Neil in Zim: I'm apparently British

I am in a constant state of confusion re: AI generated art. The line between reality and fiction is elusive and unsettling. I watched a video where some AI artist merged a Van Gogh, Monet, Hokusai, and Munch, as well as an “impressionist painting of a dog” into a single photo and thought to myself, “Wow, the end for humans must be coming soon.” And though the end may be near, I don’t see a better way for us to go down – I’d rather have AI be able to extract voice from instrumental to make an average sounding karaoke track than have to listen to Camilla Cabello’s voice soil some of the decent instrumentals in her songs.

Speaking of Van Gogh and Monet, impressionism has been kind of my thing lately. A very nice old lady donated her upright piano to the school, and I’ve been learning Debussy and Satie. There is something about the key of D-flat major that is so magical and narrative-driven.

The Head of School is leaving at the end of the year. In an end-of-year speech, he said that his dream house as a child was in the trunk of a hollowed-out tree. My dream is to live in a piece of fruit.

Some of my students ask why I move so fast, with the way that I walk, talk, think, and complete tasks. I think my sense of urgency has started to kick back in, which in part is due to the fact that students can now understand what I say in my normal paced voice. When I feel like I am falling behind on my to-do list, a sudden kick in energy sparks so I can get that list down to less than 5 tasks. My secret for how I keep going? Delusion. Just like many of my readers on here, I’m sure, life does not, cannot, and will not stop. But then I see videos people who live their lives as a trophy partner, where they wake up and have a fruit/protein shake, go to the gym, make food, and read books ... and then I wonder: why not me?

There are a lot of things that don’t make sense to me. (1) Why is it so challenging to make a fitted sheet that actually fits the bed well? It’s in the name. (2) Do YouTube ads really need to be longer than 30 minutes? I’m ashamed to say it, but I think I watched 30 minutes of a 1 hour 50 minutes YouTube ad – it was a full symphony. It wasn’t very great, but I was extremely confused why YouTube let this happen. (3) Why hasn’t holiday season started in Zim? If I were still in the States, I would hear Mariah Carey scream at the top of her lungs starting on November 1st. There is a student here who likes to sing Christmas music, but he only knows the lyrics in Latin.

Not being in the holiday spirit has somehow shifted my chakras – I try blasting Feliz Navidad in the office, but people look at me like I’m crazy. Watching the new Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie (4/10), watching Wakanda Forever (8/10), playing Variations on Happy Birthday in D-flat major (10/10, execution was 3/10), and messaging my parents that I miss them all when I was in my illness era made me quite homesick.

But when my schedule gets busy, I soon forget how much I miss home. Just like graduation season at Stanford in late May/early June, graduation season here at USAP has been so busy (context, academic calendar year in Zim is Jan through December). Two weekends ago, I went to a mbira concert with two other faculty members at the Harare Gardens, spent the next day at a Capstone Showcase where my upper 6 students presented their theses to the public, and then spent the rest of the weekend with some other Princeton in Africa fellows two weekends ago. It was busy but refreshing. On my way to Harare, we took public transport and many people on the bus were shocked to see me – they cheered: “A British person has blessed our bus!” They asked if they could keep my change and I said no, then proceeded to listen to the Zimbabwean karaoke blast on the speakers. The following next days were preparation for upper 6 graduation and it was a lot of goodbyes, reflections, pictures and gifts, and thinking about next steps.

Graduation was emotional, festive, and vibrant – I’m not going to go into detail on how much I’ll miss the students, but will just include my highlights reel and some pictures.

School is wrapping up this week with the lower 6 students, and I’m excited to go to Istanbul for Christmas, my birthday, and the New Year. I suspect that there will be a vibe shift in 2023, but as long as the AI don’t get us, it should be a good year.

Clip from mbira concert