Today is cool, and the night time temperature has been very low. 19ºC, worthy of a cardigan - well, not for us hardened mud pluggers, but there is a constant breeze that rattles the papaya leaves and makes a sound like rain. We had bees swarming today. They sound like a distant propellor aircraft. Thousands swarmed around the garden, and birds swooped through the swarm, picking them off for food. The bees here make a dark, smokey honey that tastes of molasses and runs off the spoon like single cream. When it has been in the fridge it begins to crystallise.
Although it is cold by tropical standards, there has been no rain for some time. Some cloudy days, always with this strong breeze, and the dust is getting more powdery and intrusive.
The issue of our work permits continues to ramble on: the man dealing with them is very inefficient and possibly a little indifferent.
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| Early morning on the Mvumi to Dodoma bus. It runs twice a day. Once to Dodoma, and once back again. |
We took the bus last week. When we arrived to get the 3 o'clock service, the only service, back to Mvumi, the bus was jacked up on its rear wheels with its entire rear axle removed. That is, it had been jacked up, the wheels removed and stacked in two pairs under the back bumper and the bus lowered on to them. The axle was loaded into the back of one of those very small Suzuki pickups, along with four mechanics, and taken away for surgery somewhere.
We came home in the other bus, the dark green one.
See you soon: we'll be travelling home on a Dreamliner, and that was very comfortable coming out. There was leg room, and wine. The Mvumi bus has leg room, but no wine. It costs slightly less than £1 for a 35 kilometre journey through the hill passes and flat valleys from here to the city.
Come and visit. We can offer beans for lunch.
