I was in a train cabin with 6 other friends watching the lands of Tanzania fly by. Scraggly, thorn covered, abstract, skeleton tree tentacles tore into the air amidst space that seemed to be endlessly flat and was decorated in scattered puffs of green. My hangover faded into a comfortable haze brought on by a … Continue reading »
A special person recently shared an excellent poem with me. It found it so relatable and inspiring that I wrote my own version of it, altering each line to fit my current existence in Tanzania. So here it is… After “What the Living Do” by Marle Howe Dada, there’s a cockroach that roams my room … Continue reading »
Something I’ve noticed about life throughout my experience, is that good luck and bad luck often come hand in hand, all bundled up together, in the same convenient package. That was especially true of my most recent adventure in Bongo-land; so I’ll break it down for you, my recent ups and downs… Last weekend I … Continue reading »
Somewhere it’s always dawn, a spiraling miasma of color promising chance again reinvented to reach into the world’s treasure trove mystery grab bag and feast upon its beautiful people Someone’s fire is always burning, boiling away a small part of the sky under two rainbows that circumnavigate the … Continue reading »
Over Easter break I went on safari to see the wildlife of the East African plains. A note on linguistics: safari is Swahili for trip, voyage, journey etc. coming from the verb safiri meaning travel. When you tell a Swahili speaker you went on safari they will ask where, because you could have been on … Continue reading »
Be life like the butterfly Bobbing flutters in the wind Not so much flying from her to there as bouncing around back and fourth, letting the wind steer you, and keep you in place, artfully chosen, amongst the mix of things Kiswahili Translation: Kuwa Maisha Kama Kipepeo Kupapatika katika upepo Sio sana kuruka kutoka hapa … Continue reading »
What a thrill it is to see, laying shirtless on one’s back in prickly grasses, the magnitude of these entities. They are separate, though composed of the same fluffy cumulous magic. Of complex, wind-tuft shape pushed together, interlocking over-lapping, kama abstract mapenzi shielding the sun overhead. “You’ve been given … Continue reading »
It’s been one month since I embarked on this venture; and in so much time it seems everything about my life has changed. Everything from the language I hear, to the food I eat, to the amount of water I use, to the way that I smell is altered here. With that in mind, I … Continue reading »
This last weekend I set out on a trip to Mafia Island. It’s a small island where the people still live a very simply village lifestyle. I was told that “Mafia” means together in Swahili, although I can’t seem to find the term in my Kiswahili-English dictionary. I think perhaps the island was so-named because … Continue reading »
Under the Kudwa tree surrounded by sisimizi wanasema, “Chakula iko wapi? Chakula iko wapi!?” Where the blue sky mingles with smoke, cloud, and sun. The voice of an angle guides sparkles shinning to the ground with the ants below. Giant Azam bread on a truck, and mAfrika people wait to board a dalabus. A woman … Continue reading »
