It wasn’t raining when I awoke this morning, and the electricity was on. Both were good omens for a day when I was hosting my women’s group here at Kundayo. Mazo and I had worked out a menu: vegetable curry with rice, fish fingers (not at all like our fish sticks), samosas, Swahili salad (thinly sliced tomatoes, red peppers, and cucumbers in a vinaigrette), fruit salad, and mandazi. Of course, there was also tea and coffee. Ray also showed up with a stack of chapatis his aunt had made for me.
Our stated meeting time is 9:30, but the only woman here by then was Terry. Since she is American, she still believes in promptness. Others vehicles began to arrive just before 10:00, and soon after we began our meeting. Mama Bishop, a retired Anglican bishop’s wife who is usually fairly dour, entered with her fist in the air and wished us “Happy International Women’s Day.” (She recently had a mild stroke, so who knows what transformation that has brought her.) Then Linda had to share all the emails she had gotten from former members now living elsewhere but who still feel connected to the group. It’s amazing how many women still link back to the sisterhood here. Eventually, Linda decided we had to get to the lesson, which had so many funny things in it that Deborah and I kept muttering in spite of Linda’s cautionary glances. I mean, who would’t laugh at that the part in Numbers 11 where God says he’s going to send the whining Israelites so many quail the meat will run out of their nostrils?
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| Always a two-cheek greeting |
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| The buffet |
While we were contemplating the idea of dead quail 3 feet high on the ground out in the Sinai Desert, the sky here grew dark, and I became worried about rain. Mazo and Beatrice were busy out in the garden area, setting up tables with cloths for our lunch buffet. I had told Mazo to have everything set up by 11:45, but Linda took her time and the women had a lot of news to share, so it was about 12:15 before we exited the lounge, where we had been meeting. The buffet table looked perfect; the sky was clear and blue; and the women were very pleased with the menu. The oldest women, Mama Bishop and Mary Bura, commented on how excellent the chapatis were. They really were the best I have ever had.
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| Enjoying our lunch |
The women wanted John to join us, so he, too, had a great lunch. Several women lamented the decrease in our number. This week, Margaret was in Uganda; Miriam was at the hospital with her husband; Eunie was just out of the hospital; and Atula didn’t come. However, more serious is our continuing loss of members who leave Tanzania or transfer elsewhere. This week, Christine from Switzerland, moved to Nairobi, where her husband has a new teaching position. John took photos of us as a group, and we’re a much smaller group than just two years ago, when I had a group photo taken at Linda’s house. We need to find some way to recruit new members.
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| Our small group for the day |
Once everyone had left, I collapsed on our bed and decided I had done more than enough for one day. However, later I saw Mama Kundayo outside and realized she was hoping for a report of the day. So, I went out to sit with her and show her the photos I had taken at the school yesterday and with the women in the morning. She sent Sidney out to the corner to buy two ears of roasted corn for us. We sat there gnawing on our corn and discussing the photos until it was dark. Meanwhile, John had walked over to our neighborhood kuku na chipsies place to get something for our dinner. I didn’t have to make a single meal all day, and yet I felt as if I had put in a full day of labor. Social obligations both delight and exhaust me.
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| Reviewing the day with Mama. Beatrice sometimes helps translate. |
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