As soon as I arrived at the Cape Town Airport, I was dragged into a merciless schedule. There were classes after classes, traveling after traveling from one dojo to the other, from one city to the other, from the day of arrival until the day of my departure. Each dojo had planned a program for a maximum use of my time and energy.
Etienne and Annette greeted me at the airport. Etienne was as big as before although he said that he had lost 15 kilos lately. This time, by his attitude, I strongly felt immediately that something was different from the last time. He sounded quite enthusiastic about my visit. He had something in mind, I felt.
The first class was scheduled for the evening of the day of my arrival. The students in Cape Town told me that if I was too tired, I did not have to do the class and just watch it. How can I do that?
It was still the same day after I had traveled for 15 hours from Singapore. Although, it was the fresh beginning for the South Africans, it was already the 9th day for me since I had left Guam.
I attended the IAF seminars in Tokyo for five days. On the next day after the whole program ended, at four o’clock in the morning, I left the Olympic Center and flew to Singapore. As I arrived there, a friend of mine was waiting for me to take me to his class. The class was from 7 to 9 in the evening. Many students were in class, and for two hours, I gave a very energetic class. The dinner followed as usual, and I could finally lie down on my bed long after midnight.
Next day, again, there was a two-hour class. Immediately after the class, I had to rush to the airport to catch the flight after 1:00am. The flight to Johannesburg was for 10.5 hours, and another 2 hours to Cape Town after two hours of waiting at the Johannesburg Airport. In the ordinary mind, there should be at least one day of rest in between, but Aikido world is extra ordinary. It is almost cruel and tough for a sixty four year old person.
The class went very well. There were almost 50 students on the mats. My goal to achieve during this mission was to convey the idea that Aikido was not only for self defense that was widely practiced at various dojos in South Africa.
The first grip on my right wrist was unforgettable. Just a squeeze with full might of a strong man, but no matter how tightly he might squeeze me, it was not a life threatening attack. I asked my partner to attack me and squeeze my arm more and more. He was shaking but I was still smiling without feeling the need to do any technique. My fingers started turning to purple. I breathed mighty air through my arm, extended it and threw him effortlessly. He landed hard on the floor puzzled. The class saw that a small woman over 60 could do something miraculous if Aikido principles were correctly applied.
A security guard opened the school gate, and our car was welcomed in to the parking area of the school. We took mats and a plastic cover on a trailer pulled behind a large van to make the floor for our demonstration.
The school’s corridor leading to the assembly hall was dark, and dark colored students made the darkness even darker. But, many sparkling curious eyes and white teeth were following us all the way to the hall’s entrance. Girls were all seated in the hall surrounding the mat area in the center. This school had over 800 students of exclusively black boys and girls for the junior and high school ages.
The principal, a colored man (in South Africa, there are whites, colored and blacks), grabbed a microphone, and announced that the boys should leave the hall immediately because this program would be only for female students. The boys started slowly and reluctantly moving away from the balcony where they had been placed separately from the girls to watch our demonstration. I rushed to the microphone, and asked them without even consulting the principal to stay. I told them that I came here to introduce Aikido for boys and girls and teachers all together.
Etienne, the chief instructor in the Cape Town area, who had planned this event, briefly introduced me to the crowd. Then, I introduced myself, gave a brief biography of O’sensei and explained the reason for our visiting this school. I had been told that this program should be focused on the female students who often faced with violence at homes, schools and elsewhere.
In South Africa, crimes occur on the daily bases, and many people are killed or injured, raped and beaten. Aikido is certainly useful for controlling the aggressor to defend oneself, but I did not wish to introduce Aikido only as the means of self- defense. I was quite aware that in South Africa, for so many years, Aikido had been practiced for achieving useful techniques for self-defense, and the deeper meaning of Aikido was not so much talked about. I had witnessed at various cities at various dojos that through Aikido training, students wanted to become tough and strong so that they would be safe in their daily lives. Because of this attitude, Aikido had spread mainly among muscular men, and women were not encouraged to practice for so many years. In the 25 years of history since Aikido was introduced to South Africa, they produced only a handful of female black belts. I met only one of them. Even this time, not so many women were in classes. I thought that it would be most necessary to explain that the founder founded Aikido for men and women, old and young as well as weak and strong. I was requested that my mission this time was to introduce Aikido to the previously unprivileged people meaning, non-whites, women and children.
I started with doing some techniques to defend myself against strong attacks such as grabs, strikes and punches. I asked my partner to attack me as hard as possible. I asked him to grab me as strong as possible. I first tried to pretend that I was a coward old woman and I was backing up hopelessly. Then, all of a sudden, I regained my strength, extended my arms and fingers and threw him as hard as I could. He landed on the floor with a large falling noise. That surprised the entire crowd. “Wow!” I heard the surprised expressions from all directions. I thought I caught the attention from the students. After that, as I felt the positive reaction from the crowd, my energy was escalated. I did not use the microphone any more. I had strong enough voice to penetrate through every one in the hall from the first floor to the far end of the balcony.
