Retail Therapy and Wildlife

On Thursday night the heavens opened again and all the world was mud; it would have been foolhardy to attempt to drive up into the Massai area. So on Friday we had to abandon our clinic. We were disappointed, though I’m sure not half as much as the patients. Instead we concentrated on the clinic in town then drove back to Moshi. [Michelle has just had a text from her Massai translator “if you have reached home safely, that is my joy“. Lovely.]

In the towns I have seen large open drains in the streets and know these would be full in the rainy season; however now is supposed to be the dry season. despite this, as we travelled we could see rivers of water cascading down side streets, eventually pouring in torrents into the open drains. An astounding amount of water fell in a short space of time, but now all is dry again.

On Saturday, being the weekend we all set off for some retail therapy. It was hot but we seem to be doing a lot of eating (brain work makes you incredibly hungry) and all felt the need for some exercise, so we walked. A swift visit to the second hand market (dresses for me & Cynthia) then on to town.

What can I say? We left home at 9 a.m. and limped home in a taxi around 4 p.m. We shopped.

I had cappuccino and homebaked shortbread (and please, this is not just coffee and a snack, this is sitting down in a pleasant courtyard, drinking something wonderful after a week of hard work, tea with powdered milk and dust). We bought gorgeous material that we will probably never use, but it looks so nice, and we negotiated for buckets of fruit and piles of vegetables (passion fruit, mangoes, avocados – this is the hard part of our life).

And the wild life?...I just thought I’d add the tale of Michelle and the Tarantula (well, BIG hairy spider of indeterminate species). It was one balmy evening, sitting on Jeremy & Camilla’s porch, when she spied this creature sitting on the side wall. To be fair it was being quite harmless, but if you have a fear of spiders (and it appears that we all do here) then just the threat of it moving is enough to strike terror into our hearts. Fortunately Jeremy shooed the little darling into the garden and all was well. But the question remains, how could we ever return to the Sherr residence? it seems the answer is in the verb [a well known concept for Dynamos] the fearsome wretch was still, then went away – at no point did he leap upon someone, waving those awful furry legs, and biting- so I take comfort in this.