Kahunda

Howdy. Vanessa and I have (finally) made it to Kahunda and, now that we are somewhat settled into our third and (hopefully) final home, I have time to update the blog.

We no longer have internet here, however, because the nerds that be have been unable to put the appropriate software and hardware combination together that is also compatible with Windows Vista. Not a big deal; in fact, not buying this card has saved us 300, 000 Tanzanian shillings (about 280 dollars) and is beginning to wean us from our various internet addictions. But if you’re wondering how this blog is being posted without internet, the answer is that we are using our neighbour’s – the Andersons – internet by putting our cell-phone chip into their g-card and paying as we go, much cheaper and easier. So that’s the skinny.

I am convinced there are no words (expletives included) that could describe the “road” to Kahunda. The drive to Kahunda is about 107 kilometres that took just over five hours to complete. We loaded Bob’s jeep with all our earthly possessions and set out by nine in the AM to catch the 9:30 ferry. Again, personal space means nothing to most Tanzanians and the line up to get onto the ferry was a frustrating ten minutes of pushing, jostling, and touching that ignited (not for the first, and most likely not the last) a longing for our Western understanding of what amount of personal space is appropriate. Nevertheless, the Ferry was loaded with a few jeeps and a giant bus which I still have no clue how it made it through those roads. After thirty minutes on the Ferry and taking in the beauty of Lake Victoria with its many islands and its diversity of bird life, we docked and were greeted by a gathering of Maribu Storks. An appropriate bird of death to signal the start of our drive. I would hardly have been surprised to see the words “Abandon Hope all ye who enter” engraved on a sign ushering us into the heart of our Africa experience.

The only thing that marks the road from all that is not road is the amount of vegetation upon said road. Fortunately there is less vegetation (but just barely) on the road, but where there is no vegetation there are rocks pushing up through the road, large ruts from the rivers running through the road and herds of goat and cattle on the road. But the last is only during rush hour. The most exciting parts of the trip though are the hillside streams (either flowing or dry) which create inverted speed bumps that can drop the vehicle one inch or three feet. I think Bob’s “Only the drunks drive straight here” says it best. So white knuckled and slightly bruised we made it to Kahunda in one piece.

The drive into Kahunda was incredible. The village was similar to the thirty or so non-descript villages we drove through that morning – tiny markets, kids in matching school uniforms chasing the jeep or running from it, bikes laden with bananas or pineapples or mangos – but Kahunda is right on the shores of Lake Victoria. The AIC compound in Kahunda (apparently the largest in terms of acreage in all Africa) felt like I was driving onto the set of LOST. After emerging through jungle that has been untouched by human hands since creation, the AIC compound is an oasis of human civilization running for about half a kilometre along the coast. The first home you see, nearest to the Kahunda center of town is Dale Hamilton’s, the AIM pilot. His home is nestled right into the jungle with cacti, vines, and ferns in the back and sandy beach in the front. I won’t describe all the homes, since each is a unique combination of function and form that allow its inhabitants to survive life in the bush with as much comfort as possible. At the end of this string of homes lays the Gilmour home, which Vanessa and I are dwelling in for the next three months.

There are a few things in the house we have to get used to. First, we’ve acquired two dogs (Duke and Dutchess) and one cat (Lily) who is pregnant and ornery and quite annoying. Her incessant meowing and desire to rub up against my shins has already had me hatching plans of ways to keep her out of the house, but with all the little holes in the roof and her cat-like ability to climb... I think my attempts will be futile. As I type this, Vanessa has just locked the cat into one of the bedrooms... and now the cat is dropping into the living room from the attic. What the deuce? The dogs are pretty killer. I’ve decided to gain their allegiance with some free food and a liberal amount of head scratching, but the speed with which they have made two absolute strangers into friends has me more than a little concerned in their ability to discern friend from foe and guard this plot of land. Apart from domestic animals, a plethora of wild animals have also seemed to make their dwelling in the Gilmour house that has been without tenants the better part of a year. There are millions of ants which threaten to take over the kitchen countertop every time we turn around, mosquitos and wall spiders a plenty, and a bat. We didn’t encounter the bat till our second night. Vanessa and I were watching a movie on the couch the bat dive-bombed us and hit the curtains behind our heads. Vanessa bolted for the bathroom and locked herself in...and me out. I grabbed a tennis racket and crouched by the TV anticipating its next move. After about ten useless swings, Vanessa and I took cover in the security of our mosquito netted bed. Fifteen-Love for the Bat.

