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Getting hooked in Pemba Island Place: Pemba, Tanzania, East Africa, Tanzania Tags: pemba, fishing, fishing story |
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I was sailing around Pemba a few years ago with mom and dad. My mom is a genius fisherperson and we had just finished fishing. I handed her the rod and a lure on the line hooked my index finger.
The guys from the boat next door came over - a bunch of Aussies who knew everything about everything. They suggested I do the "old trick" of tying a piece of fishing line to the hook and just yanking it out. The barb was about the size of my fingernail so I told them what they could do with their idea.
It was about 5pm and we were a few miles from the nearest town with a surgery, so we did some of the most interesting navigation we've ever done. Sailing over bommies (coral heads) less than 3 feet deep during twilight and eventually darkness into a port we'd never been to.
Anyway, eventually we made it and arrived at the surgery. There was a guy sitting in white robes outside (large muslim community in this area) and sand on the floor of the surgery.
Eventually I realised the guy sitting on the sidewalk was the doctor. His name was Ali Habibu. I was nervous as hell because he was going to slice open my finger and yank out a large piece of steel. But as I was lying on the table all numbed up, he looked me straight in the eye and said "Mark, everything is going to be OK."
Sure it wasn't such a bad injury and I'm really making a mountain out of a mole hill here. But I guess that will stay with me. After having a hook stuck in my fingers for hours, putting my mom and dad through some of the hairiest sailing they've done and arriving in a very third world town to a surgery with a sandy floor, this guy looks me in the eye and tells me with such conviction that everything is going to be fine - and it instantly was.
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Ouch!! Makes my fingers tingle looking at the hook:)
Posted by: anne | Sat Nov 11 @ 12:08 PM