Michael's grandparents, Michael and Maria Kikumbo, (bibi and babu) had lived with their seven daughters (Maria, Joyce, Lucia, Regina, Rebekah, Rosa and Upendo) in Tazengwa (Nzega-Tabora region). Only five are left now: Michael’s mother Maria died in 2000, and Rebekah died of snake bite last year, aged 33. She was still at bibi's, having never married, due to being mentally handicapped and epileptic.
Rosa moved away ten years ago when she got married, Regina lives in Singida, Joyce in Igunga, the other two are still in Nzega.
Last April, just one week after starting his English course in Moshi, Michael was taken to hospital. After a day there, he was transferred to the large Christian hospital, KCMC, where he had a hernia operation. When he phoned his aunt, she was SO upset to hear his quavering voice saying, “Mama, I’m so weak” – this really upset me too! She went by bus to Moshi to try to find him, it took all day! It’s a very large hospital, over 1,000 patients, with many wings & floors, and is built into a hill with entrances on at least two floors, which caused confusion when people tried to give her directions. She was just about to give up & go home when she decided to try just once more time – success at last! Michael was SO pleased to see a relative, although the director of his school had been looking after him. Over there you need people to bring you food and to wash your clothes, hospitals don't do this as a rule, although they found out that KCMC will provide some services for a fee. As it wasn’t too expensive, they made use of this. He was there for two weeks, then spent a month at Rosa’s before being well enough to return to Moshi to start his course all over again.
One of her husband’s first wife’s sons (aged in his 30's) had died when Michael was in hospital, and is buried in the nearby public graveyard. Rebekah also died about this time, so it was a very difficult month for the family.
Michael returned, saying we could do our laundry. He and Bruce started washing outside, I washed our undies inside throwing the dirty water down the choo. I was pleasantly surprised to be told I could hang them outside, as usually you put them in your bedroom, it's offensive to air them in public! The guys were still busy soaping up when I went back outside to hang mine on a clothes line near the cattle pens. I was slightly embarrassed but also amused to see that Michael was washing all my clothes, not Bruce’s! When I joined in, we formed a production line – Michael sudsing, Bruce doing the 1st rinse, myself the other two! We had fun measuring our hands against each others’- Michael’s are just slightly larger than mine, but Bruce’s are much larger than both! Michael refused our help with his washing as he only had a few to do.
Whilst lunch was being prepared, we sat outside chatting about the political systems of Tanzania & NZ – challenging talking re proportional representation in Kiswahili! At once stage I completely lost my train of thought, it took a while to find where I'd got to again! Very embarrassing!
Some monkeys started jumping and swinging through the trees towards the stream, the old male coming last - they were fun to watch but were very obscured by leaves & branches so I didn’t get the camera – then one walked near our tree! GRR!
Lunch was ugali, mchuzi + sukuma wiki – a kind of kale cut up very finely - followed by oranges. The topic was the drought in Kiswani – some people are eating uji once a day like the Maasai. The rains started as usual so they planted maize; then the rains stopped and the maize withered up once it reached 1'. Some people are getting food in the mountains, but it’s too far to take the cattle: they cut/carry from the bush.
After lunch, we talked politics again indoors, then outside under a tree we talked about the different foods grown in NZ & Tanzania. One grown near Tazengwa has a leaf that elongates greatly if you roll it between your hands. As there's only one rainy season down there (Dec-March), they have to preserve food well to last till the next one. Sweet potatoes are cleaned and peeled, boiled, then sliced up very finely before being dried in the sunshine. They are stored in the dark in sacks.
Later on, we went for a walk, but couldn't use the stream-crossing near the house as some men were bathing there. Michael had suddenly turned back, saying we’d better go another way because some men were bathing and "I wasn’t used to it!" Too true! Crossing the stream higher up, we followed a track leading to the dirt road up the mountains - Michael mdogo’s school is up there, passing tall trees + bush. It was nice & green up the mountains, but the flats were dry. Michael pointed out some of the more interesting types of tree including a kapok tree. He used to collect the huge seed pods in Tazengwa when he was young, filling sacks with 10-20 kgs of down to get 200 Tsh; it takes a very long time and is very bad for the lungs. Date, oil & coconut palms grow here, Bruce was very surprised to see coconuts away from the coast.
We didn’t manage to get high enough to get a good view of Kiswani, Bruce got puffed before we cleared the tree line. On the way back down, we took pics of and from the rice paddies.We met little Michael & Frank on the way home, dragging an old tyre that they’d been playing with. Michael wanted to hold Michael's hand, but annoyed him by dawdling, and ended up holding mine. I praised him for being so well-behaved, he gets told off so often as he tends to get into mischief, his hands are always busy! It was nice he was feeling friendly today, the day before he'd been so shy he wouldn't come close.
We went through the village to visit Michael mdogo’s aunt, then his grandfather – but he was out. His grandmother was too sick to be visited. I greeted some mamas plaiting hair, they wanted to do mine too!
At the bridge, Bruce was pestered by an old beggar & a strange-looking lady who got annoyed because he wouldn’t answer her. Just as well he didn’t understand, she wanted to go home with him or have him go to her place!
Outside the guesthouse, we greeted a young Maasai we’d seen the day before. Unfortunately it soon became apparent he was drunk and also sniffing something off his fingers! He invited us to have a soda, so I went over to Michael, who was sitting on the steps watching, to tell him what was going on. He came over, stressing that we only drink soda, not beer. He went off, saying he’d be back soon. The miller came over, inviting us to his place - but we didn’t get a chance to go. He showed us the dried cassava he was making into flour, I thought he was grinding stones! In the mornings we would see schoolgirls dropping off small bags of grain or cassava. Some had bikes and would leave them in a rack there.
I was very glad when Michael said it was time to go to bathe & still no sign of our Maasai friend!
We were met by a young girl near Rosa's, she went off with Michael & he came back carrying a ladder. The fundis had arrived to fix the electricity! It seemed rather late to be climbing up in the semi-dark - it was nearly 7 p.m.
Michael went to the jiko to discuss something with Rosa, then came back to tell us the news - he was so surprised when I said I’d already understood, as they’d been speaking in Kisukuma not Kiswahili! No wonder I’d been a bit puzzled about some of the words! It caused a lot of laughter! They’d decided we should take some hot water over to the guesthouse to bathe as the water there would be too cold. They wanted us to be able to see what we were doing!
Well, our power went off just as I finished dressing in the bafu. Fortunately I was able to find the bed without tripping over. The lights soon came back on so Bruce was able to bathe without any problems at all.
Michael was most concerned when he came back in case we’d been inconvenienced, then asked us to wait on the sofa. At 8.45 along came Michael & Rosa bearing pots of food + a large basket of plates. But they’d forgotten water, a stool and a table! It was very nice: rice, chicken, bananas & spinach; Michael loves rice & bananas! We talked till Jeremia phoned at 10, we went to bed so Michael could ring him back.
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