Lazy Saturday

Saturday, March 9, 2019

We had a very relaxing Saturday morning. Although I felt much better, I was still very cautious about what I ate. Elizabeth had given us a list of items that Ngaisi will need to take with her to the hospital when her baby comes, so I thought it would be fun to go out to the Njiro Shopping Complex and see what we could find at the Village Supermarket there. It didn’t seem to be a good idea to go for lunch, but if we went about 3:00 p.m. we could have ice cream and just hang out.

Right at 3:00, it began to pour rain. We waited until the downpour died down a little, and then had Ray drive us to Njiro. As we were entering the complex, we met Sharon Mkisi, who had been at the supermarket. She accepted our invitation to join us for ice cream, and we all sat down together. The instant a customer sits in this food court, the waitpeople from all the restaurants rush out and pile their menus on the table. It’s insane! Sometimes we inadvertently end up ordering from several menus, which results in multiple bills when we finish a meal.

MaryLou, John and me, and Sharon Mkisi sorting through menus.

Sharon, MaryLou, and I ordered iced coffee with scoops of ice cream in them. MaryLou chose chocolate ice cream.  Somehow in all the flurry of menus, John ended up with both an iced coffee—He doesn’t even drink coffee—and a dish with two scoops of chocolate chip ice cream. After John ate the scoop of ice cream in the coffee, I claimed the beverage. While we were enjoying ourselves, the rain picked up and became an absolute deluge. We stuck it out at the table—under a huge umbrella covering, of course—until we could make a dash for the covered walkway in front of the shops.

Sharon left for home, and MaryLou and I walked around the second story, checking out the shops up there. The big “anchor” store is Woolworth’s —not the old American dime store, but a British clothing store with very nice merchandise for extremely high prices. We were looking for some underwear for Ngaisi but certainly were not going to pay $14 for 4 pairs of underpants. We finally went to the supermarket, where we found baby oil and some other items. I splurged and got another bottle of Dodoma red wine and two incredible croissants. We also bought a get well card for Mama, who has been sick with kidney stones, and then we stopped by the flower vendor and bought a lovely big mixed bouquet for Mama, too. I love the easy availability of flowers here.

John and MaryLou decided that they wanted to go to ACC for a free concert by a visiting Finnish opera singer. That program was going to begin 6:00, so we found a taxi driver, who drove us to Kundayo, where I was dumped off, before he took John and MarLou on to the church. Upon his return after the concert, John said the singer had obviously once been quite good but now was older and suffering from flu. MaryLou thought the singer’s second aria was the best selection. Still, they enjoyed the program, just as I enjoyed a much quieter evening by myself.

An evening of opera.