Adrian's in red and Caroline's in blue

Strange day today. As the exams come to a close at college we tutors are marking the papers and trying to get everything finished as soon as possible. I have been given the English papers to mark so I am left alone with two lots of about two hundred papers to mark, whilst the others take a whole paper between them, marking one or two questions each and arguing all the time between themselves, whilst listening to soul music from the computer. It’s impossible to concentrate.

At morning tea break the Deputy Principle  - you will  recall that he’s Muslim – came in to remind us of the public holiday for Eid tomorrow, but also to tell us that the local MP, in thanks for her re-election, has donated a cow to the college and we should collect our share after lunch. Yes, a cow! I don’t know what electoral law has to say about that, but Caroline is cooking the best quality beef and onion stew we’ve had in a long time, as I type this.

Just cut up a huge piece of beef given to us by a local MP. Remember the sleepless night as the ballot boxes came in, well if we eat all this beef, we’ll be up all night with indigestion. The lack of water and a fridge mean that I’ll have to be inventive in how to prepare and store the meat.

I asked to be introduced to God’s Love today. I think he and the teachers were surprised when I shook his hand. Sadly, I am not yet able to ask him why he was christened with such a lovely name. I will have to practise my Kiswahili. The dancing is a very complicated form of line dancing – African style. I know from past experience not to join in the dancing until this crowd has got to know me.

I walk through an amazing piece of land on the way to nursery. I counted at least eight baobao trees. I’m sure Les could make up an amazing story – animated of course – of the scene and all the creatures – Ratty, Gilbert the Gecko, as well as all the other animals. I’m told there are snakes, but I haven’t seen any yet.

Ironically, for a house without water, we are waiting for the fundi bombe (plumber). The kitchen tap came away in my hands and the waste pipe has corroded away to nothing, probably from disuse. Francis told me apologetically this afternoon, that the fundi has a lot on and will be round tomorrow. I was quite pleased to be able to make him feel better about the situation, when I explained that in UK, to have a plumber turn up the same week, would be quite an achievement.


Postscript
the briefest of brief post-scripts. Our beef stew was lovely - made with onions garlic tomatoes and beef; each grown, reared, picked, peeled, butchered and stewed within about a hundred meters of this house.