Diary - Thursday, December 18, 2008

First and foremost, the entire HABS team here in Jambiani would like to take this opportunity once again to wish you all a very Merry Holiday season and we hope the coming New Year brings only good and positive events your way.

In many ways we are so fortunate to live the lives that we do and I know personally, I find myself feeling total gratitude each day for being in this life and experiencing all that I do. Life can be hard for many and without wanting to bring the spirit of this update down, I include a bit of writing from Barry, our resident Ernest Hemmingway. He says things in, shall we say, a different manner, and this story tells it like it sometimes is here in our little town of Jambiani.

This morning as I sat aloof, unpresent in the vacuum of cyber space, (African beach bound Canadian boy in full November internet vigilance to my hockey pool statistics, ego immersed in the on-going and vain attempt to recover a long lost status as poolie guru in a season otherwise displaced by continental drift,) a drama unfolded on the tide flat at the front door of the HABS residence and school.

Called as I am most mornings to run along this beautiful sea shore in pursuit of the fleet of foot residue of my youth, fast fading beyond my grasp at a pace measured by calendar not stop watch and a race inevitably lost before started, I closed my laptop and went to the beach to begin that rigorous warm-up which minimizes the muscle popping and bone gnashing well known to joggers of my demographic. I immediately noticed a press of people unusual to our serene stretch of waterfront, our waterfront for stretching. I called to Alastair who was working behind me, preoccupied as he was in a moment of wide brush, alabaster green artistry on the walls of the soon to be opened Alibi's Well teaching restaurant, in request of some local tour guide explanation for the gathering throng.

Alzie's first premise, formulated on a rather cursory observation made without missing a brush stroke, was that the extreme low tide afforded an opportunity for a larger than usual harvest of the seaweed cultivated by women and children as their contribution to the local subsistence economy. My prior observation of, and experience with this vocation, quickly brought to question Alzie's summary conclusion of a bull moment in the local seaweed market. (I have been conducting a purposeful assessment of my accumulated, if latent, personal abilities and the alternate career paths leading out of Africa they might create, but had quickly dismissed a future in the seaweed industry as a viable option when the volunteered packing on my noggin of a single bundle of soggy sponge which the ladies so effortlessly and dexterously pack upon their heads sent the muscles of my lower back into violent spasm, initiating a spontaneous mime of pain on my part worthy of Red Skelton, to the great amusement of all present) A quickly rising sense of urgency could be discerned, and far too many men and boys were present, for this gathering crowd to be attributed to a mundane burst of communal aquaculture.

Within moments of my first notice, people began appearing in even greater numbers, soon into the hundreds, from both up and down the beach, moving with intense focus towards the water's low tide edge more than a half kilometre off shore. A great sea beast subdued? A moment of plenty at hand, a piece of the action to be had?

In a moment, from within this crowd the wrenching wail of an elderly woman could be heard. Alastair, resigned now from his creative pursuit, attentive to her pain, turned his eye to the mass, postulating a severe injury not uncommon to workers vulnerable to a hundred risks knee deep in water for hours each day. "There she is!" Separated from the crowd, limping, lamenting, languishing in pain, attended to by sisters and neighbours, she seemed no longer part of the business of this gathering, nor the focus of its attention.

Then....... realization.

A man could be seen lifting a bundle tightly wrapped in a woman's kanga, very still. He began moving towards the shore, south towards the village, now leading a procession that trailed behind him with singular purpose, collective grief now one voice speaking for a young boy and a life lost to the sea. Alibaba now running along the sand, confirming that Fate had once again prevailed as it must.

The beach cleared as quickly as it had just filled, returned to the birds and crabs and waves, yet eerily silent. Three old women straggling behind passed where I stood at the gate. With harsh expression, they spoke sharply in their tongue directly to me, words of admonition I knew to be a statement of "What do you think you're looking at, buddy?" The multitude had moved on to the village to do what custom and tradition and religion told them to do, seeking comfort and meaning as each of us would.

And I turned in the opposite direction, and ran up the beach for MY life, alone except for these thoughts and the need to share them with you, not included, not belonging, not without reason to feel raw, bare, laid open once again by Africa, yet knowing also that it is not Africa which evokes this thing from within, but our being present, attending to life, witnessing universality in all conditions. And taking a deep breath, while its there.

That is a pretty hard prosaic act to follow Mr. B but follow we must. Thank you so much for such an honest and very 'real' description of the events of that day not so long ago.

