Diary - Thursday, February 10, 2005 

Jambo everyone and welcome once again to the new and improved (I hope) update from the Jambiani Wellness Center. We have been having a few technical problems uploading documents and pictures but after a couple of trial runs with friends and family and some support from the company who has provided us with this wireless system, I think we have most of the glitches ironed out. What I thought I would do in this update is introduce you to the staff we have working with us here, but before I do that, I'm going to let Kathleen, our latest volunteer from Vancouver give you a bit of an insight into her impressions so far. She has finished her first week with us up at the clinic.

"I arrived in Jambiani last week to find I had been renamed Hadija, the first wife of the prophet Mohammed. A lot of the patients that I've seen find this very humorous but they go along with it after they ask who my father is.

The work is very rewarding here as the people are in such need of basic health care and anything that we can give is appreciated. Alastair and Pat have set up the work schedule so that there is lot's of time for chilling, reading, beach walking and swimming. I managed to rent an old mountain bike so with my wobbly wheels, I'm able to explore further up the beach. We eat delicious fruit right off the trees and each night fall asleep with the waves and the breeze wafting over our dreams.

Nashukuru, I'm blessed."
Kathleen

Now here is the staff from the Jambiani Wellness Center:

Mrisho Haji is the chairman of our local HABS board of directors. Of course we have known Mrisho for several years now and he is an invaluable addition to our team here. Mrisho is also the manager of the Visitors Inn Hotel in Jambiani, so he is understandably, a very busy man. You could say that Mrisho is our events coordinator. He is responsible for arranging any meetings that we might have with Government Departments and Officials, he takes care of business when we are not here and is just an all round good guy, troubleshooter and problem solver. Mrisho is 31 years old and he is married to Amina.
Afua Abdalla is one of our house keepers. We have a very special relationship with Afua in that she was married to Mustafa our dear friend who passed away recently. Afua is a delight to know and she generally brings a very positive tone to the house when she shows up in the morning with her old familiar, "Hodi" "Hodi". Afua is 23 years old and has two children.
Bi Wahida is about 42 years old. I say about because many people here do not know their age and in fact they don't really seem to care. Perhaps that is a good thing. Bi is also one of our housekeepers. You could say that Bi is a very lucky person because when she was about 8 years old, she and her family were camping out on their shamba (farm) and Bi was dragged away and mauled by a leopard. Fortunately her family was able to frighten off the beast but not before it did considerable damage to her leg which is now permanently disfigured. She still maintains a great sense of humour and is always up for a joke or two.
Pandu Chinja was our previous interpreter. Pandu is now doing other types of work, however he still comes into the Centre on occasion to volunteer his time. Pandu is extremely intelligent and is a teacher of the Koran both to adults and children here in Jambiani. Pandu is 41 years old, he has two wives and 11 children. Whew, I'm worn out already just thinking about that!!
Maulidi Mwita is one of the most agile beings I have ever met. He has strength to size ratio that just has to be seen to be believed. Maulidi is one of our multi purpose employees. He does a variety of jobs around the place from night watchman to climbing coconut trees to taking care of the gardens. At 35, "Gube" as we usually call him is an invaluable asset to the team here.
Simai Cassim works hand in hand with Maulidi. They are a genuine team and impressed us from the very first time we saw them working together when we started to build the accommodation and clinic. Simai is about the same age as Maulidi. He is a great friend and one of the most genuine human beings I have ever met.
Hassan (Chai) Haji has been a friend of ours for many years now but it has only been recently that he has started to work with us in the clinic as an interpreter. He got his nickname because as a child he used to consume copious quantities of "chai" or tea. Chai is very pleasant to work with and he is extremely keen to learn as much as he can about health and wellness. Chai is in his 20's and spends his time out of the clinic doing small building jobs and manufacturing his own roofing tiles.

So that's the team at the moment. We are very proud of them all and we are fortunate indeed to have such a solid bunch of people to help us out here.

The latest news is that our container has finally arrived!!!! We just heard word today so we expect it to be cleared through the port early next week and with any luck we will be starting the distribution process by the end of next week. This is too exciting and we along with all the people of Jambiani are really looking forward to this "event". We will take lots of pictures for certain and post some of the better ones.

As well, we are now taking bookings for 2007!! Yes, you have that correct. 2005 and 2006 are now completely full with volunteers. For Pat and I, this is almost overwhelming to have such an amazing response to the project. We are so grateful for this and of course the consequences are going to mean that more and more people will continue to receive help. We also just heard from Dr Pat Preece and his wife Janie in the UK. They have just completed all of the formalities to have their new charity, the Zanzibar Aid Project or ZAP for short registered so we are that much closer to getting medical facilities set up at the centre as well. So we continue to power along but not without support from all of you and others who somehow seem to be coming into our lives on an almost daily basis now. We continue to completely trust this process, knowing that there is profound intelligence underpinning all that is evolving here.

We hope you are all well wherever you are and we look forward to touching base again soon.

Much love,
Alastair and Pat