Trojans and Gelato

Oops. Um, tilt your head left to see what my current house looks like.

And below is the house next door.
Can you see the tree growing inside? This is no misleading indication of how slowly big homes are built in Zanzibar. You get enough money to build a part of the house, and you lay the foundation for a mansion. You wait long enough to make enough money to build up the first floor walls, and you do that. Then, perhaps a yeaar or more after you started building, you add the second floor. And, maybe even a year after that, the next floor. Assuming you are actually making moeny all this time. Maybe you run into hard times, instead, and 1/8th or one quarter, or 9/1oths of the way through building, you run out of money and opportunity to build, so your house sits, unusable except by squatters or farmers, or daring store keepers, depending on what state the house was in when you last stopped building. Water damage, bug invasion, trees growing out of walls -- all these problems commonly plague the building constructed in this manner, yet very few people with the money to be building a house opt for the old-fashioned option of building a small house and adding on bits of completed house as you get more money to do so, converting old bits into bigger kitchens and living rooms or even guest houses...

Now, to explain why there have been so few posts: a virus has ruined my normal access to the internet (a trojan, actually -- and I know this because I saw the warnings popping up constantly on the computer of the guy with whom I have to share the 3G thumb drive at work and whose use of the drive marked the beginning of my troubles), so I had to find free Wifi. It took an hour and a half of walking this morning (I got other things done along the way, of course, because even in Africa, surrounded by the smells of rank donkeys and cows, I cannot pass a market without bargaining my way into something good), but after a long week of little internet (but lots of good times with friends from school working in Dar who took a weekend off in Zanzibar) and a morning of interruptions, I found it. I am sitting on a breezy patio so close to the ocean that I cannot see any sand when I look out -- just greenly hued shallow water that quickly morphs into deep sea blue as I look further out. An ancient sailboat (that may well have been built last week) and a sand bar are the only accents besides white-crested wave tops below and fluffy clouds above. Otherwise, just blue blue blue. And beside me is the pineapple gelato I must get back to shortly.

The bugs, by the way, seem to have gotten the message. They clear out before my morning routine starts, and let me at least finish my tea before climbing into my cup for a sip of their own. And the granola that one friend brought has proven tenantless in its solidly built Tupperware.

Thanks to all those who sent note of their concern after my last post. Now I'll post *this* before my battery dies!