17 of the 18 years that I’ve been a musician have been spent in Edmonton, Canada. While I’ve had exposure to a breadth of musical influences as a result of living in a multi cultural city, much of my artistic development in the context of Zimbabwean music, has been the result of connecting lessons and experiences – often in an adhoc fashion. As you can expect – opportunities to connect regularly with Zimbabwean, or African musicians and educators is limited.

With this trip- I can finally wholly immerse myself with artists and creatives I’ve admired from afar- watching their videos and tutorials on YouTube, following them on social media or trying to meet up with them when they come perform in Edmonton ( we cooked sadza and played FIFA on playstation for the Mokoomba crew when they came to the 2016 Edmonton Folk Festival!)

As we fly into Amsterdam for our connecting flight- I’m wondering: how will the bands music be received given how untouched we are by the day to day Zimbabwean influences, compared to the peers we will meet? What creative contributions can we make to the sector ? What will I learn? How will I be perceived by friends, family and peers  who come to watch us?  How will my bandmates traveling to Zimbabwe for the first time be received ?

Time to dash to our connecting flight. Next stop, Nairobi, Kenya. -Chaka