Continued Romantic Drama

Saturday, February 9, 2019

This was another day in which I stuck close to Kundayo and did nothing at all very interesting until late in the day. Mary Lou, on the other hand, took off soon after 9:00 to explore more of the downtown and visit the German Boma Museum. Her later report featured several incidents of getting lost and wandering and making the discovery that most stores close at noon on Saturday. She ended up having lunch at FiFis, which she didn’t particularly enjoy, and then she took a bajaji all the way back to Kundayo. Without a doubt, she had had a pretty big adventure all on her own and looked hot and tired on her return.

Our day livened up soon after 4:00, when we went out to the Njiro Complex to meet with whoever else might show up to discuss beginning a book club at ACC. There were very few others present: Sharon Mkisi, who had just returned from a week of work-related travel; Terry Morton, who wants more social connections; and Mark and Cynthia Rich, who had driven in all the way from Usa River. John and I won’t be here by the time the group may actually start, but we gave some observations and advice based on our own experiences with 3 book clubs in which we have participated. I doubt that this new group will choose to read a book a week as my beloved Weekly Readers do, but hearing some ideas about how to select and balance the books they read could be helpful to them.

Eventually, we all ordered something to eat. Since John and I had had yellow lentil and chicken stew with chapatis  for lunch, we weren’t very hungry and shared a small mushroom pizza. It was the worst pizza I have ever had since my mother’s first attempts in the 1950’s. Those featured Bisquick dough, catsup sauce, and shredded cheddar cheese; this had a similar odd crust, a thin smear of tasteless tomato sauce, maybe 10 tiny bits of mushroom, and almost no visible cheese. I was so peeved that I made sure we ate it all to ensure we got our money’s worth!

Then, I went on a brief shopping stop at the Village Market Supermarket, which is an anchor in this mall, and bypassed the clotted cream, mint jelly, $14-a-pound cheeses, and lemon curd, to  choose some shampoo and small notepads. I also cheated a bit and got some sad looking bakery cookies because they only cost $1.10. We caught a ride home with the Richs, who passed right by our place on their drive back to Usa River. 

We had barely gotten back and out on the cool terrace before Mama Kundayo came with Beatrice in tow. She wanted to know all about where we had been, who else had been there, etc. After about 15 or 20 minutes of chatting with Mama, I ventured to ask Beatrice if I could ask her a question. She hesitantly said I could, so I asked if she was okay because we had seen the young man with flowers, and then she had been gone a day from work, so we were concerned. She was flustered, but after saying she was okay, she eventually revealed that the young man had indeed come to ask her if she would be his girlfriend. Mary Lou and I wanted to know if he was a nice young man with a good job, but Beatrice wouldn’t reveal any details about him. She said she was still making up her mind. We offered to interview him ourselves and give her our opinion, but she assured us that she will consider whatever she’s pondering and let us know what she eventually decides. So, while it seems that this is a romantic story, we still don’t know any details or what Beatrice is thinking about. The Big Question I have is why did Beatrice seem so upset by the young man’s attention? There must be a lot we don’t understand. So, stay tuned.

Our exchange with Beatrice ended our group chat.  Mama said good-night and went off into the dark. John and I read for another hour or so and then turned in ourselves. I finished the book I had been reading, “Sing Unburied Sing,” (I give it a 4.5 on a scale of 0 - 5) because I am not a fan of magic realism, which isn’t realism at all. Now, I have to decide if I will be good and read another book on the Weekly Readers’ list or find something else on my Kindle.