Clap Your Hands for a Bald Man Getting Things Done

If you haven't chanced upon my page of pictures, you are due for a (delightful?) surprise: I recently shaved my head. Before you ask the inevitably "why?", take a moment to hear me lament on my decision. As I'm sitting at the internet cafe, I have just finished the forty-five minute jaunt from my home into Bukoba town. In an unfortunate lapse of forethought, I chose not to weat a hat, but to be loud and proud with my baldness. The real calamity is that the sun, which was oh-so cleverly hiding itself behind clouds at my departure, feigning harmlessness, unveiled itself in all its fury some ten minutes into my trek. Under its intensity, my poor, freshly nubile scalp began to cry. I found a big leaf on the side of one particular path, which I used as a makeshift hat for some five minutes. I'm certain that I was attention-saturated even before attempting this leaf-hat feat, what with me being the tallest, baldest, whitest guy around, but the hat drove it to new levels. The open-mouthed stares... So I removed the leaf, and instead wore my backpack on my head (Andrew, I'm still using that old FSS pack you "acquired" for me; good man). Even with the protection of my backpack, my head feels like someone tried putting out a forest fire on it with a screwdriver.

So now- the "why". I've had a fair number of co-workers, students, and friends ask me that same question in the last few days. Unfortunately, I haven't thought of a good reason yet. I'm going to make one up... OK. Its because I wanted to donate my hair to a wigmaker for widows (seriously, wigs are mad popular here, I probably ought to have done just that). My dad called me yesterday, worried after seeing my baldness. My dad: "Are you angry at something?" Me: "Nope." Dad: "Sad?" Me: "Nope." Dad: "Oh. Well ok then." I guess I've never really had a chance to see what I look like bald, and I figured now is as good a time as any. If you yourself have never had a bald head, you ought to try it as well; you save $7.56 per month on shampoo. Let's start a bald revolution..!

Now, in serious news, things have been fairly productive for me these past few weeks. I learned that a grant proposal of mine has been passed, and that all the requested funds will be disseminated in the next few weeks. This is great news, as it is a proposal I've been working on for the past six months or so. Briefly, the grant benefits some fishermen in a village nearby my school, as well as their immediate dependents, by creating a self-supporting fishermen's co-op, and then providing that co-op with the equipment they will need to produce a substantial income. One month from now, if everything goes according to plan *cough cough*, the project will be well underway. Awesome. Additionally, at school I've been initiating some changes. If you recall some of my previous posts, the students here are sometimes treated as slaves instead of academics. They have no voice with which to...voice their complaints or outrages. Even if they did find some avenue, the administration tends to have closed doors and little patience for these kids. With that, I've taken it upon myself to be their voice, their defender, if you want to get dramatic. Other than fighting for the rights of these students during our daily meetings, I've been putting forth a lot of efforts at altering the school's discipline policies. Rather than trying to erase corporal punishment (in this, I would not be working with the school at all, but just projecting my own cultural sensitivies onto it; this is not a efficient way to accomplish things here), I thought establishing a "positive reinforcement" system would help. Previously, the best, most endeavoring students got no recognition or compensation for their hard work. Together with the second-master, I created a proposal for a department that would serve to reward those students in various ways. Without boring you with its details, I'll just say that the headmaster and my fellow teachers unanimously agreed to implement this plan, and that this upcoming Monday we will directly begin putting it into effect. Awesome again.

Clap your hands for a bald man getting things done. (Andrew, that would be a good t-shirt slogan).