I noticed on the second morning of my night-time solace, that the Sunrise Kwa-iddi Chorale sounded a more robust ensemble of voices than I had noticed after my first night’s slumber. Although I might have assumed that the whole of the neighborhood consisted of quiet and meditative Christians, the loudspeaker sing-song chant of one or more Muslim prayer makers characterized the chorale as truly an integration of multiple species, religions, and chicken-dinner ingredient-harvesting fugitives. The simple woof woof of the altos and baritones turned out to amplify a few verses with howls of praise and new-day adoration. Any Christian would certainly receive spiritual inspiration from not only another interesting chorale of note-mixers, but one that included a Howl-allulia chorus. One would certainly surmise a new Easter morning celebration each day. Indeed, it certainly seems appropriate. Someone mentioned that those howlers might also moonlight as night club barkers. Haven’t bothered to find out. Anyway, each new day (so far) has promised new discoveries of artistic talent and inspired musicians.
Over vacation, my son-in-law began promoting the mood-lifting exercise of showering in cold water. I’ve always relished the hot water style. So, I pretty much rewarded his unsought consultancy with patient silence. Now, I must say that my mood upon finishing a cold-water wash cloth bath sourcing from a very timid and cold-hearted water faucet has affected my perspective. My joy upon finishing couldn’t get much higher. I’m also rather proud of my heroic attempts at scraping stubble from my face with only the dampening effects of cold, moistened soap and a reluctant razor blade-clearing of whisker brush.
The night-time must have evaporated all the drips left in the cistern-like water source elevated slightly above the compound. This morning, Lota needed to bring in both a bowl of warm water to relieve yesterday’s timid water faucet moisture holder and a bucket of rain drops to replace the failed flush of a drained toilet tank and gasket-less water valve.
In addition to the admirable discipline (in in at least one person’s eyes) of cold-water awakening, Nehemiah disclosed to me that his Mondays represent designated days of prayer and fasting. For me, I think sugar fasting might represent a political compromise in lieu of all-out fasting for now.
As a sugar addict, I’ve only begun acclimating to a dietary regimen that my personal diet consultant (if I had one) would applaud. Instead of orange juice in the morning, Tanzanian black tea has taken its place. Up to now, sugar has pretty much stayed home in its bowl, although its cane-like crystals no doubt suppress stifled grins of mocking, cynical admiration. But the natural sweetness of oranges, bananas, cucumbers and watermelon have allowed the sugar bowl to quietly hide its sideways grin.
Lota taught me how to peal a hard-boiled egg with only a teaspoon, making the broken-shell finger picking exercise a lost art. Another reason to be proud!
I suppose that it’s a really good thing that mosquitoes have largely remained in their dark and forested homes. The first malaria pill that I ingested the day before my continent-skipping journey left a nasty rash all over my chest and abdomen. Lota and Nehemiah kept asking why my skin scratchers repeatedly sought various landing runways over that area. Since I really felt badly about having to pay an un-saintly like price of about $400 for those pills, my subsequent malaria pill fasting has left the cheap side of my frugalness with mixed emotions. I almost want to break that fast, simply to justify the sunk cost of a bad investment. But, my remaining battalion of mosquito-fighting defenses seem adequately strong to guard against the occasionally lost flea-flicker imposter.
Snow plows would break their blades if they had to clear the side streets. Rocks that protrude the hardened dust-pack alleys that circulate the suburbs offer challenging targets for such show scrapers. But snow does not whiten the world in these parts, and snow plow fix-it men have all been put out of business, that is if they ever foolishly got into it in the first place.
The Ilboru Lutheran Church where Pastor Abel presides hosted our worship on Sunday. Although we arrived a bit late, Pastor Abel warmly and openly welcomed our attendance with a recounting of his and the church’s experiences over many years. Rockland stood in high esteem in the context of his enthusiasm and unmitigated endorsement of the Crazy Idea that accompanied my arrival. John Kavishe, the Lutheran Church’s district head, continued the warm greeting after the service, serving us Tanzanian tea (with fresh cow’s milk), and a couple Tanzanian pastries, of sort. He asked and found answers to what this crazy guy from Colorado intended to do over the next 7 or 8 weeks. He embraced our ideas and speculated that moving the type of Christian mission that we proposed out of the realm of church politics represented a refreshing approach to a camel-like decision making system that certainly seems broken.
On Monday afternoon, I presented a three hour overview of the Crazy Idea Entrepreneurial Partnership Forum, receiving enthusiastic support and encouragement from the 8 or 10 people who showed up. We intend to begin an 8 day focus on finishing up and polishing the Christian Enablers International business plan, before launching into a similarly concentrated focus on Tanzanian individually initiated entrepreneurial dream planning encore. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will try to put the finishing touches on a curriculum focused on the Christian Enablers International business plan. This will form the foundation and template example to follow in pursuing individually initiated ideas and direction.
I’ll try to continue personal observation-like communications over the next couple days, at least I’ve been able to put together a reasonably credible participant enabled entrepreneurial partnership idea. Shortly, this communication forum will revert to a business plan chapter-focused emphasis.
I believe the vision of possibly helping one or more individuals launch themselves into a partnership based entrepreneurial effort has attracted the attention and tentative buy-in of many individuals, at this point.
All the best;
John
8/28/2017