A walk to the church and a death in the neighbourhood

Friday April 1st
The day started off quite windy which made it quite cold. It was really gloomy, wet and thundery from early on till about 2 pm. This made it hard for mama to get a fire going in the jiko, so we didn’t have breakfast until 11 am. It was the usual cold rice and hot chai. I first noticed a rather large yellow stain on the big bowl of rice in the middle of the table, and thought that either mama had used the mchuzi spoon to get it out of the pot the night before – or perhaps there was a more sinister reason. I made sure that I selected rice from another part of the bowl. However, I didn’t notice something rather nasty until I looked down at my bowl, ready to eat. There were mouse droppings in the rice! Bruce noticed my reluctance to start eating, and threw one of the offending items out the window, unfortunately drawing pastor’s attention to the problem. I left a small portion on the edge of my plate containing another unwanted addition to my meal! I must admit it was rather hard to eat the rest!
Once the weather cleared in the afternoon, we did our washing and then walked up the hill to the church to have a look around. I was really glad that I had enough energy to climb the steep hill – I had thought of trying a short walk on the flat the day before but a good opportunity hadn’t really presented itself. We went round the back of the new building to where the old one used to be, and found the site completely overgrown, covered in young trees, cassava and passionfruit vines.
The new building has been surrounded by young pine trees to act as a windbreak, but we thought they had been planted far too close to it for safety. They say that the winds can be strong enough to lift off a roof if you build on the hilltops of Bumbire, but you don’t really want the branches close enough to touch the roof or to fall on top of it.
As we turned away from the site, we were amused at the antics of a long-tailed bird we had observed on previous occasions, but never so close at hand. It has quite a small body, but has the longest tail i have ever seen on a bird that size. It uses it to counterbalance itself when feeding on the tops of the long grass stems that can grow to nearly 2 metres high. It flew ahead of us along the church’s drive to the main path along the crest of the hill, but then turned away. We were quite disappointed, but really thrilled to have seen it so close to us.
There seemed to be many birds out and about today. We have often been amazed at the sheer variety of birds in Tanzania, and some are really spectacular or have rather unusual calls.
We had lunch at 3.30 – matoke, fish, rice and supu. Danieli came round later on, and said that he had really bad toothache, and in fact, his face was quite swollen on one side. We had brought some antibiotics with us that Bruce had been given but not used as they had to be changed to another kind to treat an infection he’d picked up in NZ, and so we were very willing to give Danieli the 5-day course. He also complained of his little children (the oldest two are aged 7 and 8 years, the youngest is only 18 months old) coughing at night, till they almost vomited. At first we thought of whooping cough, but as he said they were really well during the daytime, we decided it was probably due to the cold nights sleeping on mats on the floor. Meshaki also had this problem which cost him a lot of sleep at times.
We were talking outside the jiko, and I noticed just how precarious the whole structure looked. Bruce had helped pastor with part of the framework four years ago when it was being built as an alternative to the rather cave-like structure that mama was cooking in. Now after such a short time, it is becoming unsafe, and pastor is worried lest mama gets buried under the building should it decide to collapse. At present, one of the walls is propped up by a strong branch, but that only supports part of the wall, and when the roof is wet with rain and the walls take on water too, it becomes much more dangerous.
We received news from Fideli’s house – his mother was really bad now. She had been unable to move at all the previous day and could no longer speak. Obviously her trip to the clinic had come far too late to save her, and our prayers for her healing and recovery were not answered. Pastor and mama decided to visit and spend some time with her.
Whilst they were away, Fideli’s second son, Meshaki I, came down to let us know that his grandmother had gone home. He’s the boldest of the five, and would often come to the house and, when I was lying sick on the bed, greet me through the net curtain that covered the doorway. When the front door was open, it was possible to see right inside the little bedroom through this curtain, it was no barrier at all. One had to be really quick in the mornings to get dressed before anyone else came into the living room and out the front door!
