Diary - Sunday November 24, 2002

Greetings once again from your fans here on Zanzibar. It's Sunday afternoon and time to take a few minutes to relay some thoughts to you.

Life continues here in a somewhat predictable manner. We walk down to the Blue Oyster for breakfast at around 7:00 am and then return to continue with our significant list of "things to do". To day we spent some time with Simai and Maulidi, discussing how best to proceed with some of the work. We were also going to meet with the Jambiani Community Development Committee, however that has been put off for a few days in the fine local tradition I refer to as "keshoitis". Kesho in Kiswahili means tomorrow. :-)

Pat did some laundry and after treating a few patients I waxed some of the woodwork here in the bungalow and cleaned some of the screens. Maintenance is a constant necessity here being so close to the ocean and now being in our house we are seeing that need much more clearly. Mother nature has a tendency to eat everything manmade here if it is not properly cared for. We have no trouble.  :-)

Of course, the children are our constant companions, sometimes testing our patience, as they do tend to "borrow" things on occasion. In fact a young deaf girl just walked into our kitchen here and is staring at me as I type this. I may have to ask her to go as we think she is one of the "borrowers". Nothing major, but definitely they are probing our boundaries. Good lessons here!

Later today I will take Maulidi and Simai out on our inflatable kayak. They are very keen to experience the Mazungu's boti. I think they can both swim, hopefully, as we will be in quite deep water.  :-)

We had an excellent meeting with the new Principle Secretary of Health a couple of days ago. He is a Pediatrician and is also the head of the Red Cross here on Zanzibar. He is not only very excited about what we are doing, but has suggested that we come into the local hospital in Stone Town to see patients. We still don't have hospital rights in Canada and here they are, on first meeting, inviting us to help. How enlightened!! We will most definitely pursue that opportunity. He also suggested that they might be able to provide a vehicle as well for transport. I won't hold my breath waiting for that but this is very encouraging for us. Later news to come on this.

Looks like tomorrow will see the start of the landscaping and the continuation of the tiling work. We will put one more coat of paint inside the house once the tiling is finished. The clinic work is almost finished although many of the light fixtures etc are still to come from Dubai. Once that material arrives we should be ready for the special opening.

Anyhow, all continues to unfold here in fine form. We are grateful and continue to feel very excited and optimistic about the potential opportunities evolving here.

As usual, we miss you and hope you are all well and happy. We'll be back.  :-)

November 28, 2002

Well, It's Friday morning now and I'm sitting outside on our porch, the gentle sound of waves in the background mixed with a combination of roosters, fishermen and crows all up and ready to start another day. Not too much new to relate at this time. Finishing work continues, gardens being laid out, tiling almost done and we will start our painting later today. This morning I had to ask Pat what day it was. For me this is the first symptom of terminal relaxation, an affliction we have learned to cope with. :-) This is certainly one aspect of life here that I appreciate so much. Moving out of structure and into freeform. Time seems to take on an entirely different quality as timelines and schedules become less imperative. This has to be very beneficial for our general well being. One definitely gets a different perspective on our fast paced existence in the 'West' and you realize that our daily routines require a huge amount of energy and are quite imbalanced as we get lost in our need to perform just so we can live. I guess finding 'the balance' is most important.

Enough philosophy for now. We continue to send our love and hope that you are all well and looking forward to a relaxing holiday period.

Ali Baba and Mama Pat