Saturday was very ordinary with our Wheetabix breakfast special and time trying to get some things done on the internet. I don’t remember many details because we were focused on the arrival of John’s cousin Ron and his wife Colette later in the day. They had been delayed several days so Ron could have some therapy in Nairobi on a broken finger. Finally, soon after 1:00 p.m. they pulled into Kundayo with Evans, our travel advisor friend. He had driven them all the way down from Nairobi and will drive them back this coming Saturday.
I hadn’t seen Colette for over 40 years and Ron for almost 10, so our reunion was wonderful. Ron has never seemed to change all that much, but Colette has become a very self-assured and formidable woman, whom I instantly liked more than ever. She has had an incredible life, mainly on her own raising 3 children and putting herself through nursing school, while Ron has been off in Africa working as a contractor for the UN or mining companies. Now she is retired, and Ron works in Guinea, six weeks on and three weeks off, so either he flies “home” to Kansas or Colette flies to Africa, where they meet up for time together. During this three-week time off, they chose to visit us here in Arusha, and we are very happy to be with them again. We share a lot of Congolese and African history and connections with them, which almost no one we know in the States can appreciate.
Once Ron and Colette were settled next to us in apartment W, my former favorite space at Kundayo, we spent the rest of the day talking and having dinner together at the Kundayo restaurant. We have a lot of catching up to do in the next few days.
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