The Mugaruras returned a couple of hours’ later saying that she had passed away whilst they were there after they had prayer for her. They had stayed to help bathe her body and clothe it in clean clothes ready for the funeral the next day. The church had been open for prayer when we visited it earlier in the afternoon, but now it had to be closed again as there would be no mkesha – an all-night prayer meeting. Danieli went off up the hill to do this. Instead, people would go to spend the night with Fideli and his family.
Pastor and mama had returned to Fideli’s house, at first saying they might stay the night there. However, they came home around 9.15 and we had a dinner of cassava, rice and fish. I was able to eat a good meal this time, my appetite had almost returned to normal. Danieli was still around and about, and brought us two guavas – we decided to eat them for breakfast although they looked rather green.

Harvesting rice

Wednesday 22nd June Michael swept the area around the houses today, and I’d never seen it so immaculate! Bibi said she only had a little work to do so didn't need my help, so I sat outside with Bruce who was working on a message for bibi’s church in Nzega – we’d been asked to go there in the afternoon as we hadn’t gone on Sunday. We were surprised to see some mamas going along on the path near the house, carrying small dishes of white stuff - Michael told us later that it was flour. Someone had died in the village and it was time for people to pay their respects. One lady came to get flour from bibi, then another one came by to invite bibi to accompany her. Breakfast was buns and chai today, then Michael and I looked at photos indoors, from when his grandfather was a young man to Michael's time in Bukoba at Harvest. It was interesting seeing more pictures of Michael as a baby, his baptism age 15, working in a store after he left school. There were a few from his time at Biharamulo Teacher Training College. Only three of the students were men, the rest women, who wore a uniform of pale blue skirt and white blouse; the men wore a blue & white striped shirt over whatever trousers they had. It was interesting seeing the dolls & Ludo boards they had made. There were some nice photos of Michael relaxing on a rock near the school, also one of his first class of five little students at Harvest, Bukoba. I recognised two of them who I'd taught on occasion – a very difficult job! Bibi came in, urging him to hurry up as he was needed to supervise Ibrahim and little Michael, who’d gone to the rice shamba. She looked surprised when I went with the men, perhaps she'd hoped I'd stay and help her or chat. On the other side of the Tabora road, a footpath wends towards the paddy field past a short path to the village pump. Rice is grown in small rectangular plots surrounded by thorny, weed-topped mud walls. Ibrahim had already cut a few bundles using a small sickle, but Michael took over. Little Michael was just messing around!Bruce had a brief turn at cutting the rice, but found the bending too much for his back. Once there was a big enough area cleared, we laid a large tarpaulin down, lining up the cut bundles along one side. Threshing is done by picking up small bundles and hitting the heads against the tarp or a stone to dislodge the dry grains. Ibrahim used another method, laying several bundles head to head on the tarpaulin, then beating them with a large stick. Once we’d finished the first bundles, Ibrahim was kept busy collecting them from Michael, bringing them over to us to thresh. Little Michael ran back off to the home shamba, although he could have made himself usefull carrying bundles or chasing the neighbour's straying calves away. 1½ hours later, we'd cleared two plots and needed to return to bibi's as we had a lunch engagement. Shaking the grains into the middle of the tarp, we skimmed off the rubbish before pushing the rice into a sack for Michael to carry on his back, it was about 15 kgs.Bruce went over to the pump to see if he could help the youngsters drawing water, he thought they weren’t pumping it very well – but soon found the seals were too worn to pump any other way. The mamas at the intersection greeted us, commenting about how tired we must have got from all our work in the fields - but I said it was very enjoyable! Bibi also thought we’d be tired, but really we were fine! We had got pretty hot though, so were glad to bathe before going to Paulo’s. I had to laugh, Michael trotted out just in his shorts looking slightly embarrassed – briefly! Paulo’s is only a short walk away. The big wrought-iron gate opens into a small courtyard between the house & other buildings. We had a lovely time there, good food and good conversation! Mama had made a very tasty mchuzi and a delicious side-dish of ground peanuts/tomatoes/salt. She'd prepared both ugali & spaghetti, perhaps fearing we wouldn't like ugali, but we quite like it!