On the contrary to the principal’s warning before the beginning of the demonstration that the students might make disturbances, I did not hear any noise or talking at all. Over 1500 eyes were nailed on to my actions and over 1500 ears were all tilted towards my explanations. The entire school seemed to have become one spirit and my messages seemed to be successfully passed on to the students and teachers, and also the Aikido students who wished to start classes at this school.
I made a short speech on Aikido.
“Aikido is a way of training to make our inner strength to become stronger and to develop our confidence. How? The true energy is not on the shoulders or on the arms. It is coming from the center of the body that is the abdominal area. The energy comes from there if we utilize the universal ki energy. This ki energy comes into the body by inhaling the air around us. We must become conscious of inhaling and exhaling together with our movements.
Aikido is not for competitions. It is trivial to think that one is stronger than the other. We must see if we today are better than we yesterday. We all have an inborn potential. We must become aware of our potential, and try to cultivate it to its full growth. In order to achieve this goal, we should help each other rather than comparing or competing against one another. By winning, we may miss to see some great potential hiding inside. By loosing, we may also miss some great potential we may have. By making ourselves free from the competitive pressures, we must look at ourselves, strength and weakness, and try to develop ourselves to our highest level of state where the body and the mind are fully balanced. In such a state, we feel free and peace in mind and relaxation in body. From a stronger person, we learn how to become stronger, and from a weaker person, we learn how a weak person feels against a stronger person. We develop our challenging spirit to grow with a stronger person, and compassionate spirit to help a weaker person. This way, we will become more complete individuals. We were born all with special uniqueness and quality. In nature, too, for example, coconut trees bare only coconut fruit. Banana trees bare only banana fruit. Banana trees cannot envy coconut trees. They are unique to each other, and they have unique taste and shape. Some like coconut and some like bananas. We are all unique existence, and we are all only ones, but we are not always best ones or worst ones. Competitive sports tend to produce best ones, but cooperative martial art such as Aikido produces ONLY ONES. “
The reaction and the response from the students were beyond our expectations. The principal was deeply impressed and moved by our effort to bring in Aikido to the school. He said that the philosophy of Aikido of non-violence and non-competitiveness was impressive and that is the very thing he wanted his students to learn. He expressed to us that he wanted us to start the classes as soon as possible.
It was a very fruitful program.
After the end of the demonstration, several students approached us. One of them was a very sincere gentleman. He said that he was interested in starting to practice. I directly told him that he appeared to be a student with a great leadership, and I wanted him to take an initiative to start this project. Four or five core members should practice first, and gradually bring in one by one around them to enlarge the circle of Aikido club.
Some questions were immediately raised from the participating Aikido members. How about the mats? How about the uniforms? Who will pay for them?
I strictly told them that if they wished to start the project, they should be prepared to donate enough to buy the mats for the school. Do not ask for an outside financial help. If they wait for it, then the project will never take off. Even with a small area, covered with some mats, start immediately, while an iron is still hot, hit it now!!!
If I were here, I would buy the mats immediately and start on the next day!!!
My questions still remained.
Which would be better accepted by the students, white instructors such as Etienne, Annett and Richard or colored instructors such as John and Elroy? The answer was clear. The latter would be better. However, I thought that if both white and non-white instructors could show that they were cooperating with each other for the project, the students would feel much more comfortable and the true meaning of friendship among the people would grow from the practice of Aikido.
I was happy and satisfied with the atmosphere that something interesting would start in the Stallenbuch Area in Cape Town.
A doctor’s appointment was made for 8:15 in the morning. At 7:30, Craig took me to the hospital. Dr. Esser greeted me with a warm smile and a warm handshake. He appeared to be a real gentle man with a noble atmosphere around him. He was a top-leveled doctor at he best hospital in South Africa, but his way of greeting a stranger like me was so humble and friendly. Immediately, I fell in to the feeling that I could totally trust him. I felt a great relief in the bottom of my heart at the first glance of him even though my foot was throbbing unbearably.
Dr. Esser looked at my swollen foot, and said, “What a nasty swell!”
He put a big needle into the top of the swell, and took a small sample of the liquid inside. Then, he said that we had to make an immediate decision whether an external temporary treatment until I returned home or an operation right away.
He was concerned about the fact that I did not have any insurance with me. I asked him to do whatever the best he could offer no matter how much it would cost me. He nodded gently and agreed that the operation would be the best solution. He contacted a surgeon Dr. Tinker and told me that the operation would be in the afternoon.
As Craig and I were having breakfast, we were called in and told that Dr. Tinker would be available immediately. We returned to the hospital, but unfortunately he could not do anything to me right away because I had just eaten. With some food in the stomach, they could not give me a general anesthesia.
I was taken to a ward where I was to stay overnight. I had to wait for five hours in my room. The foot was throbbing badly, but I felt relaxed and pleased.
At three o’clock, I was finally taken to the theater, and two shots were put into the vain on the back of my right hand. As Dr. Tinker was introducing himself to me with his warm hands on my shoulder, I lost my consciousness. It was a general anesthesia to put me to sleep.
When I woke up, it was five o’clock. I felt well rested. It was the best sleep I had ever had in my whole life. How wonderful it was to be able to sleep that well!!
