Day Fifty

Allah'u'abha, friends! Happy Ridvan!

I'm feeling much better than I was the rest of the week, and I'm in a way better mood. I took yesterday to just rest and relax, which seemed to work. By evening I was feeling better, except still drowsy from the allergy medication. Nevertheless, I convinced myself that I needed to go to the Annual Meeting, if only to cast my vote for the Local Spiritual Assembly (LSA).

The Annual Meeting went quite nicely. After some opening prayers, including one chanted beautifully in Kiswahili, we were treated to a presentation by the Auxiliary Board Member on "The Sanctity of Baha'i Elections." Because there are something like 200 Baha'is here, she encouraged us to think of everyone in the community, write down 20 names first, and then from those 20 pick the nine people we thought were best suited for service on the LSA. After we wrote down our ballots, we had to go to the ballot box, print our name, place our signature next to it, and then cast our ballot. It was a little different than the way we do it at home, but I'm sure it was helpful to the tellers to keep track of how many people were voting and whatnot.

Here at home, we've had a bit of a crisis with a hedgehog that May Saba "rescued" from a local boy who apparently thieved it from its mother. The poor thing was so tiny and helpless. At first, we had no clue what to do with it. I did some research on the Internet in preparation of having to keep the thing and care for it, which Mrs. Sabet tried to convince me to do (haha, fat chance). We finally decided to take it back to the school where the boy found it and ask the gardener or someone else where the hedgehogs were. The school is a local one, so a car full of wazungu (the plural of mzungu, I've discovered) sent the place into a frenzy. We ended up discovering the boy who took it in the first place, so he led us to where he took it. The mother wasn't there, but Mrs. Sabet wasn't interested in keeping it, so she convinced May to leave it there. Mrs. Sabet and I aren't sure it will live, since the mother will probably reject it now. May has been moaning about how we abandoned it and that we should go check on it, but I'm sure tomorrow she'll forget about it.

The National Convention is next weekend, and the preparations are getting a little stressful. Not helping matters is the fact that people keep reiterating how the NSA doesn't want there to be any mistakes. I've also prepared myself for the complaining of delegates. Apparently last year they got all irate about their accomodations and started getting on the case of the poor, sweet man who made the arrangements. Unlike this kind and gentle Tanzanian, I am a mean American, so I've let everyone know that I'm happy to deal with any and all delegate complaints. If it's unreasonable, they can either deal with it or hand me their vote and I'll buy them a train ticket back home. The National Convention is not supposed to be a five-star affair or some kind of vacation. You're there to cast a vote on behalf of the people that elected you to do so. That's it. Come on.

This evening, we had our Ridvan celebration. But first, I have to tell you about what we saw on the way to the Centre. As we drove down United Nations Road, we noticed a small group of people gathered around this man on the ground on the sidewalk. As we got closer, we noticed that this man was actually pinning another man to the ground. He had his hands around the guy's throat and he was choking him while bashing his head against the sidewalk. I've never been so close to such violence! A taxi came speeding up and the passenger jumped out and started pulling the man off the other guy. What courage! We have no idea what provoked the incident. It's likely they were drunk, or the man being beaten was a thief. Personally, I think they were drunk because there are a lot of drunk people on this road. In the morning on the way to work, I frequently see a person laying face down in the sidwalk with his shirt off, his pants around his knees, and his butt exposed. I have no idea why but a lot of drunks seem to end up this way.

Anyway, the Ridvan celebration was very nice. After the introductory prayers in English, Kiswahili, and Farsi, we were treated to performances by the Kinomboni children's choir and the Dar youth choir, both of which were exceptionally better than Naw Ruz. One of the young Indian Baha'is performed an Indian dance that went over very well with the audience (about 200 people). I chanted/sang the "Refresh and gladden my spirit" prayer (all by myself, yikes!) and that was followed by a skit from the youth about the oneness of religion and another short monologue about "What is Ridvan, and Who is Baha'u'llah?". Following another prayer, it was time for the chakula (food). At every public event, it's announced that the Baha'is should pick a guest to escort to the food, and then after that the rest of the friends can eat, to ensure that our guests are always fed. I thought that was particularly nice, as well as how the youth were featured so prominently in the program.

I don't think they celebrate the ninth or twelfth days of Ridvan here, so I guess this was it for me for this year. Following the National Convention, I'm supposed to visit a few homefront pioneers around the country before the Institutional Conference at the end of May and then I'll go visit the rest, as well as possible settle in the city of Arusha for a month or so to conduct some study circles. Imagine doing Books 4, 6, and 7 all in the same month!