Oom Ely welcomed us with his ukulele and traditional songs. Close your eyes and you would think that he is twenty years old. He is seventy. He was irradiating happiness and we let it invade our hearts. We had in front of us the embodiment of the Green and Happy Islands.

Oom Ely spoke in pantoums, four lines poems. Nuances got lost in translation, but we did get their essence. Everything boils down to practice. Care - as in I care for you - links the four Sasi. They are interrelated. Oom Ely showed us a nursery of mangrove trees. He then took us to a new plantation and explained how the mangrove will host more fish which will be available for feeding humans. He explained how maintaining harmony with nature prevents war.
Jean-Louis Lamboray

Oom Eli, by Glenn Huib Wattimury here: http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/my-first-salt-visit-1