April's Blog

Today is our last practice day. Great until we tried to practice in the evening and it was terrible sounding. I finally got up and said this isn’t working for me.

Tomorrow is the party. Now that I hear we are performing for the mbira teachers I find myself to be less than enthusiastic.

There is so much good in this culture. Very relational. There are the same difficulties as anywhere else. Some people drink too much.  Some people have issues with certain other nationalities and there is now a basic survival for many families. The country is very
beautiful. The people are philosophical and relational in a village sort of way. I wonder what my place. is in all of this.

I want to go back to my own space not to Ashland.

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Wednesday. Nice breakfast with all including Gift Rushumbwa. He called Kaia and I the word for his son’s wife. He said that they do that here. You might call someone “older brother” or mom as Caution Shonai called me. Amai he said and later mom. This is a way of acknowledging the feeling of the relationship. Like son if someone is younger and you have affection for them. It might be the word for your daughter’s husband. Someone feels like that in relation to you.  Ambuya would be grandmother.  Muzukuru would be grandson. Or you can call them friend if they are. Calling someone by their first name is very unusual.

My mbira made by Gift Rushumbwa.  Good sound, wonderful buzz.  He is prolific. Works hard, has a lot to show for his hard work. I took this one from the states and carried it to Zimbabwe. Bought it through Mbira.org.

We went into Harare to try wireless. We stopped at the Apple store but the wireless didn’t work. We then went to Crown Point Hotel and bought a voucher for 30 minutes of airtime. The wireless worked but I could only post to facebook on my first voucher as Facebook loaded very quickly and my e-mail loaded very slowly into my iphone.  John and I shared a second voucher and were each able to send 1 e-mail.

We then piled in the truck and went to pick up more books on the Shona language which had doubled in price since last week. So Erica was going to try another route. We bought “stuff” at the equivalent to Costco called Makro. I bought coffee one kind from Zimbabwe. When we paid in US dollars, since there is no change, if you amount was more than a round dollar amount you had to fill out the rest by getting candy. I owed 12.02 so they just let me pay 12.00 even. The coffee smells pretty stale but maybe I can mix it.

We came back for lunch and practiced our two songs. Now we are waiting for dinner. Singing tonight. I don’t enjoy the singing too much.  Maybe I’ll grow into it.  I want to because the singing adds so much to the complexity of the music.

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We learned Mbirimo from Matamai. This is a Kore Kore song. The Kore Kore are part of the Shona tribe. Mbirimo is about rich people, rich people who look down on others. I will add the meaning of the words and meaning later.

The rhythm particularly of the kutsinhira is very tricky.

Matamai is what we call Newton Gwara. He is known internationally.  See the photo below of Kaia Wong, Matamai, and Denver playing late at night.

I was able to buy an mbira made by Matamai while in Zimbabwe.  It is a donganda which means that the right hand is in the same range as the left hand.  When you play a song particularly one that alternates right and left hands, the sound is one of playing both kushaura and kutsinhira.

On flight from Amsterdam. I had the row of 4 seats to myself so I
slept laying down. Such a relief! Food better than the KLM flight
from Nairobi. Missing Africa. Imagines being at Bushbaby sitting on
the porch.

Hard to imagine that I have come and gone. So far away. So many
visitors through the Kenya airport. Many fit climbers. Makes the
Zimbabwe airport sad once again. Their computer system doesn’t work well. Not very many lights on for the scarce travelers.

2:41 hours to Portland. Culture shock indeed.

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Sitting in the Amsterdam airport reflecting on my Zimbabwe
experience. I feel it in my bones. I think of Bushbaby and the
spiders who are so free to be themselves. We don’t see people running
around stomping on bugs except maybe scorpions..yes they do have
scorpions.. Not fatal but very painful. There are mosquito nets.
Better for the bugs to stay outside the net though on occasion the
bug gets confused.

Living in the village for requires a philosophical approach with
spiders and snakes.

Didn’t sleep well on the overnight from Nairobi.

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Endiby taught us Chigwaya. Love it. His is a very good intense
teacher with a resonant voice very deep in voice and in thought. He
distributed our bootie (blessed) tobacco processed by the mediums at
d. We are to bath and then mix a little with water and splash it over
our bodies without drying after wards. We are to include our own
prayers in the process. I invited my water spirit to come and be with
me. We are to do this for three days. I want to do it here in
Zimbabwe. He said that it was okay to do it back home.

Chigwaya is a song for the water spirits. Calling the mermaids. I will
type in the words and perhaps record a little. The song is lovely and
is played for at least an hour when a new medium is being introduced
by the old medium. Water is poured over the medium until the medium is swimming in the mud and water on the floor. The water spirit medium is usually an herbalist and is very clean. More on this.

I have the water spirit. This is important to me. Patience thinks it
is okay to work with Malidoma who is also a water spirit.

I stayed at the lodge to practice, clear my things and do my prayer.
I burned a little Sao. Paola wood which helped me ground with some
Zimbabwe coffee

How can life ever be the same. Why am I not dreaming here.

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We learned Chigwaya from Endiby Makope.  This is a song that I requested.   He talked first a little bit about the meaning of the song which is played for the njuzu spirits:

Chigwaya is about the bream type of fish (has more bones) http://www.aquariumlife.net/profiles/african-cichlids/bream/100083.asp for a photo.  Used to bring the mermaid spirits in a ceremony meant for the mermaids.   Deep meaning.  Specially endowed mediums have a mermaid spirit.   They are powerful, often herbalists.  Very clean from living in the water.   There are no male mermaids.

