ZAMBIA LETTERS, 23

12/07/2025

Saw a traffic accident today. A large military jeep and a civilian car. It was a bit unclear whether there had been a collision or not, Two or three men were fighting and there was a woman standing nearby as well. I couldn't really tell if it was one of them attacking the other or if both were equally aggressive, but in reality, of course, one is always more aggressive. 

Yes, the one with the woman was definitely more passive, that's how it was, and the other had the support of his comrade.

”It´s the military” said the taxi driver, ”they are beating him up. They do that if you park in the street. When a military vehicle comes, they will always stop and beat you for parking in the street so you don’t do it again.”

”Have you seen it before?”

”Yes, many times. They do it so you won’t do it again. Look, here is another. If the military sees them he will be beaten.”

Bought dollars for the Shaolin Temple. They want 100 USD per month per person but the seller only had 240 so I took what he had. Bought boots at Bata. Chawo said that if I'm going to enter a mine, I have to have proper shoe wear. It looks like a Norwegian hiking boot but it´s not as good, especially not in the sole. It´s too hard and don´t have the right undersides for grips. 1200 Kwacha. Not too bad, I guess, I can have them at home in Oslo at the beginning of the snow season. 

We arrived at the temple and the Chinese monk said: ”Oh, hi, yesterday it was only me showing Bagua, I never asked you, so please."

Which meant I had to. So I showed the Circle Walk in Snake, including the first change, and then Hip attack Reversing the body. Both he and the other monk were filming me. I then realized that this was probably planned, maybe even ordered by someone, and that now I'm probably on TikTok or the temple's Instagram page. But at least I managed to haggle the fee down from 300 USD to 100.

Our training focused on one of their first forms. It´s supposed to take 30 seconds t at full strength, once you've mastered it, so the material is not too extensive but there are many details that are different in Shaolin from Baguazhang. What I have been taught is hard to put away when I switch to another style. For example, the simultaneity of the foot and hand or the peculiar placement of the feet in Bagua. Such things are difficult to unlearn.

In the evening, Hanna showed me what she and Irpa had done in her studio. She has finished her ceiling and floor paintings now, with the mask from Twin Rivers Kopje. They are amazing. There is something about their energy and their expression that captures something from the landscape. And they are completely different from the ones she did in Norway, both in energy and in the expression. It is partly the color, of course, because these are brown. It is also that they have a rounder expression and that the color that has fallen from above, onto the floor painting, has a different type of splash. 

She then showed me what the children had done that morning, when I was in East Park. Their paintings were laid out to dry, outside her studio. Many had come to her class, all boys, and they were very motivated. They want to learn art. Hanna says that here art is truly important, and I understand what she means. Everyone I have met at LuCAC, both artists and other visitors, really values it.

On the way out I noticed something I had not seen before. There was a rock outside the studio and Hanna had captured its face by transferring it to a mask. The technique she used was very simple but for some reason we have never thought of it before. When we noticed it, we realized that this is something we can use to capture the expressions in both trees and rocks. I will explore this when I am at the mines. 

13/07/2025

Irpa's experiences in the temple are starting to show. In the taxi home from training yesterday, she started to ask us more about Kung Fu. She has also begun to watch Avatar again since after we started training, and of course she sees the similarities with the series and our training. She asked us what is closest to Avatar, if it is Baguazhang or Shaolin? If Shaolin is the Kingdom of Fire and Bagua is the Kingdom of Water?

I replied that in Baguazhang we have a system for each of the eight elements, not only four of them as in Avatar. But if you talk about fire, water, air and earth, then they find their correspondences in Rooster, Snake, Phoenix and Unicorn.

Today she and Hanna baked Swedish cinnamon buns. I was standing outside going through the form from yesterday. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Peter, the little boy, had showed up. He stood a few meters back with his enormous red top hat, which is also a kind of thick baklava with a tassel attached to the top, and was copying my movements. Irpa became very happy and ran out of the kitchen. They practiced with me for a while, before she started showing him the warm-up sequences we do at the temple. She took him on a jog around LucAC, followed by the “chair” and some stretching. When she was showing him that she could do the bridge backwards, at full speed, she had an accident. She hit her head right into the concrete. The bang was so loud that Hanna could hear it all the way into the kitchen. 

It was a sad moment, of course, and Peter understood the situation so he went home again. By the time we realized that he could have been joining us in baking buns instead, it was too late. I tried to find him but he had already moved on.

I had just about managed to burn the first bunch of buns in the gas oven, over at Rachel’s kitchen, before it was time for me and Irpa to leave. Hanna stayed behind. Maybe Irpa should have had the day off, I do hope she didn't get a concussion. I should have let her rest, I realize that, but none of us thought of it. 

It was a good session but she didn´t enjoy it. First of all, Hanna wasn’t there and secondly, the place was full of Chinese tourists who were filming us whenever we did something. A nine-year-old boy, who looked like he was six, helped us to go through what we learned yesterday. He was a strict teacher and very meticulous about details. His name was Fea.

Later in evening I booked hotels for myself in Mufulira, Kitwe and Kabwe. I went to the bar and met Chowa and said goodbye. He gave me a few tips for the journey. 

It´s time for bed, but first I’m going to put Hanna’s smartphone on charge. It feels strange, but Hanna insists that I must take it with me. She’s anxious that I won’t be able to get around otherwise. At the same time, she is also mocking me. “So... now it’s good to have one!” I keep on telling her that I’d be happy to go without it, but she won´t let me and I don´t want her to worry.