Making Family

Walking back through the market I saw the elderly man I had greeted earlier, the alley ways, lined with stalls were closing down for the evening and I moved to one side to let him pass. He grabbed my hand. Not like an offender would grab a woman, but like a father would hold his girl’s hand. Firm, but loving. ‘How are you baba?’ I greet him again, calling him father. He does not stop holding my hand as he begins to welcome and question me. How am I? Why do I know Swahili? Where do I stay? I ask him questions in return. He is looking intensely at me. I feel utterly at comfort with this old man, his hand gripped in mine. He tells me I should teach Swahili. I tell him I am confused at the moment, unsure of my course of work. He squeezes my hand and opens his eyes wide, “What is your true Desire?” He asks emphatically, this time in English. “What do you want to do?” I answer him with words, but really there is a conversation going on underneath. He really does feel like family. He is treating me like his daughter, or his niece. He is making me feel special and able, and my love of his language and culture is making him feel radiant. The sun is going down, the market is slowing. Instead of saying goodbye we both announce that we are happy and we thank each other. It is my first day in Kigoma, I have been here for only a few hours.

Kigoma is on the north eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, the deepest lake in Africa and the longest freshwater lake in the world (although I don’t have running water in my hotel today;). The Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Zambia also share borders along its shore, and that is why Kigoma has become a major transit for and home to countless refugees hailing from conflict areas in the region. Presently there are only two camps left, in towns just north of here and a refugee transit center in town. Yet, the presence of aid workers, the UN and refugee organizations are still distinctly visible. Within my first few hours here I saw upward of five white land cruisers bearing the emblem of the UNHCR, The United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The area seems rife with various types of aid, conservation efforts as well as missionaries, especially from Germany and America.

Although there has long been a foreign presence here, dating back to the famed Dr. Livingstone in 1886, the area remains rather undeveloped, mostly due to its isolation. Apart from missionaries and aid workers, there is one other group of people that hold increasing interest in the region – the Chinese. I sat next to three Chinese on the plane ride over from Dar es Salaam, one of them spoke to me; He has been in Tanzania for 10 years, but doesn’t like it, he is in the lumber business, buying a hard wood from Tabora in Western Tanzania to sell for first-rate furniture in China. In Arusha as well the Chinese are visibly funding the construction of a brand new road that will lead to Nairobi. There was an effort to bring more electricity to this area, however, nothing has gone forward due to protection of innumerable species endemic to the Lake.

Luckily one of the stronghold personalities of this area is Jane Goodall, not only does she have her famous research center at Gombe stream, but she also has an educational institute and a branch of Roots and Shoots here. Her revolutionary work as a primatologist and environmental protection work has likely established a conservation mentality here. While I am so close I hope to be able to visit Gombe Stream, the area where Goodall commenced her work with chimpanzees, though it remains Tanzania’s most out of reach and expensive park – So, I’m looking for the best option in order to make it work. Where there is a will, there is a way. Either way, I know I am in the right place. The complex, fascinating and welcoming community, the presence of aid workers and missionaries and the breathtaking view from my hotel room, overlooking a lake with such reach that it could be a sea – though, if you squint, the mountains of the DRC paint the horizon with a soft blue. Three shades of the same hue, eggshell blue sky, mountain blue meets ocean. All surrounded by vibrant greens hillsides, which are fed with veins of red earth pathways and roads. There is a great deal to investigate.