Well we're in the house now. Our furniture is in Dar es Salaam and was supposed to go through customs yesterday. We have adopted a dog (called 'Lady', a pure bred Brittany Spaniel that beats me to the avocados when they fall off the tree next door) and an Irish woman (Mary)in the process - the Irish lady is here doing volunteer work at the orphange and didn't like the hut she was forced to stay in. She's here for a few weeks and we've offered to take more volunteers if required. 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms (not counting two more outside) is a bit more than we need. The passionfruit are starting to disappear - there a monkey out there somewhere knocking them off. Haven't seen him yet.
We have tried plenty of the local reataurants and going out to a trout farm on Sunday. We'll also be shopping for vegetable seedlings sometime over the weekend. Mohammed the gardener is busy planting (Jim thinks it is very good not having to do anything in the garden). He was planting hedging out the front a couple of days ago and dug into the water main - so that was flooding the dirt road in front of our place. They fixed it with a bike tube. They also tried to fix a small leak to the washing machine and ended uo with a huge brick on it to stop the spray when things didn't quite go as they had planned. Had to get a Fundi (tradesman) around to do it in the end. I get on well with the landlord (Mr Leo - sort of half Indian/half Tanzanian) He has a big yellow Mercedes to drive up and down all the dirt roads with huge potholes.
Went to Moshi the other day and bought some goat leather to make inserts for cushions. We have the curtain maker promising to do all sorts of stuff for us. He wants us to be his advertiser. Moshi is about an hours drive away, a bit past Mt Kilimanjaro, just about on the border with Kenya. Passed lots of Masai on the way. They are busy ploughing their fields with bullocks pulling hand ploughs. Planting maize ready for the long wet season.
We are going on safari in a couple of weeks to look at the wilderbeests on the move in the Serengeti. Because we have already had a fair bit of rain they are not on the move yet. Still calving and still plenty of grass around. Where they cross is only about 20 k's from where Jim works.
All the white butterflies are fluttering around like before the onset of the wet season in the Northern Territory. Everybody is predicting a big wet.
We have the Compassionate church across the road so hear churchy stuff every morning (singing). We went to the UN with a friend the other day and did some duty free shopping - stocked up on booze (much to the other mining wives disgust - they don't have the contacts I do).
Daniel the Masai boy came and visited the other day - is supposed to be coming back today for an interview. He has good English and doesn't shut up. He was the guard for my friend Tonee who was here a few years ago.`So far we have two gardeners, a maid, and two gate guards.
We'll update this every couple of weeks and let people know by email when we do.
