Long but Interesting Day

Today we had a lesson on illness in Africa. CCS invited a well known and distinguished doctor to have a discussion on Cholera, Malaria, and HIV/AIDS. There were many things I didn’t know about Cholera or Malaria. Malaria is very common here; a lot like the common cold or the flu in the US. It can be a fatal parasite(s) if not treated and can be acquired very easily, even if someone is taking the antibiotics for prevention. What the antibiotics do is prevent someone from getting a high level of it. Many CCS volunteers, past and present, have had it. The worst case was a woman while on safari (trip) to Zanzibar hurled everywhere and had flu-like symptoms. She had level 5, which means 5 parasites. If someone gets 21 or more attention is heightened. In order for Malaria to be fatal, over 100 parasites need to invade the body. Luckily, I haven’t gotten it yet, though it would be a fun story to tell if I did.
Cholera is another illness I had no knowledge of. It is an acute intestinal disease that is characterized by profuse watery stool. Many people get Cholera because of the substandard sanitation facilities that exist in and around communities where food and crops are produced. Symptoms include abdominal cramps and vomiting due to loss of salt and water. Prevention includes improved water supply, improved sanitation facilities, and prophylaxes.
The doctor was unpretentious and very warm and willing to get to know the very large group that was in front of him. He asked, Jina lako nani? (What is your name?) in which we replied with Jina langu…(My name is…). It was wonderful to have this lecture except that I learned after this lecture, that I need to take a half-hour nap before lectures and language classes. I caught myself dozing off during some of them more than a few times. I know, I know… tsk, tsk, tsk!!!
After the lecture, the staff had planned an outing that included both the volunteers and the staff. The optional activity was to go to the Paradise Hotel and Resort not very far from the home-base and go swimming in the pool. Although it sounded like a lot of fun, I decided to meet up with my co-worker Nasa and hang out with him and go to the Bagamoyo Sculpture School that he attended.
Earlier that day I had the privilege of meeting Tausi (Tah-oo-see), Nasa’s girlfriend. She had come from Dar Es Salaam to visit him and does so every Thursday, I learned. Tausi (which means peacock in Swahili) was still hanging around when I came back to pick Nasa up after lunch, so she came along for the walking trip. (BTW, on my walk to pick Nasa up, and on many occasions, I’ve run into herds of cattle, including cows, goats, and sheep being herded through the roads. It is really funny and cute!)

Nasa & Tausi. On the left of them is Nasa's painting of a fisherman on a sailboat casting a net. 

Cows and goats being herded through town.

On our trip to the Bagamoyo Sculpture School Nasa took me to meet many of his artist friends that live very close to the Baobab Studio. This entire neighborhood, from the road I walk every morning, to every corner you can turn from the Baobab Studio, is full of art studios and artists. What’s really wonderful about the community is that they truly support each other in their work. One way in which they do so is by selling each others’ art in the different studios in the neighborhood. What I noticed Nasa doing was that he was showing me around to places that he had his art up for sale. Sea View, Peeley’s, and Ras. T, other than Baobab, were the few that he invited me to see his work.
With my very limited Swahili, that hasn’t progressed much from the greetings stage, I met some of Nasa’s friends and tried to carry a short conversation with them. Luckily, Tausi was with us; she is currently studying English at an institute in Dar Es Salaam. The first place we hit up was very interesting to say the least. We walked into someone’s abode without knocking or asking for permission to enter. The door and doorway was one that is very typical in Zanzibar. The place looked like an abandoned building with an odor to support it. In a darkness that was penetrated only by the sunlight peaking through the closed shutters, we walked up a flight of stairs to come to a landing where 4 men were painting. The room was dreary with light blue walls and very little light piercing through the windows. One of the men was a 17 years old who was working on a Tinga Tinga style piece, a style native to Tanzania. Tinga Tinga style is characterized by broad lines and dots and very cartoon-ish looking animals. They are very colorful and absolutely beautiful. The other three men were working on Zuguno style pieces that were a lot like the Tinga Tinga, except that there weren’t any animals. All plants were depicted in these painting with broad lines and very colorful paint.
As the men worked on the paintings, a woman sat in the corner on the floor nursing her baby boy. Tausi a-lined her way to her and started to chat.
After meeting everyone, Nasa showed me through a doorway, through another room that lead to a balcony. On the balcony older men and women were cooking food and chit-chatting away. One of the women was a French woman who came to Bagamoyo to do volunteer work with another organization. She was hanging out with the locals eating ugali (corn meal) and bull-shitting, as though she were one of them. That’s one of the things that gets me about Tanzanians… they always do try to make you feel like you are apart of them. The balcony also had a magical view of the beach and the Indian Ocean. I asked in my tattered Swahili Naomba kupiga picha? (Could I take some pictures?)
After visiting and meeting Nasa’s artsy friends we headed south down a path for about 15 to 20 minutes to the sculpture school. At this point Tausi and I were pretty tired, so I stopped and bought us bottles of water. Nasa didn’t want one. Along the way I learned that Nasa and Tausi have been dating for 6 years. I poked fun at them by asking when they were going to get married. Tausi answered, when she was finished with school and when they were both stable enough to do so.
We finally made it to a road in which statues and sculptures were lining the edge. Some were Nasa’s pieces. We walked a little further to arrive at a giant hut covering a bunch of statues and sculptures. This was the sculpture school. It was pretty much aisles among aisles of statues and sculptures. Outside on the “lawn” in front of the hut were some very political pieces. One main and one of the larger pieces were of an old-time Arab beating a hunched over slave with what looked like a leather strap. It was a very intense piece. Amazing piece, under the hut, was a huge drum that was about 4 or 5 feet in diameter, that had been carved by Nasa and some of his classmates.
After the sculpture school visit, Tausi was rushing us because she needed to get home. It was getting close to dark (about 6pm) and she had to catch a dala dala (bus) and take it about 2 hours back to Dar Es Salaam. She was already running late, but here in Tanzania there’s a saying: TFT (Tanzania Flexible Time). No one is very on-time to anything. Funny, I think Tanzanians are speaking my language.