My Contribution to World Music

The orphans love music. They love to sing. And they love to hear other people sing. In fact, the price for listening to them sing is a chorus of friendly, smiling faces looking up and saying, "Mr. James, you sing for us in English."

I was not expecting this when I was preparing for my trip, so I found the first request rather disconcerting. It isn't that I am afraid to sing out loud. I no longer have that fear. The problem is that I can't remember the lyrics to any songs. It must be a sign of old age.

The fact of the matter is that while I sing along to the various CDs in my collection, I do so almost unconsciously. In fact, I found myself in the embarrassing position of having to stop several songs prematurely before I actually found one I could sing all the way through.

I have gotten better, in part through forcing my poor brain through a virtual ringer and in part by suffering the painfully slow internet connection to research lyrics, but I now have a song book of about eight songs that I can sing for them. The choice is not exactly top ten material, though, since I don't really listen to that format. Instead, the songs I have sung for them are "Down in the River to Pray", "Greenwood Laddy", "Briget O'Malley" (only two verses), and "Farewell to Nova Scotia".

The girls seem to enjoy my singing, although I think it is more a tribute to my fearless volume rather than any melodious charms, and several want me to teach them the words. Who knows, maybe one day a volunteer from Halifax will be greeted with the haunting words, "The sun was setting in the west, The birds were singing on every tree, All nature seemed inclined for to rest, BUt still there was no rest for me."

The Brighter Side of Power Failures

Cell phones and Internet cafes abound in Tanzania, but so do power outages. Sometimes they last for minutes; other times they extend for hours. A person gets used to eating by candle light.

The bonus of all these power outages, though, is the spectacular night sky. The stars shine with an intensity seldom seen back home in light-polluted Canada. The enormous size of the universe starts to become more apparent. The skies become transformed into a mirror that shows a reflection of God.

We had one power outage on safari as we rested at the hotel at Mto Wa Mbo. My friend Antonio and I spent half an hour looking at the sky. It was disappointing to look at the sky again after the power had been restored. Even in a relatively small town like Mto Wa Mbo, the lights are enough to dampen the beauty of the night sky.

Barabara Ya Arusha (The Road to Arusha)

Last week I went on a three day safari in Tarangire, the Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara. I have much to write about each of these places, but I would rather remember snapshots of the trip from Dar to Arusha, our home base while on safari.

• Riding a bus in Africa is as magical as it appears in movies. (Imagine the bus trip scene in "Last King of Scotland" and you will know what I mean.) This is the way most people travel within the country, so you get a good slice of the local reality.


• The road to Arush is lined with a variety of scenery. It starts with a swath of green: palm trees, banana bushes, and assorted patches of maize amidst the red dirt. It transforms itself into brown grasslands and ranges of low-lying hills and mountains. Tanzanians, it seems, live close to the highway the way Canadians like to hug the US border.


• Bob Marley is still a superstar over here. His face graces t-shirts and buses, and people still listen to his music. I met a man who was actually named "Marley" after the man.


• The bus is swarmed at each stop by men offering goods for sale. They rap on the windows to get your attention and once they have it they make their pitch to get you to buy anything from hard-boiled eggs to Coca Cola and clean water to tampons.


• Paul Simon once sang about lasers in the jungle, and while I have not seen any I have seen satellite dishes on houses in the woods along the highway.


• Even with the windows closed and the air conditioner on, your nostrils are sometimes tickled with the unexpected scents of diesel fumes and woodsmoke.


• There were three young children on the bus who were just learning to speak. They spent over half an hour singing out the word "watoto", the Swahili word for children. One would begin and the others would respond, much like a pack of beagles or the frogs that kept me up the night before. Just when the chorus would die, one of the silent children would begin the chorus again.


• There are animals by the side of the road in numbers you seldom see in Canada: goats and sheep, individual cows and large herds of Maasai cattle, and flocks of assorted fowl including "kuku" (chicken), geese, and turkeys. Surprisingly, there is next to no road kill but I am not sure whether this indicates smarter animals than the ones in Canada or just a wider range of scavengers.


• Women carry incredible loads on their heads. I saw one woman carrying a pickax on her head.


