Saturday 18th July Sunny with a very cold wind: we wore sweaters in the morning! Breakfast was bread, bananas + cold chicken, Michael said it was like a feast day! We talked re family trees + our different naming systems which are a bit tricky to get used to!
Afterwards it was time to repair the old bafu: Umoja (unity) & Fun! We first made strips of bark from two types of branches, Michael was splitting them in half, I was peeling off the bark. Ibrahim was helping too - he's one of Regina's sons and lives with bibi, he's probably about 10 years old. Bruce was indoors, not sure what he was doing.
Once we had quite a pile of kamba, we helped Michael repair the frame. Ibrahim and I held new branches in place whilst Michael tied them to the vertical frame with kamba. Piece by piece, old bundles of grass were replaced by new, Ibrahim binding this time. As he decided we needed stronger ties for the frame, Michael went to cut branches off an oil palm, using the midribs. They look nice, having pale green stripes on darker green. I was sent to talk with bibi, until some of the girls turned up to help prepare mchicha (spinach) - then I went back with the camera to check building progress and found that Bruce was now helping.
More kamba was needed, so I had to learn to split the branches exactly down the middle, a lot harder than it sounds, and one variety was quite tricky! The men extended the frame on one side of door to better conceal the occupant on windy days – there’s a kanga curtain in the doorway only.
Once they'd finished, I helped Michael remove the stones from the inside (because of scorpions), which we replaced after sweeping out the bafu.
After a good lunch just after 2 of beef/mchicha/ugali & bananas, Michael and I spent the next two hours chatting whilst Bruce rested: African affairs, NZ visas, leadership & aid corruption, his need of a wife. He estimates that only 10% aid gets to the people who need it, so countries are unwilling to help.
Once Bruce came back outside, we went for a walk around the 6-acre shamba, to see the boundaries. It must take hours to prepare for planting in December when the rainy season starts. The place where babu, Michael’s mother & aunt are buried was pointed out. The family also has another shamba for maize & a third for rice, just across the road.
Martha (M. Lucia's oldest daughter)was busy pounding rice in a large painted wooden mortar to remove the husks, so that bibi could cook it for tea once the chaff/dirt was removed. Maria (her sister), Ibrahim and Editha (Mama Joyce’s eldest daughter who also lives with bibi) just stood around while bibi went off to get water - I was a bit annoyed, because Editha & Ibrahim are supposed to help her with chores when they’re not at school.
After bathing, we went for a walk into the village to visit Michael’s pastor Jonas Kulwa, greeting a group of people sitting on a mat outside a house on the way, some of whom were more relatives! We followed one of them, a very friendly lady, to a nearby house which had a small shop in the front room. We were very surprised as Michael had said nothing about going shopping! The reason was to buy us all jandals for bathing as we’d been borrowing other people’s, but we also added a few other essentials for our stay: soap, laundry powder, a biro, matches, some sweets for little Michael, + toilet paper. After briefly visiting the pastor’s, we returned to bibi’s for tea.
It was exciting when Mama Joyce and her other daughter (another Maria!) arrived from Igunga after tea. She’s a seamstress, probably unmarried as she uses her maiden name Kikumbo, but said the girls’ father is in Moshi. As Mama Lucia came round with her four girls, the living room was very crowded! She told us to give her our washing in the morning, she knew we hadn't had time to do any just yet. I was a bit reluctant as it would be a Sunday!
We were sent off to get ready for bed, but it was hard to get to sleep as everyone was talking just through the wall and there are no ceilings. Every time someone went outside or came back indoors, the door would squeak and bang. Eventually it got quiet and I started going to sleep at last.
However, I didn't manage it - bibi & Mama Joyce started talking again, a lamp was lit, I could hear the twig broom sweeping, and even heard a fire being lit outside! Quite mystifying + terribly annoying; my eyes & head were so sore from being awake for so long. I knew bibi wasn't senile, she'd seemed perfectly sane the day before, so I started to think perhaps she was an insomniac, & was worried about the house being clean for Sunday! I was shocked when she woke up Michael, it seemed most unfair! Once everything quietened down again, I DID get to sleep.
Suddenly I woke up again, Bruce was fidgeting around in bed, exclaiming “Yuk”! I thought his rash had come back as we’d had beans for tea! However, he switched on the torch and said there were ants swarming everywhere, even in the bed biting his legs – they soon found me too. Not having my glasses handy, I was pretty helpless and could only see dark swathes roiling on the floor and had no idea where the ants were in the bed. Fortunately Bruce managed to stretch across the room to get them so we stood on the bed stomping up & down, brushing our legs.
Michael called out, “Kuna wadudu?” (Are there insects?) “Ndiyo, siafu, mahali pote hata kitandani!”(Yes, safari ants everywhere, even in the bed!) He came in to see, saying we’d better go outside for a bit. We eagerly agreed, gingerly reaching out for our jandals, stepping onto them brushing off the ants & squashing as many as possible, stamping all the time! Bruce managed to grab a shirt, I had only a nightie on and didn't have time to rummage in my bag! I was glad it was dark, and dear Bruce lent me his shirt when I started feeling cold.
Bibi started sweeping ants outside with a twig broom dipped in kerosene/ashes, into a fire that was lit for the purpose. Michael lit bundles of grass, sizzling up the rest on the floor. Soon we were allowed back to bed - but we saw more hiding under/in it. So the process was repeated, we even had to do it a third time as no-one had checked under our bags!
By now it was 6 a.m., only a brief last attempt to get some sleep. Bruce seemed OK, but after I got bitten another 3 times by an ant that had escaped, I got dressed & dozed in the sitting room until everyone got up to make breakfast half an hour later! Talk of being worn out! We found out that the first attack had been at 2 a.m.!
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