There are specific things that happen in a water ceremony which I won’t relate here. I loved the song immediately.   Endiby is a good teacher. We learned the kushaura easily and then the kutsinhira which had nice subtle highline variations.  We worked hard until dinner learning and singing the words and then after dinner playing hosho and learning a little more of a variation in the kushaura.

I fell asleep after dinner and missed part of this.  I couldn’t sleep the night before and finally got up for coffee at 3:00 a.m.  John and Jim both had really unsettled dreams with high anxiety.  This song became very soothing.  I decided to stay at Bushbaby the next day to practice it and stay with my own water spirit which was responding well to this new song.

Today we learned nhai-baba-nyamaropa-tuning on Nyamaropa tuning from the Shonhai Brothers. Nhai Baba is to call the spirit in prayer.   Alternate words mean scolding someone who is lazy to work in the fields.   The Kushaura is like karigamombe and the kutsinhira like Mahororo.   (To play recording click on the blue highlighted title, the blog might take you to a second screen where you have to click again on the title..best heard with earphones)

Renold taught us the kushaura and Caution the kutsinhira. Erica helped us sort out the basic line. Both are good teachers. Caution seemed really old. Renold brought out fresh water for everyone but we wanted Caution to drink first as he had been teaching in the direct sun.

When we sat with them after lunch to learn the singing, Caution still seemed very old. Erica later said that he and Renold are both fairly young like late 20s or early 30s.

What I noticed as they started teaching the singing is that once they started playing they would just continue on and pretty soon they were both singing and their parts interlocked so beautifully. I will try to record a little of what I learned. We couldn’t record them during the teaching session so I don’t have a good recording of this.

I don’t think they ever quit playing spontaneously together until it was time for dinner. Renold seemed very hungry. Sam always brings out a snack in midafternoon. This time it was fresh cooked corn. We were happy to see Renold enjoy it.

In the evening, we each had a turn playing with Renold and Caution. I was so nervous, I could hardly think of what to play and ended up playing nyamamusango. Renold started playing the kushaura to get me over my really panicked state. Then Denver started the hosho so I could enjoy without worrying about a mistake. I could start feeling the energy of the music coming from both sides as I was in the middle. Caution is from a village and is more traditional. I could feel that tradition seeping into me.

Being hard on myself, I went to bed thinking I could never learn songs for 14 days. I couldn’t even remember Nhai Baba.

I got up early the next morning and sat on the porch deciding to play mbira as a prayer to my mbira playing and praying for the courage to learn all these days and to fulfill my mission in Zimababwe, whatever that was to be.

While I was playing Caution walked through to the bath house and back and then he came out and sat down and asked what I had been playing so he picked up the mbira (which was mavembe) and played exactly what I had just played. He looked so young in that moment with a big smile. Renold came and listened and someone supplied him with a mavembe and he started playing around what Caution was playing.

I was so touched by their playing. They are like two voices from one spirit. Caution said that I could come to their village to learn and called me Amai and then mom.

This song nhai-baba-nyamaropa-tuning is one of my favorite from the camp and from all the songs I play. Eyal gave each of them a little gift partly of seeds. So I went to bring them each a bag of trail mix to take with them. Caution gave it to Renold as I think he lives in the city and has less food.

I hope to learn again from these two. They are lovely humans and good teachers. They are fabulous musicians. I can’t wait for the new recording of their playing.

Long trip indeed. Portland to Minneapolis–2 plus hours. Short trip no problems checking luggage. Security must have relaxed in the new days of Obama though maybe if you are headed out of the country, white, and older than 60 no one really cares about  assessing your potential.

With no trouble I found my new gate. I was soon on a 747 on my way to Amsterdam. My earlier feeling of going through the birth canal while heading to the Portland Airport had dispersed. Fortunately I had spent time with Nick and Megan on Sunday. They kept me busy. Trev took me to the airport and made a last minute dash to Portland Teacher’s Credit Union (now OnPoint) to get 1 dollar bills as there is very little change in Zimbabwe. I am happy that I did. Trev suggested $50. Good guess, Trev.

All of time sequences will be confused here as I am trying to text message from my phone to Nick so he can post to the blog. My e-mail doesn’t work from here near Arcturus, Zimbabwe. My call would be $4.99 a minute even if the reception were good.

While I am gazing at the night walls here at Bushbaby lodge, I am noticing the wall decorations, different sized spiders that seem like they belong to the wall and yet they move around. And yes, Rosalie, I saw one the size of a minidisc. At first I thought you were exaggerating. Ha!

Thanks to the spiders in the daylight basement in Ashland, including hobo and Black Widow spiders, I have come to accept these lovely weavers into my life. Though thanks for the warning, Rosalie, so I could call these night dwellers the weavers that they are and not call them “fear.” I will bring home photos to share.

I have many more impressions from airports, Amsterdam, Nairobi, and Harare and of the wild ride thought the roads to Bushbaby lodge making 4 lanes out of 2. This reminded me of the sometimes wild rides in Europe that Trev’s dad and I took in 1971. Without Jim’s stellar driving, I wouldn’t be in Africa today.

I do believe that the trip will be life changing.