By Deus Ngowi
BEING with Professor Jonathan Rubin and family for 48 hours or so, was more than a great class to my brother Adolph Simon Kivamwo and I.
Professor Jonathan, his wife Peggy, their children Hannah and David took all initiatives at opportune moments, all meant to make us happy and enjoy the weekend.
That was our host family, on the seventh through ninth day (Friday evening to Sunday evening) of our stay for USAID Tanzania Journalism Exchange Project 2009. The pet – Princes, turned out to be the talk of town to many who saw her, when hiking on Saturday.
Jonathan and Peggy would not sit down a minute, but rather go from a corner to another, to make sure things went the way they wanted; in favor of their visitors. Both happen to be staff at The Maine University, Jonathan being at The Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center and School of Economics.
On a fine Friday evening, that was July 10, 2009, while four of us, out of nine were waiting outside Edith Patch Hall, our place of residence for the three weeks we have at Orono, we noted a man in shorts emerging from a saloon car, having a small paper in his hand.
With quick steps, the man came to our direction, and started reading out our two names, with a bit of difficulty, no wonder it is because of their strange nature. We stood to greet him, and he showed that he had no time to waste. We were introduced by, and later bid farewell to Professor Paul Grosswiler, the Chair of Mass Communication and Journalism Faculty. We did not forget to wish the best of luck to our fellow journalists who were out there.
No sooner had we entered Jonathan’s car than he started narrating stories, but insisting that our shoes were not fit for hiking to the Beehive Mountain. We told him we would manage all the same, but he proved us wrong the next morning when we hiked there, thanks God he had got us other pairs.
Jonathan is a no nonsense man, he is quick and makes sure he is always in time and he fulfils his commitments well. Having dropped us at his home, 87 Wiley Street, Bangor, he took us round the house, which he says was built more than a 100 years ago and then rushes to a store.
A couple of minutes later finds him back at home, and at this juncture he is preparing dinner, the work he promised his wife to do for the rest of his life, since the day they tied knot. While we were upstairs at our rooms, he turned up again, this time saying family friends had arrived to share the rest of the day with us.
We go down and find two families, one of which (Lee’s) would accompany us the next day on hiking. The dinner is delicious and Jonathan is almost everywhere, asking, answering and elaborating matters from old days of French immigrants to those relating to Bushism and Obamaism.
When night approaches we agree that we should have rest and start the much awaited day by 08.30 a.m, and behold it turns out so on Saturday. Jonathan is on his shorts, a hut, bag with water containers and his pet, Princes. The great day had begun.
After arriving at The Mount Desert Island, Jonathan starts convincing us to climb Beehive Mountain by the steep slope way, which is a rather terrifying rout to some of us. Despite the fact that he had Princes to take up, he formed opinion that he could manage the steep slope route, saying it is fantastic and he hikes a lot there.
The discussion ended in consensus that Jonathan, Lee, Kivamwo and I, together with pets; Princes and Buster (Lee’s) would go the round way. It was not until we had climbed back, that Kivamwo informed me that he reached a point in the mountain when he thought of going back.
We came to establish the point in question, to be after hiking through some big rocks, and actually it was at such moments Jonathan was struggling to make sure Princess obeys his orders. Buster had no problem because of his smallness of size, hence easily manageable.
Princess has put up a lot of weight, so nobody but Jonathan can manage her through such a rough and mountainous route. Everybody on the way likes her, asks of her character and from where was she purchased. Jonathan does not leave a questioned unanswered, and he is proud of that of course. For the first time, I saw Jonathan pull up his bag, took out three bottles of water and gave us. We took a bit rest then we finished the rest part slowly, and made the history!
Another step, Jonathan hurriedly said, was to go to the beach. He insisted the two of us to take away our shoes, for it was ‘important’ to test the water of Atlantic, for her coldness and particularly newness to us. We did, before we embarked on eating, enjoying the bush before going to the Bar Harbor – an old, but inviting city at the coast, for the day could not end without traditional ice creams and what have you.
Once we were back home and after shower, Jonathan was already thinking of the next day ‘to dos’, but later bought our idea that it is good to attend Church services. He and Peggy took upon themselves to make sure that Kivamwo gets his Pentecostal Church sects, while myself had vowed that in no way could I not pray with my fellow conservative Roman Catholics, and we all did that, and in time too, thanks to Jonathan and Peggy!
But Jonathan did not give up heart after the ‘Church thing’ has cropped up, he insisted that after services still there was time to do this or that. Perhaps walking through the water with Princess or a bit (or lot) of biking. We resolved the matter for himself and Hannah biking up to a place where there was some sort of trade fair, and then to a coastal hotel for lunch, before going back home and packed to return to The Maine University. How could we miss being professors in that way, with such a man? I hope we are.
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