home sweet home

location: 36 masson court, london, Ontario canada
environment: pleasantly plump after eating a happy meal, dad and brother talking hockey between the commercials
I went to the western fair, swirling in the haze of rollarcoster and cotton candy.
today i have been informed of a robbery at knife point at the convenience store near my house, the 7-11 is now borded up, newsprint plastered to the windows. I walked into the westiminister wood... rotary relief. big plans ahead...contentment whispers thru the maple leaves.

my eminant departure- arrival

location: talentus cyber cafe & tm meditation centre
environment: last days hitting the keys in arica.....countdown... 26 hours until my grand departure, the return journey begins... i am off to the "winning side of capitalism"

today..... is the greatest....fruit salad breakfast follwed by white tea..... i used a bolex camera, made in switzerlanmd in the 70, shipped via ebay from durban, with the double perf film an angel sent me from ottawa. i loaded the first of 5 rolls in a supermarket, they had a changing bag yet the end got jammed so i gave a demonstration about archaic technology at the nakumatt. after that i just tried to load it in my own shadow. i had a camera assiant named daniel who is 13. he told me which f-stop to set the lens to. he lead me around his school, this is the river, look at those kids. they were all shy, and curous about this old technology, why did it make so much noise? what kind of machine is this? My sound girl naomi, interviewedher friends with my video camera. the time seemed long, but the minutes passed slowly. I documented a play i ordered the children's garden students to perform, it was disappoining visually, i am reminded to work on their blocking for next time. when exactically is unknown, yet certain. I visited the new house of the headmaster moses and the extended family that lives in the rescue centre. they were watching a film made in nigeria...dramtica beyond my perspective. then some nuns came to chat and i hit the road, jumped on a matatu via naivasha road and headed for adams, where i ordered a wrap party mocha.

things i will miss about east africa
1. leisurly pace= polepole " there is now hurry in arfica "
2. black faces and features, big lips with warm smiles.
3. negotiating the price for anything sold by the side of the road.
4. drives thru expansive wilderness savanah, acacia and neem trees
5. floating on the ocean when ever i please, simply to cool the hottest part of the day
6. bongo flavor, kenyan club music and any other shake your bootie sounds
7. matatus, dala dala's minibuss public transportation with conductors that leave when they are filled
8. seeing women walking with fallen trees on there heads or large buckets of miscelaneous substances
9. women with babies strapped to their backs with khangas10. glansing out the window while washing a plate to see monkeys, with blue balls, bouncing on the trees,
food & drinks= sun riped papaya's, magoes and pinapple dripping with flavour, ugali na sukumawiki, maize from the roadside, madafu, chipsi mayai, fish, chapati's, soda pop in glass bottles, especially stoney tangawezi, fanta passion and picana, avacados the size of infants,

what is intend to do when i arrive home to canada
(scheduled to arrive in termainal 4 toronto at 5:50pm friday, september 15
- hug my family and friends
- visit people in parks and make house calls
- take a bubble bath
- eat olives and feta cheese and fast food
- re-arrange my room at my parents house, in london
- do laundry with a machine...ohhhhh ahhhhhh
- paint, edit, art work, facepaint outside the gates of the western fair
- fundraise door to door to send some books to some kids in Nairobi

sarah by the sea

location: indian ocean, mombasa, nyali
environment: cleaning in salt water, discovering new strange sting-ing acatic animals on my last trip across the creek, planning to spit of the bridge but then changing my mind, opting instead for neem powder from heino and marsala chips at books first.

this photo was taken at kipepeo in dar es salaam, the day my new khanga dyed my wet body blue. my pal mat sent it to me, i just finished reading a book that was written by a mzungu girl who toured west africa but is originally from lawerence, kansas just like matty.

in my last days by the sea side i was stagnant. i made little movement, from bed to the couch, to the forest, and back again. i visited my family in mtwapa, the twins being home from boarding school in kilifi, and uncles with kids visiting. they had a new house helper, christine and karen making the total female count 8, in my bed was njoki and caro. they conditioned each others hair, cooked ugali and sukumawiki and watched the horrible westlife DVD on repeat. while i was there i became an invalid. my hands became infected to the point where i could not even unbutton my pants to got to the toilet. what had been diagnosed in nairobi as a fungus on my right foot, spread to my hands, itchy, swollen water blisters. uggggg! so i shelled out more shillings to see a doctor, who sent me to a dermetologist, where i was told, that it wasn't a fungus but instead, a sever case of acute hand and foot vesicular eczema. he asked questions like "any foods i eat with two hands?". after wrting me a persription for steroids and iodine solution & antibotics & giving me a needle to pop the blisters with he charged me a 2000ksh consulation fee. ($40, BEFORE ANY MEDICINE) so after spending all the money i had intended to tour the coast with, i paid doctors and pharmcists instead. on my last swim, sitting in the creek withn my clothes on, pants filling with sand, squeeking the pus from my infected hands a young masai came to me and told me abotu the medicine they used for this type of illness. small seeds to crush up then boil like dark tea, and use to wash hands. that remedy cost about 10$ and althouggh i don't know which solution actually reduced the pain and swelling i know i am on my way back to health mobility and the land of somewhat universal health care...I love my country, Canada... 5 days and counting.