Lakuba

We pack frantically the morning of departure, Wednesday. Well we'll only be gone one day, but somehow my mom tries to make the mood in the house frantic anyhow. I sit on the bed reading Dry until one minutes before we are supposed to be leaving. I then go about and throw everything into my backpack. We leave only nine minutes late, and arrive at Tembo beach, where we are to get picked up, the boat is there but the people arrive shortly after the appointed time of 10. The water is calm as we start out, but more and more waves appear as we leave the shore behind us.
We pass close by some small rocky islands, one full of white birds another with black ones covering it, then we arrive at the island, Lakuba. When we get off the boat on the beach we are met by a white woman and a black man holding a tray with three glasses of deliciously tart orange juice. The beach is pristinely beautiful. Five small cabins with thatched rooves hide beneath the trees on the edge of the beach, and a hammock is strung between two of the trees, and three chairs are set up in the shade of another. The sand is coarse but comfortable to lie in, and birds of every kind fly around the trees and beach. We have it all to ourselves - we are the only guests. Then the monkeys come. little white monkeys with black faces and hands. The first one wanders down the beach toward us while we relax on the chairs and hammock. It pays us no attention and then slowly wanders off. Later there are at least eight on the beach, in the shade of the trees. Most of them keep their distance from us, but one fearlessly approaches me as I crouch to seem less intimidating. He comes within a metre of me. I have no food and am not very exciting to him, and he heads back to join his fellow monkeys.
The white woman that came to meet us when we arrived at the beach turned out to work there and she is a very funny person. A guide born in Zimbabwe, grew up in South Africa and has never lived in a city. She enjoys the word "freak" and I think she doesn't like people so much, though we got along with her well. She doesn't try to be funny usually, but she succeeds nonetheless. I can't really explain it.
On the island is also the first time we swim in the lake. That isn't because we haven't wanted to go swimming but because there is a parasite that is common on the shore of Lake Victoria here in Musoma. We have heard conflicting things about the parasite (it isn't a danger this time of year, it is dangerous to go swimming now; there is no danger of the parasite on Lakuba because of the currents, it is also dangerous on the island) but we know for sure that it is painful and potentially deadly, but completely treatable. Either way, I hope I didn't get it and if I did I hope there is a way to treat it in Chile.
The water was warm but not super warm like the ocean around Hawaii. There are many tall rocks right next to the water, and Evan was excited about the possibility of cliff jumping. Too bad it seems impossible to get on top of the good rocks. We went swimming from the beach and just sat on some warm, but low rocks while on a canoe trip to find good cliff jumping. Oh well.