flowers

kili & kittens

i'm erroneously training these kittens to like white ladies. i have no shame. 

perfect Kili and Meru shot

nyumbani

 

it's just another day

KIWAKKUKI

HUGE bug. doodoo kubwa

 

baby slings, all natural, good price.

This jogoo (rooster) means serious business. Don't f* with him. At least he keeps our kuku (chickens) full of eggs!

Bibi (grandma) selling her ndesi (bananas)

river crossing

the water was too low to dock our little motor boat so we had to go on to the river crossing in order to pull up on shore. the coast of tanzania, including pangani is relatively muslim. i imagine to this group of people boarding the river shuttle, along with the bus, were wondering the same thing that our captain asked mother: "Mama, where are your clothe-eds?" Pole. her beach cover up was awfully risque.

Maasai

he came running towards us as if we were the most exciting thing he had seen all day- the joy rushing off him in waves, overwhelming. we snatched to capture it.
when he got to us, his smile faded into puzzlement. he didn't know what should come next and neither did we.

to market to market

you don't see a lot of wazungu at the Kibilaroni market. it used to be quite dangerous, packed to the gills with people selling everything from 2nd hand clothing to live chickens. now much of the market has been cleared out and all the used clothing vendors have gone. they've moved to a new area of town, leaving the market for vegetables, spices, and dried samaki-fish. the fish is so smelly. stacks and stacks of dried, fried, and fresh fish of all shapes and sizes. there is the palm sized fried fish, the huge pyramids of snack sized barely bigger than your thumbnail, the nasty curled thing that almost looks like a giant cinnamon bun, and of course the enormous fresh tilapia and king fish glaring at you from their glazed eyes.

TSP Orphanage, Tanzania

if you had never played with blocks, would you know what a triangle is? would you know how to place them side by side rotate them to make a square, a parallelogram? or would the shape hang, a mystery?
yesterday i wouldn't have thought twice. but today, as i watched 9, 10, 11 yr olds puzzle over such "games" i felt a desperate need to... what?
one little boy, as he played each game- copying hand gesture patterns, matching shapes and colors, recalling a list, completing picture patterns- he would look over to me, the slightly exotic white girl in the rural sugar plantation's orphanage, and smile impishly, his eyes twinkling for praise. but then the second half of the test, 3 pages of questions- "do you play well with others? yes, no, sometimes?" ..."do you have friends?"... "do you sleep well?" "do you have bad dreams?"... "do you remember your parents?" ....
the ki swahili would wash over me, a gentle murmur, barely over a whisper. with no idea what question they were on, i watched child after child turn to stone. the eyes of my flirting imp grew vacant, his body a pliant statue, like time itself had grown so slow i couldn't perceive it. and when the first betraying tear welled on his dark lashes, finally spilling down his cheek, the spell remained unbroken.
when we had finished with him, he left without a backward glance. no more smiles or secrets for me. forgotten, as i should be.

i am not hardened for such work.