Rain began to fall in the night and continued all morning and into the afternoon. With the rain came much cooler temperatures, and the official high for today was 72ยบ, about 10 - 12 degrees cooler than normal for this time of the year. I thought of putting on the one sweater I brought with me, but decided that would be too weird. The rain was too heavy for me to think of going out anywhere, so I spent the morning reading, downloading photos, and getting my blog posted. Those seem to be daily tasks here.
Even when the rain subsided in mid-afternoon, I stayed at our apartment, taking advantage of the cooler temperature to bake some peanut butter cookies. Lest that sound very adventurous to you, I must admit that I used a pouch of cookie mix I had bought at the Dollar Store in Spokane. Still, I had to turn on the oven, add oil and water, make and squash little balls of dough, and bake them. Unfortunately, I got distracted by a big snail I saw in the plants in front of our place and let the cookies bake too long. Even slightly burned, they taste pretty good. I gave one to Ray when he stopped by to visit.
John got cabin fever and took off for a walk and to buy some bread. Along the way, our friend Eric spotted John and picked him up. They went to my favorite spot, Kitamu, for coffee and to catch up on things. I noticed that John was gone a long time, but I figured he had gone further than he had first planned and didn’t worry. When John did get back, he asked if I had been worried and seemed a bit taken aback that I had not. But this is Africa, so I probably wouldn’t think about worrying until it got dark. More curious is that I never did ask if he had gotten any bread. I’ll find out tomorrow morning when there is or isn’t toast for breakfast.
The electricity went off and on today, but it was never out for longer than an hour or so each time. Short outages like the ones today are no bother. It’s only when the electricity is off for a day or more that I get cranky, especially if it’s hot. I hate it if we can’t have a fan on at night, and John gets upset if he has bought ice cream and it melts because the refrigerator is off. Today we needed no fan, and John’s Azam ice cream was just fine.
I thought I would post a photo of one of the local seamstresses who sit outside waiting for people to bring them alteration or mending jobs. John took this woman a pair of pants which he had somehow torn near a pocket. The legs were also too long. So, he had the woman mend the tear and shorten the legs, for which he had to pay her 3000 TZsch. ( $1.30). Now, I wish I had remembered to bring my pair of slacks that need to be shortened.
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