Crew. Philemon (about Philemon) brought nephew Kos (26 or so), experienced dhow sailor ("and then I tied myself to the dhow so people would not have to search for my body", etc.). Doi was proud to learn English words to Kos, but was laughed at a bit after explaining Kos how to cut banana leafs for sail binding. All goes well between everybody, only sometimes I have slightly to defend Doi (rightly considered not too smart and a bit slow- about Doi).
Crew at Banda l.t.r: captain's morning coffee, Doi reading Bible (in English), Philemon sweeping steering deck, Kos cleaning our net's fish catch of the night.
070829 Dom has three guests who are snail research workers. They catch, say, 600 snails they find on one place, paint them with purple nail varnish, put them back, and return after a day to estimate the ratio of varnished to non varnished snails. This is then entered in a population estimating formula. Other whites make fun of them in much the same way as I remember fun was made of the fruit fly research workers in the sixties and seventies who laid the foundation the method of DNA/RNA genetic research: "crazy fools to waste their time like that!". After 400 years of scientific research that changed the world, the ones engaging in it are still subject of ridicule.
070829 Phone call by Ronald of Jinja Post, who got USh
10 000 airtime to call me (call cost USh 1000) in case our essential parcel would arrive.
Parcel "underway" from Kampala. It had been "very difficult" to get the parcel. It
had been "misrouted". He needs "more money". I tell him I will call back. My thoughts: he will
never know if my packet is in a post car coming from Kampala. The packet simply
has arrived already, but he feels he needs to make me consider myself still to
be dependent on him. He probably has spent only the estimated USh 1000, that is
for the call he just made. I call him back and say: write a
statement: parcel misrouted, I did this and that, costs so and so much, sign it,
give it with my courier, I will pay any amount you sign for, and send bill to
Kampala Head Office, after all, it is their failure. Suddenly "misrouting" not
sure, and Ronald needs no more money, Brian will receive parcel under official
Uganda Post conditions. I will see Brian at Entebbe golf club on
Monday.
At night four adult hippo's and a baby start grazing on our shore line (20m
behind us).
070831 I finished reading Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground. D. is much engaged in making literary art, and has hampered his spontaneity by reading too much. The character D. selected as the author of the Notes is a pitiable intellectual, a loner. In Part One we find him philosophizing: vehemently attacking one very esoteric and defective type of social determinism as if it is a wasp flying around him. His arguments are even worse than those of his philosophical opponents. Socially, he experiences competitive and vindictive urges caused by profound inferiority feelings he vainly tries to repress. Endowed with these, in Part Two the loner forces himself into company and gets driven back into his underground. If asked, I would say: before you read this, first finish the complete works of Shakespeare, the European Union regulations for production, distribution and subsidizing of sausages, and your pick of "Bert tells what he reads" (Dutch version). Hippos still around the boat.
Photo: Banda mooring site visit
070901 Preparations to leave for Kalangala. 10 Banda campers want to join, plus Dom who takes one staff. They board late evening for possible late night leave. Snail biologists stay at work on Banda.
070902 03:00-10:00 Torrential rain with headwind. Captain and crew, sleeping on steering deck, fly to floor inside, where captain thoroughly soaks under three streaming deck leaks. Stays warm under wet blankets and sleeps. No other victims, except some suffering the snoring of others.
Photo: abiding rainstorm (right: Dominic)
After rain and wind change off over port to Kalangala with NW 2-3, changing to S 2 exactly exactly when that allows us to gybe and go for the second leg over starboard. Hornbill Camp's Loek Verburg (NL) tows us for the last km S with his 40 Hp outboard, arrival 16:00.
Photo: full house: 16 head
070902 Parcel arrives, Brian brings it to Entebbe Golf Club where I go by ferry (3 hrs to 3 hrs fro) to collect it. No fun, but former dhow passenger Viola gets me through:
Photo: Viola
Worries over: we have Amp�re meter, pumps and medicine for
trip.
Back home Loek (Hornbill Camp Kalangala) welcomes me with
the Dutch treat "zure haring" ("sour herring", though the
"herring" is tilapia)
Photo: Sese Island's Loek Verburg's Dutch treat "zure haring"