This would be our next to last Sunday, which cast a tiny shadow over my usual ebullient mood as I get up and ready to attend ACC. Then on our way to church, Ray was stopped at a police roadblock and the officer said we all had to go directly to the police station because Ray did not have the correct insurance. Ray insisted that he had what he needed and showed all sorts of documents. However, IMHO, the officer thought he had a good chance of getting a bribe from two wazungu who were in a hurry and definitely did not want to go to the police station and miss church. John has never ever paid a bribe in Africa, and I have never ever kept my mouth shut. So, while John just looked unruffled and gave monosyllabic answers to whatever the policeman asked, I kept saying I had no idea if the insurance was correct or not and did not want to miss church. When the officer asked if I believed him, I said I had no idea what the problem really was, I just wanted to get to church. After ten minutes of this stuff, the policeman gave in and told us to drive on to church and then Ray should drive to the police station. I haven’t seen or spoken with Ray since then, so I still have to find out the end of this story.
This was Family Sunday, so we had lots of singing, and another performance by the Sunday School children. The attendance seemed rather skimpy, but I’m not sure why so many members would be absent on the same day. I know that Linda and Mark are in Capetown visiting their daughter; Sharon had car trouble on the way; and Tarek and Laura were off climbing Kilimanjaro. Rogers was also absent for some reason. Anyway, many people I enjoy seeing and visiting with were not there. However, Christy gave me all the flowers in the bouquets, so I now have a lovely display on our terrace.
John and I decided to go out to Njiro for our last feast of the best Indian food in the Arusha area.
I always get Chicken Sagwala, and John has begun copying me with Mutton Sagwala. It was delicious and the naan seemed even better than usual. After we had eaten, I spent a few minutes in The Village Supermarket doing what I call entertainment shopping, looking at the $7 chocolate bars, canned plum pudding, pickled onions, and potato crisps from the UK. I ended up buying a thank-you card for Mama Kundayo, two bars of soap, and a danish for me and chocolate croissant for John. Then, I said good-by to the Njiro Mall until 2018.
Later in the afternoon, it poured rain, so Mama Kundayo couldn’t hold court outside as usual. John thought she was sitting inside the restaurant, and indeed I found her there completely encased in red à la Christo. I gave her the card I had bought to thank her for the nay choma, She was very pleased and kept giving me complicated African handshakes, which I invariably flub. (I need to teach her to high five.) As usual, I had my computer along so I could show her photos of my week’s activities. She especially liked the ones showing John’s hike. Somehow we ended up talking about snakes, which cause her nightmares. After that the conversation went to the dogs—literally—and she talked about why she won’t have a dog at Kundayo: they scare her. On that note, I excused myself to cook dinner which was the pastries I had bought. Later, we warmed leftover up chicken stew and rice to eat as a bedtime snack.
No comments:
Post a Comment