Afterward, we chatted with Paulo, Michael chatting with his aunt. Paulo says if you put the two of them together, it’s hard to stop them talking!!! He used to clean and maintain the swimming pool at the Swedish school until it closed, working every day from 7 a.m.. Alternate days finished at 2 p.m., the other by midday. The one hundred students were taught in Swedish, but they picked up Kisukuma playing with the local kids - it’s a Sukuma area. The adults also picked it up instead of Kiswahili, causing a few problems for those working at the hospital - some of the other staff plus patients were from other tribes!
The pool now only gets used by visiting Wazungu, Africans don’t normally like to swim – probably a modesty issue re togs, although the men seem quite happy to bathe in a river in a secluded spot! Woman aren’t allowed to show the thigh or midriff though. Paulo picked up Swedish so well that visitors often ask him when he’d visited Sweden! He now works as a Bible College watchman, having on a rotating shift: Day 1: 7 p.m.-7 a.m.; Day 2: 7 a.m.-3 p.m., Day 3: 3 p.m.-10 p.m. He also sells phone vouchers from home and at the bus stand, making about 20% profit. His children help, he says it’s good training for them to take part in a small business; too many young people are becoming lazy, sitting on benches drinking & smoking, saying there’s no work! In the old days, that’s what the old men did. He says the young ones are drinking their strength away, so if they do find work, they can’t do it anyway! He says there’s plenty of work if you go out & look for it.They only have two children, Happy (Form 2) & Matthew (S6). Happy didn’t want to go to Nzega Day School, so they found her a place at Umoja Sec, 100 kilometres away in the bush. She didn’t want to go there as she’d heard tales of lions, snakes & hyenas!
She phoned up after just a week there, wanting to come home: there were wild animals, and she had no friends. But she’d never actually seen any wild animals, just heard a hyena one night! She agreed to finish the term.
They discussed it again in the holidays – by which time she loved it – great teachers and great friends! However, her brother wants to go to Nzega Day, he thinks they study too hard at Umoja! Paulo wanted to know if we’d like to use the sauna - they all laughed when I said I thought it could be dangerous, one could get too dehydrated, and also I don't like the idea of dripping with sweat! It might be one way of keeping warm in a cold climate though, but Africa is too hot!
We had to be back to bibi’s by 3 so that we'd be in time for church at 4. We were met by another visitor, Michael's younger brother, Jeremia, who gave us both big hugs. He’d come on the bus from Igunga where he lives with Aunty Joyce. Aunty Lucia there too, telling us Uncle Enock would take us to Isanzu tomorrow.
After getting our Bibles for church, we waited outside for bibi, who came dressed in a fancy blouse. I must say I was a bit shocked to see Jeremia start to unbutton it, especially as she had nothing on underneath - but he was only trying to help, she hadn’t done them up properly!!
We got to church on time, but of course it left no opportunity to go to the net. Poor Bruce had got overheated AGAIN, so Michael went off to buy water while we waited in the church office for the service to begin. Some of the elders greeted us and we signed the visitors’ book; the pastor was away visiting a bereaved family in another village.
The service started 40 minutes late as no-one turned up apart from the elders till then, so we could have gone to the net after all! The elders quipped that they should only wait ½ hour then lock up & go home - that’d really confuse the latecomers!
The new church is really large but isn't finished yet. They say it is full on a Sunday. The old one is only used for Sunday School now. However, only about 20 turned up for the mid-week service. Naturally it’s hard for workers to get there, so most were elderly like bibi.
