17th and 18th February 2009 – After Three Days

There’s a saying in Swahili that a guest is a guest for three days and then after that they can be given the jembe (hoe). And so yesterday (17th) I was happy to do a few household tasks. I cooked lunch and then did something that I haven’t missed doing during the last five years: washed clothes (by hand). I’ve never been very good at it and don’t know whether I’m really getting them clean or not. I’ve watched a lot of Tanzanians wash clothes and it’s usually done so well and looks so easy, but I don’t seem to have the knack, even after all these years. I loved it that as I was leaving home Isaac thanked me for doing his laundry. You can be sure, Isaac, that if I had had to do it by hand it wouldn’t have gotten done! It usually doesn’t take very long for clothes to dry but yesterday afternoon a lot of clouds came up and we even had some thunder. No rain, however. By this morning my clothes were dry.

I’ve very much enjoyed the fresh fruit that we’ve had: bananas, mangoes, pears. And there are trees here on the property with lemons, limes, guava, avocado and pomegranate. All of the food that I like to eat is locally produced: fish from Lake Victoria, rice from rice-growing areas of Tanzania, potatoes from close by, vegetables grown in open plots wherever possible, chicken from farms on the outskirts of the city. There is a wide variety of bread that can be bought now, some of it very good. We have some very dense whole wheat bread that is delicious, even though it crumbles when cut. Small groups of women make jams and peanut butter to sell, and they’re all very good. There is even some lovely locally made cheese. And so I certainly will not starve.

18th: I went to town with Geri to look for a phone today and was successful. I was amused on the way to see a fellow riding a motorcycle and talking on a cell phone at the same time. He passed us on the left but we soon caught up with him ahead a bit, trying to kick start his motorcycle into action again. I guess the two tasks became too much for him and the motorcycle choked.

I have a beautiful new phone and after it gets charged I’ll be able to communicate all over the world on it. Thanks to Mom and Dad and their telephone cooperative (and for Greg and Bill for sharing) I came into some $$, and so used some of it for the phone and some air time. It can also be connected to my laptop and to the internet and I don’t know what else. Very fancy.

I was noting some of the prices of things in the shops. I’m being told that I’ll be shocked by the price increase, but I remember being surprised by the same thing when I first went to the U.S. after a long time. Diesel and petrol (gas) is a little over $1.00 a litre; milk is about $.75 a litre (that’s the milk brought here from locally kept cows. The packaged milk in the supermarket is about twice that much.). The exchange rate is about Tshs. 1300 to US$ 1.00. I need to do that conversion now as I shop in order to get some perspective as to price. What had started some years ago (right before I left) continues: lots and lots of goods from South Africa. It’s still a little hard for me to wrap my mind around being partners with South Africa because for so many years Tanzania absolutely boycotted anything from S.A. except refugees. Then after apartheid ended, little by little we’ve been invaded by businesses from there.

More again soon. As time goes on and I become busy these postings will probably be further apart. In the meantime, read on!