The Nibs are Packed

I’ve weighed my bags, two fifty pounders. I’ll be paying 50 dollars for an extra bag. That is $1.00 per pound. Like the cost of what, organic carrots perhaps? My quest will be to unload all the items I am dragging with me. How do I unload it? Who wants them? I’ve got seeds, books, shoes, snack bars, plastic balls, and those dam pen nibs. Yes, I said pen nibs. If I indeed find a home for them then I will rest in peace. Really. Today they have changed my view of writing. At least the chore of writing doesn’t seem like “cursive cursive” anymore. Alas, I can say this because I have a year off and when I teach I never teach penmanship anyway. I teach keyboarding (thank you Mavis Beacon).

Now, I’m bringing 20 boxes of 141 nibs to Tanzania, and nobody asked from them. They asked for nail clippers, pens, globes, shoes, sheets, and Parmesan cheese, but not nibs. Well, I never get what I ask for (does my sabbatical count?), so these folks will get Esterbrook school medium firm nibs. Like it our leave it.

"Put your pointer finger..

...on the equator," I told the boys.

I didn't have time to say much more about my trip as I rifled through the enormous reading selection housed in the mediation room on the second floor. Liam was reading and Shane was smiling with a wet head. "We are going on a two part journey to Tanzania. See if you can find it, 'cuz it is there where I'll have my next swim", I yelled as I left.

Actually, I was thinking about tsetse flies and bug nets and weighing my bags each day not swimming. I get 50lbs per bag, and I'm hoping to use it all. I have a tent, a pad, powerbars and wetones, and I've frantically making art. It is a portable type of art and I'm thinking I can share some of the pictographs from our trip to the sierra de Guadalupe in (Baja California) with our future friends in Arusha, Tanzania. I started with making patches for backpacks and now I'm framing little pieces of cloth with pine needles and bark(riveting isn't it Jack?).

So, two 50 pound bags for what?? First we will be heading to the "bush", as Seppo calls it, and visiting sites near Kondoa. A well know place in the Rift Valley full of pictographs of people and animals. Reports of vandalism have reached our ears, and we know how faded images get, but it takes seeing it, and we are ready. Jon is armed with cameras and battery packs and his secret weapon, dstretch. We are leaving everything up to our email correspondent John Cavallo (Rock Art Conservation of Tanzania) . He is researching and documenting the sites, and lucky us, we will be joining him.

Part two includes a visit to the coast, to a place near Bagamoyo. I've signed on with Earthrising to create a natural, sustainable, home. This project is the passion of our leader Elke Cole, a builder/architect living in an eco-village in British Columbia. She is incredible talented and I've decided to join the group for 6 weeks.

That is all I know. I've been told the beer is 2 bucks a bottle and that there is a great place for Indian food in Arusha. The big T......... is still a big question mark????