So, I’m so excited about what I did for New Year’s Eve, and what my plans are for New Years Day that I feel the need to share with my blog community. (Its actually New Year’s Eve evening right now, and I’ll probably just go to sleep soon, rather than stay up, but my afternoon was amazing.) So, let me step back to yesterday.
I was a little depressed yesterday for reasons I won’t go into here, so I decided I needed to go out for a walk, and sit in Zoo Park and read for a while. So, I go to Zoo Park, sit down, and next thing I know I’m surrounded by Rastafarians. Let me explain. Rastafarians tend to hang out in Zoo Park for whatever reason. Foreign white female tourists seem to have a tendency to like picking up a Rastafarian boyfriend for the duration of their stay. They also often seem to like smoking ganja. So, I wasn’t sure which they were coming to offer, but I needed some cheering up, so I was happy to make pleasant conversation with them (not smoke ganja or acquire a boyfriend). So what topic came up? Yoga!!! (after I made it clear that I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend – ganja didn’t come up) It seems that there was a Congolese Rastafarian who did yoga and had taught them all some yoga, and they were intrigued and keen to learn more. I was blown away. Most people that I’ve met haven’t heard of it, and if they have they think its either some strange cult for satan worshippers, or just something weird for contortionists (I suppose similar ignorance exists in the US too.)
So, let me digress for those of you who aren’t aware. Yoga in Namibia is extremely expensive to the typical Namibian. The prices are comparable to US prices (~US$10 for a 1.5 hour class.) I’ve met a few people who have sounded kind of interested in possibly trying it sometime that have been completely turned off by the price. I believe strongly that yoga should be free and widely available to the masses. It should not be this elitist thing only for suburban women in spandex like it often tends to be, both in the States and Namibia. I have dreamed about teaching free yoga classes in Namibia (yes I’m a yoga missionary in disguise), but starting it up seemed like so much work. How would I tell people about it? Would there be interest? Where would I teach? Would I have time? Would people like it? So, I’ve put it on the backburner.
So, but here I am chatting with these Rastafarians who are really eager to learn more about yoga, and who definitely can’t afford a US$10 class. So, they aren’t sure where this Congolese guy is, but I tell the one who is particularly interested that I’ll lend him some books until I get back from South Africa, and then we can try to get together with the Congolese guy when I get back and make some sort of arrangement.
So, today I go to Zoo Park to show some books to this guy and another guy is also there, and we all get chatting, so they give the Congolese guy (Omar) a call. He says he would love to come meet us, but he can’t afford taxi fair (~US$1). So I tell him I’ll pay for it and eventually he shows up. We all chat for a bit and discuss his background with yoga and possible venues for classes, times, etc. Then the question keeps coming up, “So, when can we start?” And in my very American programmed sense I keep thinking, “Well, we will enquire at these various venues, then when we find a place, we will agree on a time, and then we’ll give everyone sufficient notice, and then we’ll begin.” But then some of the guys are like, “Why don’t we just walk up to Parliament Gardens right now and do it there?” I was thinking, “But, I’m in my work clothes and haven’t had lunch, I can’t be so spontaneous!” But its too tempting, so we head up the hill to the gardens.
So, there I am in Parliament Gardens doing yoga with two Congolese refugees, a Zimbabwean illegal immigrant and a Namibian. It was really cool. Omar really knew A LOT about yoga and was really into it. It was so cool. We did some sun salutations (Omar led some and I led some), a few other asanas and then sat for meditation. I led the meditation. As we sat down I was thinking, “hmmm, I wonder if our bags are safe over there by that tree, maybe we should bring them closer.” But there wasn’t anyone else around really and I figured if these guys weren’t concerned, I wouldn’t be either. So, we finish meditation and a few of the guys said, “I couldn’t really meditate cause I kept thinking about our bags over there.” Oh, well. I think it was a great experience anyway.
So, then we start chatting. They start asking all about yogic philosophies and stuff and eventually vegetarianism comes up. (Okay, so these guys aren’t really Rastafarians, they are just guys with dreadlocks that listen to reggae and smoke ganja.) Omar wisely diverted the question by pointing out that everything that you eat affects you, so you shouldn’t just worry about meat, but think about everything you put in your body including thins like coffee and sugar. Which of course brought about the ganja question. It was so funny, cause Omar and I were eye to eye on everything up till this. They all pretty much agreed that ganja is just plain a good thing, its natural, it helps meditate. It was clear they didn’t want that belief challenged, so I opted to remain silent. I decided instead to mention that attachment to ganja would probably not be very cool. But then we suddenly got into this discussion of non-attachment. There were so many moments like this, where I felt like, “Okay, an American consumer who can afford US$10 yoga classes is sitting here talking about non-attachment with two refugees and an illegal immigrant who are all employed in the informal sector and can’t afford US$1 taxi fare?” Its still making me laugh when I think about it.
The really neat thing is that the things they wanted to discuss were much deeper philosophical and spiritual aspects of yoga then ever come up in my $10 classes. The yoga instructors that I know have privately told me, “Yeah, I would love to get more into the philosophy and spiritual components, but Namibians are just way too conservative and get really turned off by that.” So, we may chant “Om shanti shanti shanti" after class, but that’s about as deep as they have been willing to go.
So, then they start flipping through my books, and randomly trying various asanas that looked crazy. The funniest was the headstands. Two of the guys were like, “Oh man I don’t think I can do this”, but they tried, did it, and then jumped from the headstand directly to a standing position. Yes, teaching them will definitely be different from my grad school buddies.
Anyway, we’ll see where this goes. They are excited to meet again tomorrow in Parliament Gardens, but I’ve told them that I can’t do it for another 3 weeks after that while I’m traveling in South Africa, so we’ll see if they have continued and/or found an indoor venue and/or maintained an interest and/or been deported by the time I get back. So, even though its not exactly like teaching Namibians, its at least teaching people who can’t afford expensive classes, and when I meet other people who can’t afford classes, I’ll be able to offer them something. I’m also excited to learn from Omar, cause I could fairly quickly see that my teaching style may not be appropriate for this group. I think we can learn a lot from each other. So, please pray for the manifestation and growth of my fledgling yoga dream…
(P.S. Timmy, if you are reading this, neither of the Congolese guys seem to know you, but one looks a whole bunch like you.)