• The relative silence on the bus is constantly broken by the constant ring of cell phones. Everyone seems to have them except for the three children who sing out "watoto" at the tops of their lungs.

The Battle Continues

Well, in the battle between me and Kiswahili, the language is still winning. My pronunciation is okay when I ready things slowly, but I suspect that when I do I sound like a developmentally challenged 3 year old to native Kiswahili speakers. I definitely sound that way when I attempt to speak it. On the other hand, I have been recognizing words and select phrases and I do know how to count and I can say "yes" (ndiyo), "no" (hapana), "I don't understand" (mimi si elewi), and "slowly" (pole pole) as in "say it again slowly, I am a really slow mzungo (white guy)".

I actually got into the city today in an attempt to find a cell phone. At least that battle was successful and I am now wired to the rest of the world. Cell phones are ubiquitous out here and rates are, surprisingly, better than back home, at least for texting.

Tomorrow I am going north to Arusha with some of the other volunteers for a 3 day safari. The ride to the bus leaves at 8:00 AM "English time" as Marley likes to say, which means that we will actually be leaving at 8 o'clock rather than one of the other more creative times.

Report from the Field

Well, I have arrived in Tanzania. I am presently attempting to learn basic Swahili. At the moment, Swahili is winning the battle, but I have two months in which to learn.

Here are my first impressions of Tanzani:

• the people are very friendly;
• the food is very tasty;
• the weather is very hot and humid;
• I could get used to living on East Africa Time;
• Swahili has a logical grammatical structure (if only I could understand what people are saying);
• I should have brought less socks and more towels;
• internet service is very slow;
  
• Coca Cola can be found out here (God bless the USA).
  

I'm Off

Everything is packed, my tickets and other papers are in order, and there is gas in the car. I'm ready to go and just waiting for the clock to come around to departure time. All that is left is the waiting.

The Great Adventure: Episode 12

Today is my last full day in Canada before the journey begins, and it has been filled with running around and talking to people. I am a bit tired, but that is probably the result of not getting to sleep until 4:30 this morning. (Or maybe it is the result of waking up at 10:00 after not having gotten to sleep until 4:30 this morning.)

I am not nervous in the sense that my stomach is churning with butterflies, but I am looking forward to actually getting things started. I can remember wanting to go to Africa since I was a teenager, but my mother told my wife that I wanted to go even as a child. Apparently, I was always fascinated by the missionaries who periodically made the rounds of Lutheran churches telling tales of Africa and New Guinea. Whatever the reason, Africa has called me for decades and I am finally answering the call.

Where in the World Will the Griot Be?

I've been writing a lot about my upcoming trip, but I never really took the time to talk about the country to which I will be traveling.

As this map illustrates, Tanzania is located on the east coast of Africa just below the equator. With a total area of 945,000 square kilometres and a population of 39 million people, Tanzania is roughly comparable to California. (1)

Approximately 43% of the population is less than 15 years of age. The average life expectancy for males at birth is 49.41 years, which puts me frighteningly close to the end of my expected shelf life in Tanzania. In comparison, the average life expectancy for Canadian males is 76.98 years.

HIV/AIDS is a major concern. The rate of infection is a staggering 8.8%, which means that 1.6 million Tanzanians have been infected. Compare this with Canada, whose 56,000 HIV/AIDS cases comprise a mere .3% of the population. A more sobering statistic concerns AIDS-related deaths: where Canada has lost around 1,500 to the disease, Tanzania has suffered an estimated 160,000 deaths due to HIV/AIDS.

The country has eight neighbours: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. There are over 130 tribal and ethnic groups within the country but, unlike many other African nations, most people identify themselves first as Tanzanians. While there are substantial numbers of Christians and Muslims, there is little of the sectarian violence that has affected countries such as Sudan.

I will be staying at an orphanage in the Kinondoni municipality, the northern-most district that makes up Dar Es Salaam. Dar is no longer the administrative capital of Tanzania, but it is still the main commercial centre, thanks in part to one of the world's largest natural harbours. With its population of over 2 million people, is it is also the largest city in the country. Interestingly enough, the area in which I will be staying is far more rural, even though it is only 30 kilometres away from the main urban areas.

