Art and Food

Last Wednesday I took the day of work and attended a watercolor class at a place called Zebra Crossing.  It is a wonderful gathering of shops; a lovely restaurant that features the works of local artists on the walls; an art supply shop; Savannah Wood - which sells amazing handmade wood furniture; a chocolate shop; travel agent; hair salon; and gift shop selling locally made crafts.  The restaurant has a charming old brick floor with a ceiling supported by large wood beams, and is open to the elements; there are even two large jacaranda trees in the middle of the restaurant whose tops go through the ceiling and provide wonderful cooling shade over the building.  It has the freshest vegetables we have had yet and they just built an outdoor brick pizza oven.  The art work is hung on sturdy mesh wire dividers throughout the space.  There are tables and chairs, as well as cozy seating areas with couches and low tables.  It is a great place and the food is some of the best we have found here! 

We met the owner of the restaurant, Simon Hewett (a Brit), about two months ago (just before he opened his restaurant at Zebra Crossing) at a local pub we visit sometimes called Micki’s. He is part of a colorful group of mostly men, which regularly meets around 5 pm, six nights a week.  They call themselves the “kitty club” because when you sit at their regular, large table, you put 50 pin (slang for ZKM50,000 or 50,0000 kwachas) per person in the kitty.  Everyone has their drinks until the kitty runs out, then they ante up again, and it starts all over.  They usually stay until 730-800pm when they go home to dinner. Nigel and I usually don’t show up until after we have eaten dinner (a good foundation for the drinking to follow) and stagger home on uneven dirt sidewalks in the dark with a flashlight!

Some of the characters at Micki’s are Kevin, who is a part owner of Micki’s and seems to be the ringleader.  He was born here and has a Lozi “wife” who is 30-35 yrs younger than he is. Richard is a widower, 3^rd generation Zambian of Cornish descent of which he is very proud.  He just returned to Zambia in early October, having lived in Spain for 20 yrs and also in the UK. Then there is Trevor, who talks a lot about politics and local corruption and has promised to lend me a book written by a female Zambian economist about how bad NGO’s actually are for the country and the continent.  The theory is that the overabundance of NGO’s has created a culture that expects help, and therefore has damped down any sense of motivation or entrepreneurship by the locals.  Many or even most of the successful businesses here are owned by non- Zambians.  It is almost impossible for Zambians to start a business even if they wanted to, because interest rates are so high no one can afford to borrow money.

Simon lived in Kenya for 7 years and owned a large construction company there which built bridges, etc.  He and his wife arrived in Lusaka last spring because of his wife’s job with WorldFish Zambia.  There are many others in this informal group whose names I can’t remember.  Sometimes some of them bring their wives, so there are usually two or three women to talk to. Anyway, I digress….I had a lovely day painting with a really good teacher, nice people, and a great lunch provided by the café.

 

Nigel and I returned there Thursday night for an art opening.  I had met both the artists the day before as they were hanging the show.  Fiona Burdett was born in Zimbabwe (they just say Zim) and has been painting many years, she appeared to be a bit younger than Nigel and I. Fiona, or Fifo as she signs her work, paints animals – wild and farm. She grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe, and lives on one now, about four hours north of Lusaka. Caleb Chisha, who is only about 24yrs old is an amazing talent!  He is entirely self- taught and mostly does works with a statement about life in Africa, many depicting children.