PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2014
PAGE 35
Strange World 80-year old Iranian man hasn’t bathed in 60 years
Haji
8
0-year-old Haji believes that “cleanliness brings him sickness.” That’s why he hasn’t bathed at
all in the past 60 years. He lives in isolation in Dejgah village, in the Southern Iranian province of Fars.
Fadiouth – A unique island made entirely of clam shells
J
oal-Fadiouth is a small fishing village located at the far end of Petite Côte – a stretch of coast in Senegal. Joal is situated on the mainland and Fadiouth is an island just off the coast. A narrow, 400-meter wooden bridge links the two areas. Fadiouth is special – it is almost entirely covered with clam shells. For centuries, the inhabitants of Fadiouth have been harvesting molluscs. They scoop out the meat and use the shells to construct almost everything, even the island itself. The millions of seashells accumulated over the years have been held strong by the roots of mangroves, reeds and giant baobabs. Empty shells litter the streets; you can hardly step anywhere on Fadiouth Island without hearing a cracking sound from under your feet. Shells are also seamlessly incorporated into the
architecture of the island. One of the main attractions is the local cemetery – the walls and the graveyard are completely buried in shells. The landscape of shells stretches miles across, occasionally interrupted by a gravestone or a few trees. 90 percent of Fadiouth’s 40,000 residents are Christian, a few are Muslims. The villagers pride themselves on a strong sense of religious harmony and this is the only cemetery in Senegal where both Christians and Muslims are buried. The origin of this unique island is unclear; we do not know exactly how humans came to inhabit the shellisland. The main sources of income of Joal-Fadiouth are fishing, agriculture and tourism. If you ever feel the need to feast your eyes on millions of sea shells, head straight for this sleepy little West African village.
Haji hates contact with water. Even the suggestion of a bath makes him very angry. And all these years of escaping
bath time have taken their toll – Haji is almost the color of earth. He has managed to completely blend in with his surroundings. In fact, it’s easy to mistake him for a rock statue if he sits very still. It’s not just bathing that Haji dislikes. His disgust for fresh food and clean drinking water is unmistakable. Instead, he prefers his favorite meal of rotten porcupine meat. He drinks 5 liters of water a day for health purposes, but only from a large rusty oil can. He likes to fill his smoking pipe with animal feces instead of tobacco. To trim his hair he doesn’t use clippers; he just burns it off over an open flame. An old war helmet keeps his head warm during the winter Haji doesn’t really have a house – the earth is his home. He lives in a hole in the ground, much like a grave, to keep him grounded and in
touch with the reality of life. Sometimes he sleeps in an open brick shack that the villagers constructed for him out of pity. Locally, he is known as Amou Haji. ‘Amou’ is the Farsi term of endearment for a kind old man. Haji’s lifestyle of choice is very unique. The villagers say that he had suffered severe emotional setbacks in his youth, which led him to make these extreme choices. Even so, he does seem a lot happier than some people who live in large homes with comforts and conveniences. Haji doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. He has nothing to lose, nothing to fear. Makes you think about what’s really important in life, doesn’t it? Haji isn’t the only person in the world who hates bathing. Two years ago, we wrote about Kailash Singh, an Indian man who hadn’t taken a bath in 38 years.
‘Corpse’ wakes up in Kenyan morgue
Paul Mutora visited by relatives after he was rescued from the morgue
K A house in Fadiouth
enyan authorities have launched an investigation into how a man declared dead in a hospital woke up alive in its morgue the next day. Shocked mortuary workers at Naivasha hospital ran away when the body stirred and was seen to be breathing. Paul Mutora, who had tried to kill himself by swallowing insecticide, was pronounced dead on Wednesday night. The chief medic said the drug used to treat him slowed the heart beat, which may have led to the mistake.
The mortuary attendant and a worker took to their heels screaming” “This might have confused medical personnel, but the victim was saved before he could be embalmed,” Dr Joseph Mburu, the superintendent in charge of Naivasha District Hospital, was quoted by Kenya’s Standard newspaper as saying. According to the paper, Mr Mutora’s father and other relatives visited the morgue on Thursday morning to view the body and then returned home to start funeral arrangements. “But in the afternoon we were
informed, he was alive and were left in shock,” the father said. A witness told the Star newspaper that when noises were heard inside the cold room: “The mortuary attendant and a worker took to their heels screaming.” Journalists photographed Mr Mutora later recovering on a male ward in the hospital in the lakeside town, 90km (55 miles) north-west of the capital, Nairobi, “This was a mistake from the start and I apologise to my father,” the patient said. BBC Africa