TD!

Written Sunday Evening, 27 September.

No, that doesn't stand for touchdown but rather traveler's diarrhea. It's not necessary for me to share the details with you other than to say that for a total of close to two months here in Tanzania (including stay in May/June), I was spared.

Do you know about the Jewish berakoth? The Jews have a great tradition of having blessing prayers for just about every occasion in life; all the berakoth (note that President Obama's first name and this word both come from the Semitic root for "bless") begin with the same formula: "Blessed are you, O LORD, our God, ruler of the universe, for you..." My prayer when I was struck was such a prayer: "Blessed are you, O LORD, our God, ruler of the universe, for you give us the medications cipro and lomotil, the first to restore us to health and the second to treat the symptoms in the meantime."

It did give me a chance to practice the language: Kama mtu ahara hana furaha. If a person has diarrhea, he or she doesn't have happiness.

It was also the occasion for some wisdom from Omega, one of the teachers here, who himself has not been feeling well: "Illness is part of our life."