Insane economics!

Even without any economics training, it is pretty obvious that a government can't just waltz into a store and tell the owner to slash the prices by 50% and then expect business to continue as usual.

But that's what the Zimbabwean government did last week.

The photo on the left is a line of people waiting to buy the reduced items... in other stores people shoved and shouted to grab all the items they could! The police had to be called in.


OK, and if that's not crazy enough, the government told producers that they would subsidize the basic commodities... how? Simply by printing more money!!!!

Again, without any deep understanding of economics, one would probably understand that you can't just go and print money any time you want it!

And the government blames hyperinflation on WHOM?!?

So, a few consequences:
* items simply disappear from the shelves... why should a shop owner want to sell something below cost? When I left Zim, there was no bread to be found in stores... just some out on the street in the black market.
* police forces are needed to randomly check on stores to make sure they comply with the price cuts, and then they arrest the store owners. Meanwhile, the stores get ransacked by hungry shoppers who hear about the enforced price cuts.
* and the cycle continues, fueling the black market, adding to inflation and fueling the general chaos in Zim.

And Mugabe thought this would earn him point from the general populous. Nice try.

Permaculture cross-pollination: Kufunda Village and the Uhuru Network

A very exciting day: the Permaculture Kollektive of the Uhuru Network visiting the Permaculture Team at Kufunda Village. We also enjoyed connecting with another group of urban youth who were exploring permaculture as a method of urban waste reduction.
The three groups spent a lively day together, in sharing circles and an "open space forum," where people split up by interest groups.
Here you can see Melanie (from Kufunda) teaching the group about the Herb Lab and how they are growing and processing a variety of herbs for traditional medicines and support for people with HIV/AIDS.

This group is discussing some of the basics of permaculture: sheet mulching and guilding. There were a lot of little tips and ideas that Kufunda is demonstrating well, and the urban groups were excited to consider how to apply them to the city.

We had a yummy lunch packed with veggies! This was one of the first times that men populated the Kufunda kitchen.

At the closing circle, people expressed their appreciation for the day spent together and asked if they could come back for more cross-pollination. The possibilities are endless!

Sometimes I forget the power of simply sitting in a circle and giving space to each person to share from their heart. This was a very wise group of motivated young people! It was quite exciting to hear people insights from the day.

This was also a really nice to end my time in Zimbabwe--connecting the two groups that I spent most of my time with. I hope that the relationship continues!

The Book Cafe: coolest spot in town

I couldn't believe the things I heard at the Book Cafe poetry slam. In a country where it is illegal to have a public meeting or independent media, people where standing up and speaking out loud about resisting oppression. Of course, there were government agents in the crowd, but somehow the Book Cafe remains an oasis, truly. Like the Red and Black Cafe in Portland, Oregon, it became my home base when I went downtown.

Besides the monthly poetry slam, they also host weekly mbira sessions on Friday nights (completely blew me away), comedy nights on Thursday (the jester can tell the king the truth, right?) and various other gatherings. And, yes, there is a small (interesting) book shop attached to it.

This photo was my last morning in Harare, where I sat in the cafe for an hour before it opened (nothing happens on time!). Cheers to the Book Cafe!!!!

9000% inflation?!?!

Can you imagine the money in your pocket today being worth 10% less tomorrow? That's Zimbabwe.

I am not exaggerating—check it out:
two weeks ago US$1 = Z$60,000
five days later US$1 = Z$90,000
four days later US$1 = Z$110,000.
a few days later US$1 = Z$160,000.

That means, in about THE ZIM DOLLAR IS LOSING HALF ITS VALUE EACH WEEK (or something like that).

There are so many problems that stem from this inflation, on personal and professional levels. Beyond the obvious devastating loss of personal savings, there are so many complications… Prices change literally multiple times a day – but salaries don’t. No one will accept checks, since it takes days for them to clear (and that means losing money). People are not allowed to take more than $1.5 million out of the bank at one time – that’s less than $10!! You should see the ATM lines, block long, all the time. (both photos here are of the lines... shots taken quickly because I didn't want to be seen with a camera). And the largest note in print is $100,000, about 70 cents—so people carry literally stacks of bills. It’s really wild, really horrible. You get the point.

Now the crazy thing is that with the hyperhyper inflation happening now, they already had to print brand new bills worth (the new) $100,000... but these are already worth only about US$.75, which means people are still carrying STACKS around with them. The stack pictured here was food shopping money for one community meal at Kufunda.

