Customer Reviews

The Ponds of Kalambayi

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are not many books about the Peace Corps experience in central Africa, but despite the lack of competition "The Ponds of Kalambayi" by Mike Tidwell is an outstanding book, much deserving more attention. Many Westerners feel the need to write a book after traveling or living in Africa, some actually do, but few write a good book; here is the exception: this is a very good book. In the mid-1980s Tidwell worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in the very center of Africa, rural then-Zaire (later Congo or "Congo-Kinshasa"). This published account of his experience is thoughtful and honest and his prose writing and story-telling skills are excellent. He shares valuable insights into the daily lives, culture, and history of the villagers whom he taught fish farming and lived and worked with for two years. As expected, Tidwell documents the joys, sorrows, and travails of aquaculture, but that is only part of this book. He also writes about his faithful household employee; drinking; sickness and recovery, or death; hunting; poverty; marriage, family life, and children; cotton farming; diamond mining; and a hundred other things. Equally engaging and important is his description of the effects his experience had on him, physically, mentally, and emotionally. This book is an excellent choice for anyone with an interest in the Peace Corps, Africa, or Tilapia.

Having lived and worked in Africa, one of the hardest things to convey to people who have not been there, is how despite poverty and other hardships, Africa is not a sad place. This book does a great job of explaining the beauty and strength of Africa and its people. It also shows that people have good sound reasons for doing what to us initially may seem crazy and irrational. Tidwell's book also does a great job of showing the impact that Africa has on the people who go there. His honesty and examination of both himself and the people he lives with make this book a winner.

A great book for anyone with an interest in either the Peace Corp or living/travelling in Africa. The author's observations about life and work in Zaire were fascinating. Highly recommended!

As a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in francophone Africa (Gabon - 89-91), Mike Tidwell captures the experience better than any other Peace Corps writer I've read. Contrast this book with the Village of Waiting (George Packer) and you'll see what I mean. He also is a master story teller and offers a lot for anyone interested in Africa.

Mike Tidwell's memoir of his two years of Peace Corp work teaching villagers to build fish ponds is about so much more than that. He writes so honestly about what he learned from working closely with his African neighbors and how he came to understand their generosity from an African perspective as opposed to his American perspective. He has so many adventures with the men the Kalambayi region that each chapter taught me something new. Mike shares his doubts about himself and those he works with. He confesses his errors and shares his times of despondency. But all in all I think he feels the way that I do...living in Africa as an American is the best education because you are forever changed...your world of thought is so much larger. I wanted the story to go on and on because every evening I looked forward to being with Mike's world in Zaire.

Having just returned from a trip to southern Africa, I found myself nodding in agreement with many of Tidwell's keen observation of Africa. I was most impressed with his candor and compassion, and his obvious love for the continent of Africa and its people. The book communicates very well the kind of heartbreaking beauty and misery that coexists spectacularly in Africa. Highly recommended.

I am full of admiration for the success the author had with his fishponds despite the local culture. I was also impressed by his honesty in talking about his lonliness and growing addiction to the local "poison". A very enjoyable book.

I think Peace Corps Volunteers and those who are thinking of going overseas will enjoy reading this book. I am not sure how interesting it would be for someone who has not had the Peace Corps experience, however. It really held my interest and I read it straight through which is unusual for me to do. I served in Malaysia but did have the opportunity to travel for a couple months through east and north Africa. I have never been to West Africa so I was curious as to what the Peace Corps experience was like there. This book answered those questions. Having experienced my own unique psychologically-oriented Peace Corps training situation, I really enjoyed his description of the extremely wacky training he had. As I read the book, I could see that there was a real method to the training madness. The trainer knew that only a true self-starter would survive, and extreme measures were needed to sort out those people because healthwise they were going to a dangerous place. Tidwell describes very nicely how he slowly began to perceive the real differences between African reliance on the family as compared to the U.S. Even his going away party was a learning cultural experience! Tidwell is also refreshingly frank in describing the role alcohol played for him and how it differed from the role it played in African culture. He went to teach Africans how to build fish ponds and received some rather unexpected instruction about himself.

After deciding that I wanted to apply to the Peace Corps, I began doing online and literary research on the experience as a whole. I bought this book, totally uninterested in how a Caucasion man in Africa would learn to adapt to the local culture and thus be successful at showing the (willing) villagers how to raise "fish farms." Needless to say, this book never has a dull moment, which is a major shock for me. Although he doesn't talk much about the Peace Corps (if at all), he does constantly touch on the topics of attempting to shed his American normalities/viewpoints and just plain adapting to life in his African villages. His cultural adaptation and the frustrations that come along with teaching the locals about fish farming are just two things that make this book a page turner.

Mike Tidwell's "The Ponds of Kalambayi: An African Sojourn" is an interesting account of his trials and tribulations living in Zaire. He starts out a wide eyed foreigner ready to solve poverty and then comes to realize ugly truths. His fight with constant sickness, native's mistrust, and universal poverty/death is startling.

Yet even when surrounded by a sense of fatalism he moves on and tries to help the lives of the poorest. His ponds do not promise prosperity but they do promise sustenance.

Tidwell may not be Superman but he is a hero in my book.