Well, certainly the biggest news from us is that we have officially opened Alibi's Well. You may recall we were going to call the front end training restaurant The Baraza, however we have since discovered that another establishment on the Island had already taken the name. In a funny sort of way, we are not too surprised as Pat and I had discussed using the name Alibi's Well several years ago. Partly the name is historical in that a family that had lived here many years ago were the Alibi's and the sweet water well beside us has always been called Alibi's well. This seems to fit with the Wellness Centre and of course our signature cocktail is called an Alibaba's Alibi. So now on Zanzibar, you can go to Alibi's for an Alibi. : The official opening date was on Monday, 15th and as I write this I can hear the hum of activity as we slowly start to attract the tourists who are starting to arrive for Christmas. This is a huge milestone for all of us and a big leap for the Jambiani Tourism Training Institute as the practical side of our student's education has now become a working reality. Congratulations everyone!!!!! It is of course the very early days and everyone is excited and are working hard to make this a big success.

On the clinic side, we have been keeping as busy as ever. We just recently said farewell (again!!!) to Yvonne Poulin who plied her formidable skills not only practically with patients but also on the educational front with a number of local trainees. Here are a few words from Yvonne:

Jambiani Training 2008

My volunteer stint with the Hands Across Borders Society this November has been incredibly rewarding. Not only am I returning to my favourite paradise by the sea, this is where I had my original epiphany in 2003 of Therapeutic Massage Training as a viable humanitarian project.

During this past month I have done work shifts in the Jambiani Wellness Center as well as utilized the center to teach massage therapy in the evenings. I am most grateful to Alastair and Pat for accommodating me and my training agenda.

Last week, 8 students graduated from their 2-week introductory course. We had a nice balance of people who had done massage before, and those completely new to the subject. Some of them barely spoke English, so the others assisted in translation where my Swahili notes did not cover. I am SO proud of them all. The best part is seeing the improvement and increase in self-confidence; especially in the non-English speaking students. The hardest part is saying kwaheri. (Goodbye).

You can find these wonderful therapists employed in the following locations in Zanzibar:
The Serena hotel, Blue Oyster hotel, Cristal Resort,
Matemwe Beach Resort, Mtoni Marine Hotel, and Mrembo Spa.

I've been blessed to experience the wonders and chaos of Eastern Africa after spending almost half of my time here in the past 5 years. Like most volunteers who pass thru the doors and shores of HABS, I feel a bittersweet melancholy when it's time to return home to the Òreal worldÓ. This time I will leave behind a small body of work: several massage therapy graduates, and a training manual for visiting RMTs to refer to when they volunteer with HABS. I encourage any RMTs who wish to give up-grading courses to these graduates or even do their own courses while here to contact me or Pat for support or direction.

Namaste.

Yvonne B. Poulin, R.M.T.
Founding Director,
The African Touch
www.africantouch.org

Thanks again Yvonne for your enthusiasm, tenacity and over all joie de vivre, we have been truly blessed with your comings and goings over the last 5 years and we hope there are more to come in the future.

Our next two volunteers both come to us from Canada. Dr Ingrid Neufeld is a Chiropractor who has practised in Canada and Holland and Elke Rosendahl is a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine making her home on Hornby Island in the Gulf Islands off the south coast of British Columbia. As usual we always look forward to meeting the new members of our team and we are sure they will have a great time here in the ÒJamÓ. We expect them to be with us for over two months so I'm hoping we'll be able to convince them to add their own impressions to our next update.

The Centre will close for 11 days over the holiday period giving me an opportunity to take care of some long due maintenance jobs and to generally help out at Alibi's or wherever I may be needed.

I have to say, that these last three months or so have been very intense as we prepared to open the restaurant. Pat along with Barry, Claire, Sebastian and several other volunteer teachers have been giving it ÒallÓ to ensure that the students were as prepared as possible to take on such a big responsibility. As an observer, the time spent seems to have paid off as all of the students seem poised and comfortable in their relatively new positions. We have almost finished our first week being open and although it hasn't been too busy yet it has been promising and in a way, it is probably a good thing that we are starting off slowly so that everyone can get their bearings in a controlled fashion. We will keep you posted.

I'm including some pictures below of the restaurant in the days just before we opened. There are still touch ups to do and decorating to be done but we do have music and good vibes in place.

Anyhow, I think that's about it for this year. It has been quite a year and although we have gone through some pretty big challenges we are still keeping on top of it all and our focus and intent remains solid as we head into 2009, over 11 years after our first arrival on the sunny shores of Zanzibar.

Take good care everyone and we'll be back with another update sometime in January.

Alastair and Pat and the HABS team in Jambiani