Ruanga
Philemon's home village in Majita

071005 07:00 To Ruanga, Philemon's home village in Majita. No wind. We float out of "The Box" and get regular E 1 freshening to 3. North until 10:15 zero velocity made good, then anchor. 14:15 Wind turns N 3-4 we lift, but winch wire breaks half way. Captain, for safety holding main halyard for 1.5 now during lifting, finally saves lives with it. Philemon wants to try three men manual lifting with halyard. I will pull through under deck. To my surprise it works! But we had many options: spare steel wire, a spare winch, and a ladder to reach the winch's tying point up the mast even in high waves. But now, I had only to tie a spare steel wire to the winch. The cause is that the wire had started to cut its way in a deck beam, thus wearing on the hard wood.
After repair, captain had great difficulties not to `make a fool of himself and inspect the hold to see if we had not overlooked a full bottle of beer (beer, everybody knew, was finished) 13 km/hrs straight to target, arriving 16:50.

Photo: Mooring site Ruanga

While storing the beer bought in in the village, we actually found a full bottle (Nile Special, still from Uganda) in the hold!

Photo: Philemon's (and Kos') family. Left on chair: father, extreme right; mother, sitting next to father: aunt ("mother") with foot infection, background: the usual unfinished house

Family and family stories
Philemon's father Amos is drinking 7x24, cheap local alcohol, no fun to swallow, but it gets you drunk. With an unsteady step and a joyful grin he keeps a bit aware of his surroundings, his brains are clearly above average. As a boy he was not supposed to go to school like his brother Erekana and tend the cows. The schoolteacher got impressed by him and since the drinking place for the cows was near school, Amos got some help learning school subjects like reading, writing and calculation.  Erekana passed the final exams of secondary school, but there was no job for him. Amos stole Erekana's certificate, went to Mwanza in his herdsman country clothes, posed as Erekana and got recruited for police. After his police training he went home in his uniform and returned the certificate to his brother. Everybody was very proud of him. Amos, now called Erekana everywhere, made a good career, ending as Mwanza's chief inspector of vehicles. Meanwhile Erekana found a job in mining, but the copies of the certificates did not cross until today. Amos retired in Majita, Erekana in Dar es Salaam. Amos does not want his sons to become police since, to his expert judgment (after all, he is a professional policeman!) nowadays it has become too dangerous to take bribes.
One day Amos came home with a lot coin money. Philemon, then 17, heard the sound and asked for some to buy exercise books.
No, Amos said, you can not have this money. Then he put coins two meter high in the gutter and left, a completely unusual way of doing.. Philemon decided to stay there. They  had been alone there together and he felt he should be accused of theft if the coins would disappear. Philemon guarded the coins for five hours continuously. Then his father came back. He said: what are you doing here? Philemon explained. Then his father said: take the money and buy your exercise books.
Later, Amos, gave, at Mwanza police office, his full new salary to Philemon and said: you go home and take care of every thing: if charcoal is needed: pay. If kerosene is needed, pay. Philemon went home to the village, but he did not have to pay much: friends and neighbours traveling from Musoma brought very many necessities. After the month was over Philemon had retained more than half of the money. After his his father had returned he asked Philemon some money for drinking in the bar. Philemon gave him. The next day Amos wanted to give Philemon the next salary with the same instruction but Philemon said he could not be family treasurer because he would be far at school. And Philemon gave his father the money he had saved in the previous month. His father gave him all this money so in his school town Musoma, Philemon had to open a bank account to deposit it safely.
Recently Amos came back from the bar on hands and feet, "like a  chimpanzee" as Philemon put it. One of his daughters expressed herself contemptuously and wondered loudly if father now did not see it was better to stop drinking, barely believing he would hear, let alone remember it. The next morning father called together all his sons and daughters: "Everybody who thinks he is my child should come now". Then he talked thus to the daughter who had abused him: now what do you think: "I was already drinking when you were not yet on this earth. Did I raise you even to have children yourself and to think you can make me stop drinking? Even my parents failed to stop me. Now you think you can? Now put this out of your head. And just nobody should ever abuse me, it is not nice. That is all. You can go."
Meeting ended.
The sister in law of Philemon's mother, also living on the compound has a badly festering ankle diagnosed as the lymph metastasis of a lung cancer "released for terminal care".  That means: just sent home. No drugs, no local professional assistance. There is pain, of course.
With her drunken husband and sick sister in law, Philemon is pitying his mother a bit and did a lot of work to get their unfinished new brick house, as you find them everywhere in Africa, to the stage of being roofed.

Photo: kraal from where little Philemon would lead his cows

Photo: calves (and goats) sleep inside houses not to be taken by hyena's. In the night you hear them (sound).

Photo: bad village cake (maandasi) caused captain an uncomfortable night

Photo: The beach scenery is like this to all sides. If I scratch my ear you hear murmuring everywhere "the mzungu is scratching his ear".  When they think the mzungu is looking, the naked girls start giggling and shaking their mighty breasts and bottoms.

Photo: A lake fly cloud, developed on the lake, blows on land behind us