By Joke Debaere As my pregnancy was coming to an end, I often googled “water, breaks, signs”. Facing the Big Moment, Google was my refuge. Just like it had been the first couple of weeks. I had found a Dutch website that compared the growth of my fetus week by week with a piece of … Continue reading The story of Mira’s birth, seen through my perspective
by Joke Debaere As my presence on stage has been fairly silent the past 4 months and will be more silent than usual in the coming ones, I wanted to give you some news about the novel I am writing, which is the reason for the break I am taking from the stage. I can … Continue reading of heart and mind
My mother passed away on Tuesday morning. Many of you have known her, or know about her. I mentioned her illness a while back. Yesterday, I wrote a message about the impact and significance her life and death has to me, but had a feeling I needed to write this intro to put things in … Continue reading On the life and death of a mother
by Joke Debaere A couple of weeks ago, a waitress in a Starbucks asked me whether I wanted the milk foam on my cappuccino wet or dry. I had to ask her three times what she meant. In the beginning of our conversation, all she could do was repeating those very same words: “Whether you … Continue reading Starbucks Tears
Perhaps I should start to accept that writing these newsletters have become a rather loaded event for me. I often, through the years, expressed the wish and even promised that HA!News would become more regular. Yet it refuses to. Especially after the last letter on “the Golden Voice” relating the “miracle” of a dramatic turn … Continue reading about cancer and death and life (follow up)
This is going to go deep. You need more than your left brain to read this. It is about cancer and death. And life. Up and down and up and down she went since she was diagnosed with cancer eight years ago (I knew her intimately for a brief while a decade ago). Up and … Continue reading about cancer and death and life.
Some years ago I wrote to you about Andrew, the stray guitarist of Grahamstown, notorious for his way to talk people out of their money. “But also notorious” for his character, his strong musicality and the colour he added to the town. Andrew was my first black friend. And for those of you who may … Continue reading Andrew Peters
fleeting a european tour the grahamstown festival dvd's of a bbc documentary on nazi germany too many to absorb, too many to sort expect for this one droning theme: humanity the alps majestic, cold, sharp, clean and beautiful we drove there, felt the snow, the heights, the picturesque hitler had his holidays in the alps, … Continue reading images
Nyebho is short, without looking like less. He is lean, extremely well toned, more so for someone who suffers hunger on a regular basis. Nyebho is an actor. And that is how I met him: on stage. He was acting in an Afrikaans play, struggling to bits with the language. I suffered watching him. Not … Continue reading Nyebho
I was waiting to be picked up just outside Seoul. A driver from an important establishment finally appeared. His name was Mr Kim. Short (as most Koreans are), thickset (as most are not) and with a constitution on constant high alert. He was hopping up and down, apologizing profusely for being late, saying a thousand … Continue reading Mr. Kim