I should also mention that the OFFICIAL exchange rate is US$1 = Z$250, while the black market rate (which everyone uses) is now US$1 = Z$160,000. If I paid the official rate for an average bus ride, it would cost US$120.

And what is causing this? I haven't completely figured this one out (no one has), but it probably has something to do with the fact that the government keeps printing money with no backup. There's also a some relationship to the price of fuel, imports and foreign exchange... but mostly it all relates to a few (personal) policies of key people in this country. Umm, do some internet browsing to learn more about Zimbabwe politics today.

One more point: less than a year ago, the government decided that it was time to DROP THREE ZEROs from the dollar bills. This meant that the $10,000 bill in your hand was then replaced with a $10 bill. Yes, the government reprinted a whole new set of money to tyr to hide (or something) the hyper inflation. Old dollar bills now make good compost.

Mbira

Mbira is the music of our DNA. Its spiraling patterns, repetitive phrases and heart rhythms draw us into a trance-like oneness with the universe. Five to seven people each creating their own rhythm or storyline and weaving it together invite each listener to also connect and express our rhythms. Many people do that through dance—wild, ecstatic and beautifully rhythmic dance.

Specifically, an “mbira” is an instrument unique to Zimbabwe—a thumb piano of sorts, with metal keys attached to a wood board, sometimes with bottlecaps or metal items attached to resonate and add a tinny sound. The sound is magical, sweet. The complete mbira sound, though, includes someone on shakers—the most incredibly energetic and energizing shakers I’ve ever witnessed—and someone on a drum, hitting it with two sticks, and two or more mbira players… some low, some high, all with different rhythms, etc.

Here's a clip of a little kitchen mbira jam with James, my housemate:

Mbira music is traditionally part of ceremonies – all night rituals of music, dance and prayer. The songs are stories and statements, layered into the enveloping sounds and spirit of the night.

In Harare, mbira shows are dotted through nightclubs and restaurants, a favorite Friday night activity for many. I was lucky enough to attend four or five mbira shows, each time bringing me to deeper respect for this music, tradition and culture. It's just awesome.

Appropriate Technology at Kufunda

Appropriate technology is a fancy way of describing ideas that simply make sense, ecologically and socially, in any given situation. Here are some examples from Kufunda Village's learning center.

Many people, especially in rural areas, cook over an open fire. This is quite inefficient since much of the heat escapes around the sides of the pots, so Kufundees developed these efficient stoves made of clay that funnel air into the fire but keep the heat contained, thus using much less firewood! The one issue with these stoves, however, is that in the winter, families gather around the cooking fire for warmth, and these stoves don't allow for that. Oh well, appropriate technology is an ongoing experiment.

For example, one Kufundee is experimenting with building ovens out of mud. Since few people have ovens to bake bread, and the available bread is usually bleached white bread with no nutritional value, the idea here is to create a bread baking oven and save money while eating healthier. This photo is the prototype oven, built out of ant hill clay, some of the best building material in Africa!


This is a video clip of Elias, from one of the rural communities, explaining how he discovered how to turn plastic bottles into parrafin. Now, the burning of plastic is not a good idea of course, but it is a creative use of the many, many, many plastic bottles that plague Africa. This is also an example of how Kufunda encourages experimentation and then the cross-pollination of ideas from one community to the next.



One appropriate technology that I brought to Kufunda was the "hay box"--an insulated box that captures heat of a pot of food and finishes the cooking process without additional fuel inputs. In other words, instead of cooking your rice for 45 minutes on a stove, you can cook it to a boil and then throw the pot into the hay box and use the embodied heat to do the cooking! So simple, so easy, so powerful. Why doesn't everyone have one of these?

They are quite easy to make-- any insulation will work! Here you can see our box before we had a box... we just wrapped the rice pot in a wool blanket. It worked perfectly.

Kufunda Village, working with Zvimba community

Kufunda works with five rural communities, one of which is Zvimba community, about two hours west of Harare. I went there for a Bira ceremony, an all-night ritual. Here are photos of visiting Felistis, one of the women who has been attending Kufunda workshops.

Some items of note (that she learned at Kufunda and is not only implementing at home but teaching her community) are mulch in her garden, herb gardens, rammed earth buildings and this fuel saving stove.

