Saturday 26-4-08 Berefet Susu/Jola lessons

I love feeling strong and awesome and flexible and badass and full of energy. We did yoga again this morning and I do enjoy leading everyone with the poses and all. I’m basically parroting Will word for word, but that’s okay- he is a very good person to nick from.

The Susu teachers showed up tonight with their ballafons and their djembes and their FIRE EATER. He blew a big billowy ball of fire and I screamed because oh my god. He did a bunch of jumping around like a crocodile on his belly. I am deliriously tired so when the opening night show was over I tried to do it too. I could walk- one hand and one food at a time- but not jump. I’m going to keep trying and hopefully be able to by the time we get back to London (note: I can’t do this.) That would be so superfly. Jo said “you’re so strong!” which is A: flattering B: not strictly true- there is a trick to it (keeping your elbows close to your body) and C: encouraging. I feel like a goddess.

We learned to tie-dye today with women from Berefet. I took pictures of the whole thing/process. I did a leaf pattern with green and purple (mauve as they kept saying) I’m hoping that the colors will lighten considerably when dry. We can hope (note: they didn’t…) Fun process though. The language barrier was difficult and I was convinced at the beginning that we wouldn’t be allowed to do the tying ourselves and was being preemptively disappointed which was silly because man, I ended up doing a lot of sewing. Maybe next time not quite so many little designs. I tied up Kate’s calabash bag as well and think that turned out quite nicely.

This morning we hopped on a boat to James Island which is a World Heritage site for its importance at the beginning and end of the slave trade. It was sort of like going to the concentration camp in Germany with Laine. I kept walking around quietly and contemplatively while trying hard to *feel* something. The thing is, it was a lovely day and the ruins were a bit like climbing around my own private castle. The island was deserted except for us. I sat on a beautiful ledge and sang ‘edelweiss’ to myself- clearly mixing up the Nazis and the European slave trade. Oops.