Sunday morning - ecstatically ensconced in the private computer quarters of the Handeni secondary school..five beautiful machines humming along without virus..the only malfunction might be that before I get a chance to publish this post the electricity might be turned off by whomever..boy would i love to meet whomever sometime!
Yesterday Ben my translator and I were driven to a Traditional Healing Ceremony in a forest about 10 k away on top of a high hill overlooking Handeni..with about 150 people all ages, dancing, drums, singing..the chairman of the group which has 508 members throughout Tanzania is the spirit medium...in the middle of a wide circle he tore off his shirt and went into a trance like state, girating and throwing his arms in the air..he beckoned us to follow him down into a glade where we watched him rush into a circle of trees, fall down onto his knees and tear out a rather large tree (about 6 inches in diametre) from its roots, grunting and growling like a lion all the time...after deforesting several more made his way back into the circle, dragging behind him these trees, more dancing and singing and welcoming of the spirits...finishing with thank you speeches all around...it was magical and unforgettable....This group would like to eventually connect with healers and traditional doctors in Canada who create herbs and powders from nature. They showed us bottles of substances which cure stomach, teeth, malaria, hiv - everything..i actually took two doses of a brown/green powder last week with tea while I was in the throws of a fever and head cold...overnight, with great uncomfortable sweating, my symptoms passed....the next day feeling all better...
If anyone out there has any connections with traditionalhealers in Canada,pleaselet me know..it will be awhile to set up, as they need translation from SWahili and email service...

Tomorrow. Monday, we travel back to Sindeni, as guests of the Masai we spent time with last week during the art workshop with batik artists in the area..(and four small babies being nursed by their mothers while holding a paint brush and working with their other hand)..there will be a ceremony of circumcision to honour young men who will become warriors after their healing...i am told many Masai will travel from near and far for this event, nationally, it is very important and happens only every 15 years or so with the tribes...we will be taking a woman with us who was tested positive with HIV AIDS just last week. she is a mother of 6, has no friends she says,no support system. her children are looking after her..we have been trying to help her with food, sugar, cooking oil, vegetables, soap....but as I have always said, there is never enough...in our conversations laST WEEK...Masai talked of cures...I know they have one for Malaria..it is very powerful, and taken after the circumcision ceremony, when the warriors spend time in the bush healing...so powerful that they cannot see or hear for hours, they are filled with huge energy, anger toward the disease...when it is finished - this medicine..they are immune from malaria...
They talk of having the same,which works with HIV AIDS....so my thinking is to bring this woman to their ceremony, work with their traditional healers, spiritual men, and hopefully be offered the same medicines for her....it is just a hope...you never know...but in this magical world of miracles and strange happenings..why not?
We are trying to arrange transportation today..
We will travel back to the World Vision centre I worked in last week...if it all works out, the Masai will meet us there at 10 am and take us to the gathering...there will be drumming..a cow being roasted..the blood from its jugular being mixed with its milk - a treat for Masai warriors, not me.
Tuesday am early around 5:30 i leave for Moshi....with my three huge bags filled with diminishing art supplies and my basket of bottles with paint. It is always a procedure i look forward to with trepidation. A few days in Moshi..then to a safari over xmas and new years...will try to get onto this blog but could be out of touch in a tent somewhere.....reminding me of a new years with LIndsey in the the dunes of southern Morocco deserts with camel lowing....sounding like old men and women at a cocktail party....
The best to you...again..in this season and into next year...
xxL