Diary - Friday, April 16, 2004 

Well, good afternoon from a very wet and blustery Jambiani. We are well and truly now in the middle of the Masika season with alternating days of wind and rain then brilliant sunshine. Great for the farmers and their gardens, not so great for the fishermen and for those folks who have less than adequate roof structures on their homes. It seems it's almost impossible to please all of the people all of the time. A bit like politics it seems.
I thought I would break away from the standard update this time, as there really isn't much new news to relay to you since we last were in touch. I'm still not able to "spill the beans" on our little secret that I mentioned in the last correspondence, as we are still waiting to have a meeting with the appropriate authorities here before all can be finalized. So when that happens, I'll be the first to let you know. As they say here ever so often, "Inshallah" or "God willing".

As a matter of fact, one of the foremost tenets of Muslim belief is that ultimately God or Mungu is responsible for how everything turns out in life. I don't believe for a minute that this in any way negates the fact that we have freedom of choice but I think the insinuation is that once choices have been made, there is a natural and highly intelligent sequence of events that follow. Actually, I'm a real fan of the philosophy that intelligence permeates every level of existence including our day to day lives. It may be this fundamental concept that got me interested in Chiropractic in the first place. The founder of Chiropractic, D.D. Palmer used the expression "Universal Intelligence" and referred to its action in the human body as "Innate Intelligence". He had tremendous respect for the body's inborn ability to heal itself and he firmly believed that by removing sources of interference to the function of this intelligence that an individual would be much healthier and much more capable of recovering from illness or what he termed dis-ease and if we use organization as the only criteria for the presence of intelligence, than we are surely marinating in it.

The reason I'm bringing this up, is because I was sitting on our porch yesterday morning, reflecting on the fact that is now seven years since Pat and I first came to Jambiani. Before long, we'll have a decade under our belt along with many thousands of patients treated. When I look back at how this all started for us I can see that the entire journey has been constantly underpinned by synchronicities and, at times, some rather profound evidence of those unseen forces of intelligence at work. What is now becoming very interesting is the participation of others, like ourselves, who for one reason or another feel compelled to come to Jambiani to lend a helping hand. To date, we have welcomed nine volunteers to the center since we opened last year in January. We have another fourteen confirmed for the next several months. It's very evident, that this is indeed one of those meant to be phenomenon. I have to say that if you are a practitioner and you are thinking about coming down here but haven't made up your mind yet, please don't hesitate for too long as we now only have three openings in 2005 and we are starting to book 2006. It comes as no surprise to me, that every volunteer whom we have hosted, has been outstanding. These folks have all been extremely talented, energized and caring examples of humanity who have given up a lot to make the journey here. Our hats go off to them and their respective families for making such a wonderful choice in their lives.

When I think about all the other things that we could be doing in our lives now, I feel deeply that this is by far one of the best choices I could have ever made.

This is getting off the topic a bit but somehow I feel compelled to discuss this. I don't know about you, but the present situation on mother earth has me a bit concerned. (Read that - a lot concerned!!!) I just finished reading a book called "Stupid White Men" published in 2001 by Michael Moore. (Thank you Martin and Avril!!) Michael recently produced a film called "Bowling for Columbine", a stark look at the gun laws in the USA and how lives are being affected by them. Although Stupid White Men is a very funny read and is certainly much less controversial than David Icke's material, it still contains some startling information about the lead up to the election of George Bush and even more disturbing questions are raised about the truth behind 9-11. If you haven't read this book, I would highly recommend it. I think our western culture has a tendency to keep most of us engaged with the rigors of the 9 to 5 as we strive to survive and prepare for our golden years and we therefore spend very little time giving much attention to what is really happening on the planet today. The information contained in Michael's book reinforces that perennial conspiracy theory that we are being manipulated by a very small minority of very wealthy individuals. They are the ones that decide what news we hear or read and what programs are available on television for us to view if in fact you have one. The book alludes to the fact that 9-11, the war in Afghanistan and the recent attacks on Iraq, to name a few, have all been choreographed and that the Bush administration has been intimately involved from the very beginning. The evidence is compelling. Although most of this information was not new to me, it has certainly rekindled my realization that it is critical for us at some point in our lives to step out of the system we have been enculturated in so that we might experience our journey from an entirely different perspective. If it is true that this "system" is purposely generating an atmosphere of fear to keep us all in check and that they are manipulating the global economic environment so that even though we work hard we somehow never quite seem to get ahead, then it is critical that we somehow disengage from the deception and start to live authentically with power and authority. From this position, your friends, family and fellow human beings become your most important assets. You develop broad-spectrum awareness, awareness that allows you to sense the much larger picture that exists beyond the local and mundane. You speak heart to heart and you do mind melds with your friends each month on the day of the full moon. You experience the universe as your home instead of your hometown and you bring this realization into your everyday experience thereby putting an entirely different perspective on, for instance, being "stuck in traffic". It is truly unnerving to think that we are all being duped to believe that the US foreign policy is merely a reaction to contain terrorism when in fact its real agenda is the acquisition of oil and increasing global power. Keep your heads up folks!

I know many of you out there who are reading this are already embracing life from a more holistic perspective and for those of you that Pat and I know personally, we value and respect our friendships immensely. Thank you for all your love and support.

I hope this little ramble doesn't offend anyone. Of course that would be up to the individual or individuals anyway, but I would hate to be the stimulus for someone else's misery. :)

Pat and I continue to be motivated and completely positive about the work that is going on here and we are 100% committed to being here and ensuring that this project continues to evolve and grow over the next several years... Inshallah!!!!

Grant and Barbara have finalized their travel arrangements now and they will be arriving here on the 16th and 27th of May respectively. We are really looking forward to their arrival and as they will be on Zanzibar for over two months, they are in for quite a treat as are the people who will benefit from their expertise.

As all-ways, Pat and I hope that you are all well and enjoying life. Take care of each other and until the next time, much love to you all.

Ali Baba and Patima