(1) Source: CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tz.html)

The Great Adventure: Episode 11

It is getting down to the wire and I am getting a little antsy to get on the plane. There are only two more nights in Canada, but it seems like Saturday is still a year away.

Now that I am down to the wire, I am considering the impact of small things on my day-to-day life. For one thing, I anticipate that I will no longer waste my week nights watching various incarnations of the CSI franchise. Nor, I am certain, will I be spending a lot of time listening to music CDs. I know for a fact that I will not be surfing the Internet or, for that matter, updating this blog, since there is no Internet access at the orphanage. I also anticipate that my on-going struggle against the forces of ice cream will go on the back burner for two months.

The Great Adventure: Episode 10

I have been kept quite busy over the past two days doing last minute shopping and other preparations. My dining room table is no longer available for eating -- it serves as the main supply depot for the "expedition". There are medicines, camera equipment, hats, sunglasses, and other clothing covering the table, and the selected garments are hanging in a row in the closet. I am at the point now where I am checking to see what I can safely leave behind, so that I can travel a little bit lighter.

I have also been in contact with friends and family over the past few days, saying my goodbyes before I leave. Many of them excited for me, and all want to see plenty of photographs, so my work is cut out for me.

As for me, I can't wait for Saturday to come. I am really looking forward to getting on the plane and making my way across three continents and one ocean. I have never been further east than London, England before. Alternatively, I have never been further west than Vancouver Island. Either way, Tanzania is terra incognito for me, and I cannot wait for my first glance of Africa from the airplane window.

The only thing regarding the trip that I am not looking forward to is the fact that I will not be able to add any posts for most, if not all, of my stay in Tanzania. The orphanage at which I will be staying does not have Internet access and I do not know how many times I will be going into Dar, where Internet cafes supposedly abound. I guess I will have to content myself with hand-written journals and, perhaps, a video diary.

A Sure Sign of Summer

Well, folks, summer has officially arrived in Toronto. I'm not talking about the season officially changing. Nor am I talking about the warm temperatures. No, I'm talking about the fact that the city issued the first smog alert of the season. I am not entirely sure if this is a record or not, but it certainly bodes poorly for a healthy summer.

The Carnival is Coming to Town

I was out earlier today doing some last minute errands in preparation for my trip when I noticed that the carnival was setting up in the parking lot at the Upper Canada Mall. While I don't intend to go on any of the rides, I am excited about the photographic possibilities that a carnival at night provides.

The Great Adventure: Episode 9

As I grow older, I become more conscious of how all beings are connected and how difficult it is to maintain those connections. In my particular situation, this difficulty is compounded by personality, distance, and time zones. I cannot (or will not) comment on my personality, but I definitely feel the effects of the "tyranny of distance", as the Australian historian so eloquently put it. And a three hour time difference does not seem like much until you realize that people are trying to balance busy careers and hectic personal lives.

Of course, distance will increase and the variance between time zones will soon grow larger. There is now less than a week until I depart for Tanzania. I spent much of the weekend speaking with family members, since it will be months -- literally -- until I speak with them again. I talked to my mother and father, my sister, and both brothers over the course of the weekend.

For the most part, the telephone calls were nothing out of the ordinary. With one exception, we concentrated on how they were doing, what their kids were up to, and how my preparations were coming along. I heard different versions of the same story a few times, which is to be expected and even a little reassuring. All in all, they were the sort of simple conversations that one has with adult siblings and parents, and I know that even though I will be half a world away, I am still part of a network.

Sleepless in Ontario (The Illustrated Companion)

As a follow up to my last post, I thought I would post a few of the "insomnia" photographs that I referred to.

Sleepless in Ontario

It is nearly 3 AM in Toronto and I cannot sleep. There are reasons for my insomnia, but you don't wish to know them and I don't wish to share them. Let's just say that sleep will not be coming any time soon.

I would go out for a drive were it not for the fact that my wallet and keys are in another room, and I don't wish to wake the person who is sleeping in it. It's not as if driving late at night will make me sleepy, because it won't, but it would provide a welcome sense of calm. There is something peaceful about driving late at night with songs on the stereo. There is something relaxing about only having to share the roads with police cars, taxi cabs, and semi transports.

I like this time of night. Even when I crave sleep as badly as I crave it now, I like this time of night.

