last days in Pemba

We are coming down to our final days in Pemba. Juma and I (Sarah) plan to leave Saturday, so I can get some final work done on the other island, Unguja, before we head home to Baltimore. Justin will stay in Pemba until the last couple days so he can get in as much work here as possible.

So how are we spending our days here in Pemba?

Juma has homeschool. Each morning, I write his "schedule" on the chalkboard (which Justin painted onto the wall of the dining room which we use as an office/school room). Today, his assignments are reading, writing, punctuation, math, science, art, geography, and PE. He can do pretty much anything he wants (within reason and safety, of course) except things involving electronics (Wii, movies, iPhone games) until he gets his school work done. Once his work is done, he can watch a movie, play Wii, etc. I also make him take breaks between electronic entertainment so he's not glued to a screen all afternoon. By noon or so, he's generally finished school. In the late afternoon, Justin takes him to "tennis," the basketball court. There, he plays with the neighborhood boys--soccer, soldiers, spies, whatever they come up with without having to communicate using actual language. You see, Juma knows only a few words of Swahili, even after almost 7 months here. He's really resisted learning it. His little form of rebellion, I guess.



I, Sarah, have work which I can do mostly at home on a computer. Today, I'm in the process of translating a group discussion about reproductive health that my research team conducted back in March. I am also supervising two Zanzibari and two ex-pat research assistants back in Unguja while they continue work on our project. They are why I need to return to Unguja before we head back to the States. I've got to wrap up all the completed work, make sure electronic copies of all data exist and take them with me, close up our office, and transfer the last remaining supervisory role to one of the ex-pats. Our project will continue interviewing some women through December. (Writing this just reminded me I'd better check up with the research assistants. Just sent them all text messages.) Some days, I go out to hospitals and gather statistics and interview doctors and nurses. Those days, I drag Juma along with me, which he hates, but, hey, we don't have a babysitter, and Justin is almost always gone.



Why is Justin almost always gone? He takes his motorcycle (when it's running; he takes a local daladala bus when it's not) out to various villages all over the island of Pemba to interview people who were around in the 1960's and early 1970's. That is when the archipelago got independence from Britain, then the losing party overthrew the ruling party on Unguja and proceeded to punish Pembans for being members of the overthrown party. That revolution has shaped Zanzibari political, economic, and social life ever since, but no one has ever written about those changes in Pemba. Justin is the first. Pretty cool, eh? Justin gets back in the late afternoon, goes and plays basketball, then hangs out with us at home. Busy, busy, busy.