and funny enough, the world has not stopped, not even slowed its rotation. How disappointing.  Not very good at all for my ego.

So lacking new material I’ll just put some outdated stuff, sketched last month. I’ll try to put some stories behind them though.

   

First, a view of Harare, from the 7^th floor at Eastgate Mall, where I went for some meetings in REPSSI’s offices, meetings for my other life, working in child protection. 

I think that the road depicted is 2d Street, heading towards the train station, I am very bad with names, it could also be Takawira, Chitepo or R.Mugabe. All heroes (but Second street). One should know them, I shall not detail the deeds and wonders they brought the world, Wikipedia is a very usefull tool for those who want to learn something in that respect. 

Truth is that -apart from street names-, Harare centre show nice pieces of architecture, from early 20^th, art deco small shops and buildings, Victorian style and colonial English, the type one can recognize in places where the british empire created cities. I should really try to find or set  a group of urban sketchers to roam the city centre and share its interests with the global world.

Another great thing about Harare, is that the place enable us to meet and discuss with members of the force. Not the laser-sabre ones, unfortunately, but the constables. Always ready to share their points of views, discuss eventual disagreements and test one’s knowledge of the law. I still feel that they should handle diplomas of good behavior and incorruptibility, once you are stopped by a constable for something you did not do, try to be fined a fine that is not existing and ask to pay it outside what is set by the law. I have a dream of discussing my case for 3 hours on the side of the road, being send to the cop shop to continue the debate and then, after a day spend over a 20 usd fine that should not be, to have the lady in Kalashnikov smile and say: “Well done Fred, you are really worth living here, for not taking bullshit, for not allowing quick bribes, for not being intimidated by the uniform or the nozzle of the AK, and in all cironstances to remain straight, righteous and honest. Please, here is a honorific diploma with the warm embraces of Zim Road Police Force”. She would then stamp the certificate, kiss me on the cheeks whilst hugging me (I will then understand the use of the AK, to keep a safe barrier between the agent and me, in case the sudden change of mood makes the embrace uncomfortable). I guess that such certificate could also be taped on the front window, under the insurance, the radio tax paper and the road tax one, and could serve as a waiver for every other police stops, let’s say for a year. It is utterly difficult sometime to explain to my kids the good cop /bad cop imbroglio. One day I have to tell them that mom is at the cop shop to put a police officer to prison, one other day we need the help of the police because they are here to help the common folks against thiefs and bad men. Then again, at least around here there is always room to discuss, whether you are guilty or not, and the encounters with the 3d kind make great bar stories.

In the meanwhile in Mozambique other uniformed lads from the opposition party understood that the system is a bit unfair to any discording voices and decided to take up the weapons once again, after years of peace and stability. Armed groups cut the north-south road, train lines etc. Worse still, they RPG two trucks from Cerveja de Moçambique, killing two. So travelling by road got more spicy: there is an added chance of getting bullets and a lesser chance finding a cold beer to quench the adrenaline rush.

Anyway. Life is good.  

 The sketch above is from the beach in Beira, behind a hotel complex made in China, the Golden Peacock Resort, the canon is probably russian, and as any military/offical/administrative building, taking a picture of it can lead to prison (cfr Lianne's story ), but I don't really know if  drawing something one cannot picture also constitute a crime. I really should ask my lawyer here about it. Anyway, a couple beers, a pack of friends, big guns and the beach, a nice way to spend a sunday afternoon.

 

 Above, a house I wanted to sketch for a while for it is always in the way. On one of the posts with the sketches from mozambique of 2012, I've drawn the bombeiros,. Well, this place is not too far.
The next view, neither. From the fire-man-house go straight towards the house sketched above, and continue, one should reach the Praca do Sun Light (a very popular chinese entertainment place with a jumping castle for kids, hot dogs, burgers and beers) from where this sketch has been made.

I had to meet up with two guys who came back from France doing a juggling technique taining. I was late, they were later, so i sketched the shoe and bras sellers on the other side of the road. Sitting on a plastic bench, at Sunlight. A half a dozen beers later and to resume the conversation, they are looking for some contracts or sponsors for their show. And they are bloody good (Vinos and Cokas and Co).

That is it for now. Cheers.