I like the emptiness of roads. I like the way streetlights illuminate their surroundings, casting shadows and creating magical versions of everyday surroundings. I like the sense of loose community that one finds in 24 hour grocery stores and gas stations, as if the various people who have ridden various waves to meet at the check out stands are surprised and delighted by the realization that other people are up at such an ungodly hour.

"Ungodly hour" -- that's a strange phrase. What is it about late night hours that people find ungodly? If God exists, regardless of what one means by "God", surely all hours are part of the divine day. I find nothing ungodly about the wee hours of the night. If anything, the serenity of deserted streets and darkened cities provides an environment in which one can commune with the divine without many of the distractions that arise in daylight hours.

But the late night hours can be lonely. 2:30 is too late for me to call friends or family even back in British Columbia -- contacting people is Ontario is certainly out of the question. Even if I could call someone, what would I say? That I cannot sleep? That I am not tired enough to sleep but am too tired to read a book or do a crossword puzzle? That I sometimes feel as if I will never be able to ever sleep again?

I turned to the drug of the nation, but television provides no relief. I don't have cable, which means there is nothing to anesthetize myself with but crappy infomercials, but then again, if I had cable my choices would still be limited to other infomercials or loops of yesterday's broadcasts. There is no Insomnia Network dedicated to providing quality programming for the temporary zombies who inhabit the early hours. Perhaps it's just as well -- we probably lack the concentration to appreciate quality programming anyways.

I have taken advantage of previous bouts of insomnia to take photographs within my apartment but I do not feel like doing so today. Perhaps it is a lack of discipline that prevents me from seeking out potential shots. Perhaps I am just not in the mood to recognize the shots that can only be taken in the dreamworld of sleeplessness. Perhaps I have taken all the late night photographs that can be taken at this point. Who can tell?

And so I sit alone in an unlit room, typing a rambling, slow-paced, stream-of-consciousness commentary about how I cannot sleep. Sleep is no closer now that it had been when I started to write this post 53 minutes ago.

Good Work, Boys

Well, the ride had to end sometime I guess.

That's right, the Raptors are officially out of the playoffs, having lost game six of their series against the New Jersey Nets, which means their playoff run is over. You can't say they didn't make a good effort, though. The lost this game with a final score of 98-97.

I am not going to make excuses and blame the loss on injuries. They played hard but the Nets played better. I am going to say that the Raptors have provided a very entertaining season and they have certainly earned the respect of fans in Toronto.

So good work, Raptors. Enjoy the time off and come back next season to take it all. And congratulations, Coach Mitchell on winning the NBA Coach of the Year title.

The Great Adventure: Episode 8

There is now little more than a week and a day until I flight out from Pearson International, and I have got to start getting my gear together. So far, all I have really accomplished is to get shots and to figure out what camera and video gear I will be taking. This weekend I will be dealing with the truly difficult task of selecting enough clothing to last for two months while still adhering to my obsessive desire to travel light. I will keep you informed as to whether I succeed or not.

Better Late Than Never

Belated congratulations to the Australian team for their recent victory in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. (Yes, I realize that the final game was played last Saturday.) The Australians won by 53 runs by the DL method. Since all I know about cricket is that the players wear white and the games are long, that doesn't really mean much to me.

The final match was against Sri Lanka, which made this the only repeat final pairing in the tournament's history. The Sri Lankans won in 1996, so I guess the next time these two teams meet in the final it will be a definite grudge match. And who knows, maybe Team Canada will score their first win at the next World Cup.

Way to Go, Raptors

Well, it wasn't the prettiest game they've played, but the Raptors did what they had to do and they beat the New Jersey Nets 98-96 this evening. The Nets still lead the series three games to two, but the Raptors have forced a sixth game on Friday.

I know, I know -- statistically the Raptors are unlikely to take the series. But there is truth in that old post-game interview adage that the players have to "play one game at a time". If they win the next game, then they will get a chance to play a seventh game. If they win that game they will have to win four of the next seven games to advance another round.

I've said it before and I'll say it here again -- forget the Leafs. The Raptors have worked hard and provided an entertaining season for Toronto sports fans. If they can survive the next two games, who knows how far they can go?