The Launch of Chisiya Writers' Workshop: Preliminaries
In August, we launched Chisiya Writers' Workshop in Zvishavane, Zimbabwe. This was at Gwavachemai Secondary School in Mhototi, which is in the Mazvihwa area of Zvishavane district, near Mberengwa. It had taken over two years planning, but when it finally was going to happen, I suddenly didn't know what to expect. This was going to be the first workshop of its kind, a rural model writers' workshop that draws facilitators from the urban areas (which is where they usually live) and ask them to come stay in the village for a week, teaching the people in the area how to write. But once I had landed in Zimbabwe, the doubts began to intensify; I didn't know what to expect, plus I started having these questions: What if this thing fails? What if it is going to be a total disaster? What if we are going to encounter participants who did not care about writing? What if? What if? I had a few days to think about these things in Harare. I was even distracted by the international book