A day to forget, maybe not!

So, as I woke up this morning really early (around 5h30) and couldn't sleep anymore because of the excitement my head was full of ideas for a project to do while we are away, a great and big project, so I got up and started writing and researching about it and soon we were gone to the HUB Johannesburg, with Alex, one of the founders that came to pick us up.

It was a fresh morning and we were excited, specially me, because we were going to visit amazing projects such as The Green House Project and The Maharishi Institute, and I was planning already how to get my ideas happening with everyone's help.

We decided to cacht a public taxi van that runs here in Jo'burg in a informal system parallel to the bus system and it was a nice experience. The first time we did it was a bit weird, because people starred at us as if we shouldn't be there, but this time people were more friendly around us and I guess we didn't look so lost as the first time.

The weird I'm saying has to do with the tension still present in the air, here in Jo'burg, and I also think in the whole country. You can see it in people's eyes and specialy sense it within the relationships around. I have to tell you that I felt it in my skin and we could feel it even in our behavior and energy.
This tension seems to be a left over from the Aphartaid times, we can feel there's anger and hurt still whithin people and relationships... Those were hard times in South Africa, and it feels one of their challenge as a nation is to get over that racist battle inside the people so it will vanish way the outside conflicts.

So, as we walked out of the van and decided to enjoy the Top of Africa view, a 50 floor building downtown, the highest in Africa, where you can see the whole city. And leaving there on a very deep conversation about the moment of the world, economic models and solutions we were badly surprise by a mugging involving violence in the middle of a downtown street in Johannesburg, close to 11 o'clock in the morning.

Nothing bad happened to us, execept the loss of documents, watches and money and the emotional injury and violence.

We are still trying to understand why such a thing happenned. Besides the fact that Johannesburg is a very violent city, I believe there's always a reason way we attrack those experiences to learn from it.

After all that happened, we had an amazing welcoming space to process it at the HUB in Johannesburg, and a great conversation with dear friends, who showed us a different part of Jo'burg.



The Hub from above



And a bit later, we had to go back on the streets with the police to help them identify the thiefs. It was very hurtful and violent to me wittnessing the police searching all man in 2 bars, as they were looking at us, it came back the feeling of anger and unjustice that still very present here. It's so humiliating going through such a thing, being robbed and being a suspect.

That made me sad and made me go to the reflection of responsability. What is my responsability as a world citizen to this violence? How are my choices contributing for this, hunger, misery, racism? What is the individual responsibility and what's the point where they both meet? Maybe there is where we would be able to do something...

That experience tought us many things... one of them was persistence. We were sad, frustrated, angry at first, this seemed unfair. But then, what's really unfair? We go back to our friends, have our house, family, job... what about those who don't have any of that and still need to risk their lives stilling from other people?? Well, that doesn't justify anything, specially the violence, but explains somethings.

Another thing that we learned was how presence is important. Sometimes we go through the whole day and don't even remember what we did. I read a very good book from Nilton Bonder that he wrote that we only remember experiences when we were really present, otherwise, we won't, and probably had been absent or not intirely there. So, to be safe lucky isn't enough, we really have to be present to let our intuition guide us through.

And something that was very present to me was two different forces, one that was ready to give up on the ideas and ideals, thinking that wasn't worth the risk we were taking, but then another force was saying it is a test, persist that great things come with tests and as bigger the testes, as more important the things. So, there's a part of me that feels very glad that nothing worse happened and that we could get stronger with that experience to prevent others.

So instead of going on fear and anger, we are choosing to continue on love and trust, but it has been a process.

"To be robbed is, first and foremost, to be humiliated, to be made a fool of. But with time I came to understand that seeing robbery as a humiliation and an affront is an emotional luxury. Living amid the poverty of my neighborhood, I realized that theft, even a petty theft, can be a death sentence." Ryszard Kapuscinski in book The shadow of the sun

Love to all,

Narjara