Monday October 29th
A couple of things I need to mention first. I explained yesterday about the workmen from
Moshi and the reasons they had traveled so far. This became even more apparent today. As I set off for school just after 7:00 am
this morning I got a cheery wave and a few ‘Habaris’ as they started work. As I arrived home from school in the heat of
the afternoon at about 3:00 pm, they were still at it, and as I went to my room
at 10:00 last night the sound of the arc welder was still clearly audible as
they toiled on under fluorescent light.
A good day’s work by anyone’s standard.
The second thing is the Boza Printer Appeal. I was delighted to receive another donation
yesterday. I know I’ve managed to
purchase a printer with the money so far, but anyone who uses an HP printer at
all knows that the running costs of ink and paper can mount up over the year. Because of this the appeal is still open and
all funds will go to supporting the use of the printer for as long as possible.
Back to school this morning to realise that kids are the
same the world over and if I really expected the students here to revise over a
bank holiday weekend I was kidding myself, as the results in this morning’s
tests clearly showed. Form I did quite
well on their test but Form III were sadly lacking and for the first time this
adventure they heard me growl; not a big one, after all it had been Eid, but a
growl never the less. Sadly I was
growling at a reduced class as well, as the journey back to school for over a
third of the class, was being taken from school time.
Back at the YMCA, I was finding out how important the television
was. The TV appears to run on a version
of our set top box and although they do not subscribe to any of the ‘pay to
view’ channels, they do get about five free ones through an enormous roof-top
satellite dish. Then last week the
decoder box developed a fault and with, what is obviously a major draw, out of
action, the numbers of locals that drop in for a drink has plummeted. This also means I am falling sadly behind
with the episodes of my South African soap which owes oh so much to the
standards laid down by Crossroads and Albion Market.
And finally, the reason for the title. I explained a couple of days ago about my
trip to the barber’s and how I had got a little peeved that the barber thought
my pronunciation worthy of such laughter and I told how I got a little dig in
with the seven times table. Well, Denis
turned up this evening and told me the real reason for much of the humour. It appears that when I was demonstrating my
ability to count in Swahili I inadvertently slipped up and ended one of the
words with an ‘a’ instead of an ‘i’. On
such errors can wars be started as it appears that instead of saying ‘ten’, as
I thought I had, in fact I had likened my merry scissor waver to a certain
unmentionable part of a lady’s anatomy. My blushes prevent me from any
translation as I plead the fifth amendment and ask you to use your imagination,
but I can assure you that the word if used in English would not have simply
provoked laughter but quite likely a little more physical response.
I obviously need to be more careful.
Baadaye
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