The Soccer War

More super, creative writing from Ryszard Kapuściński in The Soccer War, which was first published in 1990.  I’ve written about his books before (Another Day of Life, and The Emperor), and always enjoy his works.

Much of The Soccer War concerns his reporting from Africa, especially West Africa, in the 1960s, and has nothing to do with football.  He is always getting into, and somehow out of, scrapes: “In the course of one month I had driven through five countries. In four of them, there were states of emergency. In one, the president had just been overthrown; in a second, the president had saved himself only by chance; in a third, the head of the government was afraid to leave his house, which was surrounded by troops.”

The actual soccer war in question was between Salvador and Honduras, in 1969.  There was much more to the conflict than disagreement over football, but a qualifying match in the World Cup helped to inflame passions.  Kapuściński goes to the frontline to report back for the Polish Press Agency and gets into yet another tricky situation.  He writes about the feelings and emotions of the soldiers who are doing the fighting at the behest of politicians.  Many of the troops don’t even know why there is a conflict.

Later on, he gets bitten by a scorpion whilst in the Ogaden, in 1976, covering a conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia.  One wonders how he survived all the scrapes.

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Festivalitis

The various Edinburgh festivals have started, and already I’ve caught festivalitis.  I’ve booked a number of shows in the Book Festival, Lindsey has booked something in the Fringe, and last night we went to see Flammable Children (Swinging Safari), about life in 70s Australia, which was showing in the Edinburgh Film Festival.  This is a very entertaining movie, and the director Stephan Elliott was in attendance for a Q&A.  The audience loved it all.

The other movie we saw the other day, which I won’t name, was OK and interesting from a number of perspectives, but from the Q&A the audience seemed to be full of what I call handwringers.  The audience last night, on the other hand, was the opposite – they were not looking for any morals or judgments in the story, and they didn’t get any.  As Stephen Elliott pointed out, virtually all of what is depicted in Flammable Children actually happened, and he made a film about it – that’s all.

Canoeing Loch Maree

Loch Maree is the fourth largest freshwater loch in Scotland.  It’s a few miles from Gairloch on the west coast, where we stayed for three nights last week.  The main purpose of the trip was to canoe the loch, which we did with the help of Cory from Gairloch Canoe and Kayak Centre.  He provided the boats and kit, and expertly guided us round some of the sixty or so islands on the loch.

It was quite atmospheric on the loch.  For much of the day the water was fairly calm, and the rain mostly held off (while further south in Scotland it was a hot and sunny day).

We chose to canoe, rather than kayak, as we haven’t canoed since our epic trip down the Spey in spate in 2014.  It was a chance to relearn some skills, which we’d obviously forgotten as we went round in a circle to start off with.  The person at the front is the engine room, and just paddles, while the person at the back steers the boat.

We landed on Isle Maree, a mystical place where there are numerous gravestones and where some Vikings are buried.  There’s also a money tree (shown above) which Queen Victoria made popular on her trip here in 1877.  It was the site of the 8th-century hermitage of Saint Máel Ruba, and somewhere there was once a well which was supposed to help cure lunacy.  I immediately thought that this would be a good place for my friend Fat Mac to spend some time.

Cory pointed out a carnivorous plant on another island.  It eats midgies!

Many thanks to Cory for an excellent trip.

Near the Wall

Last week we decided to visit Hexham, in Northumbria, and spent a couple of days cycling in the countryside nearby.  Our base was the pleasant campsite at Bellingham, which I was delighted to discover is pronounced BEL-in-jəm

A few miles up a minor road from Bellingham is Dally Castle, which has seen better days, and is now quite ruined.

Hexham is sixteen miles south of Bellingham, and at one point you cross the remains of Hadrian’s Wall.  The B6318 runs along the course of the Wall, although there’s not much left of the construction at this point.

We enjoyed a pint of IPA at The Rat Inn, and I’ve made a mental note to eat there one day.

On the way back to Edinburgh we took the alternative road which runs along the Kielder Water, which was extremely rough due to high winds.

This made me laugh – 25 years later

The top photo was taken in Chobe, Botswana, in 1993 and shows my two sons.  Last week, my sons met up in Malawi and posed for a similar photo at the edge of Lake Malawi.  They sent me the photos for Father’s Day.

Safari Ants, Baggy Pants and Elephants

I wrote about the last book I reviewed in this blog that I found it difficult to feel any affinity with the author (Ann Patras).  The author of Safari Ants, Baggy Pants and Elephants, Susie Kelly, is quite different, and soon after starting the book I found myself on her side.  Why?  Because she is interested in Africa and its people and says things such as, “Kenyans are naturally warm and smiling people, and when it comes to giving service they excel and take pride in doing their utmost to please you wholeheartedly, which I guess is one of the reasons so many people love this country.”  Kelly was brought up in Kenya, so she should know.  Whereas Patras spent a lot of time complaining that various things were not available in Africa, Kelly celebrates the things which are offered (papaya, mangoes, oranges, watermelon, pineapple, loquat, guava, passion fruit, etc), and notes that they always seem to taste much better in their country of origin.  Patras mentioned that her husband tried nshima once, but never again, yet Kelly writes that on her return to Kenya she once more has the ugali that she loves but had last eaten fifty years ago.

I don’t want to labor the point, but one author is much more positive about her perspective towards Africa.  Maybe Kelly is too positive!  Sometimes she gets a bit…well…gushing, as in, “I wonder who first described Africa as the ‘Dark Continent’?  Anybody who has been there knows that Africa is radiant; the bluest skies, the greenest foliage, the richest and most varied colours in the world of the animals, birds, and insects; the glossy yellow of pineapple, the deep orangs of papaya; the pale turquoise of the waves that tickle the silver sands of the coast; the red rich of the murram and the warm, soft beige of the desert.  The golden glow of the sun rising and setting on the snowcaps of the great mountains.  Where is the darkness?”.  On the other hand, anyone who has been to Kenya will recognise what she is saying.

Anyone who has visited Kenya will also understand the following, “It does something to you, this infinite space, so tranquil on the surface, yet so teeming with life.  You feel at once insignificant and amazing, just for being here.  I wanted to hold out my arms and gather it all in, hold it pressed to my heart, never let it go.”

She comes away from a visit to a Samburu village feeling a bit uncomfortable – she enjoyed seeing them in their traditional environment, but couldn’t help wondering how long they will be able to maintain their lifestyles in a rapidly changing world.

When my son Jamie went to Australia on a gap trip, shortly after completing secondary school, I made sure he took a kikoi with him.  I convinced him that it would come in useful.  I always take a kikoi with me on holidays.  Kelly writes about a gorgeous kikoi she is given early in her trip, “With one of these versatile colourful cotton rectangles, you are ready for anything as they can be used as articles of clothing, baby-carriers, headgear, beach mats, shopping bags, towels, curtains, sheets, table cloths, picnic rugs and any other purpose that you can think of for a rectangle of strong cotton.”

Safari Ants, Baggy Pants and Elephants covers Kelly’s three-week safari to Amboseli, Samburu, Nakuru, Nairobi, Masai Mara and a couple of other places.  You wouldn’t think that there would be enough material to write a 250-page book, but Kelly’s experiences also stimulate some memories of her time in Kenya, fifty years previously.  There is never too much detail, and it was a very enjoyable read.  I learnt several things, as well, for example, the meaning of the word ‘nidifugous’, the difference between passerine or non-passerine birds, and my favourite, the origin of the word wabenzi.

Here’s a link to Kelly’s slideshow of her trip.