My foot was bandaged, and it was still throbbing. The doctor said that the cyst was very messy inside. It was widely infected, and a lot of puss and blood were taken out. He also took out the whole cyst. He asked me if I wanted to look at it, but I said no.
In the evening, Corrie came to my room. He drove for one hour all the way from Hadelburg to see me. I felt happy, but at the same time, I felt guilty for skipping the class for tonight. I gave him a full report about my experiences for the last ten days, and told him that the visit this time was very different from the previous ones because I could see some changes in the attitude of many of the leaders. In the past, most of the students wanted to take Aikido only for themselves, but this time, they started thinking about sharing their happiness with others. Especially, they were concerned with the people who had been previously unprivileged: women, children and non-white people.
We also talked about our fond memory of out trip to Japan exactly one year before. Craig was the leader from this area, and Corrie was from Hadelburg. I had been looking forward to practicing with them but I could not even walk. I was invited to do the classes as a guest instructor, but instead, I ended up with to giving them so much trouble. Nevertheless, both were so kind to me, and they never uttered a single word of complaint or dissatisfaction about my situation.
The night was not very comfortable. There was a metallic banging noise all night long, and I could not sleep at all. At this hospital, the jobs were assigned to so many people, and one after the other, they came in and did their duties. One came in to take the temperature, and the next one in five minutes came in to change the dressing. Another nurse came in to see if I needed to wash myself. A lady came in to empty the trash, and another lady came in with toilet paper. A man came in to clean the room. A lady came in with breakfast. Another lady came in with tea. Another lady came in to take the tray away. How many people came all together in the morning?
Dr. Tinker came in to check how I was doing. Then, just before I was discharged, Dr. Esser came to see me.
At 11, I was discharged. Craig came to pick me up. I was put on a wheel chair and Craig pushed it. It was a long procedure to go through all the paperwork for the payment. On the wheelchair, I could not stop smiling because I was an Aikido instructor for him. We went straight for a nice breakfast. How much did I want to have a hot cappuccino! By the time we reached Craig’s home, I was really exhausted and wanted to rest. The foot was still throbbing, but there was no worry any more in my heart.
At five, Paul came to take me with him to Pretoria. It was an hour-long drive. Again, I had to travel. I wanted to lie down to put my foot up. I was so happy to see Paul again. I felt most relaxed with him. He was such a warm-hearted person.
On the way to Pretoria, I gave him another full report about my experiences for the past 10 days. He was also pleased to hear that things went well. He said that some people in the South had begun calling him to give him some report about me. He said that everything he heard was positive. I was glad to hear that things really went well in spite of my painful foot on the last five days.
I could not do the class, but I went to the dojo with Paul to watch his instruction.
Paul was a very energetic and serious instructor. Although he was over 50, his footwork was very strong and stable, and his techniques were really powerful. More than anything else, I liked his sincerity and humbleness for Aikido. This time, I saw some clear changes in his techniques. His arms were well extended, and the movements were powerful but spiral. He did not use his muscular strength as much as he used to, and he was moving his entire body in harmony. He looked powerful, but at the same time, he looked much more gentle than ever. Since he went back from Japan, he said that he became gentler. He wrote to me in his e-mail that when I came to visit him this time, he would show me welcome me more gentleness with warm smiles. It was really true indeed.
The next day, Loray was assigned to take care of me. Loray was one of the four persons who went to Japan with me. We were happy for the reunion. But, as soon as he came to see me, there was a phone call from Dr. Tinker telling me to go back to the hospital one more check-up before I would leave. Since it would be a very long journey home, he worried about my conditions. We had to go back to Johannesburg again. Loray cancelled all of his appointments for the day, and drove me for one hour back to see the doctor.
The wound was already half closed, and the color around the cut was not red or purple any more. It was close to a regular skin color. It was certainly heeling.
It was hard for me to say goodbye to Paul and Corrie at the airport. Their love and care for me seemed to be endless. I felt extremely happy to be embraced in their deep, thick and warm bosoms. How glad I was that I was a student of Aikido. I was honored and deeply moved when Paul introduced me to his class saying, “She is a living example to live her life in the Aikido spirit.”
I requested three seats to lie down on the plane all the way to Tokyo. I was carried around on a wheel chair at every airport. I did not have to wait in line for check-ins. How privileged and spoiled I was to be treated like that. After all, it was not a bad thing to have some physical problem like this.
The journey ended at 2:00 am on Guam. The student who came to see me at the airport was so surprised to see me on a wheel chair. I could feel a great relief at my home when I could finally stretch my legs. It was such a long, painful journey, but I had a wonderful experience that I had never had before. I felt great generosity and deep friendship from the people in South Africa.
Although I could not visit the last three dojos in the Johannesburg area, I felt that I had achieved a lot this time.
During my visit, people promised to me that the following would take place in the near future.
1 A class will start at the non-white school in Stallenbouch.
Children’s classes will be more encouraged at Ann’s dojo.
Children’s classes will start at Stallenbouch.
Children’s classes will start at Port Elizabeth.
Women and children will join in at Bloamfontain Dojo.