The teaching on prayer was excellent, given by one of the elders, a school teacher, as part of a series. He translated the odd phrase for us, I quietly did the rest for Bruce. At one point, he used Jeremia in an example of the believer’s close relationship with Christ, walking arm in arm around the front of the church - Jeremiah (Jesus) even stroked his face and shoulders! It was quite funny!
Bruce was given a short opportunity to share, I tried translating, but the teacher chipped in to hurry things along, going away like a rocket! I would have preferred him to have done it all really!
We greeted everyone afterwards, including a blind evangelist, whose prayer isn’t to receive his sight, but rather to be used more by God.
It took an hour to return via the dirt roads; the dust upset Michael’s sinuses so he had a rather disturbed night. Little Michael got into big trouble from bibi for something later on, I think he'd been playing with the candle indoors.
Once it got dark, we were asked to wait indoors while Michael went to Mama Lucia’s to see how much Baba Enocki would charge to go to Isanzu, but the shrieks and laughter from the girls outside made me wonder just what was going on, and I think he was a little late leaving - although of course it could have been Jeremiah that was causing all the commotion! I wasn’t sure if we should go out to join the fun or stay in, it was pretty boring inside!
Michael was just back in time for our late dinner, saying we’ll only have to pay for seven litres of petrol, half the cost of a taxi. He said we could all take turns driving as we all could drive!
Michael of course had done a one-month course last year, and Jeremia a six-month one some time ago. I must say I didn't really want to – but driving on rough roads veering round potholes, livestock, cyclists, pedestrians and the occasional car, bus or truck – no way!
We were a bit shocked to find out that you can get a licence just by paying a fee, without having ever driven, had lessons or studied the road code! No wonder there are so many accidents! Jeremia would like to get a commercial licence but it costs 100,000Tsh and Michael thinks it’s too dangerous being a taxi driver anyway, lots die every year especially in Dar from hijacking – I was thinking they just died in accidents!
We found out that Michael hadn’t started primary school till he was nine, which is why he finished so late aged 16. In the year 2000, the government developed a new scheme of special schools for such late starters, so that they could complete an abridged syllabus in just two years, instead of the normal seven.
We were interested to hear that Jeremia can play the piano & loves classical music, he plays keyboard at church but of course has no instrument at home to practise on. He'd like to find his own place in Igunga. At present he's at Aunty Joyce's, where he’s started a chicken farm with 100 hens (local & European) that are laying well. He started it there rather than Tazengwa because there are more opportunities to sell eggs. We were all disappointed that we didn't have an opportunity to visit it.

A quiet day - family history, interesting people & a soccer match

Wednesday July 15th Cloudy, not so hot today. It was a quiet day, we felt lazy! An elderly man came up to greet us as we sat on the steps waiting for Michael, telling us that he was off to the hospital up the mountain, and needed money for medicine. I didn’t know how he’d get there, he was so frail, although matatus do climb the hill. We had no small change to give him.
When I heard a noise inside, I went in & got a lovely smile from Michael who was tidying up his room. He said he’d been up a little while!
We had a nice breakfast of boiled eggs & maandazi (square doughnuts).
Afterwards, we looked at family photos. There were a couple of Michael aged 9 or 10, he looked SO different! There was also one of his mother taken in the early 90’s when she worked as cook for Swedish missionaries in Tazengwa. Before that she travelled around, giving birth to Michael in 1980 & Jeremia in 1984 to unknown fathers, leaving them with her parents. She eventually married before giving birth to Evelina in 1998. A couple of years later, she got sick with a stomach ulcer, but they couldn’t operate because she was pregnant again. After asking for the pastors to come to pray for her, she lost the ability to speak, then died - so they don’t know whether she’d become a Christian or not. Evelina now lives in Arusha with her father, Bonifac, who's a businessman.
