"VIDIZI" - Dreams of a little seaman
As living and growing up in Malindi beside the habour and beside the sea shore, when I was very young, I was used to go to the beach at a place it is called „Rasilkhema“. This place is situated near the gas station in Stonetown.
Here the first dreams of the little seaman became true.
At that time I was playing with small sailing toy boats (called CHALBE). Allways I compeated with other boys and my friends of Malindi. We played when it was low tide and organized small boat races to see which toy boat is the best.
My toy sailing boat was a typical ngalawa and had the name „Vidizi“. It was very, very fast and often beat the others.
„Vidizi“ – where did this name came from?
There was a very old man who sold in the streets of Malindi a soup of cooked bananas at that time.
When he walked arround, he allways called the whole way „Vidizi, vidizi…“ to motivate the people to buy his nice street food.
This bass voice of that old man attracted me so much. So as a small boy I decided to call my beloved toy sailing boat „Vidizi“.
In my childhood there were no shops where you could buy toys. We had to make small toy sailing boats by ourselves or with the help of the wazee (old people) in our surrounding. The light wood (mvule) for my boat I got from a old carpenter in our district.
He was called Ahmed Mzee. The sail and shape was made for me by an old fisherman staying in Malindi. He also helped me to adjust the boat, went with me to the sea and practice with me to run the boat. He was known in Malindi as Alwynunda.
At that time I was arround seven or eight years old. It was a lot of fun for all of us and I was so happy to be at the sea shore after school.