Buying Property in Kigoma (We wish...)

Kigoma has quickly become one of our favorite places. It is so beautiful, and the people are incredibly warm and inviting. Our students couldn’t be more interested, fun, and friendly. Our hosts are just as wonderful. Dr. Anton has such an arresting and calm demeanor that you can’t help but be caught up in his peaceful world. As Gabriel says, “He’s certainly one of the most enlightened people he’s ever met.” I want to be just like Dr. Anton. He has a great sense of dry humor, and will sit calmly with the downtrodden of the community, pensively listening and offering advice. When you walk with him along the covered walkways of the Jane Goodall Institute, he walks gracefully, speaks about the work with reverence and offers funny anecdotes, all at the same time. Augustino is beautifully calm as well. You simply must slow down here and enjoy every moment. More on Augustino and our evening out in a bit.

Gabriel and I got the kids started with some lessons on photography and videography, then cut the kids lose on the grounds to have at it. They took some amazing photos. (See Shutterfly link.) We told them to make some music videos, and they had the BEST time.

Breakfast of fried bananas, rice, eggs, vegetable, and tea was served. We have some kids who are honoring Ramadan now, so they don’t eat until sundown. So, we give them little projects to do while the others eat. It is so wonderful to have your hands washed with warm water, then tuck into a fresh and healthful meal, all the while scooping combinations up with four fingers.

We sat and had open and frank conversations with the kids. Isak told me that the reason he is still in secondary school at the age of 20 is that he has to work between semesters to make enough money to pay for school. He lives with his uncle. He has 8 brothers and sisters and his parents have both died of sickness. The kicker is that he has to come up with just 10,000 shillings per semester ($8), and has to work to make that much. School costs $16 per year and he is willing to work hard to make the money just to get an education. He inspires me. Anold asked Gabriel if he had any ideas how to get a bicycle. Anold gets up at 4am just to get ready for school then walk the distance to be there on time. If he had a bicycle, he could study longer and do better in school.

We had just started working in Premiere when we heard the good news that Andy and Jaime had arrived! We went to the lawn and all of the kids sang a welcome song to them and danced joyously. Andy and Jaime were both in heaven.

Andy and Jaime took 15 of the kids, created groups of three, and then started teaching them Premiere. As is always the case with new computer users, the problems in getting them going have nothing to do with the concepts of movie making and software, but are more about motor skills when it comes to using the mouse. Just figuring out how to maneuver that darn thing to a tiny icon, then clicking twice can take hours to master. Some of the kids got it after a couple of hours; some are still struggling a bit. I have complete confidence that they’ll all be mouse-experts in a couple of day’s time.

I took the remaining 15 kids to the cozy conference room overlooking Lake Tanganyika, listening to the waves on the beach and writing narratives for their movies. I would start a sentence, and then have them complete it. “My name is…”, “I live in…”, “Kigoma is…”, “I live with…”, “At my house I like to…”, “Of the many environmental issues facing my region, to me, the worst is…”, “The Roots & Shoots program is helping to address these problems by…”. They all did wonderfully, and I was surprised that their written English seems to be better than their spoken. It is usually the other way around. One kid wrote, “The worst environmental issue to me is the overpopulation of the area around Kigoma. It leads to deforestation, and then the chimpanzees have to move closer together. This is a problem because it makes it easier for people who eat bushmeat to get to them. The chimpanzees are Dr. Jane’s friends, and once they are gone, we will never see them again.” It makes our trip to Gombe (2.5 hour boat ride up Lake Tanganyika) even more worthwhile.

We finished the day with chai tea and a conversation about being safe with the cameras. Andy pretended to be a bad guy in pursuit of the Flip camera I was using. The first time he was able to steal it, but the second time I quickly put the camera in my pocket and ran away. The kids all understood.

We came back to the hotel, and I the most wonderful shower. It was so great to be reacquainted with my luggage.

We took a cab with our new driver friend Wileh to a beachside bar for a beer on the lake. Jaime walked around the thatched roof huts, beautiful trees, and wooden benches saying, “Is this for real?” Local villagers were washing their clothes in the lake as Wileh taught us to count to 20. Andy, of course, caught on right away.

We then cabbed to the ATM for another 200,000 shillings ($160). We met Augustino and Shadrack (sp?) at an open-air restaurant/bar called Website (with an accent on the last “e”). We spoke about the program, and we agreed that Shadrack, as the Roots & Shoots expert, would help the kids with this part of their narratives. He’ll work with the students today, and then help Gabriel and me as we film them. We had great conversations about the Sara program. Augustio, Andy, and I agree that the Sara program can really help the girls here in Kigoma. Many of them struggle through their testing period, because they are used to acquiescing to the boys in the classroom. We agreed that by learning about the power of girls through Sara, girls will learn to participate and their test scores will go up. Can’t wait to show him the materials today.

We had a thick mixture of maize, bbq chicken, and fried bananas for dinner. I’ll say it again…I just love eating with my hands. There were many thank-yous for us coming all the way to work with their students. Augustino called the first day “a gift to our children we could have only dreamed of.” Love this place.

More tomorrow.

Erik