Ton
How to get your school fees when you are 68

Ton Bronkhorst (68) has a problem: because he recently got two children, now 1 and 4, his Dutch old age pension does not reach to meet costs of his family, most notably the school fees. Hence three years ago, he started to build a 25 m laminated  wood catamaran with two 700 Hp engines for transport of up to 200 passengers Mwanza-Bukoba-Mwanza. During my visit 10 days ago he was trying to launch it on a DAF deeploader, over concrete blocs put on the sand in the lake, but got blocked for days by big waves.

Photo: six days stuck on the concrete plates of the launching slope due to heavy waves (For the Dutch readers: "even Apeldoorn bellen")

On our arrival at Ton's beach, the ferry had been launched and the truck was safely back on land:

Photo: Ton's beach left to right (use down scrollbar of this window the see extreme right border). Yellow arrow: deep loader used for launching.

Photo: Mary Vincent, Ton and Tonia for lunch at Saa Moja, ferry Kipepeo just launched and afloat!

Meanwhile we were receiving an old friend of ours, Annemarie, recovering from her divorce.

Photo: Captain receiving Annemarie, recovering from her divorce, with warm care. Under the lodge garden table, others decide to take a free ride on this atmosphere of security

African divorces are about drinking, too much, and beating wives too much. Beating your wife too much to African standards implies at least more than one hospital visit. Dutch divorces, on the other hand, are usually physically entirely peaceful, read like satiric novels, but are of course unfortunately off the web site's record.
Meanwhile Ton open-handedly put cars at my disposal for jobs.
In town I unfortunately  encountered the owner of the Kamkala Synnautics staff house, who knew was was kicked out Tanzania last time and asked whether it had been Gerald paying Mwanza Immigration to do so. I answered Gerald certainly had stolen enough money from me to do so, and a clear interest, but that I had no further information and Immigration had money desires of their own frustrated enough to sport grudges. Later I hear that now Jane's brothers Victor and Gerald are not anymore working for Kamkala Synnautics, and in court, on Jane's initiative. I found Victor, now taxi driver and he told the charge was attempted murder on her boyfriend, their "brother in law" and boss Kees. A hard case for Jane to win. Murder is difficult enough, to win a attempted murder-charge in my view requires more money than poverty stricken Kamkala Synnautics, stuffed with debts all over town, can raise (index to the whole story). Another story of Jane: when her former Mzungu boyfriend wanted to quit she threw a bottle at the officially required portrait of the president in his boyfriend's office and called police. Three days later the man was kicked out Tanzania. She also tried Ton Bronkhorst, but failed.

[Note inserted 2009: Jane now reportedly died, of natural causes, it is said]

With Annemarie I visited my favourite Mwanza restaurant KK, but the 20 year or so Swiss volunteer girl had gone and the whole place run down to African food and loud music.
Conforming African business, the canoe we ordered 13 days ago to be finished in one week, sported only a keel and bottom part of some ribs, and more money now was needed than the 2/3 advance already paid. The usual disaster (Go To: Perfect Inertia, Towards A General Model Of African Business Planning). But Philemon told me not to worry and give the guy another TSh 100 000. I did.