While this stove is quite useful for reducing the wood you need to cook (the clay walls absorb and store heat, as opposed to an open fire) but Kufundees have learned that the stove is not always the "appropriate" technology they meant it to be. In the winter, the open fire in the center of the hut serves not only as a stove but also as a heater for the family--so they don't want the clay walls to "take" all of the heat! Felistis said that they use the clay stove in the summer when they don't need the heat. For now, it's a nice spot for their "pet" Zebra. ;-)

The item that caught my eye the most, however, was something that Felistis created herself: her dish shelves. She made these beautiful shelves out of clay from ant hills! Somehow, ants seem to find or make super strong clay, great for building!!

Kufunda Herb and Nutrition Workshop

Kufunda hosted a four-day Herbal growing/processing and Holistic nutrition workshop for the five communities that they work with. The participants spent two days learning about nutrition, analyzing the current typical diet (mostly filled with sadza--boiled maize meal, with low nutritional value) and considering the abundance and diversity of fruits and vegetables available
that could be used to make a healthy meal. They also learned about local herbs that could be used to spice up the dishes!

Here are photos of the class learning to make fruit salad--it was a lot of fun as you can see, and a great way to encourage healthy snacks!



At each meal, the workshop organizers introduced new foods and ideas for food combining. It's pretty unusual for Zimbabweans to eat more veggies than starches, but by the end of the week many participants commented with surprise that they felt great and really enjoyed the "strange" foods, which were actually made of the locally available foods that they usually see, but just prepared in new recipes.

For the other two days the participants learned about growing herbs and then processing them into medicines. Much of this knowledge was actually the traditional techniques that people's grandparents used but that has been lost with the temptation, availability and pressure to use modern Western medicine.

Participants shared some of the ailments that are affecting their communities, and many were surprised that the same diseases affect neighboring communities. Discussing illnesses are often socially unacceptable topics, but the atmosphere at Kufunda is very nurturing and safe, and people opened up to share their issues. Then together they could learn about and practice some of the herbal remedies for many of the ailments.

The original intention of the Herb/Herbal Processing Team at Kufunda was to grow immune boosting herbs for HIV/AIDS patients, but their work has grown to include other common ailments like diarrhea, coughs, skin issues and general health. They are even beginning to sell their products in stores around Harare!

Day of the African Child: June 16

I went to a second Uhuru community slam (see May 25 for explanation) in an area outside of Harare called Chitungwiza. The slam was on June 16, in commemoration of the Day of the African Child, sparked by the Soweto Uprising on June 16, 1976, where 1000 students were shot dead while protesting the new apartheid law that directed all schooling to be in Afrikaans.

Thirty one years later, people gather to honor that mournful day, as well as celebrate the beauty and the hope that today’s children inspire us with. The idea of the slam was to honor this history and to remind today's children that they can and should stand up against oppression and injustice in their communities.

It was a beautiful and fun event, filled with poetry, theatre and music to inspire and connect people. I admire Uhuru for reaching out: they are bringing music and words—popular education!—right to the heart of crowded but often forgotten neighborhoods around Harare.

Learning Journey in Rusape

With the Boston Barr Fellows, we visited one of the rural communities that Kufunda works with. Over two days with the Rusape community in eastern Zimbabwe we witnessed the seeds of Kufunda’s work that was growing in this rural area!!

We were greeted with a big celebration, speeches and tour of some of the projects. We first met a very lively group of women and children singing “Mahuya!” (welcome) and dancing around us. In the center of the meeting area we found a group of school children playing marimba, and everyone started dancing – it was really fun.

The Rusape community went all out to welcome the Boston visitors… we lined up to shake hands with the local chiefs and headmen, and then watched an opening ceremony where three elder women brought water and homemade beers on their knees to the chiefs.

Then there were plenty of speeches (some political, some about the projects). Lou from Boston got up and thanked everyone for their warm welcome.

Here are some of the Kufunda-inspired projects:

The Preschool (ok, older kids are pictured here)

Arbor Loo composting toilets (once they are full, the toilet is moved and a tree is planted above-- here you can see the new tree)

Tree planting project

Rammed earth natural building (reviving a forgotten local building method)

It was great to see the myriad Kufunda-inspired projects, and the community energy and empowerment that was built through them!

I really enjoyed the bus ride to and from Rusape—a chance to learn more about the work of the Boston folks, and just hang out and sing together!!