Black Panther in Exile by Magnarella Paul J.;

Author:Magnarella, Paul J.; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 2020-02-17T20:00:00+00:00

Return to Life in Ngaramtoni

Now when we moved into this house on the hill, I didn’t know how you planted corn. I honestly didn’t. I didn’t know if you took the seeds and threw them across the ground, or if you dug a hole in there and stomped on the seed. There was a WaChagga man who laughed when I told him, “Don’t you take the corn and just throw it across the ground?” He said, “Oh, son. Listen. I’m a farmer. I’m going to bring my tractor up and show you how to do this.” So for the first time, we learned to farm. We learned to bring in huge crops (well, for four acres). I’ve had up to thirty one-hundred-kilo bags of corn in the storehouse. We harvested a mountain of beans. I’ll show you the pictures. I didn’t know how to mix cement. I tried to do it without sand. An Asian man told me I needed sand and had to mix it in certain proportions. Raising a chicken—in spite of my ideas that I tried to press on people in Algeria—I hadn’t the slightest idea about that. I thought Safeway provided chickens, thought they made them in the back room somehow. With help from others, we went into the chicken business. People helping us along the way.

This is part of the transformation that was taking place. How to learn to interact with people. How to learn to accept people not expecting anything from them. Not being fearful of what they wanted or what they might do to me. Accepting people for people. And that is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. My experiences in Tanzania with Tanzanian people, ironically, Tanzanians of all colors. Really. There are so many whites that have been here for generations. All of these people helped me. All of them said, “No, don’t do it that way, do it this way.” When the motor on my Volkswagen Variant burned up and I was without a car, the same WaChagga man said, “Well, listen, why don’t I loan you the money to buy a car.” He did. He gave me fifteen thousand shillings, a huge sum of money. I went and bought a nice Land Rover from some Europeans who were leaving. People were constantly helping. People were constantly pushing us. I would backslide. The negative baggage that you heard me refer to before was very much a part of me. Every now and then I’d have it and I’d get into some kind of hassle. But the lessons that I was learning in Tanzania served me well and eventually I was able to put a great deal of this behind me.

So Charlotte and I started there in the house on the hill. We became farmers. We made and sold cakes. We made birthday cakes. I’ve even made breakfast cereal. Would you believe I made things like Cheerios, where you stamp out each individual one! I’d then put them in plastic bags and sell them.

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