Sunday morning saw me lousily reading a book on a tombstone in the garden of the house. Gosh, I was still sleepy and so wanted to linger in bed a little more, especially after a late night out the previous day .....time was slowly ticking away and yet no one was around. I called Sada at 9.30am then suddenly, everyone was there. Shoot! I keep forgetting, Africa time!!!
Anyways, we estimated the number of required ceiling boards, nails, wooden beams etc etc ... Mmmm getting pretty good in construction works, I thought .... then headed to Boharti - a little village between Sanawari and Arusha town. Paul (our neighbour) had told us about a good hardware store in those whereabouts. And glad he did cause we got better prices without the need to bargain to much.
Musa found a 'mago' - a one-man drawn cart on wheels - and loaded it with the new wooden beams we got from an open-air warehouse and the stuff we bought from the hardware store. At least I managed to stick to a TZS100,000 budget and not only got the necessities but managed another three cement bags, despite Moses' mystic extra one which never seemed to become real!!! By that time, I was overly done with him. I was too busy getting things done to find the nerve to reproach him again except to fetch him the next day for another receipt to cover off yet another month's worth of rent.
Work was still heavily underway, and there was no way that I'd see those kids attending their new school the next day or even over the coming couple of weeks. Oh, if only Moses had had started a week and a half before as agreed and planned......but hey, projects are not one-man (or should I say woman!) based, unfortunately!!!
I couldn't believe I was about to leave, I mean not like that, bang in the middle of it all. It wasn't me to 'abandon' a project like that. But I was confined to dates, planes, and other places on my African itinerary. I still felt I should move on despite the Mama's daring questions of should I be staying? Anyways, I won't be here to see the children's first-day-at-school glee but I still wanted them to party on my last day with them :)
That Sunday afternoon, Sada invited me over to her place for lunch. And what a lunch!! I told her I was vegetarian to avoid eating any meat and she went and bought a whole chicken in my occasion! Oh, so sweet I thought. Yep, until I say the beak and the claws being stirred in with all the other parts in a massive pot!!!! I had had to explain that chicken being poultry, is also meat which I do not eat. Ok, I know I lied but my stomach churned and I forgot how hungry I was at that sight. Funnily enough, Mama Asteria still put a drumstick in my plate and when she saw I didn't touch it she replaced it with a big piece of liver, the end part which looked like the upper part of the inner beak!!! ok, maybe I was imagining things by that point but still managed to eat the cooking bananas, chopped tomatoes with cucumber and rice. After our late lunch, Sada cooked some ugali (stiff porridge, see photo above) with vegetables (!) for the fundi to take back to the house. I headed off home quite tired and looking forward to a quiet Sunday afternoon with tea & biscuits, oh no, chocolate!!! ...next....a tearful farewell !
luv
Nik
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PS: re photo; everyone is welcome in Sada's little house including a kitten and a goose!! Here you see them playing 'cat & dog' over Mama's foot :) !!!
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