Deluge!

Arusha, March 13, 2018, Tuesday

This has been without a doubt the wettest day I have ever experienced in Tanzania. The temperature got down to 69º before we went to bed and the sky was very dark and gray when I awoke this morning. Within minutes torrential rain began falling. This continued until after noon. I felt as if we would be trapped in our apartment for the day, as we couldn’t have even made it to the garden terrace without getting soaked—and we have umbrellas.  However, around 1:00 p.m. the force of the rainfall diminished, and we called a taxi and took off to town for lunch.

Ray wasn’t here for us to call. Yesterday morning he came to tell us that his mother-in-law was in the hospital in Moshi, so he and his wife needed to go there right away. I certainly hope this is not a serious situation, as Ray has already had too many sad deaths in his extended family so far this year.

We asked our substitute taxi man, John, to take us to Bamboo by Fifi’s, which is a popular cafe with a good wifi connection and upscale food. The prices are a little higher than at some other places, but there are also some bargains, e.g., its huge fruit salad, to be had as well. When the waitress saw that I was hesitating about what to order, she pulled out a much smaller menu with only African dishes all at very good prices. I had no idea that existed and had wondered how Tanzanians could afford to eat there. I was able to get a great plate of rice and maharagwe (red beans) for only 3000 Tsh. (Less than $1.50) and the wonderful Fifi’s fruit salad for 6000 Tsh. This was more than I could eat without John’s help on the salad, and all for only about $4. I’ll never eat there again without asking for the Swahili menu!

Then, while John went to a bank to get us some more T schillings, I sat and read while having a great cup of coffee. The waitress was fascinated by my Kindle, so I showed her the “library” of my books, how to change pages, and how to increase or decrease the text size. She thought being able to download books from the internet sounded wonderful, so I had to tell her they cost money from a credit card. That didn’t sound so good to her, and when she asked the price, and when I said the lowest price was $49, she was really sad. There ought to be some way of getting electronic books to people in African countries at a low price they could realistically afford. Otherwise, the education and information gap between western and nonwestern countries will just continue to grow larger.

I forgot to say that when Taxi John dropped us off at Fifi’s, we decided to go first to the nearby bookstore. (It used to be the Lutheran Bookstore, but now it has new owners.) We wanted to buy some books to leave for the Mtui children. I knew I wanted a very good English dictionary for Priskilla, and found a great one from Oxford Press for her. Then, I noticed an attractive hardbound book of bible stories for children in which a child could color in the accompanying pictures. It was in Swahili, too, so I bought it for Anita.

Good Luck proved to be a much harder case. Finally, John chose two small books in English for him, one a story and one about animals with backbones. As we turned to walk to Fifi’s, an older street vendor I’ve often seen came by with soccer jerseys, and I asked if he had anything from Manchester United, Good Luck’s favorite team. He didn’t but said while we were in Fifi’s he would see what he could find on the street. In less than an hour, he was back with both a shirt and pair of shorts in Good Luck’s general size, and though the whole outfit cost more than I had wanted, we eventually agreed on a price I could swallow and he was happy about. I have little doubt that Good Luck will be ecstatic.

It was after 3:00 by the time we returned to Kundayo. The rain had almost stopped. However, everything was still wet and dripping, so not many folks were out and about either here or out on the street. John rested for a while and then walked down toward Philip’s Corner to a print shop to get a document printed out and to place an order for printing some photos as well. I stayed in and began preparing a kettle of Congo Eggplant Stew for our dinner this evening. Of course, the electricity went off for a while. It soon came back on though, and the rest of the evening was peaceful and uneventful.

John at his terrace office

Produce for the day