Life Goes On

Arusha, February 26 - 28, 2018, Monday - Wednesday

There has been no rain for three weeks or more. Sometimes we hear thunder, and several times scattered raindrops have fallen for a minute or two, but an actual shower never falls. So, now everything is very, very dry, and a thin film of dust covers everything. Our rooms are cleaned each morning, and yet by afternoon, everything feels gritty. I dust off my computer often and wonder how much dirt shifts into its innards. A good downpour would feel wonderful. Mama told me that it will rain on Friday; we’ll see.

Mama has been a tad illusive. She hasn’t been out at her tree much at all this week. On Sunday evening, she sent us a plate of nice warm chapatis—many more than we could eat. Then, Monday evening she had her grandson Sidney bring us a couple ears of steamed and buttered corn. It’s very common to see women along the streets selling big ears of roasted corn, which is very hard and chewy, but I had never had the Tanzanian version of corn-on-the-cob before. It was like very overripe corn, but not as hard as the roasted ears. If a Tanzanian eats our version of corn-on-the-cob, he/she must think we forgot to let the corn ripen and there’s not much to chew.

Monday evening, Mama, one of her neighbors, and I were sitting over on the garden terrace, passing some time together.  The friend spoke more English than Mama, so we managed to have some satisfactory conversation. Mostly, however, I just sat and watched three young women doing yoga on the lawn, while Mama and her friend spoke to each other in Swahili. Then, for some silly reason, I stood up, bent over and planted my hands full palm down on the concrete. Mama hooted, so the friend got up and tried to do the same, only she spread her legs far apart to do it. When I told her that she had to keep her legs together, she couldn’t do it, which made Mama collapse in laughter. I tried to explain that my shorter than proportional legs were my secret. They may not have understood, but Mama kept laughing. At that point, I offered my good-byes and left to make our dinner.

On Tuesday—just yesterday—John asked Ray to take us to Fifi’s for lunch, after which John wanted to run some errands while I stayed behind and read. When we first came to Arusha years ago, I avoided Fifi’s like the plague since it seemed the essence of all I found distasteful about the ex-pats in town: fancy food at high prices, lots of fancy coffee drinks, free wifi, and many culturally awkward wazungu students or backpackers trying to look cool and at ease. Eventually, I gave in because Fifi’s is so centrally located to all the places John needs to go when he does downtown business. I wonder if the place has changed ownership, however, because now many more of the customers are Tanzanian, and only once this year have I seen a large group of young white people there. Unfortunately, I don’t think their food is as good as it used to be, but they still make and sell fantastic bread.

John was having trouble loading more time on his Tanzanian phone and asked Emmanuel, one of the two duty clerks here, to help him. Having a staff like Emmanual and his counterpart, Beatrice, on call 24/7, is a a real asset for us. They act as wonderful concierges, and add to the family feel Kundayo has for us. Mazo and Mama have become like extended family, and the grandson, Sidney, adds another dimension to the community. He’s great at running errands for his grandmother, and I enjoy surprising him with gifts such as a headlamp or pack of gum.

Again this afternoon there was thunder and for a short minute or two some drops of rain pounded on our metal roof. However, once again no serious rain fell, and there wasn’t any cleaner or cooler air. I cannot understand how the mosquitoes manage to exist when it seems so dry now, but they are definitely on the prowl and always able to find me just as my layer of repellent wears off in the evening. So far, I have gone through 5 big aerosol cans of OFF! and have one and a half cans left. I hope that’s enough to keep me relatively bite free until we leave for Spokane.