Death & money

On Monday this week both my house ladies were away. Sarah was still mourning the loss of her sister who died on the previous Friday of AIDS. In the African way, as she calls it, you have to spend three nights sleeping at the house of the person who died. The funeral normally takes place the same day or the day after the person has died. They don't seem to cremate here, so I guess it's quick because of the heat and decomposition.
My other house lady Elizabeti (or beti as Caleb calls her - pictured here with her four children and a few hanger-oners!!) had gone to Dar es Salaam. She wanted to buy Batik to sell in Dodoma. However as the bus fare to Dar, there and back is 20.ooo shillings and she was planning to buy 10 Batiks with a profit of 2000 shillings per Batik, I wasn't sure it was worth it. In the end I gave her the money for the bus fare and bought two batiks!!

I seem to have a bit of a problem with buying things. I'm not sure if it's guilt or compassion. People often come to our gate selling fruit and vegetables and handicrafts which I feel compelled to buy. True we do eat most of it, but do I really need 6 coconuts?? (That's how many I've bought in the last few days) Selling tomatoes and carrots is really only one step up from begging, so I figure at least these people are trying to sell me something and not just begging, you have to respect them for trying. I also bought a wood carving after the guy gave me some story about needing money to feed his children. (This may or may not be true.) My favourite bit about going to the market is being able to pay the street boys who carry your baskets for you. I paid the guy today 1,000 shills (50p) which by Tanzanian standards was way too much, but it was worth it when I saw the little dance of joy (literally) he did when he saw how much I'd paid him.

To get back to Monday. My gardener came to see me to tell me he wouldn't be into work because his sister had just died giving birth. He wanted me to go to the hospital, I think he wanted me to take the body to the village, but in the end we agreed if I paid for the diesel he would use his uncle's car. I just can't get used to all this death and the amount of grief that the average Tanzanian must carry around. That's about the 3rd or 4th relative of my gardener to die since we've been here!

A good bit of news, the other runaway nephew of Sarah, Philip, has returned. Thank you those of you who prayed. As of next week he will also start school, so just pray he and his brother stay there.

Other family news, Caleb can now say power cut and he and Josh are both confidant enough to Kamikaze into the swimming pool together holding hands. We now have two weeks holiday from school, so we will probably spend it doing all the exciting, beautiful and culturally stimulating things there are to do in Dodoma (not!) This means we will probably spend it al the pool and maybe visit the ice cream parlour if the power is on!!