'A movie in the making in Comoros' or 'Marooned in Moroni'

I recently watched the depressing and exhilirating "All is Lost" starring Robert Redford.  For those who haven't seen it--it's the fictional story of a man lost at sea whose world progressively deteriorates until...wait for it all is lost (or is it?!).

Well the pics of this poor soul is what that  scenario looks like in real life without the HD cameras
and big hollywood budget.  This unnamed gentlemen is from Poland and he's been stuck in Moroni, Comoros for a few months now.

He bought this boat in Miami (he claimed to have a US green card) and has been sailing around the world since then.  Things started to go downhill when he arrived in Mumbai:

From his profanity-laced tirade (while his english was broken, he nailed the expletives perfectly), I was able to deduce that somehow a corrupt port/customs agent there had swindled him out of nearly all of his money.  At some point he said 'to hell with this' and fled the port.  Somewhere around the Comoran island of Moheli, he found himself shipwrecked.  He claims his ship once had a mast but it looked an awful lot like once of those life boats you see on cruise ships.

Anyway, the Comoran Coast Guard rescued him and towed him to the port of Moroni on Grand
Comores.

With 100 euros to his name, a broken engine, no living relatives or friends and dwindling supply of canned food--his prognosis does not look good.  His own summation of his future prospects were slightly more colorful.

A month and a half after my last visit, though, I recevied an update from a colleague there who said that the Comoran government had given him a little money and that he was slowly getting his engine repaired.

Stay tuned for more updates in 2015!

The sea-faring wayward Polish sailor

"Africa does not exist."

    Following is the foreword by the author of the book I am beginning.  The book is The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski.  He was Poland's first Africa correspondent and reported from Africa at the time of their emerging independence.   

  " I've lived in Africa for several years.  I first went there in 1957.  Then, over the next 40 years I returned whenever the opportunity arose.  I traveled extensively, avoiding official routes, palaces, important personages, and high-level politics.  Instead, I opted to hitch rides on passing trucks, wander with nomads through the desert, be the guest of peasants of the tropical savannah.  Their life is endless toil, a torment they endure with astonishing patience and good humor.
         This is therefore not a book about Africa, but rather about some people from there--about encounters with them, and time spent together.  The continent is too large to describe.  It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos.  Only, with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say "Africa."  In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist."
-R.K.