Babu died on Michael’s 18th birthday (20/9/98), it was a severe blow to the family. He’d biked up country to take some seeds to his younger brother, and seemed fine until he entered the house, when he was hit with severe stomach pains. They called the local missionary who got him to hospital, where they were told that if they’d been half an hour later, it would have been too late. They operated, but he remained very sick, and eventually was sent to a larger hospital. A 2nd operation uncovered a pair of scissors left behind from the 1st! Unfortunately he never recovered, and after having both legs amputated, he died. He told Michael to look after the family being the oldest male descendant.
We were shown some photos of him, one when the new church was opened in Tazengwa – he was its 2nd pastor. We looked at another book but it was mostly of Rosa in different outfits - we teased her about that!
Michael got out his English course certificate from last year, he was sad to have only got C’s, he wanted A’s – but as he averaged over 60%, (GOOD), I gave him my hearty congratulations!
We walked to Saidi’s place later, he's one of the mzee’s nephews, & sat in the shade drinking weak tea. His wife is from the same tribe & village as Michael so they get on pretty well. We talked about the drought and how dried up the fields are. They are looking after a child with severe tongue-tie from an area suffering severe hardship, and also have two others, aged 5 and 6. The little girl was SO scared, it was a real shame!
We walked back through the primary school grounds, lots of boys came over to say hello, and didn’t want to stop shaking my hand. They kept asking us to come back when we carried on walking!
Lunch was at 3: of ugali, yummy mchuzi, bananas, avocadoes & oranges. We got full up fast as we had 2 cups of fresh fruit juice first!
We watched an interesting TV documentary about wildlife problems caused by climate change as a result of deforestation. It covered a whole year in a river catchment in Tanzania. It was fascinating to see a brown trickle meandering down a dry river bed shortly becoming a raging torrent, sweeping large section of bank away, but it was sad to see the wide-spread death of wildlife in the floods and also in the dry season.
We went for a short walk to visit Saidi’s old aunt briefly, then watched the first half of a soccer match between two local teams, played on a bumpy sandy pitch. One team was much better than the other (won 7-0), but the ball would shoot off at odd angles, and once knocked a spectator off his chair, which everyone thought was veyr funny! There were no nets, just goalposts, and the lines were marked with silver sand. We were surprised to see an armed soldier patrolling the grounds; a group of ladies were rather cheeky to him so he only passed them once.
Back at Rosa’s, we watched some of the Tour de France on TV, then a music channel. Poor Frank slept on a sofa for two hours after school!
I was told the squeaky noises on the roof were rats not monkeys, so I was glad they weren’t visible!
We bathed at the guesthouse, before eating fried salt pork and mashed potato sausages at the restaurant with Fanta to wash it down.
After tea, we went into town in the dark to visit the mzee’s mother, who’s over 100 years old! We were shown into a room in a large house by one of her daughters:- the tiny lady was top n’tailing with another of her daughters. A friendly little boy came into the room too.
She’s very frail, only sitting up with help; her hands are deformed & crippled by arthritis so she has to be hand-fed - she can just manage to hold a cup. She has to have throat massages + sips of water, that she tries to gargle & spits back out, trying to remove phlegm.
A short walk away is her husband's house, he's an elderly Muslim. He'd been out the day before. We were told by three men sitting outside to go in and wait, so we sat down on the sofas. I had to reach past Bruce to shake his hand when he came in, and got quite a fright when he seized my arm & dragged me forwards to face him! However, he was really very friendly, and loved talking to us!
Afterwards, we said goodnight to the 3 men sitting outside in three languages – Kipare (the local tribal language), English & Kiswahili - it did make them laugh!

A day in Kiswani

Tuesday July 14th It was hot today!  We went outside at 7.30 to wait for Michael, sitting on top step watching the passers-by, mainly children going to school.  When I heard Michael’s door open, I went inside to let him know where we were and received a lovely warm greeting.  We went to mama's for chai & bread after being told to sit in the porch in the early morning sunshine to get our Vitamin D!  While Michael went off to fetch water from the nearby stream, we sat outside with Rosa, who told us a little more about the family, and Michael's sickness last year.
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.