It was innocent enough. I was walking along Nyerere Street in Moshi, on my way to pick up a tailored shirt that was being altered by a seamstress who set up her sewing machine on one of the side streets. I was almost there when I start to hear a familiar sound. An irritating, persistent …
check out swatches from the kitenge cloth i have purchased from markets and shops in Tanzania! Almost all are made in Tanzania, a couple are made in the Congo.
above: Mama, Juma, and me at the Usangi clinic above: Ally and his flapping origami crane; he wants to be a doctor! We’ll work to make that happen. Interesting things happen when the power goes out: The world gets quiet. You start to hear each other and the animals and the water and the wind. …
Pet peeve of the moment #1 Would you sleep on a sponge? I didn’t think so. The foam mattresses here in East Africa look like (and act like) giant car wash sponges. After a few nights of an obese mzungu tourist sleeping on them, foam mattresses get sunken in. It’s like sleeping in a worn …
above: mama and mtoto (child) at the Karatu district hospital My fourth week marked the beginning of a very different work experience. Guy Vandenberg, a nurse and social worker by training, Steve Williams, peer educator, and I are now traveling to different district sites in the Arusha and Moshi Kilimanjaro regions to assist them with …
What am I really here to do? A couple principles to keep in mind while working here: -Our ultimate goal here is to make ourselves unnecessary. -It is not impossible to get things done; it just might take much much much longer than you would ever expect. The first three weeks of my time in …
above: sculptor Omari and me at the Seaview Sculpture Arts Center Bagamoyo: lay down my heartAside from the eau-de-poo water, Bagamoyo is a pretty darn cool place. It’s a crying shame that I had to work from about 8 am to 8 pm (or sometimes later if folks decided to talk about work over dinner …
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcy82NnjGSo] This is a low-res (point and shoot camera) video i took yesterday night at the Bagamoyo Arts College (Chua Cha Sanaa) weekly performance. There was some really great work by young artists, including the young people in this piece – a group called the Uhuru (freedom) dancers and drummers. Sadly, the sound on …
