On a song and prayer

How things have changed.
Who would have thought that one would find time and fun freezing in the lowveld winter listening to Afrikaans music? Perish the thought, I say. And that is exactly what the last two days have been. In between violent coughing bouts, I have been serenaded by Afrikaans music, have spoken more Afrikaans than I have for the whole year and have been a real sucker for punishment. I am just glad I dont drink otherwise I would be adding adding brandy as one of the culprits for the misery of my life right now.
There are those who cannot put serenade and Afrikaans music in one sentence. It would be sacrilege, they say. I understand. Maybe it is the combination of drugs I am taking to fight the flu that makes the music sound cool. (A friend says it is not possible I could be suffering from swine flu. I am already a swine)
Maybe it is the cold. Maybe it is just wanting to reach out and understand a culture close yet foreign to me. But seriously, De la Rey is a great song. Take away the politics and it is easy to understand why certain people find it so stirring. Ok, I have not been moved to tears listening to it. But it does remind of the scene in White Wedding...
Anyway things are really happening here at the Innibos Kunstefees or arts festival in Nelspruit. I have had a chance to network, drink awful coffee with powdered milk, get introduced to something new and wonderful in the Afrikaans culture. There was a whisky tasting yesterday by M-power with cigars aplenty. All the vices I have given up. Forget the cold. Live a little and once in your life, tell your kids you were at the Innibos in Nelspruit. It is a great marketing event and the big players have seen its potential.
Mpumalanga Development Corridor has pumped in some funds into the showpiece. CEO Blessing Manale says it is money well spent. It makes sense. The funds that are flowing into the province and the town are huge. Who needs the Grahamstown festival?

In tune with our world

The happy lush green of summer has given way to the brown almost lifeless cover of winter. The Crocodile River is not as full and gushing. Even the vervet monkeys that dart across the road are not as many.
The winter fires have wrecked their havoc on the landscape and there are still smouldering fires on the Patatanek pass. Needless to say, it is cold even with the smoke from the logs.
The Mpumalanga lowveld is not usually this cold. In fact transplanted anywhere from the colder parts of the highveld, you would be forgiven for thinking that it was summer here.
But alas, the blanket of death that covers everything in winter has triumphed. But hang on. Is it death or is it birth? It is both.
If you could, get out of the car and put your ears to the ground. No. Not the tarmac but the lifeless fields or wild areas that serenade the N4 route. At first you will not hear a thing. As you relax and slowly tune in to the world around you, you hear it. Loud and clear.
It is a cacophony of sound as the seeds underneath discuss with excitement the life that awaits once all this dreary winter passes. They look forward to spring. To birth. They are discussing the colours. “I will be a bright yellow and will dart the landscape like a butterfly that is here, there and everywhere,” says one. But he cannot compete with the reds, mauve, violets and whites.
They discuss the brightness of their colours and the lifespan. “I will be around a lot longer than you,” says one of the less colourful plants. Sure. If others can be brighter, why cant it compete on the basis that its dour colour gives it a longer life. The brighter, the more visible to animals.
There are a range of other unique factors they argue on. The irony of it all is that as they dream of what seems like a better life, they are hastening their end. If they could and would, they would just stay there. Underneath the dying landscape lies the seeds of life. But if they do not sprout, life stops. Period
This is the land of biodiversity par excellence. This is the land of the big five. Of diverse fauna and flora. Of ants and elephants, crocodiles and hippos, human beings and baboons.
If only we can listen to the cacophony of sounds and realize that life is at its best when all seems dead or dying. Nature can teach us a lot. We just need to put our ears close to the ground or open our eyes wider.