The waterbed is also something to get used to. The first night we were both somewhat seasick with the motion of the bed combined with the noise of waves about twenty feet from our window. The second night we were so fed up with the musty smell of the Gilmour’s sheets which have been in storage for so long that we decided to air them, not thinking that the duvet directly on the waterbed was a way of insulating us from the cold water in the bed. Both of us woke up around two shivering and numb with the cold. This cannot be Equatorial Africa. The third night, however, was a charm.

Among the other things we are still getting used to is having solar power. All our lights are powered by five large car-type batteries/cells that are actually pretty consistent. The Gilmour’s also have a D/C adapter that puts our battery power into Alternating Current so we can use things like our laptop, the TV, radio, and even hair dryer. Although the two times Vanessa has used the hair dryer, it drained the batteries completely and we were without lights for about two hours. Live and learn. Our shower is heated by a gas heater hung on the wall. The Freezer runs on Kerosene as does the stove (Andy explained the physics of it to me, quite interesting). And we have a group of five Tanzanians who are yard keepers/guards which are hard to get used to.

Margaret (the Margaret from Dar) took Vanessa and I to the Secondary School and the Dispensary to get some concrete details as to the work we will be doing here for the next three months. Unfortunately, trying to get someone in this culture not to equivocate is next to impossible. Something very frustrating that we have both been trying to understand since we’ve been here. Despite the disconnect, Joseph and his assistant Yona hammered out a job description for me that I am very excited to start with. I will be teaching the Form 3 and Form 4 students (equivalent of grades 9/10 and 11/12) English language and literature. I have each class for 120 minutes. 80 minutes of lecture and 40 minutes of debate. Should be fun. I had the chance to sit in on a few of their classes already and I can see that language is going to be a serious hurdle to overcome if I’m going to be effective in teaching. Their midterms are next week and then they have a week of midterm break and I begin, so at least two weeks to develop my curriculum with Yona (the head English teacher) and get a bit of a lesson plan together. Currently I’m reading some drama from Ngugi Wa Thion’go (a Kenyan writer I studied in University) and Guillaume Oyono-Mbia (A Cameroonian writer I’ve just encountered) that we will get to look at near the end of May. Unfortunately the school is quite impoverished. Despite having 350 paying students enrolled (tuition is about 300 dollars per term), the buildings are in disrepair, the dorms which have a 50 student capacity are crammed with almost 90 students, and the library has very few books and almost no duplicates, making a class discussion on a shared reading quite difficult. But I will cross that bridge when I get there. Also, they started making an outdoor basketball court and signed me up to begin the basketball course (first ever in Kahunda history) for about 4 hours a week with some of the Form 3 and Form 4 boys who are interested. With one Basketball though, this may be difficult.

Vanessa met with the Director of Care at the Dispensary, a man named Mikobi (sp?) and tried to get her job description. After showing us around the facilities Vanessa had yet to learn what her role there would be. In fact, he claimed to be so busy and so overworked, but asked how many patients he sees every day, he said, on average there are about 15. If that is overworked, I don’t think he’d last too long in the Canadian system. Mary Jane, the nurse from South Africa, arrived last night with the Hamiltons, and to Vanessa’s relief laid out her plan to take Vanessa under her wing and bring her to the various island clinics and see the work they do there with Maternity and HIV/AIDS.

So this, right now, is our life in the little fishing village of Kahunda. Oh, interesting fact: people love to bathe in this lake and right in front of our home. Vanessa and I set up some chairs on the little ledge overlooking the beach to have some tea, only to have the gorgeous view blocked by a large black buttocks. This has really made our walks down the beach interesting since we are constantly averting our eyes from the men, women, and children, who walk the shores wearing nothing but what God gave them. But hey, if you can’t beat em...